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 Back
in the late 80s, I wrote a lot of ads for a Delhi-based computer
company. One with a reputation for gun-slinging cowboy execs who
pulled off market stunts that their competition-straight-laced idli-sambar
boys from Bangalore-couldn't.
Tales were legion. Bricks were supposedly sealed
and delivered when PCs could not be, and then replaced days later.
During a demo of a supposedly blazing fast copier, someone hid under
a table pushing out pre-photocopied samples because the machine
malfunctioned at the last minute. One day, someone will write a
book about those early, crazy days of the Indian technology business.
This Indian cowboy company grew at triple-digit
rates till it was acquired by a big US company. And then went on
to become stodgier than its eternal rival, the southie sunflower-oil-and-software
company.
Those were the days of the Apple-IBM battles-and
I used to live through its Indian counterpart every day. Street-smart
rebels taking on brains in starched blue shirts. (Anyone notice
the similarity with Star Wars-or Linux vs. Microsoft?)
Today, of course, the entrepreneurs behind
both those Indian companies are phenomenally successful, and wealthy
beyond belief. Just as Steve Jobs and the more anonymous IBM CEOs
are. So both might be viable routes for success. But the difference
I see is that my ex-client-and, analogously, Apple-threw off far
more entrepreneurs from its ranks than IBM and its plain Jane desi
double ever did.
Entrepreneurial companies, it seems, are breeding
grounds for entrepreneurs. I look for that combination of lateral
thinking and near-foolish recklessness in the people I meet. To
me, it's a good sign that someone's got the spark to be a good entrepreneur.
I am reminded of a story involving one of the
co-founders of a tech company. Deep into a presentation to a technology
buyer with a billion-dollar budget, he realised there was a much
bigger opportunity than what he had come there to sell. He excused
himself, asked for a second meeting. He sat that night in a hotel
room with presentation and graphics programmes-and went back the
next day with screenshots, a presentation, datasheets and a white
paper of a product that blew the client away.
What was more impressive was that the product
didn't exist till a few minutes before the meeting.
One of my war stories involves being broke
and hungry one night when I worked as a door-to-door salesman. I
used to wear a shirt and a tie to work-and ended up gatecrashing
a large, high society wedding reception, greeting the confused couple
with smiles, then gorging myself and leaving before too many questions
were asked.
You've certainly heard such tales before-and
even seen it happen among your friends. You may even feel that these
people have that special something-I call it the 'jugaad gene'-that
will take them places. I'd agree with you.
I look for that gene not just in entrepreneurs-but
also in regular hires for companies. Give me, any day, a gutsy street-fighter
over some college-topping bookworm and I'll give you a company that's
likely to succeed faster than its rivals.
How do you find that spark in people? Certainly
resume-filtering won't locate it for you. More important, how do
you create an educational environment where this can grow and flourish?
I was lucky that my high school and college
days were full of quizzing, debating and other non-curricular events
that forced one to stretch one's grey matter in unfamiliar ways.
Our renewed emphasis on rote learning is surely killing that creative
spirit in the generations to come.
I take solace in the fact that the more people
are taught to follow the beaten track, the easier it is to find
the few, the crazy, the mad that follow the road less travelled.
These are the ones that make all the difference.
Mahesh Murthy, an angel investor, heads
Passionfund. He earlier ran Channel V and, before that, helped launch
Yahoo! and Amazon at a Valley-based interactive marketing firm.
Reach him at Mahesh@passionfund.com.
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