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success factors are determined using success stories of Indian entrepreneurs....TRANSCRIPT
SUCCESS MANTRA OF FEW INDIAN ENTREPRENEURS
Introduction:
The concept of Entrepreneurship was coined by French Economist, Richard Cantillion
in 1734 who defined Entrepreneurs as non fixed income earners who pay known costs of
production but earn uncertain incomes”. After Richard Cantillion many economists and scholars
including Adam smith, Jean Baptiste Say, Alfred Marshall and Frank Knight elaborated the
concept of entrepreneurship by adding leadership and innovation.
Nain Ahmed and Richard Seymour in their study on entrepreneurship in OECD
countries defined entrepreneurial activity as creating new businesses. Entrepreneurship for them
means difference in doing things that are not done in ordinary businesses. There should be some
sort of difference either in production process, methods, practices and implementation
techniques. There are around four types of entrepreneurship concepts exist in the economy as
socio-entrepreneurs, techno-entrepreneurs, corporate entrepreneurs and business entrepreneurs.
Generally speaking entrepreneurship is the vibrant process of creating incremental wealth. This
wealth is created by individuals who assume the major risks in terms of equity, time, and/or
career commitment of providing value for some product or service.
At present Entrepreneurs are implied as qualities of leadership, initiative and creativity,
innovation in manufacturing, delivery and services. Entrepreneurship today is considered as an
important factor in economic growth. Study by Audretsch and Keilbach (2003) reveal that
there is a positive correlation between economic growth and entrepreneurship.
There are so many factors that affect the entrepreneur’s success in an economy: social,
political, cultural, economic, administrative, legal, personal background and etc.; Francois (2013)
says that based on previous studies cultural factors are more dominant for Indian entrepreneurs...
The success factors of Indian entrepreneurs vary from person to person but there will be some
common success factors.
Scope for Future study:
Entrepreneurship development has attained importance past years. Now a day’s colleges
educational institution are opening entrepreneurial cell in their institutes for developing
entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial spirit during the education. By making entrepreneurial spirit in
the education itself the youngsters are ready to start enterprise with that information they are
going to succeed. The present study had a future scope of taking all the successful entrepreneurs
into consideration and listing the success factors of Indian Entrepreneurs.
Objectives of the Study:
The main objective of the study is to find the background history of Indian entrepreneurs
and by that framing the success factors from the successful Indian entrepreneurs. By this the
noted factors will be referred as common success factors for Indian entrepreneurs.
Factors affecting Entrepreneurship:
Based on their field of interest like manufacturing and service sectors the factors affecting
entrepreneurs differs. The type of industry and the industrial differences also affect
entrepreneurial performance, and people in knowledge industry have high propensity to access
information which leads to business performance in terms of market size and growth (Shane,
2003). The attributes of entrepreneurs are regarded in entrepreneurial activity (Hisrich , Peters &
Shepherd, 2008, North 1990). Some of the factors include age and education, type of
employment, type of industry, type of company, financial background and work experience
(Harrison & Mason, 2007; Peter, 2001; Okpukpara, 2009). Kuzilwa (2005), Shastri & Sinha,
(2010) argued that though all conditions for exploiting entrepreneurial opportunity such as
education, experience, and energy exist, but the environmental constraints such as lack of credit,
and societal discriminations especially in developing countries, may hinder the entrepreneur.
Wit and Van (1989) says that individuals with a high level of education are more likely to
engage in entrepreneurship. Attitude towards risk-taking is entrepreneur’s ability and willingness
to engage in risky activity (Shane, 2003). Studies have found that attitude and behavioural
intention are positively related (Crisp & Turner, 2007) and that attitude towards behaviour leads
to intention which eventually leads to actual behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). The need for achievement
and autonomy, risk-taking, control of business and self-efficacy are other vital characteristics of
women entrepreneurs (Shane, 2003). Innovation and decision-making ability are other
characteristics (Cunha, 2007). Ambition, self-confidence and high level of energy have also been
recognized as vital entrepreneurial characteristics (Idris & Mahmood, 2003). Gender-related
discriminations, especially in developing countries, occasioned by socio-cultural factors also
pose hindrance to women entrepreneurial activity (Otero, 1999). Such discriminations are in the
area of distribution of social wealth such as education and health (May, 2007; Mayoux, 1999;
Otero, 1999; Porter & Nagarajan 2005; Roomi & Parrot, 2008). The business environment
factors pose a lot of challenges to business because they are outside the control of the business
owner. Such environmental constraints which are sometimes volatile include the economic,
financial, legal, political and socio-cultural factors. These factors play a greater role in
entrepreneurial activity because, despite the possession of the requisite personal entrepreneurial
characteristics such as education, right attitude to risk, motivation, energy and working
experience; the environment may hinder women entrepreneurs from exploiting entrepreneurial
opportunities (Shastri & Sinha, 2010; Vob & Muller, 2009). Determinants of entrepreneurial
performance in terms of factors identified by Ahmad and Hoffmann (2008): regulatory
framework, access to capital, access to R&D and technology, capabilities, market conditions, and
culture. Salman (2009) also argued that loan is not usually good for business start-up but for
growing or existing enterprises due to inability of the new business to pay back the loan at the
initial business stage.
Evolution of Indian Entrepreneurship:
In the pre colonial times the Indian trade and business was at its peak. Indians were experts in
smelting of metals such as brass and tin. Kanishka Empire in the 1st century started promoting
Indian entrepreneurs and traders. India established its relationship with Roman Empire in
1600AD. A region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was
identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history.
Gradually annexed by the British East India Company from the early eighteenth century and
colonized by the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century, India became an
independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by widespread
nonviolent resistance. It has the world's twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and
the fourth largest in purchasing power.
Economic reforms since 1991 have transformed it into one of the fastest growing economies
however, it still suffers from high levels of poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition. For an entire
generation from the 1950s until the 1980s, India followed socialist-inspired policies. The
economy was shackled by extensive regulation, protectionism, and public ownership, leading to
pervasive corruption and slow growth. Since 1991, the nation has moved towards a market-based
system and there is a lot of scope for development in each and every sector. Entrepreneurship
was given an important role for the economic development and for generating the employment
rate.
Indian Entrepreneurship:
Indian Entrepreneurship past and present has been written by Prof. Valentina
Chernovskaya, a Russian historian and has been translated into English by Susmita Bhattacharya.
Before Post liberalization in the 16th century industrial risk was originated and its origin takes
place from caste, community and family demarcation is more prevalent.
Till the beginning of the British, the business community didn’t enjoy a position and
viewed as a greedy and miserly. During the post independence period, 1947-1991, the public
sector commanded the economy and contributed to the rapid industrialization. After this period
the private sector came into force and started earning their business.
India started industrial regulation in the early 1970s. Trade liberalization began in the
late 1970s and the pace of reform picked up significantly in the mid-1980s (Panagariya, 2005).
Indian entrepreneurship, however, got a big boost following the 1991 economic liberalization,
which transformed India’s entrepreneurial landscape. The 1991 economic reform has
undoubtedly facilitated and stimulated entrepreneurship in India. The impact on the broad
economy is, however, barely noticeable.
In 1991, India began a process of economic liberalization, including new economic
policies with a specific focus on fiscal, structural, and industrial reform. Among the structural
reforms was the abolition of archaic industrial licensing policies and a quota system, both of
which had inhibited market entry. The removal of these barriers was chiefly intended to increase
private investment and expand entrepreneurial opportunities (Ahluwalia 2005).
The country falls behind many other developing economies on important indicators
related to entrepreneurial activities. For instance, in terms of high-expectation business launchers
per capita, India underperforms Brazil (Lewis, 2007). On the World Economic Forum’s
competitiveness index, India ranked 49th in 2009. In 2009, 47 Indian companies were included
in Forbes’ Global 2000 list of the world's biggest companies (DeCarlo, 2009).
An indiatimes.com article quoted an expert on entrepreneurship in India:
“Entrepreneurship in India was restricted to the privileged few that were traditionally rich.
Entrepreneurship was only transferred to the second generation [of the same family]
(Venkatraman, 2010).
The country has also achieved positive societal changes. For instance, Indian divisions of
some leading financial institutions such as HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland,
UBS and Fidelity International were headed by women. Women also accounted for about half of
the deputy governors at the Reserve Bank of India (Wadhwa, 2010a).
Some of the Definitions of Entrepreneurship from Researchers:
Richard Cantillon (1755-1931): Entrepreneurs buy at certain prices in the present and sell at
uncertain prices in the future. The entrepreneur is a bearer of uncertainty.
Knight (1921): Entrepreneurs attempt to predict and act upon change within markets. The
entrepreneur bears the uncertainty of market dynamics.
Penrose (1959, 1980): Entrepreneurial activity involves identifying opportunities within the
economic system.
Peter Drucker (1985): Entrepreneurship is the act of innovation involving endowing existing
resources with new wealth-producing capacity.
Kuratko & Hodgetts (1998): Entrepreneurship involves seizing opportunities and converting
these opportunities into workable/marketable ideas, adding value through time, effort, money or
skills; assuming the risk of the competitive marketplace to implement these ideas and realizing
the rewards from these efforts.
Shane & Venkataraman (2000): The field of entrepreneurship involves the study of sources of
opportunities; the processes of discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities; and the
set of individuals who discover, evaluate, and exploit them.
Research Methodology:
Research Design considered here is exploratory type using case study approach. The information
is gathered using Interviews from successful entrepreneurs. The Interviews are taken from Azim
premji, Kunal Bahl, Ekta Kapoor, Kiran Muzumdar Shaw. From these interviews the success
factors are identified and are listed below.
INTERVIEWS FROM INDIAN ENTREPRENEURS:
INTERVIEW FROM AZIM PREMJI:
“Character is one factor that will guide all our actions and decisions. We invested in uncompromising integrity that helped us take difficult stands in some of the most difficult business situations.”
Azim Premji has led Wipro since 1966. He has received many honours and accolades
throughout his career: business week listed him among the top 30 entrepreneurs in world history
in July 2007; in April 2004, Time listed him as one among the 100 most influential people in the
world; he was named by Fortune as one of the 25 most powerful business leaders outside the
U.S. in August 2003; Forbes listed him as one of 10 people globally who have the most “power
to effect change” in March 2003; and he was adjudged as the Business Leader of the Year 2004
by the economic times. He is a non-executive Director on the Board of the Reserve Bank of
India. He is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry in India.
Premji established the Azim Premji Foundation, which in October2006, was recognized as the
Corporate Citizen of the Year by the economic times. Premji has a degree in Electrical
Engineering from Stanford University.
Interviews reveal that Wipro’s leaders realized that it could provide quality programming
not just to the technology companies but also a wide range of western firms. These organizations
were unlikely to entrust an unknown Indian outfit with strategic work, so I and my colleagues
strove to gain credibility by aggressively perusing international standards. Azim premji says that
WIPRO drew it’s competitive advantage from other Indian IT service providers are in five as
Technological excellence, Innovation solutions, operational excellence, A Global footprint with
emerging market knowledge, A company culture of linking values to company performance.
Azim Premji says that in the 37 convocation of IIT Delhi on August 12, 2006 that success from
failure, willing to learn, always a better way, respond not react, play to win, give back the
society. I was More optimistic not far more optimistic. Yes, its cautious optimism at the same
time. We have forged key alliances with technology majors and are together taking technology
solutions to the market. Our differentiation comes from our strong presence in the emerging
markets and more so in our home base of India. We have pioneered the quality and process
excellence journey, which have become the pillars of the global delivery model. Our priority is
to continuously reinvent Wipro to create value for its customers. We want to innovate
continuously and set the agenda for the industry.
INTERVIEW FROM KUNAL BAHL:
Kunal is the co-founder and CEO of Jasper, India’s largest couponing company which
runs the leading group buying portal in India, SnapDeal.com. Since the inception of the company
in 2008, Jasper is now a 300 member strong organization with operations in 30 cities and 5
countries, and leads the way in building consumer services centered on couponing in a culture
obsessed with deals. Previously, Kunal co-founded a detergent company in the US while at
college which now sells products in 3000 stores in the US and was featured on Oprah, Wall
Street Journal and The New York Times. He has also worked at companies such as Deloitte
Consulting and Microsoft in the US.
I and my co-founder, Rohit, went to high school together. We had no capital when we
started. We had no family contacts. We had good academic backgrounds, but we had a grand
total of 18 months of work experience between the two of us when we started. So we had very
few things going for us other than the fact that we were just blindly optimistic about the
opportunity.
Initially the company was a lot of cold calling and cold emailing. We would literally just
sit outside merchants and retailer waiting for them to get into office so that we could catch them
then, or waiting for them to leave office so that we could catch them then because nobody
wanted to talk to two young guys with a laptop. They’re used to dealing with larger companies in
India. In India, unfortunately, we are in a culture where it’s changing very fast but still, a lot of
people feel wisdom comes with age. And that’s why we always have a 70-year-old prime
minister. But I think that’s changing very fast.
So one was just brute force approach. When you have nothing to show no product, no
customers, nothing you have to do something. You have to sell your dream. But over a period of
time, life got simpler. And one more thing is the market opportunity raises the entrepreneurs to
take that opportunity. Here for us the Indian market provided an opportunity and with technology
support we made all this success.
INTERVIEW FROM KIRAN MUZAMDAR SHAW:
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw was born on March3 1953 is an Indian Entrepreneur. She is the
chairman and managing director of Biocon Limited, a biotechnology company and currently
a=she was chairperson of IIM-Bangalore. She is on the Forbes list of the world’s 100 most
powerful women, financial times as top 50 women in business list and she was recently listed in
times Magazine.
Her belief is that healthcare needs can only be met with affordable innovation has been the
driving philosophy that has helped Biocon manufacture and market drugs cost-effectively. She
liked the innovation model and thinking that brought to Biocon and funded multi-year research
at Indian school of management by creating Biocon Cell for Innovation Management as part
of centre for leadership innovation and change. The Success mantra Listen to the little drummer
in you who keeps saying break free, become large, build something memorable. Strategy
Leadership is about approaching opportunity through strategy. She believes motivations as one
success factor as by Motivating Oneself and by motivating others.
My small dream when I started was about starting a biotech company which was a
pioneering concept. It was about running an R&D based business. I was excited about that as a
scientist. I didn't know what was in store because I had nothing to benchmark myself against.
When you are a pioneer, you don't know how big it can grow. So, when you start off, your
dreams are very small. It is like, 'let me start a new sector based on biotech and R&D and see
how big I can make this business'. With her leadership traits her leadership, Biocon is building
cutting-edge capabilities, global credibility and global scale in its manufacturing and marketing
activities. It has Asia's largest insulin and statin facilities also the largest perfusion-based
antibody production facilities.
INTERVIEW FROM EKTA KAPOOR:
Ekta Kapoor serves as a Creative Director and Director of Balaji Telefilms Ltd. Ms.
Kapoor commenced her career as a producer and creative director at the age of 19. Her work has
comprised entertainment landmarks in India. She is actively involved in concept building, script
design and creative conversion. Ms. Kapoor was selected as one of Asia‘s malaji Telefilms
Limited is one of the most successful media companies and the largest fiction based television
content provider in India.
The company is primarily engaged in the production of television software in Hindi,
Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. Balaji Telefilms Limited has been promoted by actor
Jeetendra, Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor and has to its credit many successful serial most
powerful communicators by the Asia Week magazine.
She has been identical with the rage of soap operas in Indian TV. Ekta with his
innovative and creative thinking made the television viewers to be completely attached to the
daily serials. The market study of entertainment and media helped her to know the customers
point. Ekta always profound to take risk when her father said to produce the serial she take the
risk as an opportunity and started her career now she was a successful entrepreneur.
Based on the above discussions that the success factors depends mostly on the following
things in common as Technology, Innovation, Creativity, Market opportunity, self- confidence,
trust and uniqueness. These success factors reveals that entrepreneurs should have some common
traits and those make them to be successful in the world.
Limitations of the study:
The present study is confined to few successful Indian Entrepreneurs and the
generalizations of the findings requires larger sample of Entrepreneurs. The study was confined
to limited time duration.
Conclusion:
After post liberalization the importance for entrepreneurship growth has increased and this
made the entrepreneur spirit development in the economy. The success factors for the Indian
entrepreneurs are different for one to one. Based on the field of industry their core factors differs
and some common factors like technology, innovation, creativity, trust, market opportunity,
uniqueness and self-confidence.
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Websites:
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