Soft Skills

The making of an entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs are made, not necessarily born, writes Rohit Agarwal.

I am a contradiction. I believe every Indian is born an entrepreneur, yet I believe for India to maintain its growth, we need to “make” more entrepreneurs.

R Buckminster Fuller said, “Every child is born a genius—9,999 out of every 10,000 are swiftly, inadvertently, de-geniused by grown-ups.” Albert Einstein agrees. Picasso said, “Every child is born an artist. The trick is to remain an artist.”

There’s a trend here. And the trend can easily be extended to entrepreneurship and innovation in technology. The growth in the Indian technology and services industry (IT and BPO) has created a strong “service-centric economy” built on the movement of jobs from overseas to an abundant, highly educated, English speaking labour force. India’s challenge doesn’t seem to be proving that the IT/BPO firms can win business or maintain clients. It is that India needs to shift from a service-based economy to an “innovation-based economy” and that’s very new to us. We’ve all talked about it, and continue to talk about it. But why is it that Google, 8-year-old, with approximately 6,000 employees is worth $128.36 billion, and Infosys, India’s star, is 25-year-old, with approximately 53,000 employees, and is worth $28.95 billion. If we total up all the major Indian IT and BPO firms, the market valuations of all of them combined would probably not come close to that of a Google, Oracle, SAP, or Microsoft.

I believe India will claim the title of the global hub of IT and will be the de-facto destination for innovation and entrepreneurship in software and services. I also believe that in order for that to come true, India will have to “make” many more entrepreneurs.

Every Indian is a born entrepreneur. Every Indian has it in them to innovate. Ask the person standing in line for a movie ticket if he’s thought of figuring a way to get a ticket faster if the line wasn’t moving fast enough. Or the driver who’s stuck in a traffic jam if he’s thought of using the opposite lane to make his way through. Every single day in every single life in our country, we have people who use innovative ways to “short circuit” a process that the rest of the world would follow without question. If that’s not innovation, what is? By definition, entrepreneurs in technology make a living out of “short circuiting” a process—something that the world was used to doing a certain way, they figure out how to do it in less time, with less resources, or with better efficiency/accuracy.

The question is—if every one of us is a born entrepreneur and destined to innovate, what happens to the spark in us? And why is it that I believe we need to make more entrepreneurs? Simply, as Einstein and Buckminster Fuller and Picasso said—we are de-geniused, we don’t remain artists—life takes over and teaches us to live lives of “competent mediocritys”.

In order for us to make more entrepreneurs, we need to focus on creating an environment where innovation thrives and entrepreneurship can be developed. This innovation environment will be the backbone of what will make India claim it’s position as the global IT superpower.

The Indian IT/BPO employee is usually one who is bright, educated, and creative. They’re attracted to the financial incentive offered by the industry, but soon are disheartened by the repetitive nature of the work, as well as the lack of creativity. There’s an inherent entrepreneur in every one of the workers, which isn’t being brought out by the same old work, every single day. It doesn’t matter if they’re answering phones for a credit card company, or setting up servers for them, it’s the same old work—every single day. There’s a mismatch between what people believe themselves to be capable of, and what they’re doing on a daily basis.

To make entrepreneurs, we have to get people to feel good about their work achievements.

Everywhere around us, we read about YouTube being built in 18 months by three young entrepreneurs for $1.65 billion, or mySpace being worth billions of dollars. The expectations of the Indian IT/BPO worker is to make it big, and make it quick. There’s not much education on what it takes to build companies, not much career management on how their current work gets them on a path to build something some day, and no insight into what really goes on to build these successful companies, or mention of the thousands of others companies that are being built that are successful other than a Google or a YouTube.

To make entrepreneurs, we have to educate people about how they fit into the innovation ecosystem, and what it takes to build companies.

The Indian IT/BPO employee has no channel that I know of to express their creative side. They’re expected to do their daily work, but discouraged to venture into anything creative, sometimes for security reasons, mostly for corporate paranoia. Companies block access to chat, message boards, and other forms of collaboration with peers, which is a requirement for the employee to tap into their creative energies. They’re not encouraged to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions of any kind, and I mean encouragement in tangible form, not just words. I don’t expect Indian IT companies to require employees to spend 20 of their time on “innovation projects” like Google does, but do expect them to reward “collaborative innovation”—within and across corporate boundaries to innovate and be entrepreneurial.

To make entrepreneurs, we have to encourage people to connect with others, showcase their work, and promote themselves.

So, if we are to “make many more entrepreneurs”, we need to create an environment that not only rewards the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation, but requires it. It means companies require employees to form “founding teams” within their work environment and come up with innovative solutions. It means companies reward employees who assist others in their innovative endeavours, for no benefit. It also means companies being proud of employees who may venture out on their own. Such an environment creates a culture that breeds innovation, and brings out the entrepreneur in each of us.

Rohit Agarwal is the Founder and CEO of techTribe Networks