Entrepreneurs I Admire

Five successful entrepreneurs I would like to emulate are:

1.      N. R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder, Infosys.

2.      Kumarmangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla

3.      Jamsetji Tata, founder, Tata

4.      Harish Hande, founder SELCO (http://www.selco-india.com/)

5.      Ronnie Screwvala, founder UTV

The key competency analysis with examples and scores:

NRN Murthy to me a symbol of innovation, fair play, simplicity, discipline and sheer intellect. These are skills coupled with a humble and down to earth nature of Mr. Murthy that makes him one of my biggest inspirations in the world of entrepreneurship. Having seen him face-to-face by working in the same company, and hearing him speak has indeed been an honor. His company started out in the relatively nascent stages of software outsourcing, even before India opened its doors to FDI. But he saw opportunity, where most saw failure. To implement this he sought out several key innovations, that to me rank in the top five skills every entrepreneur should have.

He is disciplined and this quality of his translates down to the entire workforce of Infosys, the entire 150,000 of his workforce. This quality ranks also, among the top five skills every entrepreneur should have.

Mr. Murthy is smart. When he co-founded Infosys, he relied on sheer smartness of the team. He relied on its ability to make something special out of virtually nothing. To me, that is important. The most important tool in an entrepreneurs’ toolkit ought to be smartness. It can be street smartness, academic smartness, practical smartness, and ethical smartness.

The other amazing trait of Mr. Murthy is his down-to-earth nature and his proximity to his community and the country. I think what differentiates a leader, and an entrepreneur from the run-of-the-mill guy is his ability to stay grounded. To me this is the second most important trait of an entrepreneur.

KM Birla would be an unconventional choice for an entrepreneur, but I chose him simply because he maintains a very low key and quietly does a lot of community development work. To me businesses should not just be focused on making money and growing, but also focused on giving back to society. I admire this quality of Mr. K M Birla, thus mention this. This is perhaps the third quality in an entrepreneur I would like to emulate.

Dr. Harish Hande, is a name not many have heard of, perhaps even less of his start up. SELCO is a for profit social enterprise based out of Bangalore that produces photovoltaic lights, water heaters and cook stoves. His premise was, to dispel three myths, that is:

1.      Poor cannot afford Sustainable Technologies,

2.      Poor people can’t maintain sustainable technologies,

3.      Social Ventures can’t be run as commercial entitites.

To me that is vision, and opportunity, and the fourth most important characteristic an entrepreneur should have. Since 1995 his company has sold and serviced more than 150,000 installations.

Ronnie Screwvala, made money out of entertainment in a big way. So big that he ended up on the Time’s list of 100 most influential people in the world in 2009. He not only gave entertainment a slew of films that were high on commercial and social value, but also a level playing field for talent. He also invested in businesses that were thought to be risky and turned it around. Today he has diversified into communications, news and venture capitalism. He also runs the non-profit Swades foundation. The quality that I admire in him is his eye for the right things such as which businesses to invest in. This is perhaps the fifth most important thing an entrepreneur should have in his toolkit.

JRD Tata laid the foundations of entrepreneurship when the country was under the British rule. He thought up the future and shaped many aspects of India that we today are extremely proud of.  He had something I wish every entrepreneur had, vision and very strong one at that, about his country.

My evaluations on where I stand with regards to the skills mentioned above are:

Smartness, I think I’d get a 2.5, because there is much to learn and refine.

Grounded, I think I am modest, and grounded, but then again, it takes time to really prove such a fact, so I’d give me a 4.

Community Development, Giving back to the Country, I love my country, and one day I hope to help the country out in a way that can really make a difference. I have that drive, so I’d give me a 3 since only time will tell if I do.

Innovation, I would rate myself at a 3.5 in this, because thanks to my engineering training, I am coming to terms with thinking beyond the box, as opposed to linear thinking. But I can say this; I am learning and learning fast.

In five years I look to be in a position where I am developing, honing and planning for my return to India as a social entrepreneur and is for profit in another ten years. The plan is to move to areas that expose me to opportunities that test, train and hone these skills.