 CEO Connect At DoMS
The Department of Management Studies (DoMS), IIT Madras, played host to Dr Surinder Kapur, CEO & Managing Director of Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd, on February 9, 2006. In an interactive session with the students, Dr Kapur talked on the requirements of a budding entrepreneur and the challenges they would face. The speaker began with a question, “Who am I? What have I done?” Dr Kapur gave an insight into what makes people successful or drives them to failure.
Talking about entrepreneurship, he said everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, to be a Mahindra, a Tata in the making. For this entire process it’s very important to dream, which has become easier today because of the newer technology and the better infrastructure available. But realising dreams requires a lot of effort. What we look in a leader is for the billions he made, but what is more important is to look into the leadership qualities. He illustrated the case of dreaming by giving the case of Azim
Premji.
The reply to how to become an entrepreneur, according to him, would depend on the one who asks. Real entrepreneurs want to break away from constraints, get power and be independent. Often the ticket from an institute like IIT helps but the real entrepreneur would have a churning and a desire to succeed inside.
Dr Kapur went on to speak about his family background of jewellery retail and how he was led to become an engineer. Financial conditions led him to choosing Michigan State University over Stanford and NY University. He did his Ph.D. from there and this entire experience led to his development in self-belief and confidence.
According to Dr Kapur, he had never worked for money, he always worked to become an industrialist, to be like a Mahindra, a Tata. And for him the moment of revelation came when he first shook hands with Mahindra and later formed a joint venture with their company, Sona-Mahindra. The initial years, when he first approached Maruti with a proposal of forming a new business model, he was laughed at by the then market leaders. But the success of the model changed the equation of the market.
Dr Kapur said there were seven challenges a start-up would face. These included recognising the right dream and developing the organisation structure and the people. Stating a Zen saying, Dr Kapur said, “A mission without knowledge is like a boat on dry land.” Another important point was to realise that problems are part of every process. It is also important to learn to handle success and to stick to one’s own knitting. He illustrated this by quoting the example of his own failure in the software realm that wasn’t his core competence. Learning continuously, nobility of thought and belief in God were among the seven important factors to keep in mind while growing.
Answering the questions of the students and the staff Dr Kapur laid emphasis on the fact that entrepreneurship was a teachable art. He also laid stress on the importance of emotions for an entrepreneur. As a piece of advice to the students, he emphasised the importance of formal education for an entrepreneur.
Anoop Bhatt
MBA student
|
