By Parthip Thyagarajan
A career in Indian Oil, SAIL or one of the Tata companies had once been welcomed as the perfect choice for the bright sparks from the management and engineering colleges until the multinational companies (MNCs) arrived. The MNCs trebled the average basic salary, replaced the accommodation facility with a fat HRA and the family benefit schemes with stock options.
Significantly, it was MNCs like Coca-Cola India, McKinsey, Citibank and Pepsico which garnered the choicest harvest of students during this year's campus recruitment at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. But a dream job with an MNC which spells prestige, lucre and risk to most young Indian professionals and corporate executives could turn out to be a nightmare for some.
My family was greatly impressed by my starting salary,'' says Arvind Chaturvedi (name changed), a 24-year-old IIM graduate who joined a foreign bank last year. His gross monthly salary stands at about Rs 23,000. His father, a government official of 27 years seniority, takes home Rs 9,000 a month. ``But one year later,'' continues Mr Chaturvedi, ``I feel that my father, at my level, enjoyed a far happier life and could offer his children more stability than I can offer mine. Besides, I work round the clock, round the year.''
This sentiment is echoed at all levels in the managerial hierarchy. The transition from an Indian organisation to an MNC is considered especially difficult for middle-and senior-level managers. While the cross-cultural experience enriches many careers, others can be crushed by the excessive workload, the cultural incompatibility with foreign colleagues, the threat of being fired and the neglect of personal life.
While MNCs promise enormous financial rewards, they seem to stint on emotional rewards. ``I can't think of a single family benefit facility that my present employer would offer me right now,'' says the IIM graduate we met earlier. ``And there's no way my family can identify with the organisation I work for.'' Over the decades, employees and their families have taken pride in being associated with PSUs like Indian Oil and ONGC, or giants like Larsen & Toubro and the Tatas. While these organisations did not offer their employees astronomical salaries, they provided welfare and recreational facilities, acting as an `extended family' within which employees' spouses and children felt secure.
By contrast, an MNC employee's family rarely gets to meet his or her co-workers today. While the MNC work culture places a premium on professionalism, its lack of a personal touch could disorient some Indians, says Sushma Sharma, a management consultant. ``An Indian professional is different from his Western counterpart,'' she says. ``Despite being in an extremely hectic job, he or she needs to be in constant touch with the family.'' In Ms Sharma's opinion, any organisation that wishes to tap its employees' maximum potential should be familial in nature. Some believe, also, that the lack of meaningful personal contact with their American or European bosses leaves many Indian employees uneasy. Lata Vispi Patel of India Orientation Services describes the workplace experience of some European and American managers in an Indian milieu. ``Some expatriate managers are put off by the desire of their Indian employees to know about their family life. They may take it as inquisitiveness.'' Illustrating this inter-cultural incomprehension, Ms Sharma cites the example of a Bangalore-based software consultant who asked his American boss for leave to attend a distant cousin's wedding. His boss was puzzled that the otherwise conscientious employee should want leave to attend a distant relative's wedding. ``He didn't realise that the Indian employee was driven by a different set of cultural factors it was imperative that he maintain close family ties.''
The moral that Ms Sharma draws from the episode is: ``Companies have to realise that the employee is happy if his or her family is happy.'' She argues that only those organisations where the family can identify with the corporation will triumph in the matter of retaining employees in India.
Sushil Bahl, who has worked with Indian as well as foreign companies, disagrees. ``The Tatas may be an exception, but today everyone realises that a company's efforts to act as a family are cosmetic,'' he insists. ``When you're old, your family does not throw you out but in a company, you have to leave once your skills become obsolete.'' W.J.N. Danait, who retired as general manager from Larsen & Toubro and is now chief executive of Bombay First, also attests to the change that has swept India's corporate culture. Mr Danait observes that even L&T, which was noted for its employee welfare schemes, has now shifted its emphasis to the monetary package instead.
Companies may no longer regard welfare schemes and family benefit facilities as essential to retain people, says management consultant and writer George Menezes, who retired as personnel director of Hoechst Ltd. ``With employees' loyalty being at an all-time low,'' remarks Mr Menezes, ``companies now believe in using up an employee's total potential within two or three years, rather than viewing him as a lifetime employee, no matter how good he may be.'' Since an increasing number of companies now value ``professionals who have changed many jobs'', Mr Menezes concludes, it is only a corollary that ``schemes based on the philosophy of lifetime employment will slowly fade away''.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
This is how certain company names came into being........
Mercedes : This was actually the financier's daughter's name.
Adobe : This came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.
Apple Computers : It was the favorite fruit of founder Steve Jobs.He was three months Late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 O'clock.
CISCO : It is not an acronym as popularly believed. It is short for San Francisco.
Compaq :This name was formed by using COMp, for computer, and PAQ to denote a Small integral object.
Corel : The name was derived from the founder's name Dr.Michael Cowpland. It stands for COwpland REsearch Laboratory.
Google :The name started as a joke boa! sting about the amount of information .The search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named 'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders - Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to 'Google'
Intel : Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.
Lotus (Notes) : Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from 'The Lotus Position' or Padmasana'. Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Microsoft : Coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was removed later on.
Motorola : Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time was called Victrola.
ORACLE : Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The codename for the project was called Oracle (the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all questions or something such). The project was designed to help use the newly written SQL code by IBM. The project eventually was terminated but Larry and Bob decided to finish what they started and bring it to the world. They kept the name Oracle and created the RDBMS engine. Later
they kept the same name for the company.
Sony : It originated from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.
SUN : Founded by 4 Stanford University buddies, SUN is the acronym for Stanford University Network. Andreas Bechtolsheim built a microcomputer; Vinod Khosla recruited him and Scott McNealy to manufacture computers based on it, And Bill Joy to develop a UNIX-based OS for the computer.
Yahoo! :The word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book 'Gulliver's Travels'. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! Founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos
Adobe : This came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.
Apple Computers : It was the favorite fruit of founder Steve Jobs.He was three months Late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 O'clock.
CISCO : It is not an acronym as popularly believed. It is short for San Francisco.
Compaq :This name was formed by using COMp, for computer, and PAQ to denote a Small integral object.
Corel : The name was derived from the founder's name Dr.Michael Cowpland. It stands for COwpland REsearch Laboratory.
Google :The name started as a joke boa! sting about the amount of information .The search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named 'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders - Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to 'Google'
Intel : Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.
Lotus (Notes) : Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from 'The Lotus Position' or Padmasana'. Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Microsoft : Coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was removed later on.
Motorola : Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time was called Victrola.
ORACLE : Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The codename for the project was called Oracle (the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all questions or something such). The project was designed to help use the newly written SQL code by IBM. The project eventually was terminated but Larry and Bob decided to finish what they started and bring it to the world. They kept the name Oracle and created the RDBMS engine. Later
they kept the same name for the company.
Sony : It originated from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.
SUN : Founded by 4 Stanford University buddies, SUN is the acronym for Stanford University Network. Andreas Bechtolsheim built a microcomputer; Vinod Khosla recruited him and Scott McNealy to manufacture computers based on it, And Bill Joy to develop a UNIX-based OS for the computer.
Yahoo! :The word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book 'Gulliver's Travels'. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! Founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos
Some interesting facts...
1. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
2. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
3. Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
4. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
5. No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
6. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.
7. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
8. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
9. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
10. The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.
11. A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
12. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.
13. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
14. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
15. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
16. The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.
17. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
18. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
19. Marilyn Monroe had six toes.
20. All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.
21. Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
22. Pearls melt in vinegar.
23. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
24. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
25. It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
26. A duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why.
27. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
2. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
3. Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
4. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
5. No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
6. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.
7. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
8. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
9. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
10. The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.
11. A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
12. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.
13. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
14. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
15. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
16. The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.
17. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
18. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
19. Marilyn Monroe had six toes.
20. All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.
21. Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
22. Pearls melt in vinegar.
23. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
24. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
25. It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
26. A duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why.
27. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
Convocation Address by Anil D Ambani at Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad on 13th September, 2003
Entrepreneurial success is a highly collaborative process. India is a land of great opportunities – opportunities that are perhaps incomparable in the world!
You are doubly fortunate to be starting your life, at an exciting time like this – the world's eyes are on India, new business opportunities are unlimited, and economic reforms have unshackled the chains on creativity and innovation. We are a very young nation – just over 55 years since independence – setting out on a path of sustained economic growth, for decades to come.
We already have over a billion fellow Indians. Within the next 20 years, we will have 400 million people below the age of 35 years –more than the entire population of the United States! Each person, in this bold new generation, will be in the prime of his or her life, striving for a better tomorrow – creating, in the process, new growth opportunities, for budding entrepreneurs like you!
On the most conservative basis, our domestic consumption, in virtually any sector, has the potential to at least double, or treble, from current levels – perhaps, just to catch up with a country like China!
And then, there is the entire global opportunity! Across diverse sectors internationally, the "Made in India" tag is now an increasingly respected brand, valued for quality, reliability,and competitiveness. Truly, with economic reforms in the country, and with the virtual removal of all trade barriers, the world is now our market – and our opportunity!
The pursuit of these opportunities requires an indomitable spirit of entrepreneurship!
And, to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to identify opportunities, that have either not existed before, or have not been noticed before by others! It is often said, people, who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the only ones that actually do!
My father, Dhirubhai Ambani, a proud son of this glorious state of Gujarat, and a man with long ties with this wonderful city of Ahmedabad, was the greatest example of this spirit of entrepreneurship! In a short span of less than 25 years, and without even the benefit of a formal education, Dhirubhai Ambani built Reliance, a first generation enterprise, into one of the world's 200 most profitable companies!
He started out in life, working as a mere petrol pump attendant in Aden, Yemen. He had no technical knowledge, of any of the businesses he wished to create in India. He had just five hundred rupees in his pocket, a vision of what he wanted to achieve, an intrinsic faith in the latent demand potential of the Indian markets, a belief in the capabilities of Indian people, and a burning desire to succeed!
The end result?
He created Reliance, a Rs. 75,000 crore enterprise, in a single lifetime!
We must, each one of us, take inspiration from Dhirubhai's extraordinary life, and challenge ourselves, to build on his achievements, to fulfil his desire, of one day making India an economic superpower.
I would like to now share with you, some of my own thoughts on entrepreneurship – especially, things that do not, normally, form part of the curriculum, at management institutions !
I believe the first, and perhaps most important, requirement for success, as an entrepreneur, is a passion for your work. To be able to look forward, to every new day of work, with a sense of optimism, with a sense of purpose, with a sense of challenge, and with a view to enjoying the work you are doing!
I have found that the happiness, which comes from this passion, and from the achievement and recognition that follows, is more lasting, and far surpasses anything based on earning a little more wealth, or obtaining greater material comforts. Of course, it is not enough for just you, as an entrepreneur, to have this sense of romance about your work. What is important is to get the entire organization seized, with this same sense of passion, and enjoyment, for work.
It is one of the most commonly accepted myths of our times, that entrepreneurial success, is all about entrepreneurial abilities of an individual. In reality, far from being a solitary pursuit, entrepreneurial success is a highly collaborative process. A good entrepreneur has to bring out creative ideas and the entrepreneurial spirit from all his people. This can happen only when the sense of passion, and romance, of building a successful business, is shared by the entire organization.
Our corporate mantra at Reliance is, "We bet on people." We provide the vision, inspiration and resources to accomplish tasks, but we empower people, and we build new knowledge and new core competencies around people, fostering a spirit of teamwork and performance, across the entire organization.
We believe that we can do with people, who do not have experience in a particular role, but we cannot do with people who do not have basic competence. Absence of experience can be made up through training and on-the-job performance, but lack of basic competence can never be made up. We encourage – indeed, expect - each one of our people to have a sense of ownership in whatever they are doing. As a result, Reliance is run by thousands of owner-managers!
We strengthen our organization, every day, bringing in the brightest talent. We firmly believe the smarter our people, the better our organization will perform. So, we surround ourselves with high performing people! We firmly believe – Do not be afraid to recruit people who are 10 times brighter, or more intelligent, than you!
This leads me to another important attribute for success as an entrepreneur – the necessity of dealing with people, in every walk of life, at a very human level, building, and nurturing, relationships, preserving one's humility, and never losing family and social values. It may surprise many of you to learn that, despite all my travel and exposure, I remain a vegetarian and a teetotaler, and I am a God-fearing individual.
I often say, that more than my academic education, my biggest education was at home, from my loving mother and father, where I developed an abiding commitment to our traditional value systems. What is important, is that these lasting value systems, should be extended to the professional and business side of our lives. I have found, during the last 20 years of my working life, that relationships, both, internal and external, built on the foundations of these value systems, have contributed immensely, to my success as an entrepreneur.
I now move on to the "harder" attributes required, for success as an entrepreneur.
I believe the greatest need is to guard against a sense of complacency – the usual organizational response to any major achievement. Dhirubhai used to put it in his own way - "Growth has no limit. You have to constantly reshape the boundaries of growth."
I believe successful entrepreneurship demands constant raising of the bar to achieve higher and higher levels of performance, encouraging people to stretch and sweat, to venture where few others would think of stepping out, to take calculated risks to achieve growth on an exponential scale, to never give up, to take every obstacle, or setback, or even outright failure, as a learning experience!
Successful entrepreneurship is a high-octane, high-energy business! And, it is this constant and infinite flow of energy that differentiates the most successful entrepreneurial organizations, from the rest of the pack!
Of course, successful entrepreneurship is not just based on brilliant and innovative ideas, powered by a constant flow of energy!What is ultimately required is hard action and results.
Good entrepreneurs have the ability to execute - to effectively marshal resources to achieve end objectives – to ensure that there is no gap, between what the entrepreneur wants to achieve, and the ability of the organization to deliver it.
Entrepreneurship also involves, taking what most people might consider to be big risks – cutting across accepted boundaries, going against the status quo, defying conventional wisdom! But entrepreneurs approach risk in a different way – they evaluate risks, and then take decisions based on their assessment of risk.
Successful entrepreneurs always focus on goals, not on possible hurdles along the way – and that is why they are not paralysed into immobility, but keep moving ahead. All entrepreneurs are faced with adversity at some point of time. The secret is to convert every adversity into opportunity, and keep moving on.
Successful entrepreneurs also learn to take doubts and criticisms in their stride. Consider critics to be your greatest friends – they show you where you can still improve!
Successful entrepreneurs have all these qualities I spoke of.
But, there are some additional qualities required, especially in the Indian context, which are very significant in building sustainable businesses – and which, incidentally, no institute teaches!
I am sure you have heard the popular joke about MBAs – that MBA stands for Mane Badhu Aavdache?! - people who claim to know everything, but actually know very little!
To be successful, apart from all our academic knowledge, we have to develop an understanding of the business environment. We have a plethora of laws, rules and regulations, and a high level of government and bureaucratic intervention, that can kill the most ardent entrepreneurial spirit! Archaic and complex laws and procedures in India, often impede swift decision-making, impairing the ability to exploit new business opportunities.
But, we have to succeed in this very environment. We have to understand the democratic and parliamentary system in India – how laws are made or altered, what parliamentary committees advise on legislation!
We have to understand the legal and judicial system in the country. We have to understand the complex direct and indirect tax systems and procedures - customs, excise, sales tax, income tax – all major determinants of success, and profitability, of any business! Of course, I am not suggesting that each one of you should become a tax expert, but a basic understanding of such matters is important,if you wish to succeed as an entrepreneur in India!
My dear young friends, to meet the challenges of the 21st century,India needs entrepreneurs with a global vision, who believe in change and transformation, who have the ability to take risks and chart out new growth paths!
To guide you in this exciting journey of entrepreneurship, I would like to end my comments today, by sharing with you the guru-mantras for all entrepreneurs:
Relationship and Trust – these are the foundations of success.
If you work with determination and with perfection, success will follow.
Meeting deadlines is not good enough. Beating deadlines is what is required.
Pursue your goals even in the face of difficulties. In every adversity, there is opportunity.
Do not accept defeat. Challenge negative forces. The past will give in. You will certainly succeed. Never give up.
Hope is your most powerful weapon. Self-confidence is your greatest asset.
Ordinary people, when motivated, achieve extraordinary things.
Pedigree is no longer of any significance in modern India. It is performance that is crucial.
Recognition is your greatest reward.
Work till your last breath. Work is worship.
In conclusion, my dear young friends, I sincerely hope, that each one of you will derive inspiration from Dhirubhai's life and deeds - and accomplish his dream of making India an economic superpower! That will be a fitting tribute to him - and to the entrepreneurial spirit of which he will remain the undying icon.
You are doubly fortunate to be starting your life, at an exciting time like this – the world's eyes are on India, new business opportunities are unlimited, and economic reforms have unshackled the chains on creativity and innovation. We are a very young nation – just over 55 years since independence – setting out on a path of sustained economic growth, for decades to come.
We already have over a billion fellow Indians. Within the next 20 years, we will have 400 million people below the age of 35 years –more than the entire population of the United States! Each person, in this bold new generation, will be in the prime of his or her life, striving for a better tomorrow – creating, in the process, new growth opportunities, for budding entrepreneurs like you!
On the most conservative basis, our domestic consumption, in virtually any sector, has the potential to at least double, or treble, from current levels – perhaps, just to catch up with a country like China!
And then, there is the entire global opportunity! Across diverse sectors internationally, the "Made in India" tag is now an increasingly respected brand, valued for quality, reliability,and competitiveness. Truly, with economic reforms in the country, and with the virtual removal of all trade barriers, the world is now our market – and our opportunity!
The pursuit of these opportunities requires an indomitable spirit of entrepreneurship!
And, to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to identify opportunities, that have either not existed before, or have not been noticed before by others! It is often said, people, who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the only ones that actually do!
My father, Dhirubhai Ambani, a proud son of this glorious state of Gujarat, and a man with long ties with this wonderful city of Ahmedabad, was the greatest example of this spirit of entrepreneurship! In a short span of less than 25 years, and without even the benefit of a formal education, Dhirubhai Ambani built Reliance, a first generation enterprise, into one of the world's 200 most profitable companies!
He started out in life, working as a mere petrol pump attendant in Aden, Yemen. He had no technical knowledge, of any of the businesses he wished to create in India. He had just five hundred rupees in his pocket, a vision of what he wanted to achieve, an intrinsic faith in the latent demand potential of the Indian markets, a belief in the capabilities of Indian people, and a burning desire to succeed!
The end result?
He created Reliance, a Rs. 75,000 crore enterprise, in a single lifetime!
We must, each one of us, take inspiration from Dhirubhai's extraordinary life, and challenge ourselves, to build on his achievements, to fulfil his desire, of one day making India an economic superpower.
I would like to now share with you, some of my own thoughts on entrepreneurship – especially, things that do not, normally, form part of the curriculum, at management institutions !
I believe the first, and perhaps most important, requirement for success, as an entrepreneur, is a passion for your work. To be able to look forward, to every new day of work, with a sense of optimism, with a sense of purpose, with a sense of challenge, and with a view to enjoying the work you are doing!
I have found that the happiness, which comes from this passion, and from the achievement and recognition that follows, is more lasting, and far surpasses anything based on earning a little more wealth, or obtaining greater material comforts. Of course, it is not enough for just you, as an entrepreneur, to have this sense of romance about your work. What is important is to get the entire organization seized, with this same sense of passion, and enjoyment, for work.
It is one of the most commonly accepted myths of our times, that entrepreneurial success, is all about entrepreneurial abilities of an individual. In reality, far from being a solitary pursuit, entrepreneurial success is a highly collaborative process. A good entrepreneur has to bring out creative ideas and the entrepreneurial spirit from all his people. This can happen only when the sense of passion, and romance, of building a successful business, is shared by the entire organization.
Our corporate mantra at Reliance is, "We bet on people." We provide the vision, inspiration and resources to accomplish tasks, but we empower people, and we build new knowledge and new core competencies around people, fostering a spirit of teamwork and performance, across the entire organization.
We believe that we can do with people, who do not have experience in a particular role, but we cannot do with people who do not have basic competence. Absence of experience can be made up through training and on-the-job performance, but lack of basic competence can never be made up. We encourage – indeed, expect - each one of our people to have a sense of ownership in whatever they are doing. As a result, Reliance is run by thousands of owner-managers!
We strengthen our organization, every day, bringing in the brightest talent. We firmly believe the smarter our people, the better our organization will perform. So, we surround ourselves with high performing people! We firmly believe – Do not be afraid to recruit people who are 10 times brighter, or more intelligent, than you!
This leads me to another important attribute for success as an entrepreneur – the necessity of dealing with people, in every walk of life, at a very human level, building, and nurturing, relationships, preserving one's humility, and never losing family and social values. It may surprise many of you to learn that, despite all my travel and exposure, I remain a vegetarian and a teetotaler, and I am a God-fearing individual.
I often say, that more than my academic education, my biggest education was at home, from my loving mother and father, where I developed an abiding commitment to our traditional value systems. What is important, is that these lasting value systems, should be extended to the professional and business side of our lives. I have found, during the last 20 years of my working life, that relationships, both, internal and external, built on the foundations of these value systems, have contributed immensely, to my success as an entrepreneur.
I now move on to the "harder" attributes required, for success as an entrepreneur.
I believe the greatest need is to guard against a sense of complacency – the usual organizational response to any major achievement. Dhirubhai used to put it in his own way - "Growth has no limit. You have to constantly reshape the boundaries of growth."
I believe successful entrepreneurship demands constant raising of the bar to achieve higher and higher levels of performance, encouraging people to stretch and sweat, to venture where few others would think of stepping out, to take calculated risks to achieve growth on an exponential scale, to never give up, to take every obstacle, or setback, or even outright failure, as a learning experience!
Successful entrepreneurship is a high-octane, high-energy business! And, it is this constant and infinite flow of energy that differentiates the most successful entrepreneurial organizations, from the rest of the pack!
Of course, successful entrepreneurship is not just based on brilliant and innovative ideas, powered by a constant flow of energy!What is ultimately required is hard action and results.
Good entrepreneurs have the ability to execute - to effectively marshal resources to achieve end objectives – to ensure that there is no gap, between what the entrepreneur wants to achieve, and the ability of the organization to deliver it.
Entrepreneurship also involves, taking what most people might consider to be big risks – cutting across accepted boundaries, going against the status quo, defying conventional wisdom! But entrepreneurs approach risk in a different way – they evaluate risks, and then take decisions based on their assessment of risk.
Successful entrepreneurs always focus on goals, not on possible hurdles along the way – and that is why they are not paralysed into immobility, but keep moving ahead. All entrepreneurs are faced with adversity at some point of time. The secret is to convert every adversity into opportunity, and keep moving on.
Successful entrepreneurs also learn to take doubts and criticisms in their stride. Consider critics to be your greatest friends – they show you where you can still improve!
Successful entrepreneurs have all these qualities I spoke of.
But, there are some additional qualities required, especially in the Indian context, which are very significant in building sustainable businesses – and which, incidentally, no institute teaches!
I am sure you have heard the popular joke about MBAs – that MBA stands for Mane Badhu Aavdache?! - people who claim to know everything, but actually know very little!
To be successful, apart from all our academic knowledge, we have to develop an understanding of the business environment. We have a plethora of laws, rules and regulations, and a high level of government and bureaucratic intervention, that can kill the most ardent entrepreneurial spirit! Archaic and complex laws and procedures in India, often impede swift decision-making, impairing the ability to exploit new business opportunities.
But, we have to succeed in this very environment. We have to understand the democratic and parliamentary system in India – how laws are made or altered, what parliamentary committees advise on legislation!
We have to understand the legal and judicial system in the country. We have to understand the complex direct and indirect tax systems and procedures - customs, excise, sales tax, income tax – all major determinants of success, and profitability, of any business! Of course, I am not suggesting that each one of you should become a tax expert, but a basic understanding of such matters is important,if you wish to succeed as an entrepreneur in India!
My dear young friends, to meet the challenges of the 21st century,India needs entrepreneurs with a global vision, who believe in change and transformation, who have the ability to take risks and chart out new growth paths!
To guide you in this exciting journey of entrepreneurship, I would like to end my comments today, by sharing with you the guru-mantras for all entrepreneurs:
Relationship and Trust – these are the foundations of success.
If you work with determination and with perfection, success will follow.
Meeting deadlines is not good enough. Beating deadlines is what is required.
Pursue your goals even in the face of difficulties. In every adversity, there is opportunity.
Do not accept defeat. Challenge negative forces. The past will give in. You will certainly succeed. Never give up.
Hope is your most powerful weapon. Self-confidence is your greatest asset.
Ordinary people, when motivated, achieve extraordinary things.
Pedigree is no longer of any significance in modern India. It is performance that is crucial.
Recognition is your greatest reward.
Work till your last breath. Work is worship.
In conclusion, my dear young friends, I sincerely hope, that each one of you will derive inspiration from Dhirubhai's life and deeds - and accomplish his dream of making India an economic superpower! That will be a fitting tribute to him - and to the entrepreneurial spirit of which he will remain the undying icon.
Just experimenting with my new blog...
Hi guys and girls.......
Welcome to my blogworld. Soon i will start posting good articles to read...
Welcome to my blogworld. Soon i will start posting good articles to read...
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