Power of Ideas

Power of Ideas is a Times Group campaign to promote entrepreneurship.

The invited members for the Ahmedabad edition were -

• Mr. Ashish Soparkar – MD, Meghmani Organics
• Mr. Pankaj Patel – CMD, Zydus Cadila
• Mr. Pirus Khambhatta – CMD, Rasna
• Dr. Samir Barua – Director, IIM Ahmedabad
• Mr. Pratul Shroff – MD, e-infochips

*Live Updates*

14:00 – Dr. Barua, Mr. Khambhatta, Mr. Soparkar and Mr. Shroff have just come it. Pleasantries are exchanged and some jokes are shared.
Panel discussions will begin shortly. We are still waiting for Mr. Patel to come in.

14:05 – Mr. Khambatta says 7 – 8 % growth is good for the economy and society.

14:10 – I just gave my introduction. Reporters are sitting in the room and warming up the discussions while we wait for Mr. Patel.

14:12 – Mr. Patel just walks in. Okay, we’re set now!

14:14 – Mr. Ashwin, Chief of Bureau – Economic Times gives a brief intro on the Power of Ideas. Question to Dr. Barua – ‘Do you think there is a slowdown? Are you scared of it?’

14:16 – Dr. Barua – “Yes, there is a slow down and it will affect the lower rung of the society.” 2009-10 will be the real test and it is likely to go down even further.

14:17 – Mr. Khambatta – We look at the consumers directly. In India there is a great deal of consumption. We have to ensure that financial markets should be better aligned. We cannot distance ourself from the Word Economic situations. Indian Govt should look into more transparent regulations instead of less. There’s a demand across all sectors and I dont think there’s a recession. The whole issue is with the financial mess around the globe. We should strive to come out of this mess. We should see a better growth (7-8%) by next year!

14:20 – Mr.Shroff – Our services are aligned with the American and European markets. I’m not scared about the adversity. True mettle of companies show how they steer out of adversities. These are the good times to put proper structures in place. Karl Marx is being revived. I think this is a great time for newer startups.

14:25 – Mr. Soparkar – We have 75% exports. We are far better than our competitors in European and American markets. The slowdown will definitely hit the demand. This is time to reduce our costs, better align our manpower and put things in place. We believe we will come out as a winner when the turmoil ends.

14:27 – Mr. Patel – Every business will get affected. There will be some impact across industries. Pharma companies will also be impacted but it will be minimal. There’s is an opportunity for our industry in this slowdown.

Ashwin – Do you see a brakes on acquisition?

Mr. Patel – Good assets will have acquisitions. If you are cash rich, there’s always opportunities to look at.

14:30 – Mr. Ashwin – We would like to know a brief about your journey. If you had some cash with you right now, would you get into startup mode once again?

14:31 – Mr. Khambatta – Rasna has always been an entrepreneurial company. Just recently we launched Devils’ Workshop which is a new product for Indian market. India as a country does not eat doughnuts. But we still went ahead. We as a company believe that we should try different things. Its good to fail.

Youth of today have better ideas than our existing managers. But these youth lack a lot of things – commercialization, scale and business model. For eg, in todays paper there was a story about a student who won a bplan competition with a syringe. But there are aspects that these people dont understand.

14:35 – Mr. Shroff – e-infochips is about 12-13 years old. Its a services business which began as a bootstrapped operation. We have expanded to over 700 professionals so far. We have already funded 2 ideas – one in India and one in US more or less in our space. Tough times are better times to start companies. Less money is a great strength to test your ideas. In tough times, everyone tries to be very frugal. All of these things contribute to a higher probability of success in tough times.

14:35 – Mr. Soparkar – Funds will never be an issue for good ideas anywhere. We are looking at increasing our services with more value added products.

14:38 – Mr. Patel – We are a 55 year old company started by my father. This is the best time to invest in new ideas and also acquire. This is the best time to get talent as it will be more easily available. You are forced to think about market expectations. IBM and Apple are some of the best examples of companies that have steered from worst times.

Real globalization will begin after we move away from this crisis.

Ashwin – The cleansing process is whats happening now.

14:41 – Dr. Barua – If we dont do anything in the window of opportunity that we have now, we will go down even further.

14:42 – Mr. Soparkar – Fraud is different and regulations are different.

14:43 – Mr. Khambatta – Our banks are one of the best regulated in the world.

Mr. Patel – This is the time to flex your muscles. We as a company decided not to do any layoffs as its more difficult to get jobs. Any company has 10-20% of cost as a personnel cost. Look at your business strategy – get rid off assets that are becoming a liability.

If you’ve got talent gaps, this is the best time to get the best talent and build the organization going forward.

This is the really the time to innovate. You have to think differently to become really successful.

Ashwin – Do you think this is the time for more entrepreneurs?

14:48 – Mr. Shroff – There is a good chance for quality entrepreneurs rather than quantity. Mentions about Bill Gates. Entrepreneurship has to do with something “within” an individual.

Mr. Khambatta – You should first take a job and learn at somebody else’s expense and then become and entrepreneur.

Dr.Shroff – Great time to cleaning up of operations.

14:54 – Mr. Soparkar – No college teaches entrepreneurship. They only teach business. Entrepreneurs needs to have a drive to do so many things. A business man will always be comfortable.

Mr. Khambhatta just gave me some gyaan on going the incubator way. Why dont you use the incubator at NID??

Ashwin – Are you happy with the incubation happening at the moment?

15:00 – Mr. Patel – There is a demand for more and I think the govt will come out with more.

Ashwin – What are the hurdles for entrepreneurship?

15:04 – Mr. Soparkar – Unless an idea is well communicated to the masses, it becomes a little difficult.

15:05 – Mr. Shroff – We should first look at all the opportunities for an entrepreneur. All CEOs begin to look at cost cutting measures during recession. If you’ve got an idea that is capital intensive, then it becomes a little difficult. What we lack, at least in Ahmedabad, is people who are role models and those who can mentor the young guys.

If you have passion to build a company, then you will go a long way. If your aim is to only make money, then you will get tired at some point. The hurdle for an entrepreneurship will be the individual himself.

15:09 – Mr. Khambhatta – The hurdle for an entrepreneurship is the govt. beuracracy thats involved in starting a venture. Incubators should make administration easy for entrepreneurs and leave them to do their work.

15:11 – Mr. Patel – Idea is basically innovation. Unfortunately, in our institutions there’s no freedom for ideas that are generated by individuals. Idea generation should be encouraged by institutes.

15:13 – Dr. Barua – Patenting is a western concept which is being imbibed by Indian companies now.

15:14 – Mr. Patel – There was an act that was passed in the US ( doesn’t remember which one) was instrumental in creating American entrepreneurs in institutions. There should be a legislative change to generate more ideas in India.

Dr. Barua briefly talks about Media and Entertainment course in PGP-X and Aamir Khan’s recent visit to IIM A.

15:15 – Dr. Barua – The education system needs to changed to encourage more innovations and creativity.

15:16 – Mr. Soparkar – We should change society. We should teach our children to question. We always kill curiosity. Indian society has fundamental weaknesses. We are heroes but we cannot write. Thats a reason why we don’t patent a lot.

You should be interested in what you are doing.

15:19 – Mr. Khambhatta – India’s strength lies in its masses. Simple, low price ideas will be a great one. These are ones that fetch better and faster returns. People dont have basic access to clean water. Think of a cheap water purifier that masses can buy. These are ideas that are yet to find competent solutions.

15:21 – Mr. Patel – You need to have a niche idea. You need to differentiate yourself from others – you will get your success.

15:24 – Mr. Shroff – Ideas are dime a dozen. What makes for an entrepreneur is the execution irrespective of the failures that come by.

Ashwin – Is there a stigma for failures in India?

15:26 – Mr. Patel – If you don’t learn to fail then you’re not an entrepreneur.

15:27 – Mr. Khambhatta – Schooling system needs to change.

Theres a new question from Jitendra of Ahmedabad

15:31 – Mr. Khambhatta – Big busines today is small car.

Ashwin – Any cracker of idea in your sector, Mr. Shroff?

15:32 – Mr. Shroff – Renewable energy, infrastructure, educational are all opportunity areas. 60% of our population can’t read or write. There’s an opportunity there. There’s a company called educon that is working on this idea. There are always opportunities.

15:34 – Mr. Khambhatta – New ideas should align with existing or future trends. If you’ve got an idea and there’s no trend for them in the society, then its likely to not succeed.

15:35 – Mr. Patel – Outsourcing is going to be a big opportunity for the pharma industry.

15:36 – Mr. Soparkar – Entrepreneurs should not look at export to start with, in the chemical industry. Indian companies serving other indian companies will start booming up sooner than later.

15:38 – Mr. Shroff – IT is becoming a utility. There is a lot of opportunities in how to deploy IT. For eg, how do I use a mobile to deliver innovative healthcare? Fundamental trend – average selling price gets halved every year. You start thinking there and try and validate that in the market.

15:42 – Mr. Soparkar – Funds are always available for a good idea.

15:44 – Dr. Barua – [To Jitendra] – Yes, the education system definitely has to change.

15:45 – Mr. Patel – You need to have clear focus in your business. Venturing into different business will only lessen your focus.

15:47 – Mr. Khambhatta – Entrepreneurship has to be taught. Youngsters should be taught how the industry works. We have to work very closely with academia to encourage such activities.

15:50 – Mr. Soparkar – I went to US and met a 7th grade student. These girls were asked to create a county. They had to worry about the infrastructure, how to organize transportation, etc. These things make their imaginations go wild. In India, on the other hand, our youngsters are taught to rote learn.

15:54 – Mr. Khambhatta – We don’t encourage entrepreneurs because they will become our competitors. We encourage ideas in our organization as a contest every year. These ideas are then selectively imbibed in our organization.

15:55 – Mr. Patel – We do have idea generation workshops in our organizations. We spend time to assess the situation and come out with a way to steer away from it. We will definitely get affected by the global crisis. It will stay for another 2 year. Given that, we are running offsites to discuss what we need to do to survive these tough times. You need to remain prepared at all times.

16:00 – Its over.

Thank you all for pouring in with your questions and participating in this panel.