P S Satish is a Corporate Trainer, Mentor and Consultant for manufacturing industries and engineering institutions. He headed the Global Sourcing division of the company Robert Bosch for close to 10 years. He now runs a service company in Bengaluru. He has recently come out with the book The Great Entrepreneur Blueprint: 52 Dimensions, which is about 52 dimensions that budding entrepreneurs should consider before embarking on their entrepreneurial journey.

I chat with the author P S Satish about his book The Great Entrepreneur Blueprint: 52 Dimensions, his writing journey, book recommendations, and much more.

Hello! Tell us a bit about yourself!

I am a mechanical engineer by profession. After completing my M.Tech from IIT Chennai, I worked in two companies before joining the MNC Robert Bosch, Bengaluru. I had the opportunity to travel to 25 countries for various business purposes, including 4 years of working in Germany. After working for about 23 years in Robert Bosch in various capacities, I left the corporate world in 2011 to pursue my interests of training and teaching. I started my own service company, Saraswati Industrial Services, Bengaluru focusing on knowledge development and spread.

I served as an Adjunct Professor in Ramaiah University, Bengaluru for 5 years, teaching M.S. students. I am associated with many manufacturing companies as a mentor. I continue to serve engineering colleges by offering specific programs for students, with the focus of making them ready for the industries. I am on the editorial advisory board of the industrial magazine, The Machine Maker. I have written many articles related to manufacturing industries, with specific focus on small and medium scale industries, for the magazine.

I published my first book with the title, Knowing Is Not Same As Doing, and in 2020 published a book in Kannada titled, Sanjeevana and another book with the title, The Great Entrepreneur Blueprint–52 Dimensions. I consider myself a student and keep learning from everyone I come across and from every incident. I am glad that I could bring out my thinking through two books in corona time.

Which authors and books were your early formative influences?

I always liked books with small chapters with direct messages like that of Robin Sharma. I have not read much of fiction books but I like reading self help books. The influences of writing small chapters without many jargons, is also there in my books. Many of Kannada language books, explaining the authors’ experiences, have influenced me. I consider books as legacies that we leave for the next generation. Otherwise, my learning, experiences, and lessons will go away with me.

How would you describe your book The Great Entrepreneur Blueprint: 52 Dimensions in one sentence?

A must for budding entrepreneurs for all-round thinking to realise their entrepreneurial dream.

Now tell us a little more about the book! What can readers expect?

In my observation, many entrepreneurs focus only on the product and service development, neglecting other aspects needed to grow their business. The book describes 52 dimensions, called as blueprints, that budding entrepreneurs, employees working in an industry who want to get into entrepreneurship, and students aspiring to be entrepreneurs, should consider before embarking on their entrepreneurial journey. The book offers a lot of messages to freelancers, intrapreneurs, small business owners, trainers, and teachers as well, that they can start practicing immediately.

The 280 pages of this book, having 52 chapters, cover various aspects of entrepreneurship. Each chapter has self-action points for the readers which will encourage them to take actions. Blueprints happen first in mind before manifesting outside. To be successful, one must work in the mind first. Self-assessment sheet for readers to know where they stand in relation to knowledge on entrepreneurship, and checklist to orient them towards customers is included. Various schemes offered by Government of India to encourage entrepreneurs are included as annexure. My personal experience derived by interacting with entrepreneurs, mentoring budding ones, along with my own experiments are also included.

The centre of any business is customers. A lot about targeting the customer segment, how to add value to them, how to keep them happy, and how to orient towards them are dealt in various chapters. The word customer is used 600+ times in the book. This demonstrates the importance given to them.

If you convert these 52 chapters to 52 questions and ask yourself where you stand today in your business, in your thinking on entrepreneurship, and in your preparedness to realise your entrepreneurial dream; and then with the inputs from the book, identify the gaps and act on them, you will be a great Entrepreneur. I am convinced about that.

In short, the book covers the aspects related to thinking, and business and market aspects, to be focused upon to be a great entrepreneur.

The book describes 52 dimensions that budding entrepreneurs should consider before embarking on their entrepreneurial journey. Can you tell us about some of these dimensions?

To give an idea, these are a few dimensions which have been incorporated in the book, and these are also the title of the chapters.

Your Readiness to Be an Entrepreneur

Opportunities for You Are Abundant

Right Entrepreneurial Domain for You

Enhancing Your Personal Branding

Starting Your Business with Limited Funds

12Rs to Build Trust Among Your Customers

What is the message that you want readers to take away from this book?

My message would be to look at entrepreneurship holistically, invest time on self-development, learn from others, be a constant learner and focus on consistent improvements. The book gives enough tips to practice. I insist on taking actions and learning from failures. I draw attention to the title of my first book; Knowing Is Not Same As Doing. While focusing on business, do not neglect your family, friends, hobbies, and your spiritual pursuit. These aspects are covered in the last chapter under work-life balance.

How have you been coping with the current pandemic and what will be the new normal for you post it?

Being a corporate trainer and mentor for companies, the pandemic did not make much difference to me. I shifted my trainings online and could do about 180+ hrs of talks and webinars. I participated in many discussions, and attended many beautiful lectures as well. I consider that writing and publishing 2 books was the biggest achievement for me in the pandemic. I could read many books, organised a lot of training material, and developed few new programs, which otherwise would have been difficult.

I am also learning more on the digital platform, which is going to be the future and is the new normal. The moment we stop learning, we will become obsolete.

Lastly, are you currently reading anything, and do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

Currently, I am reading the books Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and The Winning Sixer by W.V. Raman. I recommend readers to read the books The Professional by Subroto Bagchi and Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth.

The book ‘The Great Entrepreneur Blueprint: 52 Dimensions’ is available online and at your nearest bookstore.