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The Power of Ideas - Economic Times

June 22, 2010 – Economic Times

India Needs Your Ideas - from Narayna Murthy

Perhaps no one else knows better than NR Narayana Murthy the thrills of building an enterprise. On the eve of Power of Ideas 2010, he spoke with Archana Rai about his entrepreneurial journey, hoping more Indians will join this league of ideas nation

HE is one of modern India’s most celebrated entrepreneurs, a person who dared to strike out on his own a full decade before economic reforms transformed the business landscape of the country. In 1981, when Nagavara Ramaraya Narayana Murthy persuaded a group of six engineers who worked with him at Punebased software firm Patni Communication Systems to quit their jobs and join him to build a software services export firm, he was selling an idea whose time was yet to come. But such is the power of ideas, it transformed Mr Murthy’s dream into what is today’s Infosys Technologies—the country’s second largest software services firm with an estimated market cap of $35 billion.

When ET approached him to mentor the second edition of The Power of Ideas programme, his excitement was palpable. “Entrepreneurship is the only instrument to make this a better country. I will encourage any initiative that encourages entrepreneurship,” he said. And why wouldn’t he. Afterall his three-decade long journey has had its share of ups and downs and Mr Murthy cherishes every moment of it.

When Mr Murthy started, the other partners were pretty young and in junior positions. Kris and Nandan had a year’s experience each. Dinesh and Shibulal had two years, Ashok had one years experience and only Raghavan was older than Mr Murthy, who had by then already launched an enterprise, closed it down and reentered the world of salaried work. So when the idea of Infosys took wing, Mr Murthy had a fair notion of what he was staking to follow a dream. “The unstated assumption was that if this new venture failed, the others on the team would take up a job. Whereas I was married, had a daughter, I was not even sure I would get a job if we failed. There was TCS. Wipro was not even there so there were concerns,” he says. But what clinched the decision was the support from his wife Sudha Murty. “My wife said let’s do this. Afterall, I am working,” says the IT veteran, as he looks back at the long career that has propelled him, and the company he co-founded, to a position of global eminence. This ability to evaluate risk appropriately has been a central feature of Mr Murthy’s career. In the late 1970s before he founded Infosys, he set up a company called Softronics in Pune that offered software services for the domestic market. “But very quickly I realised that the domestic market was not ready for software entrepreneurs, so within a matter of a year or so I closed down Softronics and joined Patni Communication,” he says, underscoring the need for entrepreneurs to be alert to changing dynamics.

“And later, at an appropriate time, when I realised that there was an opportunity to look at international markets I founded Infosys,” he adds. As economic liberalisation took India by storm in the early 1990s, Infosys would go onto become the poster child of a country newly emergent on the world economic stage. Murthy and his team of co-founders who first offered shares in their fledgling firm to the Indian public in 1993 would ride the wave of India’s software services boom in the following years leading up to the very successful listing of Infosys stock on the US NASDAQ exchange in 1998. The next year the company raked in $100 million in revenues and by year 2004, would go onto reach the milestone of $1 billion in revenues. Today the market value of the country’s second largest software services firm is estimated at $35 billion.

But it has been a hard and arduous climb from very modest beginnings. The eighties were a decade of toil for the team as the environment was very business unfriendly. It took 50 visits to Delhi and sometimes up to two or three years before they could get a license to import a computer, their first telephone connection came a year after they applied for it.

“We did not have any data communication facilities. We have even have faxed software code. Can you imagine that?” says Mr Murthy, describing the importance of perseverance in the early days of building an enterprise.

As their customers were overseas, the Infosys team would require ten days to get an approval from the Reserve Bank of India to travel abroad. The fledgling company also struggled to raise finances in the absence of a venture capital system and the outright refusal by commercial banks to fund a venture that offered no collateral security.

Even worse, for a business that relied entirely on the number of skilled engineers on the rolls, attracting talent was an uphill task. “We couldn’t hire consultants from outside of India and the mindset of most youngsters was to get a job in government or in a large private sector company, those were very difficult times.”

Around nine years after Infosys was set up, the founders felt they were going nowhere as the friction to business was extremely high. “We thought we would sell the business for some million dollars, but fortunately we all sat down, discussed & debated,” Mr Murthy reminisces. “We chose to run the full marathon and I am glad that we took that decision.”

NRN SPEAK ON SHARING WEALTH
Right in the beginning, I took the view that I will have to distribute the equity in a much fairer manner among the seven of us. Later we decided we will have to give stock options to every employee, including the janitors.

ON DEALING WITH RISK
I have always said that ships are safest in the harbour, but they are not meant to be there. They have to go into the high seas, weather storms & reach the comfort of a safe destination. It is the same with entrepreneurs as well.

ON SACRIFICES
Whenever you take up an idea that transforms the world and brings a major difference to society and the market, it requires tremendous sacrifice. One has to accept that the sacrifices will be commensurate with the glory that you get.

ON INNOVATION
Professor Peter Drucker once said there are two important ingredients for success of an entrepreneur—innovation and marketing & sales. With innovation you can say that my idea does something that nobody else has done so far.

ENTERPRISE QUOTIENT:
Narayana Murthy during the early days of Infosys

In the early
days, we did not have any data communication facilities. We have even have faxed software code. Can you imagine that?

The unstated assumption
was that if this new venture failed, the others on the team would take up a job. Whereas I was married, had a daughter, I was not even sure I would get a job if we failed. There was TCS. Wipro was not even there so there were concerns

We thought we would sell the
business for some million dollars, but fortunately we all sat down, discussed and chose to run the full marathon

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=ETNEW&BaseHref=ETM/2010/06/22&PageLabel=8&EntityId=Ar00800&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

Twitter yourself a new job - using social networking media to expand horizons and identify new avenues

Twitter yourself a new job
Jan 11

Extracts of Article Written by: Alok Sahu

Some career consultants caution you against using social networking sites to find a new job. I, on the other hand, am a huge fan of social networking sites. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about LinkedIn, today I want to focus on Twitter. Twitter is a great way to expand your network and ultimately expand you visibility and in turn strengthen your chances of getting hired. Twitter is all about researching and networking, which coincidentally are the two major “offline” skills you need during the job search.

Here are some useful tips to maximize your Twitter job search experience:
• Choose a good name. Remember you are looking to establish credibility and build your brand. For example, if you are in Marketing, you may want to choose something like, “marketingpro.” I am sure that is taken, but you get the idea.

• Make sure you include your LinkedIn URL in your account. You should use Twitter as an extension to your LinkedIn profile. If you have an online resume or portfolio you should link to that as well.

• Find the players and follow them. This is easy to do, conduct a search on your area of expertise and just read the threads. In a day or so it will be very clear who the players are. Once you determine who they are, click to follow them.

• Participate before going in for the kill. What I mean by this, is do not start of by asking if anyone knows who is hiring, that is back technique and just plain tacky. Instead, become a participant, share some information, you must give before you can get.

• Once you are established, start asking for advice, this will lead you down the job opportunity path.

Thanks Alok for sharing your knowledge.  By publishing it here in good faith, I am helping your knowledge and article reach out to more people.

"Success Through Excellence" - Shamim Rafeek: A.R Rahman - "An Inspiring Story of Success through Excellence" !

"Success Through Excellence" - Shamim Rafeek: A.R Rahman - "An Inspiring Story of Success through Excellence" !

Being Nostalgic

Yesterday I was in a very sentimental mode and I phased through my recent past.

As I was passing from Dadar through Bandra and finally towards my home, I saw the office of Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) and suddenly remembered my first Multi-Channel Black and White Television and how sweet were those days. I fondly remember Mumbai Doordarshan and its excellent programs like Chhaya Geet, Saturday and Sunday Movies, Phool Khile Hai Gulshan Gulshan, those news broadcasts and the excellent quality of presentations, programmes that brought to screen eminent singers right from Mohammed Rafi to Mukhesh and stalwarts like Adi Marazban and "Avo Mari Sathe". Not to forget those live cricket matches without the advertisements between the overs. Such wonderful days!.

Nowadays we have hundreds of television channels but there is nothing worthwhile to see, the editing and photography have become absurd, zooming in and zomming out, flash lights coming to the screen. Is this what is called good photography? This any child can do so where is the professionalism here! I must add that editing has also taken a beating. While an artist or a singer or a dancer is about to deliver a key punchline, the camera zooms out on the background dancers or pans out to the audience making a complete mockery of event. One tends to loose interest in the programmes.

The News Channels do not transmit news but they instill fear and I don't know how did the concept deviate from news to presenting trivia. Everything becomes breaking news - Some how it will become like the old adage - the wolf has come and suddenly when there is genuine breaking news, people might not even care for it.

Last night I was watching Midnight Feast on Travel and Living Channel and the host visited on township inhabited by an Amish Community on the Route 66 in US which believes in living without many of the modern technologies - they live without electricity, without piped water, without washing machines, personal computers, internet, iPods, music system and all things modern. It is quite a closed community and believe that by such abstinence they will reach heaven directly. Must be quite an experience to live life that way.

How to Approach Islam in the Workplace

Kellye Whitney, 12-28-2009

The 9/11 tragedy gave new meaning to profiling for Muslims in the United States, and though the event happened years ago, sentiments still linger.

Dr. Donald E. Wagner, a professor at North Park University in Chicago, said some of those bad feelings have diminished, but it only takes one incident to bring about a resurgence of that negative energy.

“Any time an event happens like at Ford Hood," where gunman Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan allegedly killed 12 and injured 31 in November," there is greater awareness of Muslims, and there could be more profiling and some abuse. It’s always best to be alert when something like that happens.”

However, Wagner said diversity executives can use those incidents as teachable moments to increase diversity awareness. For instance, bring in a Muslim speaker to offer — on a voluntary basis — interested employees rudimentary knowledge of the Islamic religion, which Wagner said is the fastest-growing religion in the United States in major cities and can be substantively different from one place to the other.

“The positive thing is there are a lot more organizations working on this as well as greater sensitivity in business, in the police and [in] universities across the board, “ he said. “There’s a lot more dialogue going on between Muslim-Christian, Muslim-Jewish.”

Still, he said diversity executives may want to dedicate some training to increasing the awareness of Islamic practice to promote acceptance should, for example, Muslim women in the workplace chose to wear the hijab head scarf.

“Education is always a good thing, and there might be some subtle ways that can be done without making it look patronizing,” Wagner said.

Have informative brochures or pamphlets available, or ensure certain holidays make it onto the company calendar. For instance, Wagner said, during the month of Ramadan, executives should be sensitive to the fact that Muslims are probably fasting. Therefore, it might be best not to eat in front of them.

“Some businesses make a time and place for prayers, particularly the noon prayers, and occasionally there may be a Muslim employee who will make the Hajj, which is the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca. That’s a great honor to complete that,” Wagner said. “It would be thoughtful for congratulations to be sent and for folks to be aware of what that is.”

Some Arab Christians may have slightly different traditions, such as fasting during Easter and Lent, and their Easter may be at a different time than the traditional calendar holiday. Therefore, employees may request to take off on a Good Friday different from what is scheduled.

Wagner said efforts to increase awareness and to educate employees increases respect and levels of equality so Muslims are not viewed as “mysterious, shadowy figures” but as people who aren’t that different from everyone else.

“There’s more that Christians and Jews and Muslims agree on than we disagree on in terms of belief and practice,” he said. “There’s a great book out titled Who Speaks for Islam? I use it in class, and it’s a Gallup poll survey done throughout the Muslim world on attitudes about women and men in the workplace [and] what Muslims really want.

“It shows they really want democracy, but they don’t want the West to come in and interfere. Most are against suicide bombings and terrorist attacks. There’s also a polling on attitudes toward Muslims in the United States, and some of that data could be extrapolated and be useful for training in the workplace.”

For instance, Wagner said that according to the poll, Muslim women increasingly want to be independent and be respected in their professions, yet their religion is central to who they are, and mores and values tend to be conservative.

“[Women] are increasingly in the workplace across the Islamic world in the Middle East and here,” Wagner explained. “Free them up so there aren’t impediments and unnecessary conflicts and tensions in the workplace. That could certainly lead to efficiency.”

Source: http://www.diversity-executive.com/article.php?in=804

Note: The same concept should apply to the understanding of all religions and faiths for a United, Peaceful World.