• News Impact

The second Young Turks Conclave—Power of Dreams—was organized recently in the national capital. Moderated by Shereen Bhan, Executive Editor, CNBC TV18, the conclave saw the likes of Kiran Majumdar Shaw, R Balki, Aditya Ghosh, Ajay Jadeja, Rajeev Samant and Kishore Biyani share their dreams and success stories.

Entrepreneurship is not a destination but a journey
Kiran Majumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon, took the stage first and recalled how in 1978 she had set out to become a brew master but ended up being an entrepreneur. “I never planned to become an entrepreneur. I wanted to be a brew master. However, I failed to become one. I think my gender was one of the reasons for not being able to achieve my aim.”

According to her, entrepreneurship is all about succeeding without giving up. In 1978, she started from a garage with a shoestring budget of Rs.10,000. Today, she runs India’s first and Asia’s largest biotech company. “Innovation teaches you to take risks. One should not be an imitator but a differentiator. Today, the 6,000 employees at Biocon are driven by the spirit of innovation,” said Shaw.

When it comes to evaluating business, there is a gender bias but it needs to be understood that one has to tackle it better and take risks, she added. “Innovation is about a new concept. But the biggest problem that entrepreneurs face is getting funded. Indian investors fear taking risk but I am different because I haven’t shied away from taking risks,” she said.

Dream is to fly
One of the newest airlines in the country, it is the only one which is profitable. Hence, it is not surprising that when Indigo Airlines President Aditya Ghosh took the stage, everyone was eager to know the success formula. “Nearly six years ago when we thought of a low-fare, good-quality airline, it was a difficult thing to achieve. We wanted to offer something different and change the view that low cost is equal to low quality. When buying a ticket, a customer never thinks of the food he’ll get on the flight, the color of the seats and carpets or the hem lines of the air hostess’s uniform. It’s the low fare but good-quality service that attracts customers. We provided that,” said Ghosh. At Indigo, we focus on timings of flights, hassle-free journey and low price, he added.

Perfect high
Rajeev Samant had a good job at Oracle in the US when he decided to shift back home. “I wanted to live a part of my life in a big city and the rest on a country side. When I shifted back to Mumbai I could see myself staying at the countryside. We had some land in Nashik and I thought of putting it to use by growing something on it,” said Samant.
Contrary to the popular belief that he always loved wine, Samant says his knowledge of wines was very limited until his Californian girlfriend introduced him to wine. “I fought with bureaucrats for three years and sold wine illegally during those days. My big break came when the Taj Group of Hotels decided to list my wine in their menu,” said Samant. Today, Sula is India’s premier wine producer and sells 5.5 billion bottles annually.

Living dreams
Wanting to be an IT professional, he landed up in the world of advertisement at the age of 23. “The reason why I am here is because I find life boring. When I was young, people told me to try this and that but I found everything boring except for cricket and movies,” said R Balki as he talked about living his dreams via films and adverts. “Everything that I could not do in real life, I did in my films and advertisements,” said Balki. Cinema allows you to live life the way you want to and put your imagination to practice, he added.

Selling dreams
He’s must be the only one to say this to you—make mistakes and achieve success. For the king of retail, Kishore Biyani, success has not come easy. While he tried his hand at every sector in the retail space, the downturn has left him wiser. As he tries to streamline and consolidate his business, Biyani says he is not sure that he will not commit another mistake. “Mistakes are a part of life. My retail story has been talked about, how I followed a dream. But I did everything—food, fashion, etc., made a lot of mistakes, and learned from those.” His new dream, he said, was to build new brands and mentor businesses.

Perspectives from sports and politics
For Ajay Jadeja, former Vice Captain of the Indian cricket team, sports and business are similar. “The elimination method was how I chose cricket. There was absolutely nothing else that I wanted to do or could do well. For me, passion always comes first and that is what makes one successful, be it sports or business,” said Jadeja.

Meanwhile, talking about the credibility crisis in Indian polity, Haryana’s commerce and industries minister RS Surjewala talked of the ways to overcome this and the challenges ahead. “India’s demographics also pose a big challenge. There is a credibility crisis in India’s polity and I think people need less of Government in their lives,” said Surjewala.