Media tycoon Ted Turner’s jocular one-liner, “My son is now an ‘entrepreneur’. That’s what you’re called when you don’t have a job,” couldn’t ring truer, in contrast, if you take the prevalent Indian business scenario into perspective. Consider any domain of business operation creating ripples – from airlines to organised retail to telecom to software, I would venture (pun intended!) safely to state that the big poppa pop on the block today is none other in most cases but a virtual unknown, someone who would most likely have been pooh-poohed before he or she swept the rug of complacence from beneath the traditional players’ unsuspecting feet.
The names are ubiquitous and the success stories scripted are legends in their own right, and by every other right that could exist. Take the undisputed king of calls, Sunil Bharti Mittal, a man who needs little introduction and whose company, Bharti Enterprises, currently boasts of a humongous market capitalisation of Rs.727 billion. But much more significantly, it’s fascinating to note that the same individual – who began by dabbling in a bicycle parts concern in Punjab – today owns the sixth-largest listed company on the Indian stock market. He was an entrepreneur then, and remains the same now, from being a near non-entity to leaving behind feared and seasoned conglomerates like Reliance and Tata in the telecom sector. Fly on to the once state-monopolised aviation industry in the nation. While the formerly invincible government carrier, Indian Airlines, watched bemused, Naresh Goyal has literally ‘Jet’ted past – and by the time he too cannot afford to get too comfortable today – as, much akin to his own self, the Mallyas and the Wadias take wing, not to mention a certain Captain G. R. Gopinath (I’m sure no one reacts with a “Captain who?!” to that today!), whose self-styled Air Deccan has flourished into a laudable enterprise.
Plenty more of these stellar fellas abound! Sheer mavericks with a mere business plan and unflinching conviction, their ideas have rocked the marketplace. Take the ingenious Subhash Chandra, who started with a theme-park and moved on to herald the era of satellite television in India, or the exemplary Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, whose path-breaking ideology, that is Biocon, lent unprecedented impetus to the country’s biotechnology sector. From news channel czars, Prannoy Roy & Raghav Behl, to the world icons of software and services, Narayana Murthy & Aziz Premji, the galaxy of India’s entrepreneurial superstars is as drawn-out as it is illustrious. Not surprising that this year Forbes’ listing of the wealthiest has more billionaire additions from India than any other nation, apart from the US.
Definitely and increasingly, the last decade has witnessed a new generation of ‘prudent’ entrepreneurship, so to speak, shaping the Great Indian Economic Dream. And trust me, the timing couldn’t be more propitious. Scope for business and profit aside, there are deeper facts to rein into consideration. As a recent Nasscom-McKinsey & Co. report projects, the number of Indians on the lookout for jobs in the next ten years will reach 110-130 million, with 80-100 million of the populace seeking first-time recruitment. The above figure does not, mind you, take into account the problem of disguised unemployment of over 50% among the 230 million in the villages of the country. So where am I heading? I’m simply alluding to the basic fact of the matter, which is that neither the government, nor the railways or police, nor the defence forces of India have the capacity to cater to this gargantuan figure that will beg employment, ditto the conventional organisational milieu – that is bound to expand, no doubt – but nowhere near the proportion of the need to staff that will arise. Hope floats close though, with the singular remedy locked in the fists of the entrepreneurial class, that harbours the innate potential to generate jobs, opportunities and, by extension, wealth for the nation.
It’s no nuclear secret, really. Entrepreneurs give birth to employment. TiE – The Indo-US entrepreneurs – a non-profit organisation promoting entrepreneurship, offers that each entrepreneur produces thirty jobs, clearly defining the pace for an economy to thrive, in stark contrast to those seeking sole employment. Further, entrepreneurs are largely characterised by a fiery vision and ambition, which is in turn, bolstered by the people they train and mould into leaders to drive profits for the organisation, which with broader implications, acts in the benefit of the society these employees populate. On an economic tangent, if we’re to come remotely close to that very-elusive ‘developed’ nation status, poverty has to necessarily bid adieu. Ten million jobs need to be in order by the year 2020 as estimated by CII and Nasscom, so entrepreneurial contribution towards this cause assumes critical importance.
Then there are the subtle but crucial advantages that, heaven forbid, we should ever feel the need to test. For instance, in a country like China, where the bulk of business operation is in control of either state-owned corporations or foreign firms, with a small proportion of entrepreneurs, the effects of a global recession are bound to be hard-felt. However, in an economy where a significant mass of the wealth is self-generated – much like ours is on the path to being right now – the impact of a similar slump would tend to be lesser. Again, a greater degree of entrepreneurship would naturally tend to curtail the incidence of monopoly and collusion.
I know it’s heartening to see entrepreneurial bliss streaming around, but there still remains a plethora of issues pertaining to policies and procedures that limit the boundless growth that could otherwise be possible. These primarily pertain to entry norms, such as cost and time of registering a new entity and obtaining licences, among others. According to the ‘Doing Business 2006’ report of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), India scores a rank of 116 out of 155 countries studied in terms of overall business facilitation, and alarmingly, figures below all South Asian countries barring Afghanistan! Get a hold of this – it would take an Indian entrepreneur an antagonising 270 days to get a licence, whereas should the hapless soul ever choose to import anything, he or she would necessarily need to hand over 15 documents and elicit 21 signatures – enough to make a few fingers fall off!
So, while we continue to march forth all guns blazing, a few imperatives deserve attention to nurture the vast reservoir of entrepreneurial genius that India possesses. Administrative wrangles apart, ensuring that a business environment conducive to encouraging entrepreneur growth – with the elements of sufficing infrastructure, ease of interaction with ‘angel investors’ and venture capitalists, augmenting the ultra-consequential link with higher centres of knowledge like colleges and business schools to equip these as vital support systems for existing and budding entrepreneurs, and facilitating information interchange between entrepreneurs and managers alike – is essential. The Indian innovator is today on starburst mode, and the days when the L.N. Mittals had to flee the country to mint fortunes are done and dusted. As India gets closer to stepping into its ‘demographic window’ projected 2010 onwards – when it’s human capital will comprise of an age mix favouring economic growth – our vision of emerging as a superpower by 2020 will pivot momentously on entrepreneurial shoulders.
Knowledge capital reigns supreme, and the future is here and now...and how! If the cutting-edge of business is about marketing new ideas and creating dramatic superbrands, then make no mistake this time, the enterprising will surely form the fuel of tomorrow’s business and economy.
It takes an Indian entrepreneur an antagonising 270 days to get a licence, whereas should the hapless soul ever choose to import anything, he would necessarily need to hand over 15 documents & elicit 21 signatures – enough to make a few fingers fall off!
I know it’s heartening to see entrepreneurial bliss streaming around, but there still remains a plethora of issues pertaining to procedures that limit boundless growth..
Written On:
13/04/2006
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