Stay Hungry Stay Foolish_3

04_Software Cowboysjuly4edit.qxd 7/19/08 3:58 PM Page 51 SOFTWARE COWBOYS 51 “We were the first IT company in the world to get ‘People CMM’or PCMM. So what I am saying is, more importantly, we had built an institution, an organisation which has vision and values.” The values were articulated way back in the ‘90s. Although the vision was a little fuzzy, it all worked very fine. In time, focus got clarified, there was a sense of stability, sense of financial discipline came and now, there is financial muscle as well. But that has happened only in the last 8-9 years. Today, if you look at Mastek, 60% of its balance sheet is liquid, ie cash. And it has not been raised through a public issue or ADR, the company has not gone back to shareholders after 1994.All the money was self-generated. Another important area where Mastek scores is corporate governance. People do not question integrity, character, trust on the numbers that the company publishes.Investing time and effort in building investor relations is always a good idea. Of course, at every level and every size, requirements change and you do what you need to. “Corporate governance was not important in ‘93-94. Because there was no competition for money, our stock markets were not so mature, our analyst community didn`t know what it is.That was not the case by ‘99. So we had to meet the challenge.” It is an ongoing journey and tomorrow may bring something new, who knows? As of 31st March 2008, Mastek is a $200 million company with a strength of 4,000. It celebrated 25 years in the software business with considerable fanfare last year. No doubt a great achievement but one cannot help comparing it with some other names in the software business! Ashank admits the Infosys and Wipros of the world have scaled up much faster - but they followed a strategy of size while Mastek focussed on ‘IT solutions’. Y2K gave these companies a foot in the “Ultimately when you are running a company, you have a risk, you have a responsibility to make it successful. So the buck stops at you. So to that extent, there is a difference between an executive and the owner.” 04_Software Cowboysjuly4edit.qxd 7/19/08 3:58 PM Page 52 STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH 52 door of many Fortune 500 companies. Mastek on the other hand did not climb on board the Y2K bandwagon at all. “There is a DNA for each company. And that DNA has to manifest. So that is why I say again and again, Mastek is a story still unfolding.” And the founders believe in that story and have firmly refused every M&A offer that came its way. “All these years, there was always a constant pressure, somebody coming and saying, ‘Why don`t you join us. Together we will be larger.’ But we never diluted. We said, ‘We want to run this company ourselves. Whatever we want to do, we will do it ourselves.’ We had that confidence. And I don`t think that was a wrong decision.” Ashank is now vice chairman of SINE (Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship). This is an organisation set up by IIT Bombay which mentors and incubates young companies. “I tell young people, we were not as lucky as you guys.You have some support.” But as the Mastek story shows, you don’t wait for someone to step forward and ‘support’your idea.You simply go out there and make it happen. 04_Software Cowboysjuly4edit.qxd 7/19/08 3:58 PM Page 53 SOFTWARE COWBOYS 53 ADVICE TO YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS Ashank: You require a team which feels a trust for each other.And which is willing to designate one of them as a leader.Not based on shareholding alone but respect, trust and competence because that is self sustaining. There is no one formula but I would say yes, get 4-5 years of experience - learn at somebody`s cost if I may use the word. Get a bit of a feel, bit of financial stability, some savings. After all, venture capital is there but you need your own money too. But don`t wait too long. Everyone does not need to build a 100 crore or 1,000 crore company. Small vs big vs superbig is a choice that an entrepreneur makes himself or herself depending upon the ambitions, values and what he likes doing. Sundar: 1. Don`t just think about it, don`t just wish for it, jump into it and do it, if you are really serious. 2. Once you get into it, go all out, never look at quitting as an option. 3. Remember that if the startup fails, it is your idea that failed, not you 4. Great companies are created by great people. There is very little any one individual can achieve alone. Ketan: - Bringing a right team together (more than synergies of skills, synergies of values and attitudes is more critical). - Make plans but remain open to all possibilities as events unfold in the marketplace. - Think big and behave as if you have already accomplished your greatness. We started implementing many practices way ahead of our size. - Retain work-life balance. 05_Giver of All Good Thingsjuly4.qxd 7/19/08 2:35 PM Page 54 STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH 54 GIVER OF ALL GOOD THINGS R Subramanian (PGP `89), Subhiksha He quit his job at Citibank 15 days after joining, feeling restless to do something `more`.That something is today India`s largest grocery chain - Subhiksha. Subramanian famously rebuffed offers from Reliance Retail as he believes the best is `yet to come`. 05_Giver of All Good Thingsjuly4.qxd 7/19/08 2:35 PM Page 55 GIVER OF ALL GOOD THINGS 55 I am really keen to meet R Subramanian. His stores, Subhiksha, are at every street corner but the man himself is a mystery.One reads his name in the papers every now and then but never have I come across any details. The reports are always about the 100 new Subhiksha stores being opened. Or about a ‘buyout’ by Reliance Retail. Which he denies, each time. Yeh kaun sa banda hai jo hanste hue Reliance ko “No ,thank you” kehne ki aukaat rakhta hai? Those questions, and more, were answered when I met R Subramanian at his sales office in middle class Matunga. It`s a smallish space on the first floor of a residential building, right opposite Ruia college - a functional office, with a lot of people and activity.There is a buzz in the air, a sense of the heat and dust of the marketplace. Unlike the ‘five degrees too cold for comfort’ office of any large multinational. Subramanian, or RS as he prefers to be called, is also warm and expansive. He apologises profusely for being 15 minutes late. We settle into the conference room and begin our chat. ... - tailieumienphi.vn