Stay Hungry Stay Foolish (2008) was about entrepreneurs with an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad. Connect the Dots (2010) was about entrepreneurs without an MBA. I Have A Dream (2011) was about social entrepreneurs. Now Rashmi Bansal is out with a new book Take Me Home (2014) about entrepreneurs who have built global enterprises in the small towns of India.
I was much impressed with the tales of these entrepreneurs many of whom don’t even have basic schooling. Take the case of Muruganantham, founder of Jayashree Industries. Muruganantham dropped out of school after class 9, and accidently got interested in making sanitary napkins after seeing his wife’s difficulties during her periods. Sanitary napkins are a taboo subject in the Tamil heartland and Muruganantham was roundly ostracized by many, including his own wife and mother, until he got an award at IIT-Madras for his invention of a low cost sanitary napkin machine. Now he is looked upon as a benefactor by many.
After reading this book, I have to agree with renowned investor Prof. Sanjay Bakshi when he says, “India has many fantastic entrepreneurs who, under very difficult circumstances have been able to compound capital entrusted to them at superlative rates for long time periods. They have done it without cutting corners. And they have done it with a sense of capital stewardship that should remind global investors about Rose Blumkin of Nebraska Furniture Mart.
“Like Mrs. Blumkin, many of these entrepreneurs did not get a ‘proper’ education in English-speaking schools. Like Mrs. Blumkin, they too can’t articulate their thoughts very well to the global investment community. But boy do they know how to run a business!”
Prof Bakshi is of course a sophisticated investor who talks in terms of balance sheets and income statements and cash flows. Rashmi Bansal has kept her essays simple and suited to the people she has interviewed. She does not mention return on equity or short term earnings but talks more in terms of drive and aspirations and dreams.
My son is now ten years old and taking after me a lot. He is into a lot of reading and solitary introverted games. Bansal’s book is one of the books I am planning to give him to show that there is something beyond the cloistered “gnana-yogic” existence of intellectual living - the heady “karma-yogic” hustle bustle of business.
I was much impressed with the tales of these entrepreneurs many of whom don’t even have basic schooling. Take the case of Muruganantham, founder of Jayashree Industries. Muruganantham dropped out of school after class 9, and accidently got interested in making sanitary napkins after seeing his wife’s difficulties during her periods. Sanitary napkins are a taboo subject in the Tamil heartland and Muruganantham was roundly ostracized by many, including his own wife and mother, until he got an award at IIT-Madras for his invention of a low cost sanitary napkin machine. Now he is looked upon as a benefactor by many.
After reading this book, I have to agree with renowned investor Prof. Sanjay Bakshi when he says, “India has many fantastic entrepreneurs who, under very difficult circumstances have been able to compound capital entrusted to them at superlative rates for long time periods. They have done it without cutting corners. And they have done it with a sense of capital stewardship that should remind global investors about Rose Blumkin of Nebraska Furniture Mart.
“Like Mrs. Blumkin, many of these entrepreneurs did not get a ‘proper’ education in English-speaking schools. Like Mrs. Blumkin, they too can’t articulate their thoughts very well to the global investment community. But boy do they know how to run a business!”
Prof Bakshi is of course a sophisticated investor who talks in terms of balance sheets and income statements and cash flows. Rashmi Bansal has kept her essays simple and suited to the people she has interviewed. She does not mention return on equity or short term earnings but talks more in terms of drive and aspirations and dreams.
My son is now ten years old and taking after me a lot. He is into a lot of reading and solitary introverted games. Bansal’s book is one of the books I am planning to give him to show that there is something beyond the cloistered “gnana-yogic” existence of intellectual living - the heady “karma-yogic” hustle bustle of business.
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