Role of Entrepreneurs in the society

Role of Entrepreneurs - Hemant Nitturkar

Entrepreneurs are leaders!
Entrepreneurs are change makers!!
Entrepreneurs need to become role models!!!

Entrepreneur to me is anyone who identifies an opportunity to service a widespread need or want and uses the existing resources and adds his/her vision, creativity, sweat and perseverance to create something of value to a customer base, in turn creating wealth for self, his or her backers, employment for others and value for the whole community.

A country is only as prosperous and vibrant as it enables and rewards innovators and entrepreneurs. Today the developed economies are so precisely because they have allowed the enterprise ecosystem to flourish. In India, only a few year ago, entrepreneurship was the exclusive domain of a chosen few and the rest were expected to serve them as salaried technocrats.

Post-liberalization, the mental shackles have also been broken and more first generation entrepreneurs are emerging and blazing a trail. The entrepreneurial ecosystem has also grown in leaps and bounds with mentors, incubation centers and venture capitalists coming up in various parts of the country. It is a welcome sign for the country. Realizing the important role that  the entrepreneurs play in value addition and creating jobs in our young country, various state governments and the central government in India has been looking at ways of creating an enabling environment through supportive policy, infrastructure and financial ecosystem.

Yes, innovators and entrepreneurs are important for any society, more so a developing society like ours. Articles abound on what the entrepreneurs need from the society to flourish. That the society needs  to provide adequate and timely funding to enterprises. That the SMEs need to be given a chance to start up and stand up. All very well. We know what the entrepreneurs want from the society.

But, what does the society want from the entrepreneurs? What are the responsibilities of the entrepreneurs towards the same society which it expects to support from? The author feels there are enough written articles on and actual movement towards fulfilling the 'rights' of entrepreneurs. This article is an attempt to articulate the 'duties' of entrepreneurs towards the society.

As a key stakeholder, a la the Bride or Bridegroom in a marriage, entrepreneur has roles and responsibilities. The entrepreneur may have started the business for a variety of reasons, but once he/she decides to start the enterprise, he/she is assumed to have accepted these responsibilities. 

What are there responsibilities?

1. Build an ethical business - Alan K Simpson once said "If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you do not have integrity, nothing else matters." In the New Entrepreneurial India that we need to build for a more vibrant, inclusive and sustainable growth of the nation, ethical, transparent and fair dealings need to become the new normal. I have personal experience that this works; in spite of the common belief that to run a business in India you have to be a crook. Yes, the system throws many challenges, you see people deploying questionable means to get ahead, but as they say, when the tide goes down you can see who was swimming naked. 

So, hang on, and be ethical, always. 

By ethical, I mean, sell what you promised to sell, treat customers as equal partners in your venture, don’t exploit people or resources, pay your fair share of taxes, set equitable and transparent rules and play by them, treat employees well, embrace a balanced & healthy lifestyle and shun avoidable exuberance and profligacy.

2. Think value, think big and think positive – When the nation sends 11 people onto the field of cricket to represent the country, it showers faith, love, accolades and money on them. In return, it expects them to push themselves to the maximum, and deliver results. It even accepts failures, when the best effort falls short. The same with entrepreneurs – due to various things known and unknown to you, you have been given the mantle of entrepreneurship and there are expectations on you. Think big, deploy resources, collaborate, perserve and create value for yourself, your backers, your customers and the nation. To do this, always invest in yourself and constantly try to improve yourself, your team and your surroundings. 

When we were kids, we learnt how the ant climbed up the wall, fell down, tried again and again and finally succeeded. So is it in entrepreneurship! You have promises to keep, you have points to prove, you have milestones to reach, so march on!

3. Social and environmental responsibility - There was a time when billowing factories were signs of a progressive society. Bigger was beautiful and bolder was desirable. Times have changed. being socially responsive and environmentally responsible are not just noble virtues, but actually it now constitutes good business sense. The spectacular rise in green building industry in India over the last decade is a case in the point. For those not getting the message of the times, the polity is ready to crack the whip. The mandatory 2% CSR spend legislation is reminding companies of their social responsibilities. Mandated sustainable practices, financial penalties and closure notices for pollution transgressions are reminding companies of their  environmental responsibilities and obligations.

It has been proven that voluntarily incorporating both social and environmental thinking in the company DNA from the inception brings greater rewards than trying to react to policy or market forces compelling you to follow what should have been. Trust me, the companies that are flouting the norms and still flourishing, are living on borrowed times. 

4. Think Contribution – There are two ways of growing in life – one, by standing over others, trampling people and you grow tall. Second, you can take people along in a rising wave, enlarging the pie and you grow tall riding the wave as a pioneer. The latter is more rewarding and sustainable!

I was migrating along with my wife Vaishali to Australia in 1997 and knew not a soul there. Ajoy and Meera Joshi of www.nilgiris.com.au, whom we came to know a week before we landed in Sydney gave us their home to live in as they were going on a world tour. This helped us tremendously in settling down. When we were settled and wanted to know how we could show our gratitude, Ajoy profoundly said, “You cannot repay me for what I have done for you. But there is a way. If you can pass on the good thing, you would have repaid me many times over.” 

So, as entrepreneurs, create value as you go along. Take all support that you get along the way and build your business. As you 'arrive' in your business journey, think of the new generation that is following you and help them by sharing with them your wisdom, learnings, warnings, seed capital and the like. Write a book on your journey. Be a leader. Leave a legacy.

Let us together build a vibrant, entrepreneurial nation!

Towards Inclusive Growth - Role of the Society

This is the third of the six part series on “Towards Inclusive Growth.”


Role of Society

There is an adage - A society deserves what it gets! So, I strongly feel, the society, its shared 'thinking' and 'doing' has a great deal to do if we as a society are to move towards inclusive and sustainable growth. Corporate and government can only create so many jobs. The real employment creation is going to happen through micro and small enterprises. Creating an ecosystem for wide spread opportunity based entrepreneurship is key to inclusive and hence more sustainable growth.

I had a friend in Sydney whose grandmother was a neighbor to Sachin Tendulkar's grandmother. Both the grand-mothers were once admitted in the same hospital and were on the adjacent beds. When Sachin went to visit his grand mother, she requested her friend to talk to Sachin out of his penchant of playing cricket at the cost of his studies. It is easy now to think what we "could have" missed if Sachin had heeded to the advise.

For one Sachin, we do not know how many such geniuses the nation has lost and will be losing in various fields, be it art, business, science, politics and so on, due to restrictive thinking of our society. (I am not saying they do that to harm their kids' prospects, on the contrary, but the collective conformance mindset is what I am referring to)

We as a society do not bat an eyelid while doing the wrong thing of advising our enterprising boys to either give up, or work on their entrepreneurial ideas after marriage. I also went through this strange experience - luckily, my then fiancée supported me when I confided in her that I may not last in my job for too long and she is marrying me and not my job.

I was recently talking to a student from Israel I met in USA. She mentioned that with so much of risk to life to think about, the risk capital and enterprise venture looks such a small risk to take, as an explanation to how Israel had such a good risk capital and innovation ecosystem.

Youth aspirations are growing and we are seeing a lot of first generation entrepreneurship. What can society do to play its part?

A lot!!!

- As a society we need to let our kids and youth grow in an environment where creativity is encouraged and non-conformity is not frowned upon.

- We need to let our youth know that there are other career options as well, apart from being a doctor or an engineer.

- A young eligible bachelor should not be worried about not being able to secure a good wife while also working towards an entrepreneurial goal

- In Silicon Valley, a failed entrepreneur does not feel the need to hide the facts. I had to close my Wizard Home Loans franchise business in 2008 as it was not working out and many people had the 'I told you it will not work' messages. They did not have time to suggest me how to succeed, but had a lot of time doing post-mortem, either with me or behind my back. We need to accept failures as a part of the journey. No entrepreneur wants to fail, but would feel encouraged to try if he/she knows that people will not laugh at or ostracize them for the failure. So, more acceptance of a failed entrepreneurial venture is what is called for.

- Sequel to the above point, I would encourage a very short societal fuse for a fraudulent entrepreneur and enterprise. Surprisingly, this is sorely lacking currently. We murmur, spend a lot of time at tea parties how a certain business is doing the wrong thing, but do not collectively do anything about it. This tendency encourages the wrong kind of people and thinking, and more importantly, discourages the right kind of talent venturing into enterprise world.

- Another area where genuine entrepreneurs need support is in risk capital. I would encourage successful entrepreneurs, wealthy people to allocate some of their investible surplus towards investing in early stage entrepreneurs. http://www.carmagroup.in/ gives you a mechanism to do this. This will help the entrepreneur, you as an investor and the nation at large.

Come; let us together make India an entrepreneurial society!

Role of Entrepreneurs

This is the second of the six part series on “Towards Inclusive Growth.”

Entrepreneurs are leaders!
Entrepreneurs are change makers!!
Entrepreneurs need to become role models!!!

Entrepreneur to me is anyone who identifies an opportunity to service a widespread need and uses the existing resources and adds his/her vision, creativity, sweat and perseverance to create something of value to a customer base, in turn creating wealth for himself, his backers, employment of others and value for the whole community.

Here, I want to make one standing statement - by default, in all my works, I will only be talking about ethical, honest, for-profit, scalable and ‘opportunity-based entrepreneurship’, as against necessity based ‘sustenance entrepreneurship’.

In this blog, I am not going to talk about the HOWs, I am only going to talk about the WHATs. What is the role of an entrepreneur?

As a key stakeholder, a la the Bride or Bridegroom in a marriage, entrepreneur has roles and responsibilities. The entrepreneur may have started the business for various reasons, but once he/she decides to start the enterprise he/she is assumed to have accepted these responsibilities.

What are there responsibilities?

1. Build an ethical business - Alan K Simpson once said "If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you do not have integrity, nothing else matters." In the New Entrepreneurial India that we need to build for a more inclusive and sustainable growth of the nation, ethical, transparent and fair dealings need to become watch words. I have personal experience that this works, inspite of the common belief that to run a business in India you have to be a crook. Yes, the system throws many challenges, you see people deploying questionable means to get ahead, but as they say, when the tide goes down you can see who was swimming naked.

So, hang on, and be ethical, always.

By ethical, I mean, sell what you promised to sell, treat customers as equal partners in your venture, don’t exploit, pay taxes, set equitable and transparent rules and play by them, treat employees well, embrace a balanced & healthy lifestyle and so on.

2. Think value, think big and think positive – When the nation sends 11 people onto the field of cricket to represent the country, it expects them to push themselves and deliver results. The same with entrepreneurs – due to various things known and unknown to you, you have been given the mantle of entrepreneurship and there are expectations on you. Think big, deploy resources, collaborate, preserve and create value for yourself, your backers, your customers and the nation. To do this, always invest in yourself and constantly try to improve yourself, your team and your surroundings.

When we were kids, we learnt how the ant walked up the wall, fell down, tried again and again and finally succeeded. So is it in entrepreneurship! You have promises to keep, you have points to prove, you have milestones to reach, so march on!

3. Think Contribution – There are two ways of growing in life – one, by standing over others, trampling people and you grow tall. Second, you can take people along in a rising wave and you grow tall. The latter is more rewarding and sustainable!

I was migrating along with my wife Vaishali to Australia in 1997 and knew not a soul there. Ajoy and Meeera Joshi of www.nilgiris.com.au whom we came to know a week before we landed in Sydney gave us their home to live in and helped us tremendously. When we were settled and wanted to know how we can repay the debt, Ajoy profoundly said, “You can never repay me for what I have done for you. But there is a way. If you can pass on the good thing, you would have repaid me many times over.”

So, as entrepreneurs, create value as you go along. As you continue your journey think of the new generation that is following and help them by sharing with them your wisdom, learnings, warning, mentoring, seed capital and the like. What ever and where ever possible is welcome. Write a book on your journey. Be a leader. Leave a legacy.

Let us together build a vibrant, entrepreneurial nation!

Towards inclusive growth

If India is to realize its full potential, it has to enable Indians to do that first! We have to become an entrepreneurial society.


The demographic dividend that India is harping about and counting on is a double edged sword. It will accrue for the benefit of all only through inclusive growth, which can happen only through ‘opportunity based entrepreneurship’ as opposed to pure ‘sustenance entrepreneurship’ (with a miniscule percentage getting jobs in corporates and government). For this, all the stakeholders – government, industry, entrepreneurs and society – have to play an enabling role.


On the flip side, status quo on the entrepreneurial ecosystem will be recipe for disaster for the developing countries, including India, as they will not be able to provide productive avenues for gainful employment of millions of young people whose confidence levels and aspirations are soaring.

Historically, the governments and policy mechanism have been only reactive to crisis situations. It took the global financial crisis in the 90s for India’s economy to open up. It took another one recently for financial reforms to be brought to centre stage. The examples are many.

I wish to suggest, we do not have the luxury of reactive response in this issue. The damage of inaction will be too difficult and widespread to undo.

The increasingly confident, aware and ambitious youth in India, and other developing economies, are coming up with business ideas that are scalable. All the stakeholders in the ecosystem have a role to play if these business ideas are to blossom into high growth businesses. If we all do that, it will be a win for the innovative entrepreneurs, their backers and the community at large.

So, who are the ecosystem players and what role do they need to play?

- Entrepreneurs

- Society

- Government

- Industry

- Investors

In a series of articles, I will dive deeper into the role of each of these stakeholders.

I invite your ideas, suggestions, criticism and support. Remember, we do not have luxury of time and this will affect us all!

From Fiscal Deficit to Fiscal surplus in one year flat!

I am no economist. I am no politican. I am no magician. I am a common man, with simple wisdom and and a fair (idealist???) thinking.

I have a solution for the fiscal deficit probem India has, and the plan has the potential to turn into embarassing riches for the exchecquer. It goes like this...

The governemnt of India makes the following announcement:

We recognise the failings of the past, but firmly want to move towards a fair tomorrow. And hence we announce the following scheme.

1st Quarter (1st April 2010 till 30th June 2010)
Government of India has created a secure website for this scheme and invite Individuals and companies of India to declare their wealth honestly, in two sections - Income and assets you can prove is your own honest earnings and income that is disproportionate to your known sources of income. You will be immune to any prosecution, further more, you can keep 50% of the assests declared that are over and above that from your known sources of income and surrender the rest to GOI "Other Income Sources" account.

2nd Quarter (1st July 2010 till 31st September 2010)
You will be immune from any prosecution and can keep 25% of your ill gotten wealth.

3rd Quarter (1st October 2010 till 31st December 2010)
You will be immune from any prosecution and can keep 10% of your ill gotten wealth.

4th Quarter (1st January 2011 till 31st March 2011)
You will be immune from any prosecution but you surrender all your ill gotten wealth.

From 1st of April 2011, full force of law applies on civil and criminal prosecution on any disproportionate income found with any resident of India. The informers will be rewarded with 10% of the receipts from such "other income" for GOI.

Entrepreneurial talent at IIT Kharagpur

As a part of World Entrepreneur Summit, I was asked to conduct a workshop for IIT Kharagpur students on entrepreneurial opportunities in green business space on 16th and 17th of January.

I had never been to that part of the country and hence when the opportunity came up I gladly accepted. I had not bargained for the energy that this trip extracted out of me - and I was better off for the experience. Thanks IIT Kharagpurians!!! First it was the journey from Hyderabad to Kharagpur and then the students' talent and energy, needed energy to handle and enjoy.

I reached Kolkota by evening flight from Hyderabad and from there a taxi was waiting to take me to IIT, Kharagpur. The taxi driver was fun to chat with and I learnt quite a few things about Kolkota, Hawrah bridge and so on. I reached the campus at 2 am and I could have been excused for thinking my clock was about 6-7 hours running fast. Dozens of pairs of students were found strolling in the serene surrounds as if it was just after dusk.

I was checked in to one of the hostel accommodations. Ankit from IIT KGP E-Cell came to see me and give me a run down of the next days plans. He did not seem hurried and at 3 am I had remind him of my inability to keep pace with their energy levels.

Next day saw a veritable talent on display - business ideas on water management, one on real time spurious drug identification system, biogas, more efficient battery mechanism, innovative solar energy tapping ideas and so on. Students presented business plans which I was to evaluate along with a few VCs. They were in various stages of commercialisation. Then I made an hour long presentation on green business opportunities which seemed to tickle the sharp brains and brought up a host of questions.

Two things stuck me - One, how the entrepreneurial support system has significantly evolved over last few years in India (how I wished something of this type were available when I was growing up) with students even in early years of their study getting to hear, meet and discuss with venture capitalists, successful entrepreneurs and experts.

Two, if capacity building, through trainings and workshops if augmented by mentoring and hand holding services followed by availability of an ecosystem for early stage capital availability for potential ideas, India could really move towards an economy whose time has come.

We all - innovators, researchers, policy makers, entrepreneurs, experts, financiers or consumers - have a role to play in creating an energising ecosystem for innovation and enterprise.

I am working on catalysing and creating an ecosystem to address three issues that can take opportunity based entrepreneurship in India to a new level and which can further an inclusive growth opportunity - Capacity Building and Mentoring Services, Early Stage Capital Raising and Business progression services which includes post money capital deployment support and various liquidity creation mechanisms in this early stage space so more money gets attracted to this gap area.

Think Big, Think Win-Win-Win!

Teachers, the potters

"Guru Bramha, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwaraha, Guru Sakshat Parabramha Tasmaye Sri Guruvennmaha"

Today's Teachers day made me reflect the life changing role that my teachers played in my impressionable days. I wish to thank them, salute them and wish them happiness and good health. I wish to list some of them here who changed my life for the better:

- Richard Sir and Edna Madam - My English teachers in my primary school. This husband and wife teacher team was so well liked by us that the learning was a by-product of our interaction. In their retirement they are as cheerful as I remember them as my teachers.

- Thyagarajan Sir - Till my fifth standard, if God had asked me for a boon, I would have asked Him to take away from this world a subject called Maths. After Thyagarajan Sir came to our Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bidar, Maths gave up. It magically turned into a friendly, likeable and easy subject. We started liking the formulae as much as his unique swear words.

- Subramanyam Sir - A whiz with Chemistry who made us undertand what we were doing for many years without a clue - titration experiments. He put the Periodic Table in our heads so hard that it has still not managed to escape after over 25 years.

- Wilson Arnold - As our PT teacher he beat us into shape by making us run around the University. He traversed the journey from being loathed (we realised later the benefits of his ways) to being loved in the four years at my Uni and I am told he has made an art form of that.

More strength to them and to others not mentioned here.

I feel, we as a society should empower gifted teachers to shape the kids overall personality in a way that they judge is right for each child instead of following a rigid rote system.