Printed from 'There is continued opportunity for innovation here' 16 Oct 2009, 0422 hrs IST Anirvan Ghosh, ET Bureau Infosys chief mentor NR Narayana Murthy is currently busy giving shape to his next big dream—launching a private equity fund. In an interview with Anirvan Ghosh, he explains his role as a mentor, why some businesses fail and how to ensure knowledge creation is in sync with customer needs. Excerpts: It’s been 28 years since you started Infosys. How easy or difficult will it be to create another Infosys now? I think there is continued opportunity for innovation here, and so it will in 2050. As long as you have minds who can convert ideas into marketable products, you will be able to create institutions. But yes, raising funds is much easier these days. Yet, we see more ventures failing than succeeding. Why is that so? That is so mainly because the entrepreneur does not understand how his idea can add value to the existing system. I have met many such people myself. Has Infosys been engaged in any projects to help start-ups or small firms with its software expertise? Not in India. But in the US, yes, we have collaborated with people. For instance, DN Prahlad, who was a senior VP with Infosys, started his own risk management company called Surya Systems. We helped him and now offer that software with our financial software, Finacle. How about plans to launch a PE or VC fund and lend financial support to those with ideas? Yes, I have contemplated that. And I am planning to launch a fund sooner or later. I have had talks with some of my friends. But I have not made a concrete decision as yet. I will decide soon. What is your role as chief mentor? When we started our leadership institute, we found that professional development required classroom training, application of training to real situations, and mentoring. Among all three, mentoring is the only one which is a voluntary private relationship between the mentor and the mentee. So people can discuss problems at work and also in their personal lives with the mentor. I happen to be the first such mentor at Infosys, and when I retired the board of directors wanted me to continue the task. Do you mentor people only in Infosys or outside that as well? For the most part, I mentor Infoscions. But I have helped others too, who had good entrepreneurial ideas. Many Infoscions have become entrepreneurs. You encourage them, but you lose talent, don’t you? I believe in one thing above all, that the dreams of Infoscians who want to start on their own is as important as my dreams when I started out in 1981. So I encourage them to follow their dreams. Many Infosions put up their ideas to me. I assess whether the the person has the requisite attributes. If he does not have them, then I suggest that he first needs to develop them. Also, even if someone has left Infosys, my doors are always open for them. How do you ensure knowledge creation in sync with customer needs? For that we made our Knowledge Management System, in which were built ideas from university professors, academic research papers, our customers, and the ideas we developed while creating software for clients. We incorporated those best practices into the knowledge system. That is available at the touch of a button to every Infosys member to see and learn. As most of this knowledge emanates from customers and from our own research, it is always aligned with customer needs. And as the latter changes, we are on top of it. What are these attributes? Well, the person should have an idea whose value to the market can be conveyed in a single sentence. For example, my idea will reduce costs by this much, or it will raise customer comfort by this much and so on. Second, the market should be ready for that idea. Thirdly, the entrepreneur should be able to assemble a good team with complementary skills. Fourth, a sound value system is most important. It is all about making sacrifices in the short term and there are no shortcuts. And finally, he should be able to raise money for his venture.

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Expats set up shop here to beat the blues at home 28 Oct 2009, 2050 hrs IST, Anirvan Ghosh, ET Bureau

BANGALORE: James Sullivan, 41, has found salvation in the holy city of Varanasi. Once a master chef, he lost his job twice in one year, first in Chicago in early 2007 after working for 10 years as the hotel trimmed costs, and then in Mumbai, where he was employed by a four-star hotel. Then, on a visit to Varanasi, he realised that the city didn’t have good restaurants serving continental cuisine and saw an opportunity to set up one that would cater to the large number of foreign visitors that throng India’s religious capital all year round. When many of his friends in the US were losing jobs or money during the recession, ‘Bread of Life’ became in reality what it meant. It was helping Sullivan earn a good living during tough economic times and make plans for the future. Starting with a couple of lakhs of rupees and three waiters two years ago, Sullivan now has 20 employees and is planning to expand to Delhi and Lucknow with a Rs 50-lakh investment. He recently bought an apartment, is sending his daughter to school and plans to make India his home. Sullivan is among the hundreds of expats who have found that the severe economic crisis in rich nations can be turned into an opportunity in India. Compared to the US or Europe, where there are products and services in every segment, even niches, India is a big market, with few or no players, that remains untapped in many ways. “When you fall on hard times, you tend to prove you are tougher than others,” says John Howard, who makes solar-powered LED lights for sale in rural India. After he graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2006, he worked for a while but always wanted to be an entrepreneur. And rural India was a big market for solar-powered LED lamps. “When I came here, I found rural India, especially in northern India, has severe power cuts. I knew solar-powered LED lights could be a solution. He trudged through remote villages in UP, using an interpreter, and managed to find distributors. Since November 2008, he launched his business with investments by angel investors in the US. “India is now the new land of opportunity and thousands of expats are making a beeline to Indian cities to nurture their dream of setting up their business," says Neill Brownstein, owner of Footprint Ventures, which funds startups by expats as well as Indians. A majority of the estimated 50,000 expat workers in India live in Bangalore and many of them are employed with multinational tech firms. A few enterprising ones, however, have set up their own small businesses. Emma Trinidad came to India’s tech capital in the middle of the recession to find herself a job after the US firm which used to source cosmetics from her decided to cut production. A resident of the Philippines, she eventually launched a spa, S2, about a year ago and is already the talk of the town. “While the world saw a slump in spending, surprisingly Bangaloreans continued to spend on luxury,” she says. With the economy now showing signs of an upswing, Trinidad is already planning to expand to other cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Across town, Italian master chef Paolo Nonino, a co-owner of Via Milano, one of the most popular and highest rated Italian restaurants in Bangalore, is also planning to go national. So is Chris Baker, a British national, who started a recommendation-based directory service to smoothen relocation into the city for citizens from his country of origin. But it’s not all a bed of roses for them. Red tapism in getting permits to start a new business is the biggest headache. And a recent government decision requiring foreigners working on business visas to have them converted to employment visas has caught many off guard. “A uniform policy, and more openness would be good instead of such sudden actions,” says Alexander Moore, MD, LJ Hooker. Chef Nonino worked for a quarter of a century with popular restaurants in his native Italy before deciding to come down to Bangalore and start what is probably the city’s best Italian restaurant. “If this had not started off, I would have been jobless,” says Nonino. He recently started a second restaurant and plans to add a couple more this year. Even the world of arts has seen its share of expats finding their place under the Indian sun. When Christopher Langford lost his job with a dance troupe due to a leg injury a year ago, he chose to remain in Mumbai, where he had come with his group for a show. He decided to give dance lessons for educational institutions and makes enough today to send his kids to an international school. His clients include top theatre groups and even aspiring Bollywood actors. Sociologist KK Mishra, who has taught at the Banaras Hindu University and Bangalore University, says the story of expat entrepreneurs in India is a dream that only the US once promised. “You can achieve the American Dream here, give your kids a decent education and live a good life.”