ENTREPRENEURSHIP SPECIAL................ I Hope Entrepreneurship Catches on in Manufacturing, Too

I Hope Entrepreneurship Catches on in Manufacturing, Too





Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej Group, on what he can learn from the startup phenomenon and his advice to the new crop of entrepreneurs

On the startup phenomenon

I think this is creating a tremendous boom in India. Not just India, it is also happening in the US and China too; it is more of a global phenomenon. Although this is happening only in certain categories, it will be good for India.I feel ecommerce can be more successful than modern retail.

On how the current crop of entrepreneurs compares with that of earlier generations

Every generation, or maybe I should say every few years, a new and different type of entrepreneur emerg es. Today there is much more of technology in use, and there is a wider variety of success stories being created. Every generation will throw up its own share of entrepreneurs.

On how their approach differs from the telecom and infrastructure entrepreneurs

Obviously they are different; they are in a service industry and not in manufacturing.In fact, this is where I am a little concerned. I see every entrepreneur is trying to work in the service industry and there are not enough people who are willing to get into manufacturing of products. I hope that part of entrepreneurship also catches on.

On the likelihood of the entrepreneurs of today going on to become the captains of industry

They will have to emerge as leaders of their own industry first.

On his words of advice for them

Like every generation of entrepreneurs you will have to differentiate yourself, you cannot just copy another business model and hope to succeed because someone else succeeded with that business model. You must also be persistent. If you can differen tiate yourself and be persistent, you can succeed.

On how his group is keeping pace with the startup phenomenon

We have tried to take all our consumer facing businesses, including Godrej Properties, online by offering our products on the web. We also ac quired EkStop, an ecommerce startup, and integrated it with Nature's Basket to make all Nature's Bas ket products available online.