Mumbai: 'Entreprenet 2012' on 'Grow with India' Kicks Off in Style

Pics: Rons Bantwal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai
Media Release

Mumbai, Jan 13: Entreprenet 2012 organised by Dimensions Mumbai and Kanara entrepreneurs Global saw interesting sessions on day one at the Interncontinental The Lalith, Mumbai here on Friday January 13.

Fr Anthony D'Souza spoke about 'Empowering Your Organisation' and how to make a radical shift from Success to Significance. It is critical to create an empowering environment and make a difference to the lives of the employee. A true leader would achieve this by creating clarity of purpose, high morale and instill a sense of pride and enthusiasm towards team work and provide confidence in leadership. Fr D'Souza encouraged business leadership to empower workforce and benefit the community and society in addition to amassing their wealth.

The next session in the afternoon was on 'Power of Teams: How to manage uncertainty and completion' Alok Saxena, joint MD Elder Pharma, spoke of the importance of teams Vs individuals. Teams help ordinary people achieve extraordinary results. He manages nearly 43 groups and teams and each team needs to be listened to and nurtured.

He enumerated that team goals are more important than individual goals. The most important aspect in teams and individuals is that everyone desires for recognition and growth. At the same time a leader should also keep in mind that the recipe for failure is trying to please everybody. Jeroninio Almeida, business/management strategist, enumerated on how teams can achieve objectives with proper vision, strategy and objectives. He gave excellent examples on his icongo organization who seeks their own funds and do not depend on outside funds. He mesmerized the crowd by sharing the examples of Subash Mistry a simple girl who sells vegetables and who builds a hospitals and caters to thousands of people in rural village through community participation and development. She was given the Kanaveen Awards. If this does not happen, no amount of team building workshops would deliver long term results.

Nadirshaw Dhondy, advocate, Supreme Court spoke on 'Legal aspects on SME business'. This session was on practical aspects on setting up a business and the legal aspects to be kept in mind especially in India. He spoke on the importance of registration and the patenting of products. He enumerated that it is better to syndicate the loans from different banks. One must know the contract papers which you are signing and be sure to pay a consolidated amount when work contracts are signed.

This session was on 'Delivering customer value through driving synergies between Sales and Marketing'. Ravi Kiran, co-founder and managing partner, Friends of Ambition spoke on marketing and sales and said that they are the driving forces of any company and most of the times they function separately but indeed are one force for any company to create a sustainable strategy to build Marketing Planning and Sales Operation. Sanjeev Agarwal, CEO, Big Bazaar gave an example of the cartoon characters Tom and Jerry who are always at loggerheads with each other and are enemies. "Sometimes our sales and marketing teams are like enemies who are at loggerheads blaming each other. Marketing understands consumers and indeed helps the sales operation." Walter Vieira, International Marketing Consultant moderated this session.

Victor Pais, founder and CEO Sigma Corporation (New Jersey, USA) spoke eloquently about the journey of his success story and the pitfalls along his pathway. He spoke about the two principles which each one of us needs to remember in life especially that success is important and empowering people is the greatest success in any organization. "We need to trust people and be transparent in our dealings with our employees."

His company handles thousands of spare parts and has a distribution and supply chain in USA. He mentioned that we need to find joy from what we do, we need to be good at it and finally it should benefit the world in which we live in. He spoke about the value proposition about the P-Q-R-S method viz. Price, Quality, Range and Services which is very handy for management people. He spoke about the visionary path for success in his company. 1. To identity Iron Casting Produced range as a sustainable growth opportunity. 2. Narrow down focus to Water and Sewer industry 3. Timely development of Global Supply Chain. 4. Set up a National Distribution Infrastructure. 5. Investment in People and Relationship is the best option. 6. SWOT analysis needs to be done and effective measures needed for improvement. 7. Staying nimble against all the odds in the industry.

He spoke about the guiding principles that shaped Sigma’s success namely to nurture, to grow and sustain and have faith in yourself, in others and in God. Together everyone achieves more. Success is a journey not a destination.

Inauguration:

Earlier, the convention, on the theme “Grow With India” witnessed a splendid inaugural ceremony. The proceedings began with the National Anthem followed by opening remarks from the master of ceremonies, Romi Furtado. This was followed by the symbolic opening of Entreprenet 2012 with the lighting of the lamp by all dignitaries present on stage. The dignitaries included Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, Dr Indu Shahani, Sheriff of Mumbai, Gul Kripalani, Convention president, Christopher John, Earnest John group of Companies, Albert D,sozsa, chairman Model Co-operative Bank, Ivan Fernandes, chairman, Kanara entrepreneurs Ltd. Global and Freddy Mendonca, chairman, Dimensions, Mumbai.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias prayed over the gathering and delivered his inspiring message. He stressed that entrepreneurs have been given talents and we need to multiply it for the benefit of society. He prayed to the Almighty for His presence during the two days of the conference as entrepreneurs participate, deliberate, discuss and plan the future of self and country. He mentioned to the participants that this event was path breaking. Excelling in whatever we do should be the goal and we should not be shy of achieving success. He emphasized on ethics in business and to do whatever we could for the needy. He concluded with his blessings and wished the event a grand success. A souvenir was released by Cardinal Oswald Gracias on this auspicious event.

Gul Kripalani, president of the Convention, welcomed the gathering. In his welcome address, he mentioned that hard work should not only benefit the country, but also the world. He requested the Community to be united in Christ, rather than divided by denominations. Joining hands will strengthen the community and the country as a whole. He concluded saying, India needs us and we need India.

The chief guest, Dr Indu Shahani, Sheriff of Mumbai in her motivating address quoted Thomas Friedman, “It is morning in India”, the headlines in an American newspaper on the day the US president, Barack Obama was leaving to India from the US. It is truly morning in India, she said, because 50% of the Indian population is under the age of 25 years. The young people of India are the new mornings and will be the biggest asset of our country. If India has to make progress in its economy, entrepreneurship should focus on Corporate Social Responsibility. She gave two good examples of young people who began doing business with a cause. Dhruv Lathra’s Mirakle: a courier service company employing hearing impaired persons. And Sweta who started an Ambulance service through the free toll number 1298 through cross subsidies and has got etenders to run her services in Kerala and other parts of the country.

Prabhu Guptara, chairman and CEO of several companies and organizations delivered a scintillating keynote address on Emerging India-The Growth Story. He enumerated the global perspective scenario and the great depression of 2009 in the USA. The whole crisis of the Eurozone currency and the downslide in global markets and its effects on Europe. India and China are the emerging markets in South Asia and the GDP of both the countries touching 8-9%. He discussed the issues for emerging India

1. The economic reforms from the year 2004 until date.

2. The budget and the fiscal Issues which due to subsidies has had a devastating effect on the economy.

3. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme which has laudable effects for the social strata but has dipped our economy.

4. The rupee exchange rate which has had a downslide.

5. The employment issues of our country wherein 500 million youth are below the age of 25 and another 500 million people are in the work force. He also enumerated the challenges: Will there be an external liquidity crisis in India ? Will investors want to invest or exit from India?

However, investing in India is an opportunity and we need to be realistic since the general election would be held in 2014. India is a great opportunity but political factors will play a crucial role for investors. He then mentioned the best practices for investment through the various financial instruments available to us.

The convention is being attended by delegates from all across the globe. The number of participants for this convention is 400 plus consisting of business persons, senior executives, professionals and a few management students. This event was sponsored by Mangalore Internet City Pvt Ltd, Ronald Colaco and family, Earnest John group of companies, Rossari, Lawrence and Mayo, ICICI Lombard, Supreme Enterprises, Vinsons Industries and Alina and Victor Pais, USA.