Tips for Entrepreneurs

These are excerpts from an interview with Mahesh Murthy, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, and published on Rediff.com. [emphasis added]

[One what is needed to start and run a successful company]

The conviction that the whole world is wrong and that you are right. The ability to resist giving in to the temptation of listening to others or being ‘reasonable.’ And, of course, some foolishness!

[On reasons for his success]

Perhaps that I'm foolhardy, unreasonable and foolish!

[On importance of education for an entrepreneur]

The content of what you study is completely useless. In fact, if you do a typical MBA at a typical business school, you will almost never become a successful entrepreneur…

You are taught to be an 'employee' and not an 'employer,' and you are actually handicapped compared to someone who hasn't gone through the degree programme…

[On future of the Indian IT industry]

We barely have an IT industry, we have an IS (information services) industry and all we offer is lower-cost services.

There is very little technology we develop.

Over time, our stability and growth will not come from sweatshops like Infosys, TCS and Wipro, but from companies that create brand and market their own products, getting larger profit margins and a reputation in the process.

[On Innovation in Indian companies]

Well, we have the ability to innovate. Our brains are at least as big as anybody else's. But what we need are not brains but guts and support…

There is no route to be a global player other than to produce the best products in the world -- 'products', mind you, not 'services'.

[On lessons learnt]

No one knows anything, least of all any supposed management guru or consultant or expert. You can discover your own rules and create your own playing field. It is better to move in business as an innovative naive person than as a cautious experienced person.

[Message to entrepreneurs]

Don't listen to the Gartners, the IDGs, the BCGs, the KPMGs, the PwCs. They know nothing! Reject the job offers from the Goldmans and the Lehmans… Why do your B.Tech in Computers and MBA in marketing to become a banker?

Understand the gaps in the market. Create a product that can service those needs better than anybody else can, sustainably and do it at a really low cost.

And dream big. The earth's the limit.