Launch event @ Crossword Mumbai
(l to r) Anand Halve, Ashank Desai, Rashmi Bansal, Cyrus Driver, Deepta Rangarajan
Oct 2 saw the launch of Stay Hungry Stay Foolish in Mumbai. Despite being a holiday there were enormous traffic jams at Haji Ali (Eid + Navratri crowd) but we managed to start at 4.15 pm (a miracle by Mumbai standards.
The panelists for the evening were Ashank Desai (Mastek), Anand Halve (chlorophyll), Cyrus Driver (Calorie Care) and Deepta Rangarajan (IRIS). After Alghan introduced us all, I spoke about the book. In a nutshell my message was that this is a book about the New Economy, the New India.
“This book is not trying to say that you need an IIM Ahmedabad degree to be a successful entrepreneur. In fact, most of the success stories we know of - from Dhirubhai Ambani to Karsanbhai Patel and even Bill Gates - have been people with little or no educational background.”Stay hungry is basically promoting the idea that even People Like Us - the risk averse middle class - can get into business and make it big.”
I then asked each of the panelists to share some thoughts on their journey. Starting with Ashank, who was the ’seniormost’ entrepreneur (Mastek is now in its 26th year!). “Is it easier to set up a business today than it was in 1982?”"Most certainly,” said Ashank.”There was a waiting list for a telephone stretching into 10 years when we started.” Ashank shared some of the early struggles at Mastek but emphasised that it has still been ‘worth it’.
We then turned to Cyrus, who at 31 is one of the youngest entrepreneurs in the book and running a business that is just two years old. As a former investment banker type, his story is of interest to many i bankers out there who are considering what to do next…
Cyrus candidly shared the difficulties he has faced and added,”My professor once said that anything you start with cost twice as much and thrice as long, even after all the planning that went into it.” He has discovered that the number of people who claim to be health conscious is far more than those who actually want healthy calorie counted meals and are willing to pay for it!
Deepta shared her views on why there were so few women entrepreneurs (in the book and also out there). Anand shared his ’small is beautiful’ philosophy of entrepreneurship. He believes that in certain industries, where ‘creativity’ is the main output, you cannot scale up without losing out on the joy of creation and the quality of work you do.Q & A with the audience.
Q & A session with the audience
There were many interesting questions from the audience. “Does an entrepreneur need to be innovative?” was one of them. I offered the example of Renuka Sugars from Stay Hungry. A company which got into a very old industry but was innovative in the way it did business. eg getting farmers to become shareholders in the company.
Anand added that technology products like ipod have us believe that every product must be a ‘breakthrough’ one but innovation for innovation sake can also be a dangerous thing.
The entire panel agreed on one thing: The lows of being in business can be very low but there is no high like it either. So in the end they have no regrets.. about staying hungry and foolish!
The Mumbai event was very special to me because it included so many of my near and dear ones. My family, friends, past and present colleagues, the extended family of JAM and IIM Ahmedabad.
We would have loved to all celebrate @ Moshe on the 1st floor but you know a table for 16 up there is more difficult to obtain than a smile from Abhinav Bindra.
Thanks to Crossword - Amrit, Virat, Alghan and the entire team - for a very well organised event!
