What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur in India, and what disruptive innovations might businesses need to watch for? The New Disruptor panel session, moderated by one of India’s best known media figures, Shereen Bhan, executive editor of India Business Hour and Business Center on CNBC-TV18, helped explore these questions. The session brought together Arvind Rao, co-founder and CEO, On Mobile; GS Sridhar, president, Outdu; and, Sandeep Murthy, partner, Sherpalo Ventures to share their success stories and recommendations for entrepreneurs in emerging markets.
On Mobile’s Rao kicked off the discussion with a vision of how to redefine the way the telecom value added services (VAS) sector operates. As the first publicly listed white-label data and VAS company in India, On Mobile delivers innovative applications for telecom operators. To succeed as a disruptive innovator in the solutions space, Rao believes that it is important to have a mindset of bringing customers “a series of innovations,” rather than just one single innovation.
Supplementing Rao’s viewpoint, Outdu’s Sridhar stressed the importance of focusing on “delivering value that others do not deliver” with a set of offerings that "delight" customers. This, he believes, is at the heart of the success of Outdu, a startup technology company that orchestrates crowd-facing communications media such as billboards and signage.
Sharing their views on the value of collaboration in an evolving innovation scenario, Sridhar emphasized the importance of collaborators matching their pace. “Sometimes large companies simply cannot move at the speed of the startup,” he said. Echoing Sridhar’s sentiment, Sandeep Murthy of Sherpalo Ventures, a venture capital firm that supports the commercialization of early-stage disruptive technologies, mentioned that pace is very critical for partnership. Moreover, partnerships need to be utilized to take solutions applicable in India into other emerging economies.
The session included discussion around the key qualities required to be a successful disruptive entrepreneur. On this issue, Murthy said that, to succeed, an entrepreneur needs to build a core set of values and to stick to his plans and perspectives. Although course-correction may be required, it's best to have a strong perspective.
For Rao, thinking out of the box is extremely critical. Citing experiences from his company as an example, he mentioned, “we no longer consider VAS as a telecom product, but as a product for a range of companies and sectors.” Besides thinking out of the box, being passionate about one's work and being generous to employees with the goal of making them share success are also critical, said Rao.
Sridhar concluded the discussion by highlighting the importance of passion and persuasiveness toward becoming a successful disruptive entrepreneur. “If you do not aspire to and are not prepared to build the best in the world, you cannot succeed,” said Sridhar.