Bangalore: KEL hosts talk on competency quotient of a successful entrepreneur

Media Release

Bangalore, Jul 8: Dr Rajdeep Manwani delivered a highly inspiring and motivating talk on “Competency quotient of a successful entrepreneur” during the members' meet of Kanara Entrepreneurs (KE), Bangalore recently.

Dr Manwani, in spite of being visually impaired during his high school days, is a triple postgraduate, having completed his MCom, MBA and MPhil, and also a Doctorate in Commerce on the topic “Strategic evaluation of training in commercial banks.” Dr Rajdeep is an academician; trainer and quizmaster par excellence, both by training and by choice. He secured the gold medal for topping both the MCom and MPhil examinations in Mysore University.

Dr Manwani quoted from two famous studies - 'Study on Entrepreneurial Competencies' by David Mac Cleland and Arthur M Dlank’s and “Study on Entrepreneurial Competencies” from the Centre for Entrepreneurship located in Houston. He focussed on a few key competencies.

Primarily, he explained the importance of having a 'Vision'. He cited Ray Kroc (Mc Donald’s Founder) who had a vision to open his 100th outlet when he had only 1 or 2 outlets and the vision Dhirubhai Ambani had for Reliance industries 15 years ahead .

Dr Manwani also spoke on the importance of 'Passion' and 'identifying with a purpose greater than one’s own life'.

He gave the example of Mother Teresa, the faith and passion she had to start Missionaries of Charity which later became the world’s largest charitable organization. He narrated how Mother once saw a man infected with worms, lying in the gutter. She started to clean his wounds and tried to save him. Even though she couldn’t save him, before dying the man whispered to her “Sister you made a huge difference to me, first I was dying on the streets of Calcutta as nobody, but now I am dying as somebody in the hands of an angel”. This incident inspired Mother Teresa to work towards caring for people who were in their last stages of death and that became her greater purpose, one that was beyond her own life.

He then touched on 'internal locus of control'. Every entrepreneur needs to have a never say die attitude and always find a solution to the problem.

Dr Rajdeep, substantiated the point by narrating the example of Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda Motors. In 1938, Soichiro Honda was still in school, when he started a little workshop, developing the concept of the piston ring. He labored night and day, even slept in the workshop, always believing he could perfect his design and produces a worthy product. Finally, came the day he completed his piston ring and was able to take a working sample to Toyota, only to be told that the rings did not meet their standards! Soichiro went back to school and suffered ridicule when the engineers laughed at his design.

He refused to give up. Rather than focus on his failure, he continued working towards his goal. After two more years of struggle and redesign, he won a contract with Toyota. By then, the Japanese government was gearing up for war! With the contract in hand, Soichiro Honda needed to build a factory to supply to Toyota, but building materials were in short supply. Still, he would not quit! He invented a new concrete-making process that enabled him to build the factory.

With the factory now built, he was ready for production, but the factory was bombed twice and steel became unavailable, too. Was this the end of the road for Honda? No! He started collecting surplus gasoline cans discarded by US fighters, risking his life – “Gifts from President Truman," he called them, which became the new raw materials for his rebuilt manufacturing process. Finally, an earthquake destroyed the factory.

After the war, an extreme gasoline shortage forced people to walk or use bicycles. Honda built a tiny engine and attached it to his bicycle. His neighbors wanted one, and although he tried, materials could not be found and he was unable to supply the demand.

Was he ready to give up now? No! Soichiro Honda wrote to 18,000 bicycles shop owners and, in an inspiring letter, asked them to help him revitalize Japan. 5,000 responded and advanced him what little money they could to build his tiny bicycle engines. Unfortunately, the first models were too bulky and he failed to sell. In spite of pressure from the investors to return the funds and without any further financial support he did not give up and he continued to rework on the design based on the market feedback finally, new model 'The Super Cub' became a reality and was a success. With success in Japan, Honda began exporting his bicycle engines to Europe and America.

End of story? No! In the 1970s there was another gas shortage, this time in America and automotive fashion turned to small cars. Honda was quick to pick up on the trend. Experts now in small engine design, the company started making tiny cars, smaller than anyone had seen before, and rode another wave of success.

Today, Honda Corporation employs over 100,000 people in the USA and Japan, and is one of the world's largest automobile companies. Honda succeeded because one man made a truly committed decision, acted upon it, and made adjustments on a continuous basis. Failure was simply not considered a possibility.

The powerful presentation and the inspiring life stories kept the audience in rapt attention. Dr Rajdeep also kept the session lively with a lot of humour thrown in.

Earlier, George Timothy, introduced Dr Rajdeep Manwani. An eloquent speaker, Dr Manwani has won several debates and was adjudged the best speaker in the International tape speech competition held by Toastmasters International in 2008. He holds the record of being adjudged the best impromptu speaker for four years in India and Sri Lanka for the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012. He has been awarded the Distinguished Toastmaster the highest award in Toastmasters International. He has trained, motivated and mentored over 14,500 students and executives over a span of sixteen years and received excellent ratings from his corporate and educational clients. He firmly believes in the motto of his life “Touching lives, making a difference”

The Event started with George Timothy, director mentoring, giving the overview of the event and sharing his views on the importance of networking.

Mark D’Souza, KE Bangalore president, welcomed the members and guests. D’Souza briefed on the vision of KE Bangalore and informed the members that KE had lined up various events, which would sharpen the entrepreneurial skills, enhance the knowledge and equip entrepreneurs and professionals to face challenges.

 Alan Aranha, young and dynamic member of KE shared his experiences and benefits of joining the KE Speakers’ Forum, an initiative by KE Bangalore. Alan shared his childhood experiences and fear of Dancing in college. He recounted how he turned out to be one of the best dancers in Christ College with a lot of dedication and focus. This was Alan’s first speech after he joined KE speakers forum and he also shared his experience and learning of how he gained confidence from being a member of the Speakers’ Forum.

Mark D’Souza later gave a glimpse of the forthcoming mega event Entreprenet 2014, a global conference for entrepreneurs and professionals on January 31 and February 1, 2014 in Bangalore and also thanked all the members. The event concluded with fellowship.