1. P2
NOVEMBER 24, 2010
CHENNAI 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
achieve-
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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Q - In India, money becomes a verQ
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Y
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Gurcharan Das
Best-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 Global
Economic 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