The spirit of an entrepreneur

This is about 2 Businessmen in India.

I am holding no brief for both of them, for I have reservations about some of their actions, but I need to admire their capacity to innovate, put Plan B into action, work overtime to achieve the revised deadlines under considerable odds and succeed.

The first is Ratan Tata. While I still feel that he was on the wrong side as far as Singur acquisition was concerned, he faced the setback headon, negotiated with Gujarat a very good deal, shifted the factory in toto to Gujarat and brought out the Tata Nano Car on schedule. This increased his credibility in the global market and our faith that Indians can do what they set out to achieve despite serious constraints.

Second is a more curious case. Lalit Modi of IPL. He was really taken for a ride by the Congress party ( see an earlier post on this ) who made it virtually impossible for him to conduct the IPL as per the schedule in India. Any other person would have buckled under this, not Modi. He negotiated a terrific deal with South Africa within 72 hours ( it is curious to note that South Africa is the crime capital of the world, has an election going on currently, but they still came forward to ensure that the event took off within less than 3 weeks of commitment. The whole Government machinery swung into action. They saw this as an opportunity to promote their country and tourism. Hotels were arranged, Ad campaign launched, Air Charters were arranged, practive facilities and grounds spruced up. And we in India, instead of seeing the whole issue as a terrific revenue generating activity that would have helped the country during this Global Financial Crisis, for it would have provided direct and indirect employment to thousands and thousands for two months, did everything we can to kill this event. This is why we will never become a great nation, as many of us would wish) and the IPL has got off to a great start if the first four matches are any indication. I can imagine that the last 18 days would have been an organizing and logistical nightmare for Modi and his team, but whatever else he is, Modi is a fighter and a survivor. In fact, there is a more even contest between the bat and the ball with South African pitches being more sportive than the battathons in India. A cricket match is a real contest only if the odds between the bat and ball is even. A 120 par score on a lively wicket can produce more entertaining cricket than ridiculous 200 plus scores on a dead pitch where the bowlers are tonked around. And I suspect the grain will be sorted out from the chaff this time around. You would have noticed that the best performers on the first 2 days were a certain Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Herschelle Gibbs, Shane Warne, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, R P Singh and Fidel Edwards - all class players. The bits and pieces players will suffer. Who knows, in a years time IPL will cease to be an Indian Premier League, but will evolve into an International Premium League held at different countries, which could take Cricket to the level of Football, not a bad thing at all.

But kudos to Tata and Modi. May their undying spirit live on