Musings of an Indian Venture Capitalist!

For someone who was born in the 70s when closed economy, public sector enterprises and government jobs were the order of the day, the liberalisation of economy in 1991 marked the first radical change in the economic landscape and I was awestruck witnessing the changes it unleashed. For the first time, private sector jobs started becoming enviable, business education was being looked upon as a professional course at par with engineering and medical studies, travelling to shores beyond India became possible for those in the middle income group – thanks to private companies sending employees abroad for knowledge acquisition and service delivery.

Coupled with quality business education, process and technology knowledge acquired from developed countries and a crop of seasoned professionals, Indian private companies started becoming Global Companies – establishing operations across the globe, recruiting foreign nationals and serving / selling to foreign markets. During this period, with multi-national teams working on global projects, Eastern and Western management principles merged. We learned Deming principles from our Japanese colleagues, applied the Art of War in corporate settings thanks to our Chinese colleagues, perfected corporate processes with help from our American colleagues, learned perfect business communication and etiquette from our British and European colleagues, learned the art of survival from our African colleagues and picked up fun office party tips from our Australian colleagues.

Today, with social media and network, we continue to share ideas with people across the globe outside corporate settings and with technology enabled education, we attend the best lectures on marketing, finance, technology and human resource management from Harvard, Yale and Carnegie sitting in Hyderabad, Yercaud and Calcutta. With these changes, it is not surprising to see children in school discussing technology, entrepreneurship, governance and social change. 

As a venture capitalist, the change in Indian landscape and opportunities on the horizon make me jump from the bed in the morning, looking forward to a day filled with discussions of bright ideas with a bunch of enterprising start uppers. While the growing number of entrepreneurs is crowding the space heating up competition, what still needs to be seen is  quality ideas that can scale up, produce world class products, services and create mass jobs. 

While it is perfectly normal to start the long, tiring entrepreneurial journey with a simple idea, having the intention of working towards letting the idea gain momentum coupled with patience, integrity and a vision is important to create an enterprise the size of an Infosys or the success of Google.

When we are looking at a future India where CEOs are best suited to rule the country over politicians and actors, it is important to recognise that Entrepreneurship is not a get-rich-quick route but a great concept to create tangible and sustainable social change in a country like India where governance has fallen short of expectations. 

Let us raise the entrepreneurial bar!