Life after ISB

What a year it was... and experience worth having. At first it seemed like life came at stand-still... we were running at the peak speed and suddenly got in a slow train!!!

I had a 2 months break from April to May before I joined Aditya Birla Group from June 1st in their leadership programme. All the planning was in place for visiting to Kutch, then going to Thane for attending KP’s wedding for couple of days, then heading to a silo in Vipassana, post that going to Koregaon – Mahabaleshwar – Thoseghar, finally going to Nageshwar. Wanted to go to Shirdi but that did not happen as Moulik was not well.

Felt like writing about each journey but skipped that idea as it would be too boring. But certainly felt great after ISB. The first change was no internet, no email and no work. What a relief it feels when you have all the time at your disposal. At times you also feel that internet and email have done more harm than benefit. I really felt at bliss not checking emails except when it came from ABG (and that too courtesy Aditya Satpute who informed me whenever there was a mail). But certainly we missed ISB, more than me Jinal missed it a lot. You get addicted to the atmosphere at ISB and is a bit difficult to come to reality after a year there.

A standard question after ISB was should you do MBA after doing CA and having five years of work experience? The answer would be a bit long and hence I have made a separate post.

All in all ISB was a refreshing break for one year.

Term 8

Prof. Shamika Ravi, ISB

Business Law – Prof. Sumesh Reddy, DRL

Strategic Innovation Management – Prof. MB Sarkar, Fox School of Business and Prof. Anand Nandkumar

Term 7

Cases in Corporate Finance – Prof. Suren Mansingka, University of California

Change Management – Prof. Ramnarayan, ISB

Economics of Strategy – Prof. Louis Thomas, Wharton

Term 6

Financial Engineering - Prof. Sanjeev Das, SCU and Prof. Ramaswamy, Wharton

Private Equity - Prof. Amit Bubna, ISB and Vinay Nair, ADA Invst Mgmt.

Property Finance - Prof. Piyush Kumar, Univ of Aberdeen

Strategic Performance Mgmt. - Prof Dhinu and Prof. Nandu, Pittsburgh

War on terror

Speech by Lt. Gen (Retd.) Arjun Ray at ISB on Dec 23, 2008.
Coutesy: Gourav Ray (ISB Co2009)

The Mumbai terror killings of 26/11 have provoked anger at the helplessness of the Indian state, and disgust with governance and politicians. 26/11 has not revealed any facts we did not know earlier. The scenario remains unchanged: political corruption, with 22 percent Members of Parliament having a criminal record; the complicity of bureaucrats; no accountability at any level: little or no sharing of information by intelligence agencies, unpreparedness during the Kargil intrusion; and delayed responses of the NSG (it happened at the time of the Kandahar hijacking). So what is new?

India has been afflicted by terrorism for over six decades, but this is the first time that the psyche of the rich and middle class have been brutally assaulted. More people died at the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, but the incident received far less TV coverage than operations at the Taj, Trident, and ‘Nariman House.’ What happened to our anger and consciousness during all these years? Why didn’t we speak up earlier? Why this class bias towards national security?

26/11 has demonstrated a systemic failure in dealing with terrorism. Despite India’s track-record of sixty-one years in dealing with insurgency, more than any other country in the world, the results so far have been dismal. Over 40,000 civilians, terrorists and security personnel have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir; 32 percent districts of India are under Naxal influence, and insurgency in the North East continues unabated. After Iraq, the largest numbers of terrorist deaths are in India. The guilty of the Mumbai blasts of 1993 are still being prosecuted fifteen years after the tragedy. Can the judiciary, an institution of state, and the law enforcement and investigative agencies, be given a clean chit? Is it fair to single out politicians for recurring failures? Shouldn’t we be questioning our conscience and institutions harder?

Thus far, history teaches us that we do not learn from history.

In my presentation, I shall suggest what India’s responses to terrorism should be. Before I do so, I wish to underscore two strategic realities that politicians, diplomats, soldiers and intelligentsia have overlooked. These realities are conceptual and provide the scaffolding for India’s response to terrorism in the future. There are no quick solutions and we are in for a long haul.

First, war is not a solution or even an option. India and Pakistan have been to war over Kashmir and insurgency has erupted four times and there has been no resolution. Since 1989 a proxy war is raging in the Kashmir Valley and there is no end in sight. The world’s sole superpower has everything that India has on its wish list: homeland security, highly coordinated intelligence services, a national doctrine to combat terrorism, well-equipped armed forces, and domestic anti-terrorism laws that undermine individual liberty. Despite all this, the US is losing its war against terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are other reasons too. War will deepen the present global economic crisis. According to the Nobel Laureate, Stiglitz, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing about 3 trillion dollars to the US exchequer, that is nearly three times the GDP of India. Pakistan is a nuclear nation and war between two nuclear powers is unthinkable. Moreover, there is near symmetry between the land forces of the two countries. So, what is the guarantee we will win? I do not think that the Americans would allow a war simply because that would undermine America’s war against Taliban in Afghanistan. Terrorists want war as that would force Pakistani forces to switch to the Indian border, thus allowing the Taliban to occupy the northern part of Pakistan which is already under pressure. Strategically, this would de-stabilize Pakistan, and a de-stabilized Pakistan will be a greater threat to India than it already is.

The second reality is that terrorists are not fanatics or sociopaths. They are as normal as everyone else. Within all of us there is a thin permeable line between good and evil. Under a certain set of circumstances, each one of us is capable of committing unspeakable crimes against our friends and neighbor. That makes our task of identifying potential terrorists impossible and our responses uncertain. If terrorists were fanatics or abnormal persons, our job of eliminating them would have been easy. Terrorists have a world view which they believe is the only view. They are convinced of the righteousness of their cause, and will go to any length to achieve it. When India TV asked one of the terrorists in the Trident, why they were killing innocent persons, he replied, “We are dying every day.”

Whilst serving as a brigadier in the Kashmir Valley from 1993 to 1995, I was in charge of military and intelligence operations. We had about 300 terrorists in custody – terrorists of all hues – young, old, mercenaries, jehadis, and the home-grown variety. I had civil and military psychiatrists to examine them to answer one question — were they fanatics? The answer at the end of the tests was a clear “No.” My findings speak for themselves. See Figure 1 below:

	Traits of a Fanatic	Present %	Absent %	Ambivalent
1.	Focused view on life	25	60	15
2.	Insensitivity	15	75	10
3.	Personalized view of the world	10	90	-
4.	Loss of critical judgment	10	90	-
5.	Inconsistency	05	80	15
6.	Certainty	20	80	-
7.	Over simplification	10	90	-
8.	Resistance to change	25	75	-

Figure 1: Traits of Fanaticism in Terrorists

It may interest you to know that, before bringing Eichmann to trial he was examined by six of Israel’s best psychologists and psychiatrists. They declared he was “more normal than the average person.”

Extensive scientific research and social experiments have been conducted notably by Stanley Milgram (Obedience to Authority) and Phillip Zimbardo (The Lucifer Effect). Zimbardo conducted the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment or SPE in 1973. Normal and healthy students from Stanford University were invited as volunteers to participate in a mock experiment. One group became prison guards whilst the other elected to be prisoners. Within the first five days the experiment had to be called off because the ‘prison guards’ started behaving sadistically and torturing the prison inmates. We may conclude that there is a “banality about evil,” namely; evil is done not by sociopaths and fanatics but rather by ordinary people. The power of the situation, blind obedience and moral disengagement seem to exert greater power over human behaviour than any other factors. The conduct of prison guards in concentration camps, and American male and female soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib, are well documented examples. There are many more.

There are two strategic challenges we must surmount in dealing with terrorism. If they are not adequately addressed, no amount of physical security and legislation can resolve terrorism. These challenges have generally been missed out in most national debates in TV and print media. I wish to place them before you.

The first challenge is the “clash of civilizations” theory that has radicalized Islam and given average Muslims a feeling of being victimized and under threat. Notions of a decadent West and an assimilative India have further added to their suspicions and fears.

Consequently, counter-terrorism is more a state of mind and less a state of activity. The mind is psychological, political, cultural and historical. Activity is about killing. The underlying causes of terrorism are rooted in our society, and we cannot be seem to be at war with our own people. Killing is, therefore, not a solution as it invariably leads to deeper alienation through brutalization and violation of human rights.

The answer lies in isolating terrorists and hard liners by denying them the oxygen they need to survive. The people are the oxygen. If we want to seriously defeat Islamic militancy, we have to win over 150 million Muslims in the country. Till that happens, terrorism will thrive.

The second challenge lies in how to involve citizens in fighting terrorism. Government and security forces alone cannot defeat terrorists because terrorism is not a law and order or military problem. Citizens are part of the System. If citizens fail, the System fails. An apathetic citizenry will only exacerbate the situation. We must ask ourselves the question: what can I as a citizen of this country do to stop this mindless violence?

The larger issue before society is the widespread alienation of minorities. When a section of society perceives that they have been wronged, or the government is weak and takes sides, mass alienation and ghettoization occurs. Muslims feel insecure and deprived at all levels and are incensed by the Muslim stereotype — they are pro-Pakistani, unpatriotic and sympathetic to terrorism. Muslim human development indicators are well below the national average, and it is not surprising that many perceive that they are second-class citizens. In such circumstances, people believe in what Albert Camus said: “It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.” The grand design to defeat Islamic militancy can succeed, provided terrorists and their fundamental ideologies are isolated, and Muslim communities join the mainstream.

For right and wrong reasons the Muslim community today is alienated, with trust having broken down between them and the others. Unless trust is restored by improving their human development indices, empowering women, providing job opportunities, and overcoming each other’s prejudices, alienation will continue. De-alienation is overdue.

History tells us that the rise and fall of great civilizations has not been only because of military and economic over-reach, but mainly because of the quality of education existing in a culture. The challenge to education in Islam has been that many Muslims believe that what is not contained in the Received Book is not worth knowing. Thus, the backwardness of Muslims in India is largely due to lack of education. Providing easy access to quality education and technology in schools is imperative. The modernization of 10,000 Urdu schools is overdue. Against an All India pass percentage of 23 percent, the pass percentage in Andhra Pradesh, for example, is zero percent! Moreover, there are about 30,000 madrassas where children are learning Urdu and Islam. You are well aware of the imbalanced curriculum content in these schools.

Religion and culture are an intrinsic part of one’s identity. So why cannot Muslim children be permitted to study Islam and Urdu in secular schools, thereby providing Muslims their identity – Islam and Urdu? I do not see any contradiction in religion and secularism. In fact, localism is a precondition for globalism. You cannot become a world citizen at the cost of losing your cultural identity, and religion lies at the heart of a nation’s culture.

The most effective way to fight Islamic radicalism is by empowering Islamic women. Women by nature abhor violence and conflict of all kinds, from domestic to war. Ultimately, they are the victims. Women who are literate and believe in peace will rear their children to think likewise, and persuade their children to shun the path of violence. I attribute the success of Operation Sadbhavna or Goodwill, in Ladakh, significantly to the support I received from Muslim women.

Today’s statistics are worrying. Against a national women’s work participation rate of 25.6 percent, Muslim women are at 14.1 percent. Their female literacy is as low as 49.9 percent. Special emphasis has to be laid in programmes providing micro-credit facilities to women (as in Bangladesh), employment opportunities, and health care.

The vast majority of Muslims are self-employed with few facilities for vocational skills and access to credits. There is evidence that public and private banks are discriminatory against Muslims. The average amount of loans disbursed to Muslims is two-thirds of the amount given to other minorities. According to the Sachar Committee, “Some banks use the practice of identifying ‘negative geographical zones’ on the basis of certain criteria where bank credit, and other facilities are not easily provided.” While they constitute 15 percent of the population, the number of Muslims in government jobs is as low as 3 to 6 percent. While job opportunities are again closely linked to education, there is a need for liberal policies to provide credit.

I have always maintained that in life it is not what you believe is right or wrong; rather, it is how others perceive it. Muslims do have several grievances – some real, some imaginary. There are historical wrongs that should be addressed through dialogue and remedial actions; even atonement if necessary. And the initiative must come from the majority, the elder brother in the community. At the same time, we must make it clear that, in a democracy like India, grievances must be settled through dialogue and ballot-boxes.

Second, the principal flaw seems to lie in the Indian education system, that has not changed for the past 150 years – top-down assimilation, rote-memorization, the tyranny of examinations, obsession on scoring 100 out of 100, with over-emphasis on educating the head (reason), and not the heart (emotions). To me, whole-education is the golden key. Whole-education should broaden our mind and set it free, enabling us to understand the others’ point of view, and to live together peacefully despite our diverse views.

Educating the head only has other serious drawbacks: the inability to walk the middle-path; the George Bush philosophy (and many Indians think like that) that killing terrorists is the only answer; and the inability to live together with diversity. I am of the firm belief that educating the head may produce brilliant scientists, but who are likely to use their brilliance for evil purposes. I wish to remind you that all extreme ideologies in the 20th century — Marxism, National Socialism, Fascism, revolutions, and religious fundamentalism, were produced by great philosophers and thinkers.

About 50 percent of the members of the Nazi Party comprised German intellectuals. They belonged to a nation that produced some of the world’s best philosophers, best scientists, best musicians, best doctors and best engineers. They were also responsible for exterminating six and a half million of their countrymen. Pol Pot was educated in Paris and he went home and eliminated one and a half million Cambodians simply because they were educated. What happened to reason?

Let us look at the CVs of the terrorist leaders today. From Osama bin Laden and his deputy Dr Al Zahawari, to the attackers of the World Trade Towers, to Taliban, to Lashkar-e-Toiba, to Jaish-e-Mohammad, to SIMI; they are all highly educated individuals. Look at Hindu right-wing fundamentalist leaders. They are post-graduates. What happened to reason – reason that was extreme and one-sided? My contention is that they received the wrong kind of education, an education that focused only on reason. The curriculum of our schools and colleges, therefore, needs immediate revision, to focus on whole-education (though not at the expense of academic performance). You may well say that I am completing my college education so what relevance does whole-education have for me?

I wish to remind you that the single greatest competency in the Knowledge Age is lifelong learning. This competency is enabled by the increasing obsolescence of knowledge, neuroplasticity of the human brain, and the scientific fact that we are products of our synaptic connections. Whole-education through lifelong learning can start at any age. We, the older lot, possibly need it more than our children. The time has already come for us to become our own teachers. Our personal learning plan should include:

Leadership studies

Meta-cognition

Sciences with contemporary liberal arts

Participation in outreach community programmes

Whole-education ensures:

a. We grow up as world citizens with a broad view of life.

b. There is balanced development of one’s cognitive, emotional and spiritual personality, with greater possibilities of growing up to be just and humane.

c. That good persons are not bystanders and stand accused of remaining silent and doing nothing about wrongs in society.

d. Citizens who respect authority but have the courage to oppose unjust systems, who hold themselves accountable for their actions, who will not allow the system to de-individuate their personal identity, and who will be equipped with the skills and sensitivities to live with diversity.

This brings me to the role and psyche of India’s middle class, intellectuals and intelligentsia. 700 years of Muslim and British role as well as a stratified society has affected the psyche of intellectuals and the Indian middle class. Despite having a superior culture and life-philosophy we got beaten. The psychological effects in the middle class till today are there to see:

Political apathy

Confused identity: Who am I — Brahmin? Tamilian? Indian? Citizen?

Absence of the social value of wanting to make a difference

Fence-sitters

Lack of accountability

Sense of inferiority. Everything Western is better

Loss of confidence

Voicelessness

There is a difference between intellectual and intelligentsia. Intellectuals are strong at academics, but they are not committed to social change. Like terrorists, they too have a fixed world view, are dogmatic and doctrinaire. They espouse a viewpoint and are prepared to defend it all costs in classrooms, in front of TV cameras, in newspaper columns, and at cocktail parties. They could be successful civil servants, professors, CEOs, think-tanks and ideologues.

A Russian derivative, intelligentsias are different — intellectuals in their own right, who are global citizens. They are change-agents and active citizens who are committed to social and political reform. They have the unique ability of not taking sides but bringing opposite sides together.

Intelligentsia comprises people who shape public opinion. I expect you to join the intelligentsia, because the fight against terrorism and all forms of political and religious violence starts with you. You are critical stakeholders in the security of the India and the well-being of its people. If you give up we will lose out to the forces of evil. The tragedy of life is not the evil deeds by the evil people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

What are my expectations from you, the intelligentsia?

Be informed about your own religion. Most people are unaware of the fundamental tenets of their religion; they are carried away by the power of rituals and interpretations given by clerics and the priests. In my experience, most religious fundamentalists know little about the richness of their religion. I would like you to promote the central doctrine of all religions, which is rightful living and reverence for all forms of life – from atoms to molecules to insects, to trees, to animals, to human beings.

As members of the intelligentsia, I expect you to secure the middle ground between the two extreme positions of hate and sanity. Let me give you give an example of the prevailing opposites:

1. First Radical View: Haflz Saeed, Founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba.

“There cannot be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy.”

2. Opposite Radical View: Babu Bajrangi on camera during Gujarat riots.

“We didn’t spare a single Muslim shop; we set everything on fire... I don’t care if am hanged… just give me two days before my hanging and I will go and have a field day in Juhapura where seven or eight lakhs of these people stay… I will finish them off… at least 25,000 to 50,000 should die.”

As citizens, committed to nation-building you must pledge to make a difference in the local community, especially the poor and marginalized. As long as people remain poor they will be exploited by terrorists. The middle class has distanced itself from the poor; and unless this social gap is closed quickly, alienation in society will continue.

In conclusion, I wish to re-iterate that war and armed responses are no solution for problems that are political, cultural and religious. The ultimate answer lies in winning over people and isolating the terrorists. Towards this strategic goal, citizens and the intelligentsia of the nation play a pivotal role. They have to become agents of change and secure the middle ground.

Success will depend on how tolerant you are. Tolerance is lacking, and if you do not give space to dissent, we will go into reverse gear, into a dangerous situation where there are only two options – coexistence or no-existence. Unless the middle ground is expanded there will never be peace. The only impediment before us is fear. The terrorist intends to strike fear in our minds and create a climate of collapse and deter us in capturing the middle ground. I say; do not be afraid. Because if you are; then terrorists will win.

Finding your true North star - Prof. Kaipa

Got an opportunity to attend a session on 'Finding your true North Star' by Prof. Prasad Kaipa.

The 4 point, 8 question analysis:
Point 1: Happiness

1. Am I happy doing the the job that I am doing now?
2. What kind of happiness/joy do I bring to people around me?

Point 2: Skills and competencies

1. Am I using my skills and competencies in the current job?
2. Can I learn the skills and competencies required for the current job from the people around?

Point 3: Serve as a motto

1. Do I feel that I am serving others by doing this job?
2. Do I feel that other people serve me in my job?

Point 4: Needs

1. Am I meeting my needs - financial, emotional, intellectual, relational, etc?
2. Does your job meets someone else's need?

How to use this questionnaire:
Score the above 8 question on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being high and 1 being low and try to improve the scores on each questions. The objective should be two fold:

• Improve the scores of each question. This would increase your performance.
  
• Reduce the difference in sum of all Q1 and Q2. This would ensure balance in your role and others role for you.

When you have scored total of 80 points, you are operating from your true north star.

4 important things while working towards your true north star:

1. Awareness: Be aware of the happenings around you. Else you will always operate in auto pilot mode.
2. Attention: Pay attention to the feedback you receive from others. While giving feedback, talk about positive also. What you appreciates get appreciated and what you depreciates gets depreciated. This will also enhance your EQ
   
3. Take action: Act on things that you have been procrastinating. We normally act on routine activities, but that is not sufficient. Activities with give you busy-ness but action would give business.
4. Reflect: Do self introspection of your success and failures. Also force people around you to to introspect, you can do that through GPS - guilt, pride and shame.

Some more profound thoughts by Prof. Kaipa

• IQ will make you efficient; EQ will make you effective.

• Life is not about efficiency; it is about redundancy.

• IQ will help you get a job; EQ will help u get a promotion.

• We often have thoughts; but we do not think often. Converting thoughts to action will force you to think.

• Journey of life is never straight, it is spiral.

Some more examples on points stated above:

• Hoarding of information would attract people to me. Does this mean that I will score high in case of this ? No. People should come to you even otherwise, such as discuss problems, ask advice, etc.
• Post a picture of what you want on a mirror.
• Break the goals in small goals.
  

To conclude: True north is a state of mind. Try operating from your true north.

Berkshire Hathway shareholder's meet, 2008

Prof. Sanjiv R. Das, the almighty in financial engineering shared this with the students. I found it really simple and useful. 3 things I liked is the funda on retirement, donation and outsourcing. The best line which I think many of us need today is, "Tough times do not last. Tough people do"

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A summary by some gentleman who attended the BH shareholders' meet. Even if you are least bothered about investments, I insist, Pl read on.



I had the good fortune to attend the 2008- Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders meeting at Omaha, Nebraska a few weeks back. It was a wonderful experience listening to and learning from the Master Investor- Warren Buffett himself and all I can say is that he stands alone as the reigning deity of financial world's Mt Olympus!

The degree of humility and composure he exhibited, although he is the richest and most well respected human is stunning! I tried to take some notes and would like to share with you some of the best questions and answers which came across during the conversation between we mortals and God.

Having read about him, observed him and worshipped him for a few years now, I think it is reasonable to believe that this guy is exactly what he seems: a plain-speaking, tee totaling man of uncrackable integrity who works really, really hard and sticks to his investing and management principles through boom and bust which makes him a freak of nature since he is above normal human tendencies. He is like a comet streaking through the heavens every 75 years or so. The questions the shareholders threw at him for 7 continuous hours ranged from finances, life, religion, career, politics, sports and several other streams.
And he answered everything with a Zen like calm and confidence.
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What does it take to become a successful investor? Brilliance or Smartness?

Neither, Success in investing doesn't correlate with I.Q. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that gets other people into trouble in investing.

When do you deicide to invest in a firm?

The best thing that happens to us is when a great company gets into temporary trouble. We want to buy them when they're on the operating table. (Mr. Buffett bought Coke when it had its biggest fiasco after launching New Coke; he bought American Express when it went through a loss making phase in the early 60's)

What do you look for in people when they come to sell their firms to you?

I don't look for the usual credentials such as an MBA, a pedigree (Harvard, Wharton), or cash reserves or market cap of their firm. What I look for is just a passion in their eyes; I think that's the key. A person who is hungry will always do well. I prefer it when people evenafter selling stay on and work for the firm; they are people who can't wait to get off their bed to get to work. Passion is everything; there is no replacement for innate interest.

Mr. Buffett, you told us that Berkshire Hathaway has $ 45 Billion in cash. Why aren't you investing?

Up until a few years back I had more ideas than money. Now I have more money than ideas.

When do you plan to retire?

I love my job; I love it so much that I tap dance to work. Mrs. B, the founder of Nebraska Furniture Mark worked until she was 104, she died within 6 months of her retirement, that's a lesson to all my managers, don't retire! I personally am going to work 6-7 years after I die, probably that's what they mean when they say- "Thinking out of the Box"!!

Why do stock market crashes happen?

Because of human nature for greed and insecurity. The 1970s were unbelievable. The world wasn't going to end, but businesses were beinggiven away. Human nature has not changed. People will always behave in a manic-depressive way over time. They will offer great values to you."

What are the things that are taught wrong in Business school and the corporate world?

I like such open ended questions, I think Business schools should refrain from teaching their wards about profit making and profit making alone, it gives a sense of 1 dimensional outlook to the young students that loss is a curse. In reality, in the corporate world, failure and loss making are inevitable. The capital market without loss is like Christianity without hell. I think they should teach the student on how to buy a business, how to value a business? Not just on how to determine the price of a business. Because price is what you pay, value is what you get.

Do you still hate Technology stocks?

With Coke I can come up with a very rational figure for the cash it will generate in the future. But with the top 10 Internet companies,how much cash will they produce over the next 25 years? If you say you don't know, then you don't know what it is worth and you arespeculating, not investing. All I know is that I don't know, and if I don't know, I don't invest."

How to think about Investing?

The first investment primer was written by Aesop in 600 B.C. He said, 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.' Aesop forgot to saywhen you get the two in the bush and what interest rates are; investing is simply figuring out your cash outlay (the bird in the hand) and comparing it to how many birds are in the bush and when you get them."

How do you feel after donating $ 40 Billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation? You are a hero to us!

I feel nothing. I haven't sacrificed anything in life. I have had a good life. I donated after I turned 75. I think I admire those people who sacrifice their time, share their food and home, as the people to be emulated not me. Besides, what is money before a man's life?

What do you think are the pitfalls in donation?

I have never donated a dime to churches or other such organizations; I need to believe in something before I end up doing that. I have beenobserving the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation for years now and I am confident they will do a fantastic job of making use of the money.I am a big believer in Outsourcing, others believed in me as an Investor and gave their hard earned money to invest. I believe in Bill Gates, he is a better donor than me.

Why do you work from Omaha and not Wall Street, New York?

Wall Street is the only place where people alight from Rolls Royce to get advised by people who use the Public transportation system.

You seem to be so well read, tell us how it all started.

My father was a stock broker, so we had all these financial books in our library. He introduced me to those classics and I got into them. Iam lucky that my father was not a fan of Playboy! Reading is the best habit you can get. Well, you can learn from teachers too, and have mentors but there are so many constraints attached- they will talk fast, talk slow, they might talk like a pro or they might be terrible communicators. Books are a different animal altogether, I love reading! The beauty about reading and learning is that the more you learn the more you want to learn.

People who join Berkshire Hathaway seldom leave. How do you get along well with all your executives?

I try to get quality people. I always say - Hire someone in your organization who is better than you are. If you do that, you build a company of giants. If you get people worse than yourself, you build a company of dwarfs. And do not try to do everything yourself Delegate the jobs and look out of the window. The results will come. That's how you build institutions. It happens only when you empower others, believe in others. Iam an investor, Iam very secured at that, I have no clue how to make Coca-Cola or how to dole out credit cards (Mr. Buffett owns 8% of Coca-Cola and 13 % of American Express). I understand the wisdom of the aphorism that you cannot please all thepeople all the time. Of Course, you will always find qualities that you don't like in people around you, but if you observe carefully the love of the work unites you both. There is no point in being obsessive about a bad quality in a person, whom you otherwise respect.

I am a small time businessman from Dallas, Texas, what do I need to do to hit big time?

Be patient, Achieving your financial goals and dreams will not happen overnight. As much as we would all really love to accomplish our goals in a few years, this is an ongoing process. Defining your financial goals is not a one-time task; you need to keep adding new plans atdifferent stages in your life. We all admire the skills of Olympic ice skaters, pro golfers, and concert pianists. But do we remember that they didn't acquire their skills overnight? They had to practice hours on end for years to achieve their dreams. The key to success is to continue learning throughout your life with a voracious appetite.

I think it is marvelous that you have had a golden run with investing, how did you do that?

My rule is to be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. Besides, I call investing the greatest job in the world because you never have to swing. You stand at the plate; the pitcher throws you General Motors at 47! U.S. Steel at 39! And nobody calls a strike on you. There's no penalty except opportunity lost. All day you wait for the pitch you like; then when the fielders are asleep, you step up and hit it. Stay dispassionate and be patient.

You're dealing with a lot of silly people in the marketplace; it's like a great big casino and everyone else is boozing. If you can stick with drinking Coke, you should be OK. First the crowd is boozy on optimism and buying every new issue in sight. The next moment it is boozy on pessimism, buying gold bars and predicting another Great Depression, most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can't buy what is popular and do well.

Mr. Buffett you have seen so many crashes and recessions, your take on facing recessions and stock market crashes?

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians. Every scenario is different. But always remember, Tough times do not last. Tough people do.

What is the 1 biggest advice you would impart to a young investor like me?

Think for a moment that you are given a car and told this is the only car you would get for the rest of your life. Then you would make sure that you car is taken care of well, it is oiled and detailed every now and then. You would make sure that it never gets rusted, and you would garage it. Think of yourself as that car. You just get 1 body, 1 mind and 1 soul. Take care of it well. Invest in yourself that would be my advice.

You personally know many of the Financial executives who are engineers of the current turmoil in the financial world, surprisingly even after record losses, those executives receive astronomical salaries and bonuses and arrogantly declare that they deserve it, why dint you advice them from making such decisions and what's your view on their justification for their pay?

I like sharing my ideas but don't like imposing my ideas on anybody It doesn't make sense and is a waste of time. If somebody has decidedthat they know everything that is there to know, nobody can help them. The best way to learn and succeed is to know that we know nothing. There is an entire universe out there and still some of us think we can know everything In the world of investing a few people after making some money tend to imagine they are invincible and great.

This is the worst thing that could happen to any investor, because it surely means that the investor will end up taking unnecessary risks and end up losing everything – arrogance, ego and overconfidence are very lethal. Personally I don't feel too comfortable with too much extravagance, because I always think like an investor. My thought process doesn't see a lot of value in a fancy car or a designer suit.

Thinking like an investor always is very important to bring in a sense of disciplineand focus. Before reading balance sheets and investing you need to make sure your outlook and mindset is that of an investor.
Never let ego, arrogance and over-confidence control you - not just as an investor but also as a human being. You will never have internal peace if you are unable to look at everybody around you with love, compassion and understanding. Irrespective of who the person is, he or she can teach you something you don't know. I have learnt so much from people all around me and I wouldn't have been able to learn all thesewonderful things if I had not spoken to them with a smile. To quote Sir Isaac Newton- If I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.

Term 5

Fixed Income Securities - Prof. Kuldeep Shahstri, Pittsburgh

Managing Teams - Prof. Henry Moon, LBS

Negotiation Analysis - Prof. Dishan Kamdar, ISB

Options and Futures - Prof. Ramabhadaran S. Thirumaalai, ISB

The first of the 4 elective terms and was a real chaos for bidding. Finally I got what I wanted. I decided to select courses that I liked based on the content and faculty ratings and not go by what I want to major in.

Nega and Managing team were strategy courses and highly recommended to all. Both Profs were good and they teach in tandem.

Prof Ram, F&O was interesting and helped me understand much more than I knew.

Corporate Social Responsibility Index

Our paper on Corporate Social Responsibility Index written by Deepak and me @ ISB, selected in the finals at IIM B.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

While we go through the annual reports of many listed companies we always come across a section describing how the company has contributed back to society. Often the items contained in this section are donation paid to NGOs, medical camps conducted, provided education to rural people, etc. However this is a myopic view of CSR. Like a country that has high GDP per capita does not mean that it has a high human development index, a company doing a few such so called CSR activities does not become a high CSR company. CSR is a more holistic concept encompassing customer, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities, as well as environment. Corporate social responsibility (CSR, also called corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, responsible business and corporate social opportunity) is a concept whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders, as well as the environment. This obligation is seen to extend beyond the statutory obligation to comply with legislation and sees organizations voluntarily taking further steps to improve the quality of life for employees and their families as well as for the local community and society at large.[1]

Also the biggest CSR activity that a company does for society is recruitment of people. It would be an additional burden on companies if they were forced to contribute for any additional CSR activities. Non existent of these large corporate houses will generate large scale unemployment and also hamper economic growth. Hence we consider that all the organisation do CSR in form of employing people. However this is not sufficient. Employing people at the cost of other stakeholders and environment will be detrimental to society.

In that case the question still remains how one measures CSR? The feasible approach in this case would be to develop parameters on which the companies can be rated to get a common and comparable CSR Index. Few features for any index would be measurable, comprehensive, composite and comparable. Keeping these features in mind we have decided upon a few criteria for CSR Index. We have divided these in ‘must do’, ‘should do’ and ‘ought to do’ signifying the importance of criteria within these heads.

· Must Do, scores ranging from + 3 to -3

o Corporate Strategy: It is very important for the corporate strategy statement to include some concerns related to all stakeholders and environment. A corporate strategy statement, which says only about profit and hence serves on one class of stakeholder will be scored low whereas that of a company which includes CSR activities in its Value statement. A strong motto towards CSR activities generates a lot of goodwill for the company.

o Environment Policy: It is very important for a company to have environment policy. Climate change is an opportunity that astute businesses will turn to their advantage. By taking positive action on climate change a company can differentiate itself from its competitors. Climate change program must be profitable to be successful. This can be achieved quite simply by turning carbon costs into opportunities for the organization. Carbon credits are a key component of corporate emission trading schemes that have been implemented to mitigate global warming. They provide a way to reduce greenhouse effect emissions on an industrial scale by capping total annual emissions and letting the market assign a monetary value to any shortfall through trading. Credits can be exchanged between businesses or bought and sold in international markets at the prevailing market price.

· Should Do, score ranging from +2 to -2

o Employee Satisfaction: The biggest stakeholders in any corporate are its employees. Hence by scoring high on employee satisfaction a company does contribute to CSR. It’s a old say that every good deed should begin at home. Thus by having empathy towards its employees and taking care of their necessities a company can add tremendous value to the society. Infact the best way in which a company can add maximum value to the society is through creating more jobs and thus reducing social unemployment and poverty. Moreover goodwill brought by CSR activities adds value to and motivates existing employees as well. Greater employee satisfaction in turn will result in higher productivity and thus improve companies’ efficiency.

o Profitability: This is a CSR activity towards investors in the company. A company by contributing towards social good also guarantees its long-term sustainability, as in the long term only those companies would survive which are pro-society. By contributing to CSR activities, company generates a lot of goodwill, which can be reaped by current and future investors.

o Suppliers: A big and successful company can further contribute to society by encouraging young enterprising organizations. By providing competitive terms and by being fair to its suppliers a company can generate revenues for many other organizations with out compromising its own profits. Moreover a company’s goodwill will add credibility to many of its suppliers also. An example would be the Tata Nano where Tata’s have ensure to take care of vendors also to the extent possible

o Customer: Company also adds value by providing a range of products to the customers. By satisfying customer needs company not only generates profits for itself but also satisfy consumer requirements. Without such companies such needs may remain unfulfilled leaving a void in that space.

o Society: Company adds tremendous values to the society by many activities mentioned above. Apart from that a corporate can contribute directly to society by organizing various activities like blood donation camps, cultural events etc. Private sector has huge resources and it has to play a very important role in alleviating humanity from problems like unemployment and poverty. Corporates also pitch in during natural and man-made calamities by donating huge amount of money.

· Ought to do, scores ranging from +1 to -1

o Fraud Detection: In case a company has strict internal controls and policies it avoids frauds and hence improves the quality of service. It also deters the staff from wrong doing and hence increase the honesty level in the society.

o Ethics/Integrity: Leaders and big corporate houses can set examples by displaying a highly ehical behaviour. Example may be quoted of Infosys, which sacked one of its senior staff on grounds of unethical behaviour. Such behaviours can set great precedence for the society and bring similar behaviours from others. Such behaviours will spread good activities in the society and thus create more dignity for human values.

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility

Term 4

Government, Society and Business
- Mudit Kapoor, ISB
- A K Shiva Kumar, UNICEF Bhavini Damaraju

Investment Analysis
- A Subrahmanyam, UCLA

Management of Organisations
- Stefan Thau, LBS
- Luis L. Martins, Georgia Tech Debapriyo Nag


Strategic Analysis of IT
- Rajiv D Banker, Temple
- Vallabh Sambamurthy, Michigan Aruna Deepthi

This was the last of the core terms at ISB. As in the previous 3 terms there was one person who was the highlight of the term and this time it was Subra. Invst Analysis lectures were real fun and all credit to Subra and his style of teaching. One needs to attend a lecture to believe it and also listen him in "Shudh Hindi"

GSBC was also interesting, though Mudit was a bit controversial I liked his thought provoking habit of teaching. Got a glimpse of political economics behind many decisions that we see in day to day life. Prof Shiva Kumar's lecture of population was very serious and heavy. I understood the importance of meaning "population control" and why one should never use such a term. It was also insightful to know the impact of one child policy in China.

Potential consultants started some warm up for placement preparation. I was not among them and hence had a relaxed life. I started my resume preparation and was able to complete it by end of term 4.

An hour drive with Mr. Subhanu Saxen, CEO, Novartis

I received a call at midnight from Dilpreet. "Will you go to receive Mr. Saxena" at the gate at 4.00?" After meeting many first generation entrepreneurs this was a time to meet a CEO of truly global MNC.

What will I do till 4 in the night. A better idea would be to go to pick him up at airport i thought and also since Jinal (wife) and Moulik (kid) were in Mumbai i had nothing better to do. So i came back home, had a clean shave, put on formals and left for the airport.

We reached airport at 2.30 in night and the driver wanted to have some food as Ramzan is in process and he can only have food till 4.00. I was in a dilemma whether to ask him to go for food or no as the flight was scheduled to land at 2.55 and i was sure that the driver would not be back on time. However i allowed him to go ahead and have food.

The flight was on time (it generally will be when u do not want it to be). Mr. Saxena shook the hands and i told him that the car would take sometime due to Ramzan. He was absoutely cool about it, this was at 3.00 in night. I was really impressed. He started his discussion with ISB and how he has been associated with the institution, then the discussion shifted to INSEAD and life of an MBA student there. It was almost half an hour we were standing outside the airport and discussing about MBA and he was least bothered about the delay in car. Have never seen such a down to earth CEO. Finally the car came at 3.30 and we started for ISB. While in the car the discussion went on to the hottest topic, the financial mess. I liked his views; it happens every decade. It will come and go and come again. The only difference is the % fall in every crash has been higher than the previous one. Few rules of investing that he followed; never invest in a single asset class, never take a loan or always try to repay the loan as soon as possible and never trade in derivative, the weapons of mass destruction. He recommended a book 'richest man in barbelon'.

It took us an hour to reach ISB and I should pat my back was able to keep the CEO involved in a discussion for more than an hour. It was a great drive, i never thought i would be able to keep on chatting with him and also make him chat for the entire drive...

First PE Conference at ISB

We had our first PE conference at ISB on September 6, 2008 and I was in the core team for organising the same. It was great fun, made new friends working for the conference. At the conference I was shadow to Mr. Deepak Shahdadpuri from Beacon. It was the first time I was supposed to spend atleast 6 hours with a man of such caliber. Was a bit nervous but did pretty good job. Also got some good insights into PE industry from him.

All in all it was a good experience.

Term 3

Corp Fin - Prof. Prabhala, Maryland
Entrepreneurship - Prof. Atul Nerkar, Kenan Flagger
Prof. Rama Velamuri
Managerial Accounting - Prof. Swaminathan Sridharan, Kellogg
- Prof. Sunil Dutta, Haas
Operations - Prof. Aditya Jain

Prof. Prabhala took term 3 as well as corporate finance to a different level. He was just too good and the climax in all the lectures would be his one liners to the queries.

Prof. Nerkar and Prof. Velamuri taught a pretty vague subject like Entrepreneurship in a great structured method. There was a lot to learn and the online quizzes before the class were the best part for Prof. Nerkar's lecture.

People were settled in term 3. Though we heard that term 3 is the toughest term at ISB, not many of us felt so. In fact many were of the view that the previous 2 terms were more demanding than this one. Not sure of the reason why this difference of opinion by our batch vs. our seniors.

Managerial Accounting was a repetition of cost accounting. Operations was a new subject for me and Little's Law and PK formula were an addition to my formula library, but not sure when would I use the same.

Ms. Vani Kola, Managing Director, NEA Indo US Venture

Date: August 13, 2008 Venue: AC3 Time: 1900 - 2100

Session content
Breaking the myth about what drives you to entrepreneurship?
Independence (It might not be true. In a job there are limits to your job and responsibility, here you will have multiple bosses. Your investors, shareholders, board of directors, suppliers, customers, etc).
Seeing something come to life, etc
Create jobs
Create wealth
Most people were hesitant to answer this question. We should spend some time to understand our real motivation to be an entrepreneur.

Qualities of entrepreneur
Risk taking is not necessarily an entrepreneurial attitude. When Harvard did a study to identify the DNA of successful entrepreneurs, they expected them all to be highly risk-taking. What they discovered that most entrepreneurs when they were going through the process of starting their ventures never saw something as risky. In fact they were very confident of its success. No human being wants to take risks.
Each person does what they are most comfortable with. Therefore it is important to choose an area you are most familiar with. Some of the ventures like GPS, Satellites took several years (12-15) to become commercial successes. It was strong conviction about the idea along with relevant background that allowed the pioneers to look differently that everybody else
Conviction + Confidence
Positive thinking (there is 10 mins of sunshine max in an entrepreneurs’ journey)
Observation skills along with action orientation and a strong instinct
Humility to listen to people and learn.
Ability to work with people in a team setting
Flexibility (might not be always good. An entre needs to stick to the course long enough to give it sufficient chance) Also a person who gives himself too much flexibility in thought might keep second guessing whether his venture will work and so is not necessarily a good idea)

VC Funding

When VCs fund ventures they look at the scale, size and scope. They are not interested in small ventures. They will not fund a venture which has a potential of just 30-40 crores. Whether you should go for a VC fund or not depends on your aspirations. How far do you want to go? How much control are you willing to give up.
Before you go to VCs, you should have your fundamental research in place. You should have thought of the exit options realistically. If you have not thought of the fit of the investor, it can lead to sizeable frustration with both parties.

VCs fund companies based on following criteria:
How big is the market size? How far can the idea go?
Quality of the idea in the context of the scope of the market
Competitive barriers (it can be something as simple as basic knowledge, deep customer insight)
Team- Comfort, chemistry between Management team and the VCs

Leadership qualities
Listen
Be willing to be wrong, willing to learn, accept you are wrong and move on
No false sense of control. People take risk with you, you need execution. You will need to give up control and stake. A good venture is 10% idea and 90% perspiration. If you want others to take risks with you, you have to be generous in giving rewards to them.
No sense of control through position. Security comes from performance and not position. Do not become victim of your visiting card.

Ventures she funded
Travel portal: Already a lot of travel portals. Too fragmented market. Indian customer not willing to shop online. However, this portal acted as a technology and information provider to around 20000 travel agents. They spend 1/5th money spend by any other typical portal. They were very capital efficient. Also they were operationally very efficient.
MedPlus: 2 wharton guys, wrote it as a business plan in their MBA. They came to India. Bootstrapped and opened 40 stores. Basic idea was to understand they had to minimize real estate cost. Took smaller shops of around 150-250 Sq. feet when rivals were investing in bigger showrooms. However, they realized they still need to carry all SKUs (around 10000). So they invested in a good backend supply chain management system. It will refill their stores 3 times a day. It kept tracked of inventory getting sold and knew at any point of time how many units are present on shelf. In 3 years they are close to 550 Stores.

Ventures not funded
Fail of trust: Interesting idea in mobile content management space about bypassing operator, had unique content, VC convinced about idea and the IP. Very senior people in the team with good track record. But on the 11th hour, the VCs found out that one co-founder had given business a 8 Crore loan and planned to take out once he gets the money from VCs. VCs perceived it as a corporate governance lapse. Argument of the entrep.. was that the VCs never asked. VC’s argument was.. they are like shareholders and so all corporate governance principle applies. VCs lost trust on the person. Chemistry gone wrong.
Bringing a dad/uncle/relative to negotiate the business plan/percentages, etc. VCs are investing in the individual and he has to trust his own negotiation skills
Govt policy: Brilliant idea. Liked the team. Spoke with lawyers. It was dependant on a yet to be announced government policy. If govt makes favorable policy,VC can make a lot of money. However if govt rules against entrepreneur’s idea, it can mean the company has to be shut down. Though VCs take risks, they will never enter such suicidal venture.

VC relationship is like marriage. VCs typically invest for 3-7 years and so they demand complete trust, confidence and faith. There should be no skeletons in the closet. VC relationship once established cannot be broken.

Mr. Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Founder and CEO, InfoEdge India Limited

Date: Aug 5, 2008 Time: 1900 - 2100 Venue: AC 3 LT

Key Learnings:
Entrepreneurship is not a money making business, do not get into entrepreneurship with sole objective of making money. Money is a by product and it will follow.
Entrepreneurship is beyond money, it is for those who want to be the master of their own priority and they want to create something that will last forever.
Be prepared to struggle financially whenever you get into your own venture as real ideas are not conceived in office cubical. It is the power of observation that gives birth to any idea.
Also be clear with all your business partners. In case you feel that you are not getting along well it is always better to sit, discuss and arrive at a conclusion rather then stretching it and hoping for the relations to improve.
Ideas always evolve over a period of time and you should be flexible to evolve your idea. Also great ideas are those that are scalable.
Do not take VC funding for the sake of it. Invest some of your personal money in your idea. VCs like ideas which have gone through bootstrap financing. If a VC is ready to fund just based on idea, then it sends 2 signal:
There is a bubble building in process.
You have a proven track record in past.
Usefulness of MBA cannot be measured based on your performance with someone else who has not done MBA, it is always measured by your performance that would have been if you were not MBA with that you have achieved after doing MBA. It brings in focus, helps structure the thought process and open new doors.

Aspects those were impressive:
Observation is very important. Maybe in the corridor of IIM (A) during placement or the Pragati Maidan IT Fair, ideas come to those who are keen observer.
Bootstrap financing is important to bring seriousness to your idea and also provides confidence to other partners.
Persistence is also important especially during tough time. His persistency paid during the 2000 recession and IT bust.
Also he is one of the few entrepreneurs who are advocate of think small and conservatism. He was very conservative but cutting costs but not corners. He was also happy doing a small business but competition forced him to become big.

Mr. Manish Sabharwal, founder and CEO, Team Lease on entrepreneurship

Date: July 28, 2008 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Venue: Khemka Auditorium

The session held by Mr. Manish Sabharwal, founder and CEO, Team Lease on entrepreneurship was very insightful to me in how he defined entrepreneurship to be nurturing the right mindset and not just writing the business plan that one would like to write or the idea that one wanted to pursue.

He spoke on how there were no golden rules to a successful entrepreneurial venture; that there are no perfect ideas or opportunities; that there is no perfect entrepreneurial personality and that there is no perfect time to launch a venture. Entrepreneurship is a process in itself.

While addressing common myths on entrepreneurship, he spoke on ‘Hypothesis Testing’ where success of a venture can be achieved by discovering what is wrong rather than trying to find out what is right. He also said that nothing is really created from scratch and to make a point used an example where Einstein was invited to a dinner and the host told him that she had prepared the meal from scratch. He then replied to her saying that is impossible because to prepare the meal from scratch would mean having to create the universe. Entrepreneurship, he went to say is a synthesis of existing but fragmented ideas.

He then spoke on his ideation journey and the lessons he learnt while at it. He said that efficient markets are a myth and one shouldn’t worry if the obvious choices aren’t working. He also re-iterated the point that a perfect product or idea may not necessarily be the best and that it takes time for a person or an organization to become who they are. It is very important to ‘wander correctly’, he said, and that in the ideation phase it is important to stay divergent for some time and increase the ‘surface area of one’s mind’.

On resources, he went to say that trees don’t grow from seeds alone and that an entire ecosystem is required for its nurturing. He also said that money should be raised as little and as late as possible. By this he meant that one shouldn’t either under-capitalize or over-capitalize. Raising too little money can lead to making sub-optimal decisions and that many companies run out of cash when they start becoming profitable. On the other too much cash leads to behavior modification and an improper utilization of funds. On the people front, one should create a team that is as good as early as possible and that it is important to craft the people ecosystem. The team formation is also a process like a princess kissing the frog. You form good team with experience and bad team provides you experience.

Shifting from the ‘quantum’ of money to the ‘color’ of money, he spoke about how venture capitalists (VCs) and strategic investors (SIs) cannot co-exist. He went on to warn the audience that we need to be wary of promises made by VCs, that early stage investing is still nascent in India and that not every startup needs or deserves VC money. On the other hand, SIs have conflicting roles as customers and investors. VCs also hate sunk costs while SIs may be ck with it. VCs and SIs also have different paths to control the company. While the former looks at not having restrictions on exiting, the latter is actually the exit strategy for the company.

Entrepreneurship is about teamwork and he used an analogy of a great orchestra which is result not of a team of great musicians but of ordinary musicians at their peak. Entrepreneurship, similarly, he said is about the chemistry of a team and that a certain vague emotional intelligence has to be used to work and achieve one’s goals effectively. The value of different and complementary skills is inherent in that genetic variety is nature’s life insurance policy and also that one had work hard at maintaining relationships especially as they grow through time.

He egged on the ISB students and advised them that there is a larger purpose than grades and a 1 year job search at business school; that our aspirations must go beyond and that our dreams must be bigger than our current resources. If one knows exactly where one is going then that person becomes incapable of going too far. One has take a step, commit to it. This boldness requires power, magic and a certain touch of genius.

He mentioned that it is important to focus on relative performance and that one needs to be better than the other competitors and not perfect at it. Though one cannot outspend Multi National Corporations (MNCs), one can definitely outsmart and outrun them. MNCs were generally not good at handling small high growth opportunities very well where capital is not necessarily the key to success.

On Indian family run business, he mentioned that while they are overly personality oriented, they are also very flexible, fast and very entrepreneurial. However the biggest drawback he felt was that ownership here had become a ‘sexually transmitted CEOship' making this a self destructive exercise.

On a closing note he mentioned that entrepreneurship as a career will challenge you, pay you and also consume and assimilate you. It is a personal choice that one needs to make and that she/he will know when they are ready. There is a certain sense of destiny and destination that needs to come together.

He also stressed the importance of us as managers having a social conscience as there are many people at the lower strata of society who may have done things better than how we are doing them, but we are here instead of them as we are the fortunate winners of an ‘ovarian lottery’. It is up to us to at least partially address the problems of inequality through the business that we choose to do.

Team Lease outdid their competition by engaging with public policy and by having a bigger size of ambition than their competition. Though the ‘popcorn stand’ or the ‘dwarf’ had an opportunity, it was the growing baby that they invested in.