Chicago Business

Issue date: 5/14/09 Section: Page Two

Panel

Gurcharan Das

Prof. Rajan

Before I came to business school, I was warned that sometimes the most valuable learning occurs outside of the classroom. With Chicago's star studded faculty that always seemed implausible, but no longer. On Saturday the South Asia Business Group held their annual India Leadership Summit, and though it wasn't fun to show up at Harper before 8 am on a Saturday, it was an invaluable experience.
The theme of the conference was "India: Fueling the Growth." Fittingly for a conference focused upon growth, it was opened by an entrepreneurship maven, Chicago's Scott Meadow. After his opening remarks, Prof. Meadow was on hand to award the annual Alumni Award to Nagesh Basavanhalli, The VP of Global Engineering for Chrysler.
Mr. Basavanhalli commented that the key drivers of the future global auto industry were the growth of middle classes in emerging markets coupled with a shift of these customers from 2 wheeled transportation to 4 wheeled transportation in the form of a new class of "Ultra Low Cost Cars" (think Tata Nano). In India alone, the middle class is expected to grow by approximately ten times from 50 million today to 550 million in 2025. According to Mr. Basavanhalli, these trends would make the shift of innovation hubs toward the emerging markets a logical trend for the automotive industry.
Shifting from a hard market analysis to the human side, Dr. Gurcharan Das (author of "India Unbound") took the stage. He started his talk with the story of a young man, Raju, he met bussing tables in an Indian restaurant. Raju worked hard for 450 Rupees (~$9) a month. What Dr. Das thought was a paltry sum, to Raju was all he needed, because the local computer school taught classes for 450 Rupees a month. Young Raju had a simple formula for success, 450 Rupees for the necessary computer skills, and 400 words of English that he would need to pass TOEFL. Dr. Das than drew a sharp contrast with the young, driven Raju, and Ramalinga Raju, who fell prey to greed, and dragged Satyam down in an accounting scandal. Dr. Das touched upon the promise of the future and the specter of corruption; both themes loomed large throughout the day.
Throughout the day, there were panel discussions on Education, Infrastructure, Financial Services, Healthcare, Technology and Entrepreneurship. While each panel was interesting, and tackled an important and compelling topic, the Entrepreneurship Panel was a crowd favorite. And not only that, Scott Meadow himself commented that it was the best Entrepreneurship panel he had moderated or attended this year.
Abhi Shah, CEO of the Clutch Group (the #1 Legal Process Outsourcing firm worldwide) started off recounted his first blush with entrepreneurship. After immigrating with his family to Texas as a student, young Abhi finished high school and headed off to college. Facing a $20,000 tuition bill, he called his parents asking for help. Instead of a check, Abhi received a telephone number. When he called, a voice with thick southern drawl answered and offered a "job." Young Abhi's first business would be selling Bibles in Talladega Alabama. Could a young Hindu find success selling Bibles door to door in the Deep South? Well, Abhi did turn a profit that first summer, $1,400, just $18,600 shy. But the next summer he again braved the Alabama heat, and made $18,400, then the following summer he more than paid for his tuition.
But Abhi's early entrepreneurship experience proved far more valuable than his tuition. When he faced difficulty when setting up Clutch Group - in a two day span his first client passed away suddenly, and his first US employee couldn't join his firm because he had just been diagnosed with cancer - he could reflect upon his experience and persevere.
The rest of the panel was equally impressive, insightful and entertaining. Dr. Chiranjeev Kathuria co-founded companies in aerospace (PlanetSpace and MirCorp) and healthcare (American Teleradiology NightHawks), among other firms, along with helping to setup Morgan Stanley's Investment Banking operation in India and running for the US Senate from Illinois in 2004. His comment about entrepreneurship, that "You fall on your butt ten times, then you make a billion." had a certain gravitas coming from someone with his track record.
Rounding out the panel was Adarsh Arora, CEO of Athena Security and co-founder of Lisle Technology Partners, and Manoj Jain, Chairman and Founder of Pipal Research. Other insights from the entrepreneurship panel included:
• Everything that can go wrong will
• Look for the very best people who can add unique value to sales and operations. Giving them equity and making them partners is often cheaper than buying those services.
• C-level penetration is key for quick sales growth; top down sales are faster
• Use networks not to make a sale, but to reach out and have conversations
• As an ENTP, you start feeling lonely often; networks help keep spirits high and life morale, and you have to enjoy the up/down lifestyle
• Look for people who are great, but replaceable
• Think of challenges and intuitional voids when marketing to emerging markets
• Do something you're passionate about, and think about what you bring to the table
• Go for a sector that's well thought of

The day also included a few other keynote talks. Navneet Kapoor, VP of Target India talked about the challenges of expanding into the Indian retail sector, and the ability of a HQ away from HQ to break down silos.
Ambassador Attri, Counsel General of India in Chicago, discussed the recent Indian national elections and the evolution of US-Indian relations. He observed that "the USA is on the way to being a land of minorities, while India already is." In light of recent cooperation on counter-terrorism, joint military operations, and the civilian nuclear agreement, he looked ahead and said "I am convinced that the US and India will move towards closer relations in the years and decades ahead."
The India Leadership Summit was closed by Prof. Raghuram Rajan, who focused on the politics of India. Prof. Rajan framed his talk around 3 major forces at play in India today: rising inequality, population/demographic shifts, and the need to improve human capital. Prof. Rajan also touched upon endemic corruption, and the efforts of the Manmohan Singh's government to break India free.
All in all, the long day was filled with great insights, great speakers, and great food. Hats off to the conference co-chairs, Ritesh Khandelwal, Shilpi Malhotra, and Pooja Rajput, as well as the SABG co-chairs, and everyone else who contributed to planning this event. We'll be looking forward to 2010's ILS!

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools