• leadership

“There is no room for doubt in an entrepreneurs’ mind,” Phaneesh Murthy, CEO, iGate Patni asserted at a session organized by Entrepreneur magazine in association with private wealth management company Client Associates at Mumbai’s ITC Grand Central hotel on October 18. The session was second in the Guru Mantra series of Entrepreneur Magazine.
Being asked about his moment of self-doubt, 48-year-old Murthy said he underwent one after his 11th standard when, on his father’s advice, he appeared for and cleared the entrance test for the Indian Institute of Technology. The scores allowing him admission to any branch of the institute and his preference being medicine, he was doubtful if he should go for an engineering degree. However, since he decided to go for an engineering degree and join IIT, he hasn’t had any major moment of self-doubt, he said.
Murthy was the mentor for the evening as he shared snippets of knowledge that he has picked up along his entrepreneurial journey over the years. Having worked at a startup in the early days of his career, Murthy closely understands the problems, challenges and, more importantly, the opportunities that startups face.
Murthy began his career at a startup called Sonata Software after his post graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He, thereafter, went on to join Infosys in 1992. Infosys in those days had revenues of less than Rs.9 crore. He was offered to manage the company’s overseas business. When Murthy left Infosys in 2002, the company’s revenues had grown manifolds, a large share of which came from Murthy’s contributions to the company.
Speaking to the entrepreneurs about their concerns over raising capital and worries over finance, Murthy said in a lighter vein that the best part about raising finance through investors was that all the money related worries would be the investors’ and all the entrepreneurs have to do is a good job. “Leave the worries of money to those who have invested in the company,” he smiled.
Murthy also shared his experience of having gained a higher level of self-confidence by trying his hand at adventure sports. He even ventured into a car race and though he finished second-last, it helped his intended cause of feeling more confident and reassuring himself of his risk-taking abilities. He now tries his hand at some adventure sport annually, including sky diving and cliff jumping, which put him outside his comfort zone.

Answering a query on the need of a mentor in an entrepreneur’s life, Murthy said more than a mentor an entrepreneur needs to believe in his idea and have the ability to give the idea his 100 percent. He said that when he was beginning his journey as an entrepreneur, there wasn’t as much access to entrepreneurial mentoring as there is now. However, those who are working on developing a business and are devoting hours after fulfilling the commitments of their regular jobs are not entrepreneurs, according to Murthy. “It reflects a lack of belief in one’s own business idea. I was once asked by someone that ‘I am wondering if I should become an entrepreneur, what should I do?’ I replied in the negative. It is very important for an entrepreneur to believe in his idea and in the potential to make it work. There is no room for doubt.” If any time one feels it won’t work, it probably won’t, he said, and encouraged entrepreneurs to have complete faith in their business idea.
Interestingly, when Murthy started his company Quintant with just four employees, he built an office space enough for 20,000 with a vision of expanding his business to reach that level. His company was acquired by iGate and even though he didn’t initially want to sell the company when the acquisition offer came, he went ahead with it since it was what his partners wanted. He was offered the role of the CEO of iGate. Before he joined, five CEOs had quit the company in the previous four years. Back then in 2003, the company’s revenue stood at about Rs.300 crore. On October 18 this year, iGate Patni released its third quarter results which stood at Rs.937 crore.
Giving the real gurumantra, Murthy told entrepreneurs that most acquisition decisions are just emotional decisions explained rationally. Using the same spreadsheet he could give the pros and cons of selling a business, he claimed. Replying later to one of the entrepreneurs, Murthy said all of his acquisition decisions were made emotionally.
Towards the end of the session, Murthy joined the entrepreneurs for dinner and candidly discussed the roadblocks they face while scaling their businesses and openly shared insights from his experience.

Tags:
Guru Mantra, iGate, Patni Computers, Phaneesh Murthy