Tag: entrepreneurs

Here are the qualities of a business leader, according to Anand Mahindra

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Anand Mahindra, the chairman and managing director of auto to aerospace conglomerate Mahindra Group, is not an unknown name in the Indian business diaspora.

In his 34 years as a businessman, Anand Mahindra has built an enduring organisation while keeping true to his core values and admits that a firm is as good as the people it hires.

“I’ve not necessarily found a magic formula for hiring the ablest leaders. But I’ve now been in business for quite a while so I can use my vintage to advantage. I’ve discovered a methodology which I’ve used consistently over time and it has stood me in good stead,” Anand Mahindra told Bizpunditz in a video interview.

Be A People’s People

Anand Mahindra said that a person cannot be a good leader if he cannot put himself/herself in somebody else’s shoes and empathise with them. “And to do that you have to be a good listener,” he said.

Empathy just doesn’t mean that you feel for someone. It means you can get out of your skin. When you empathise with the other person’s point of view, you are able to hear it and integrate it.

Empathising helps you know things and inevitably makes you a good listener who is intrigued to know and gather information from others, Anand Mahindra added.

A person who can imbibe empathy will be a constant learning machine.

Be A Renaissance Leader

“Thinking with both the left and right hemispheres of the brain is not a cake-walk for a lot of leaders. However, who do it well, stand out in the volatile business environment and make it through,” he said.

To think visually, creatively and being able to visualise different worlds together helps understand different perspectives and integrate them, he said, adding that such individuals are called ‘Renaissance Leaders.’

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Shiv Nadar explains what it takes to become a successful businessman

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar is among the first generation of entrepreneurs who took a bet on the IT sector when it was a tiny business. Nadar’s journey from creating a renowned tech company to being one of the most successful philanthropists in India has been most inspiring to young businessmen.

Entrepreneurship is a state of mind. It’s a state in which you have to be flexible, alert, aggressive, inspiring and positive and use every low as a learning opportunity to bounce back.

Having a diverse employee portfolio in the organisation will help grow the business well. However, most entrepreneurs make the mistake of not expanding their bandwidth and utilise the talent at hand, according to Nadar, the founder and chairman of HCL Tech.

The job of being an entrepreneur also dictates to be a one-man army, i.e. you have to do all sorts of things and ignore everything else. You need to take up any work that comes your way despite the hierarchy, but also need to distribute work amongst your team members, Nadar said.

He recalled his early days when HCL was just starting out and his employees and team members worked overtime as they loved the company and did not want to go home. Nadar added, right from the beginning, HCL never compromised on the quality of hires. The company always approached IITs and IIMs to recruit students for the company.

Nadar took pride in saying that HCL was the only company at that time which gave opportunities to freshers right out of college to actually do design work. “At HCL, they got an opportunity to lay hands on a microprocessor and do real design work,” Nadar said. This was a time when engineering students left for the US to study further or to do a job and never got down to do actual design work.

When the US economy hit a recession in 2001 and dragged through 2002, HCL lost a lot of business as most of its revenue was generated from the companies in the US. However, the company reinvented itself and explored the healthcare and aerospace sector where it had some anchor customers. In the face of hardships, the company had no choice but to create new opportunities for itself and create the ‘Next Big Practice.’

I have always believed that the paranoid strive for the best, but are always prepared for the worst. One needs to identify and exploit every crisis point that challenges the business.

Like every organisation, even HCL wanted to invest in training but hardly had the capital to afford it. While the industry badly needed trained manpower and we were struggling to find the resources, no one had the financial muscle to invest in training, Nadar said, adding that the first opportunity of setting up the NIIT was realised when he was visiting Edutronics in Singapore.

The board of a company is of utmost importance. It steers the way the company functions as well as the capital generation in the market. Recently when Jet Airways’ founder Naresh Goyal stepped down from the Board, the debt-laden air carrier’s stocks soared high. As the organisation grows, the role of the board becomes increasingly important and critical to the success of the company.

Ensure that your aspirations exceed your resources.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Here’s why billionaire investor Mark Cuban ‘hates’ meetings

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Infosys’ co-founder shares tips on how Indian entrepreneurs can build global ventures

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Infosys, the second biggest IT services company in India started in the ’80s when the word ‘startup’ was nowhere to be found in the business world. The people credited mainly behind this IT wave in India are Nandan Nilekani and Narayan Murthy.

Years later, when Nilekani took up the task to create Aadhaar under the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), he looked into the startup spaces in the country only to be astounded.  “Things weren’t the same five years ago, and now, the streets are full of startups especially in Bangalore. This is the new India that’ll propel us forward in the path of progress,” Nilekani said.

He further added, “India has become the new hub for startups with a competitive market for innovation, and entrepreneurs are now competing to get offerings from the best around the world, particularly from China and the US. Entrepreneurs are very driven and at the moment, the forward-looking vision is very infectious.”

Nilekani asked the young entrepreneurs venturing out in the business world to think and dream big. Citing the example of Infosys at its nascent stage, Nilekani said that the co-founding team of the IT major had smaller targets of $5 million or $10 million, and worked towards the same.

If you dare to dream big, you’ll find a way to achieve it.

While many must be of the opinion that corporations have the funds to incubate innovations, Nilekani differs this notion by saying that innovations in large multi-national corporations may get lost but it is easier to make it work in a small setup. Hence, it is important to keep experimenting.

Most entrepreneurs lose interest once their startup begins to fail. The concept of ‘fail fast, pivot fast’ has given rise to a culture which has made look a career in entrepreneurship, very lightly. However, Nilekani has a different opinion on the same: “Building a company is a long-term game. Successful businesses aren’t built overnight.”

So, having people with complementary skill-set at the helm and who listen to new ideas and help in the all-round development and growth of the organization is an essential requirement. After all, it takes 5-10 years to build a company. The way you deal with customers, clients, etc. should also be with a long term view in mind, he added.

Finding good mentorship also goes a long way in not making the same mistakes and finding a more comfortable way to move ahead.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

One life lesson Tim Cook learned from his mentor, friend Steve Jobs

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Steve Jobs once said, “This is the best time in history to be alive.” And the chief executive of Apple, Tim Cook, agreed with his friend and mentor.

At the 2018 Duke University commencement, Cook reiterated Steve Jobs words saying the entrepreneurs have the tools, potential, and reach to make the world a better place. Being fearless – a trait anyone hoping to challenge the status quo, is something Cook learned in his early days of working with Jobs.

“A restless refusal” to accept things as they are, is what churns the wheel of innovation in this world, motivating young entrepreneurs to come up with ideas that nobody ever thought of before.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said:

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

The courage to follow your heart and move forward, going against conventional wisdom is what defines entrepreneurship.

“I’ve learned that the greatest challenge of life is knowing when to break with conventional wisdom. Don’t just accept the world you inherit today. Don’t just accept the status quo. No big challenge has ever been solved, and no lasting improvement has ever been achieved unless people dare to try something different. Dare to think different,” Cook said as he addressed the students.

Young entrepreneurs will always find more critics than supporters who celebrate their original idea. While taking a leap of faith with the idea seems to be scary, it’s the habit that drives great leaders.

While addressing crises, being driven by a set of higher values and purposes will help you respond to it more quickly. At a time when a lot of people get into the corporate sector or your competitors are changing strategies to achieve short-term goals, these values will keep you focused on your North Star.

Keeping on with the legacy of Steve Jobs, several Apple executives, including Tim Cook use the phrase ‘enriching lives.’ “We reject the excuse that getting the most out of technology means trading away your right to privacy. We choose a different path. Collecting as little as your data as possible and being thoughtful and respectful when it’s in our care,” Cook added.

Entrepreneurship requires fearlessness and it is okay not to feel powerless when faced with crises. It takes a lot of courage to tread the path less travelled when your peers are getting into the corporate bandwagon.

Addressing the graduates at the Duke University, Cook said, it takes a lot of strength and courage to make huge and substantial improvements than incremental ones or to build a business when you don’t know where your next paycheck will be coming from.

“It takes courage to be the first person to stand up and change things when the majority of people are content to accept things as they are,” Cook added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

From street to sky: Here are life lessons from Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

An era came to an end when Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal agreed to step down from the board of the embattled airline.

With an experience of over 40 years in the aviation industry, Goyal, a well-known name in India’s aviation industry, started his journey as a cashier in his uncle’s travel agency and went on to become the aviation entrepreneur.

In May 1974, Goyal founded Jetair (Private) Limited with the objective of providing sales and marketing representation to foreign airlines in India. He was involved in the development of traffic patterns, route structures, operational economics and flight schedules.

When the Licence Raj ended in the early 90s, paving way for a slew of reforms, Goyal founded Jet Airways in 1993, the only private airline that thrived through the years.

In 2007, Jet Airways acquired Air Sahara and by 2010, it became the largest airlines in the country, a position currently being held by Indigo.

Jet, being the only market player at the time, rose to prominence, thanks to Goyal who managed to hire the best talent in the industry and his exceptional ability to forge partnerships with foreign airlines. Jet Airways was operational with a partnership with Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways. The airline also has an enhanced commercial cooperation agreement with Air France-KLM in 2017, a first in India.

A man of many characters, Goyal handled the bureaucracy as well as the political environment and was passionately committed to building a professionally-managed airline. He raised the bar on the products and services rendered to the passengers on his airline.

Being able to work in different airlines at various managerial posts and travelling overseas, Goyal shaped himself to become an expert in the travel business. Jet Airways, under the leadership of Naresh Goyal, was the first to launch 24-hour reservations, tele check-in facilities, frequent flyer programmes, co-branded credit cards, streaming of in-flight entertainment, among others.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Here’s how Richard Branson started his Virgin Atlantic airline

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Richard Branson, the face of the ‘Virgin Group’, considers frustration as the key to his success, and not inspiration, passion or confidence. “Screw it, Let’s do it” is what got him to start his Virgin Atlantic airline.

At the Qualtrics X4 Experience Management Summit earlier in March 2019, Branson, an avid traveller, shared his story on how he first got to start his airline. Branson said, “I was 28 in Puerto Rico, trying to get to the Virgin Islands and the pilot announced we had to wait until the next day. Why? Simply because the flight didn’t have enough passengers and so it was cancelled.”

Just starting out on his career with Virgin Records still establishing itself, a distraught Branson had no other means to travel but hire a chartered plane. So the young Branson, in his bid to meet his lady love, hired the plane and on a borrowed blackboard, wrote “Virgin Airlines, one-way Virgin Islands $39,” on it and went around to the other passengers of his cancelled flight and filled his first plane.

In coming years, Virgin Records became the world’s largest independent record label and many entrepreneurship counsellors would have told Branson that it is better to stick to one company than venturing into other sectors.

However, the thing that kept Branson going was the quality of service the airlines in those days used to provide. He called it a ‘nightmare.’ Branson said, “In those days airlines didn’t care that much about fulfilling their commitments to passengers and they would regularly oversell flights and then bump people off of them.”

The young entrepreneur in him knew that he could do better than the rest and decided to buy a second-hand plane from Boeing, a 747. Over the years, Branson made sure that the airline defined a certain standard of hospitality delivered to its customers.

All business is a group of people. You can have five airlines and they all have 747s, but what will differentiate them is the people. So we do everything we can to make sure we have the happiest group of people working for us.

This was just the tip of the iceberg. With his “Screw it, Let’s do it” attitude, Branson has managed to achieve a lot, which includes, rail travel, space tourism and cruise ships. Virgin Group owns about 400 companies ranging from music label, retail to airlines.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Here’s what you can learn from Sundar Pichai’s success story

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of the world’s largest search engine Google, has attained global popularity with his poised demeanour, simplicity and dedication towards work. Most young entrepreneurs look up to Pichai for his resilience, polite nature and his ability to stay away from the office politics and drama, which helped him to focus on his career growth and build an influential persona.

The success story of the Google CEO is not hidden to the world, knowstartup.com said. Hailing from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Pichai was born and raised in a two-bedroom house. The successful CEO was a shy kid, as well as, a bright student which got him a seat in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

The world is filled with innovative ideas and Pichai shares the same view. He says, at any given time in life, what needs to be focused is that we boast innovative thinking for a better future. He explains it should be the most natural way of thinking for young entrepreneurs: keep on thinking about what should be the next best action.

In a world where there is a new technology or an innovation beaming from a corner updating and reinventing yourself is much more required in this world of cut-throat competition. To deliver an out of the box solution, Pichai asks entrepreneurs to think big about big problems and think of a more ambitious way to tackle these problems.

Being ambitious keeps motivation levels high and such kind of attitude can help in attaining big successes.

Leaders, as a rule, should not be focusing on their own growth or success but also pay attention to their employee’s success. Pichai explains: “As a leader, a lot of your job is to make those people successful. It’s less about trying to be successful (yourself), and more about making sure you have good people and your work is to remove that barrier, remove roadblocks for them so that they can be successful in what they do. So that’s how I’ve always thought about it.”

Many entrepreneurs are ambitious but still fail at achieving what they really desire. Pichai explains that just dreaming and hardly taking any efforts will not be of any help to anybody unless you put in sincere efforts to earn it.

“When something excites you but there are hard decisions to make, then take the leap if you really think that you are right. Taking risks is worth and even if you fail, never stop trying. Numerous things that amaze the world have been made after umpteen attempts,” Pichai adds.

Being in a corporate or starting out on a new business venture, it’s just human to get intimidated and get insecurities. But there is no problem in getting worried or ashamed of the insecurities that you get. Pichai says that feeling insecure implies that you are simply working with talented people and it is now your opportunity to learn from them and grow. Use your creativity to try doing new things while learning them and become a master with constant practice.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Here are a few success lessons from the ‘Accidental Entrepreneur’ – Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, a well-known name in the pharma community, considers herself an ‘Accidental Entrepreneur’. From plans of pursuing a career in brewing to becoming the chairperson and managing director of India’s leading biotechnology firm Biocon, Shaw’s journey has been nothing less than an inspiration to young entrepreneurs.

Shaw faced many hurdles on her path to success. One of the biggest of the lot was facing gender biases on her journey. “I suddenly found that my gender came against me. People kept acknowledging the fact that I had very good technological capabilities but they weren’t willing to risk having a woman in their management cadre. It was an accidental encounter with an entrepreneur from Ireland that actually saw me start my company,” Shaw said in an interview to TV18.

Businesses that keep evolving and offer something different usually attracts more customers. Choosing the differentiators and to keep building new differentiators along the way is important, Shaw explained.

When the pioneer in the biotech field started out, out of all the differentiators that could have been there pertaining to her field, her focus was on the innovation.

It was going to be about quality and high-end capabilities in high technology.

The one mistake that all the entrepreneurs do is to sticking to the same business model, hoping that the once successful models will again do the magic. It is the most expensive mistake the entrepreneurs can make, Shaw pointed out.

Since the industry, technologies and the innovations related to a particular field evolve continuously, it is important to change the dynamicity of the business plans and models. Biocon leveraged on its technologies that built the enzymes in a general way in the biotech space. After six years in the market, Biocon was able to increase the business size from $25 million to $100 million, which was its IPO (Initial Public Offering) inflection point, Shaw added.

In any business, research and development are the keys to its success. In other words, R&D is the spine of every enterprise, barring the size of it. Biocon, established in 1978, has over the years become Asia’s largest biopharmaceutical company with a market cap of $1.6-2 billion. The success of the company, Shaw attributes to the constant R&D on the innovation of its technologies.

I really believe that innovation helps you to lead, not follow.

In the competitive world of technological advancements and new innovations, partnerships, deals and investments come every now and then in every entrepreneur’s life and being emotionally involved in it with great dedication is important for every entrepreneur.

“As an entrepreneur, it was a very important lesson as I learnt that business was about being emotionally driven about investing, but being emotionally detached when it came to divesting, and that’s very strong learning,” Shaw added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow