P2NOVEMBER 24, 2010CHENNAI CONVENTION CENTRE

Q - Your latest book talked of “The Difficulty of Being Good”. In today’s times, what does it take to be a “good entrepreneur”?

The most important quality in an entrepreneur is

determination--sheer will power. It is even more

important than intelligence. We over rate intelligence

in the world of business, where action is more impor-

tant than thought.

A second quality is an instinctive

sense of dharma, of right and

wrong. “I act because I must”

is the way Yudhishtira

expresses it to Draupadi

when they are in exile after

the dice game. She

wants him to gather an

army and win back the

kingdom that has been

stolen from them in the

rigged game of dice. But he

refuses, saying that he has

given his word to Dhritarashtra to

go away for 13 years. I would like

more entrepreneurs to have a

moral compass, which tells you

something is right or wrong,

and not everything is for sale;

that you are willing to draw

the line. It will allow you to

sleep at night.

The 3rd characteristic of

a leader is humility. It

does not mean that one is

not ambitious, but the ambition is for your work or

your company and not for your stock options or

immediate personal rewards. It is expressed famously

in the Gita as ‘nishkama karma’. Another way to put it

is that your work will be good as long as you don’t care

who gets the credit. This is not an easy way to behave,

but even if you do it some of the time you create a

reputation and people respect you for it.

Q - Who has primacy for an entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur has a number of stake holders-

-those who gave him capital, his employees, custom-

ers, suppliers, and the community in which he

functions. A good entrepreneur has to balance their

interests.

Q - How should an entrepreneur define ‘Success’?

Clearly one indicator – is your bottom line – a

return that is competitive, as good as the market is

delivering

Market share – your ability to compete

Employees – satisfaction they feel in their job

Business associates – their feeling that you are en

honorable company

Q - The theme of the year’s TIECON Chennai is ‘Money, money, money’. In your view, what role does money play today, in general, and specifically for an entrepreneur?

Money is the currency by which we measure

achievement. No point in being hypocritical as

Indians were during the days of Licence Raj when we

loved money but refused to admit it. In classical India

we had the notion of trivarga and artha or material

well being was an important goal of life. However,

there is a difference between artha and greed, which

happens when you cross the line. There is a difference

between being ‘self-interested’ and being ‘selfish’

When self interest begins to hurt others or impinging

on the rights of others then it becomes selfishness.

Q - In India, money becomes a very volatile, emotional issue in a family. How does an entre-preneur deal with this?

The problem is that within a family we

practice socialism-everyone gets and should

get an equal share at the dining table. But

usually in every family, one son or daughter

is brighter or harder working. This

creates an inequality and a

problem. At this point the

family splits up or has to

find a way to

compensate those

who create

wealth. Thus,

you have to

a b a n d o n

the social-

ist rule.

You have

to balance

a c h i e v e -

ment and reward and still maintain a sense of the

family.

Q - Is India finally getting unbound? How would this impact entrepreneurship here?

We are now entering another golden age of growth

and this is obviously good news for entrepreneurs.

India is not fully unbound however; we have still to

do lots of reforms—labour laws, land transactions,

etc.

Q- Is there something that defines an Indian entrepre-neur? Any differences vis-à-vis, say any American or a European or a Chinese entrepreneur?

I am very shy of national stereotypes. We are

defined by our institutions. When people say ‘Indians

are corrupt’, I remind them that the same Indians

stop at the red light, pay taxes when they go abroad.

The laws of commerce are universal. To succeed you

have to be passionate about your customers, take care

of your employees, and be fair to suppliers.

Q - Last words for an aspiring, budding entrepreneur

You are lucky; you are born when India is the

second fastest growing economy in the world. Take

advantage of your good fortune and go to glory.

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Gurcharan DasBest-selling Author & Management Guru

Entrepreneurship is a very powerful paradigm – which truly has the ability to empower people – create jobs, revive communities and enhance development in the region. It is entrepreneurship which directly contributes to economic growth and sustain-ing development. It is the new entrants to business who are the important catalysts of innovation, which leads to economic growth.

In the US, since 1980s, net job creation occurred primarily in startups, and it is the new companies that have been boosting overall job growth for over 2 decades. The number of people filing for unemploy-ment stands at a staggering 15 million, and the need for new entrepreneurs is crucial to sustain such advanced economies.

In India too, the need for entrepreneurship and startups has never been greater. The youth comprise over 40% of the total population presently. Between 2010-2030, India will add over 240 million people to the working class population. Countries like India and China need entrepre-

neurship to keep the growing young population employed.

Victor Hugo had said, “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” That idea, is TiE, an organization with the principal mission of fostering entre-preneurship globally. The Indus Entrepreneurs (aka TiE) was born in Silicon Valley in 1992 when a handful of Indian Diaspora decided to give a gift of entrepreneurship development to the society that has been so rewarding to them.

Fast forward, the TiE Network today has 56 chapters in 13 countries, and is comprised of 2,500 seasoned entrepre-neurs and mentors as charter members, and 10,500 aspir-ing entrepreneurs and professionals as members. TiE Chapters around the world organize a range of quality programs and events that promote entrepreneurship and deliver benefits through mentoring, motivating, network-ing and education opportunities.

TiE Chennai is one of our leading Chapters, with a strong mentoring pool and exemplary charter members, commit-ted to the cause of developing entrepreneurs. We are honored to have R. Ramaraj, co-founder of Sify.com, Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice Chairman, Cognizant Technologies, KB Chandrasekhar, Kalpathi Suresh and many more successful business leaders supporting TiE Chennai.

The membership structure includes:

• Charter Members- invited based on their accomplish-ments and willingness to help the next genera-tion of entrepre-neurs.

• Associate Members - open to any current /aspiring entrepreneur. S/he pays nominal dues to access all activities.

Charter Members benefit and derive satisfaction by helping budding entrepreneurs. They

also get opportunities to participate in start-ups in many ways as well as

network with peers in the global business

eco-system.

Associate Members benefit from the education, knowl-edge, inspiration,

guidance, mentoring and, most importantly,

the global connectivity that the TiE platform can provide.

Those interested in Associate Membership may apply online

via http://chennai.tie.org.

Entrepreneurship: A GlobalEconomic Imperative

The findings from a major research project underway at IIT Madras on the Indian Venture Capital industry can be welcome news for existing and prospective entrepre-neurs. Key findings from the research are summarized here while more details are available in the recently released India Venture Capital and Private Equity Report 2010. The findings are based on the analysis of 1870 investments totaling more than $46 billion by 338 Venture Capital and Private Equity investors during 2004 – 09.

Growth in the number of investors

To start with, the total number of venture capital investors has significantly increased over the years. The number of investors grew about 3.5 fold during 2000 – 04 and nearly 5 fold during 2004 – 09, translating to an 18 fold increased in the number of investors within a decade. Southern India accounts for the highest number of investors in India after the Western region. Existing research indicates that the majority of venture inves-

tors exhibit a preference to invest in compa-nies that are located in proximity.

Reaching out to entrepreneurs

Not only has the number of investors increased, but the diversity of the investors has also increased. While venture capital investment is traditionally associated with technology sectors, the boundaries have expanded at a rapid pace in recent years to include non technology sectors such as trans-portation, financial and consumer services, healthcare, etc. In fact, the technology sectors (IT, ITES, Computer Hardware, Telecom, Media) accounted for only 31% of the total investment made since 2004.

Engine of venture capital growth

Venture investors in India can be classified as foreign investors and domestic investors based on their origin. Foreign investors account for a large proportion of VCPE inves-tors in India. 242 (or 72%) of the 338 VCPE investors who had invested in India during

The Contours of Smart Capital in India How to become a member of TiE Chennai?

CEO, TiE Global

P.K. Agarwal

Thillai Rajan A. Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras

2004 – 09 are foreign investors. Foreign investors had invested in 69% of the deals and accounted for 85% of the total investment. This indicates the factor of confidence that foreign investors had on investing in India and in Indian companies. Venture capital firms have thus created an institutional mechanism for foreign capital to invest in Indian entrepreneurship. While the growth in venture capital has been because of foreign investors, domestic investors form the bedrock of the Indian venture capital indus-try. They invest in more early stage deals, make investments more consistently, invest more in non technology sectors, and comparatively make a higher proportion of investments in non metro areas.

An analysis of investors’ segmentation indicates that the majority of the venture investors (63%) in India exclusively focus on their investment activities and do not have other business activities. For example, they are not a part an investment bank or a finan-cial institution or a corporate that has set up a venture capital division in addition to their existing lines of business. This clearly indicates the investment potential that venture investors see in Indian entrepre-neurs.

Please contact: vincent.morris@chennai.tie.org

Tel: 044-6515 4900

Flashback from TiECON CHENNAI 2008

CHENNAI