Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy! N.R Narayana Murthy! The name that every person who has ever had access to a computer in India would know! The father figure of the Indian IT boom! One of the 7 founders of Infosys from the “basement”! The man who transformed a $250 company into one worth $25,000,000,000 today! The God who has been responsible for providing nearly 155,000 people worldwide a job! The one and the only Dr. Narayana Murthy.........
What makes this man so loved by all? His humility? His simplicity? The subtle sense of humour ? His never waning smile ? Those observant eyes? Or the general persona of the man itself?
Robert Kennedy once said , “I dream of things that never were and ask why not!” . It was the same story with Mr. Murthy when he founded Infosys in 1981 and served as its Chairman till 2011.
Born in 1946 in Mysore, he did his B.E in Electrical Engineering from the University of Mysore and received his Masters’ degree from IIT Kanpur in 1969. He served as the Chief Systems programmer at IIM Ahmedabad and then started his first company Softronics in 1976. Later he founded Patni Computer Systems in Pune and in 1981 ........ You know it.... The giant Infosys was started along with 6 other entrepreneurs in the “basement”
I had the opportunity to attend his lecture on “Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility” this Friday the 9th at the GUST auditorium. Mr. Murthy, who was in Kuwait for the 28th Rajyotsava celebrations of the Kuwait Kannada Koota, couldn’t have had more welcoming audience in his professional life.
The nearly 1 hour lecture followed by a Discussion session focussed on the essential attributes of an entrepreneur. Some of the salient features of the lecture, I wish to present to the readers of IIK without making any changes...
Q: Who is an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is a ‘transformation agent’ whose ideas bring jobs and income to a lot of people. He sets up an enterprise to change the lives of his employees as well as his customers. An entrepreneur must have the skill to present his idea to the market in a simple sentence, by which the market must be persuaded to buy his idea and make it a success. An entrepreneur cannot succeed without a supporting cast – his board of directors, who are responsible for handling areas like Operations, Finances, Sales, Human Resource etc. These managers must be mutually trusting and confident of the other... and finally he must be able to obtain MONEY from sources like banks and other financial institutions.
An entrepreneur must also be ready to contribute a significant portion of his profits to society, be it as charity or essential services like Schools, Hospitals etc.
This has always been Mr. Murthy’s mantra and he has been ably supported in his ventures by his partner for life, the eminent philanthropist Mrs. Sudha Murthy.
I wish to thank the Kuwait Kannada Koota, which has always been among the most active organisations of Kuwait, for organising this informative session for the students and professionals in Kuwait...
Source: Wikipedia and the websites of the various events mentioned to get the statistics.
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