The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : A simple question, and out-of-the box answer

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Tamil Nadu

A simple question, and out-of-the box answer

Shyam Ranganathan

Subroto Bagchi swears by love for money to make it big

— Photo: M. Karunakaran

An alumini-student conclave organised by the IIT-Madras Alumni Association in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: “What is the main quality required of an entrepreneur?” was the simple question posed to the audience by Subroto Bagchi at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras on Saturday.

When people responded with “perseverance,” “dream,” and “spirit,” he waved them off.

“Love for money is the main quality required of an entrepreneur,” he said.

Most of the common reasons such as “I hate my boss,” and “I have a great idea for a gizmo,” were not really good enough to make it as a high performance entrepreneur, he said.

“There are many people who earn their dollars in the Silicon Valley and come to India and say they want to give back to the country. India is not waiting for anybody’s help, thank you. Only if you really believe in money and love it, not out of greed, but believing that money had the potential for wealth-creation, can you become a successful entrepreneur,” he said.

The co-founder of Mindtree Consulting and author of the book, ‘High Performance Entrepreneur,’ Mr. Bagchi was delivering the keynote address at the alumni-student conclave on ‘Entrepreneurship: From Idea to Reality’ organised by the IIT-Madras Alumni Association (IITMAA). The conclave was intended to bring together alumni and students of the institute interested in starting enterprises.

He presented the success stories of Café Coffee Day founder V.G. Siddharta, Air Deccan founder Capt. GR Gopinath and Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. Their long-term vision and perseverance brought success to them, but it was also important to note that they had a thirst for growth and success.

Answering questions bluntly, he noted that many in the audience were ready to sit and debate the theories for success.

After the keynote speech, a panel of alumni answered questions on entrepreneurship.

The panel included R. Subramanian, managing director, Subhiksha Trading Services; Badri Seshadri, publisher, New Horizon Media; Shankar Swamy, managing partner and CEO, Sharana Industries; and J. Chandrasekaran, Chief General Manager, State Bank of India (Chennai Circle).

The discussion was moderated by Srini Nageshwar, president, IITMAA.

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