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ISB Alumni Scales New Heights in Entrepreneurship |
“Entrepreneurship is spicy. If you like it, you will enjoy every bite,” says ISB alumni Subramani Ramachandrappa, Subbu to friends, from the Class of 2004 at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Founder and CEO of Richcore Lifesciences, a Bangalore based application-research based bio-pharmaceutical company, which, started in 2001 from a single bedroom apartment with a single employee, his sister, Subbu has indeed traversed the entire road -from start up to success.
 Today Richcore intends to reach a market valuation of $45 million in the next three years, and go public thereafter. Its ultimate objective is to become an integrated multinational biotech company. Recently Subbu was profiled in a study conducted by the National Knowledge Commission, 2008 on ‘Entrepreneurship in India’. He has also been nominated as the Honorary Ambassador for the DST-Intel India Innovation Pioneer Challenge in partnership with Indo-US Science and Technology Forum. It was at the ISB, Subbu acknowledges, that he acquired the requisite feelers needed to sense potential business opportunities. “Some of the best brains about whom I had only read in books, excellent teachers and exemplary peers constantly edged me to surpass,” he recalls.
We caught up with him and came to understand why entrepreneurship, according to him, is not another job. It is his life.
What is the reality of being an entrepreneur in India?
A start up entrepreneur is no more considered as a fool or a maverick. Today entrepreneurship in India has become a viable career option, maybe the best. No more is it the only option left for a school drop-out.
Thanks to the reforms in the early 90’s and the continued support from the policy makers, the country has been able to nurture a great entrepreneurial momentum. Unlike in the past, today’s entrepreneurs do not have to worry about what to do or when to do; to me this redefines the rules of entrepreneurship in India. The positives of an open economy and the unprecedented technological changes have escalated the confidence of young India. This in my opinion will further fuel entrepreneurial activity.
How do you perceive the entrepreneurship quotient of young India? Is the scene optimistic or are there more road blocks?
I have always believed India is a country of entrepreneurs, and the timing is just right. Indians were never short of business acumen or ability. We did the best we could, given the constraints on resources and limited exposure to the outside world. With a flat world order, our playground just got bigger.
However, while entrepreneurial opportunities have increased the operational challenges remain the same. A typical entrepreneur, even to this day, struggles to access information to regulatory/statutory protocols, infrastructure, human resources and market data. I am however optimistic that the government will in due course bring about some form of a single window system which will make things a lot easier for the new generation.
While I am positive about the pace and vigour among the new breed of entrepreneurs, I am a tad worried about the segments in which we see entrepreneurial activity. Over the last few years, I have been fortunate to interact with several want-to-be entrepreneurs and the flavour of the decade seems to be service related businesses. Yes, I do agree that the service industry is a growth sector and will continue to grow in double digits over the next five years, but there is an obvious neglect towards core businesses, which are critical and necessary to support the future and conserve the shrinking natural resources.
Can we stomach risks well?
Like I mentioned earlier, Indians are used to adversities and we have always bounced back for extreme situations. Every Indian knows that challenges and risks are part of our daily lives. We deal with constraints and risks from road traffic to terrorism. Risks arising out of doing your own business are much simpler. I don’t see why an Indian entrepreneur cannot stomach risks better than one from other developed countries.
Share some views about your initiative entrepreneursindia.com
During my journey as an entrepreneur; I have come across several hurdles in critical areas such as statutory compliance, regulatory issues, finance, infrastructure, human resource etc. Many a time I have wished there was a single point for assistance. This, I know, is a common problem for most start-up companies, and I perceived an opportunity there. I have embarked on another venture to help other entrepreneurs in their early days. I am working on launching entrepreneursindia.com, which will be an one stop solution for all start up ventures, providing information and affordable consultancy services which are currently not available to small entrepreneurs. The new initiative will have advisors for all aspects of business, starting from ideation to funding and operations, thus helping avoid pit falls which many a times causes the entrepreneur to give up and shut shop.
Do we need more learning centres and resources for entrepreneurship in India?
Yes, we need many more entrepreneurship learning centres as we are a country of more than a billion people. Entrepreneurship will flourish if these centres can help today’s youth understand the opportunity and evaluate the risks. Most times people back away from entrepreneurship because they fear the unknown. More case studies and real life examples must be made available to the bright minds in order to kindle what regular educational systems cannot. I believe entrepreneurship cannot be taught, it has to be experienced and hence teaching methods must be designed to kick-start potential and latent entrepreneurs. We will do a lot of better if we can awaken at least one percent of our population over the next ten years. |
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