When N R Narayana Murthy Founder, Infosys speaks everybody listens. Not only can the man inspire you with his brilliance mixed with humility, but he can also be the perfect guide for existing and aspiring entrepreneurs dreaming of getting into the big league. And when he spoke at the BSE to a packed hall last week, everybody came out in awe…It was a wonderful first hand experience to hear this giant and his ideas, was the unified chorus. Mayura Shanbaug reports…
“Entrepreneurship is all about transforming the world to opportunities, creating wealth and making ideas into reality,” said N R Narayana Murthy Founder, Infosys Limited. He was speaking at the seminar on ‘Be your own Boss’ – Entrepreneurship, organized by Indian Merchants’ Chamber jointly with NMIMS and BSE at Mumbai. “Leadership is all about courage to dream big,” he said.
According to him, there are three important factors which prevail in our country to promote Entrepreneurship. “A Democracy which we have to preserve, Secularism on which our foundation is strong and the largest number of youth in the world we have to guide,” he said.
Entrepreneurship is about walking the road less traveled or sometimes, never traveled. “To start an entrepreneurship, one must have an idea which is useful to the consumer which should be easily explainable and understandable and one should do test marketing before kick starting it,” explained Murthy about the nitty-gritty of being your own boss.
Citing that a good team is the reason why Infosys could succeed, while the other 12 companies which started at the same time as Infosys perished in spite of having very intelligent promoters, he said “It is also important to have a team who are from diverse qualifications and streams that could bring in complementary contributions”.
“An entrepreneur should also create trust in his/her team, for that one needs to have a good value system and the entrepreneur should remember that the society is the biggest stake holder in his/her business,” he explained.
Treat every obstacle as an opportunity; the more the obstacles the more are your chances of making it big,” he said while answering a question from a young student present.
On the issue of corruption Murthy cited his own example to the audience which was listening with rapt attention to his every word. Murthy said when they approached an official for permissions when he was starting, the official asked for the ‘customary’ bribe which obviously Murthy refused. Murthy kept on perusing the official for months till he got the permission. Second time around the same officer delayed the permission even more, but the persistent Murthy never gave up and got the permission finally. The third time around, Murthy said, “the officer did not even bother asking the bribe and gave him permission immediately.”
A self confessed follower of Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophy, he inspired the audience further by repeating the famous quote by Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see.”