Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group and a former president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), urged the youth to dare and dream big at an interactive session at Yi-India@75-CII Confab, The Importance of Youth Entrepreneurship in Shaping India’s Economy, in association with The Telegraph.
Edited excerpts from his speech.
Entrepreneurship
It is not the preserve of people who have capital. Today’s technology, today’s venture capital funding… just make sure if you have a good idea, if you are organised, you will get capital.
All you need to do is believe in yourself, believe in your idea, dare to dream and dream big, don’t dream small. And if you do that…. I think there’s no stopping you.
Entrepreneurship is about trying something interesting, innovative and succeeding in it. Whoever would have thought, 10 years ago, that Anjan Chatterjee (of Mainland China) would have a valuation of Rs 1,000 crore ….
Look at Anamika Khanna… today she does profits of Rs 50 crore…. Look at Sabyasachi Mukherjee, he does profits of Rs 50-60 crore…. But 10 years ago they didn’t have that much capital. So it’s possible.
The youth
I think the great difference between us and the next generation is impatience. You can call it speed. You can call it a very quick desire to succeed. There is a kind of confidence, which stems from knowledge that you all have, access to knowledge that you all have, which borders on arrogance. You have minds that challenge convention, that challenge routine. You are not scared of the unknown. You are not scared of an unpleasant answer. You have minds that dare to dream and that has the confidence to succeed.
When I interacted with students at IIT Kharagpur… when I interact with students at IMI (International Management Institute), I actually feel a sense of great pride, a sense of great optimism, because the minds are so sharp.
And I think we as elders have the responsibility to give you the freedom of operation, freedom to think, freedom to actually just go out and perform without being bound by convention, rules or regulation.
If you are scared of making wrong decisions, you will not land up making decisions. Out of 10, if you get 6 right, you’ve done very well. I mean 6:4… 6 right, 4 wrong is a fantastic ratio.
First day at CESC
When you are 27 you are somewhat stupid… not in this generation, but in our generation certainly. It was this whole thing of wanting to prove to myself that I can turn a city that is notorious for power cuts into a city that doesn’t have power cuts. I believed I could do it.
It took me longer than I thought… but I must tell you when I entered the CESC office the first day…. At the building’s entrance, the workers had built a funeral pyre. They had an effigy… they kept saying ‘Sanjiv Goenka murdabad’.
When I entered the office, they lit the funeral pyre. So that was my baptism…. It was horrific to say the least. I was viewed with suspicion. I was viewed as somebody who was a rich man’s son and therefore an upstart. I was greeted with hostility.
I must confess I got fazed; I didn’t let anyone realise it, excepting my wife…. The fact that today Calcutta is free of loadshedding gives me the greatest amount of satisfaction. And I think somewhere up there, my father must be pleased.
Renewable energy
When you look at solar or wind (energy), you are not dependent on anyone to supply you fuel. Today, coal is one of the most precious things and it’s an expensive thing and thereby it means that the power that you generate from coal will be expensive.
Technology is bringing down costs…. Give it another couple of years and costs will go down further. I think that’s the stage when solar and wind (energy) will take off in a big way….
The challenge there will be land…. With the new land acquisition bill, as it is proposed, it’s going to be difficult or almost impossible to get land; and if you don’t get land, solar (energy) will certainly become out of the question.
Music World was set up for a purpose and I can’t afford carrying on businesses that make losses. Nobody buys physical CDs, and cassettes and DVDs anymore…. It’s not what one can afford to do; it’s about what is sensible to be done.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by A Staff Reporter / Monday – August 17th, 2015