Thank you Mr. Birla for taking time.
My pleasure. And one of the things that I always admire is the entrepreneurial thing that happens even in a large group. The Birla Group, while being very large, has created two challenger brands in terms of the paints, Birla Opus, and also Indria that you have just recently started in the jewelry space. How does a large group think about something which is very different? How do you go about that?
So you know, we have a think tank that's always working on new business ideas. Those can be in completely unrelated areas or they could be in areas that are adjacent to our existing businesses. So fairly simple, there's a group of eight or ten young people and you know, it's a funnel. I'm sure you have that all the time, looking at funneling different ideas that come to you for financing, investing. It's a similar process, but I think, I'm sure like in your case, it takes a long time to think through, to debate. You know, we have constructive dissent that happens in the group. We look at the financial implications, the right to win, so on and so forth. And every business that's new to the group is set up as an independent entrepreneurial unit. So it's actually, you know, it's a gang of entrepreneurs. Although we are a large company, the spirit is that of entrepreneurship. There's a great amount of delegation. You know, I think the restrictions are only to the extent that would be necessary for a large company. And after that, if there's alignment with the business and with us at the corporate, it's a very entrepreneurial organization. So I think it's a misnomer to think that large corporates are not entrepreneurial.
No. We have had the benefit of being part of a company like Wipro which used to create entrepreneurs. Now we have seen in the last five years many startups, in the last 20 years they've grown and become IPO scale. They have listed but they are also going through their own journey of discovering how they should change their mindset to being a listed company. What would be your advice to some of them in terms of how they should think now being a listed company with a very wide public shareholder?
Well, I think the first thing is the governance structure will change. You need a board. You have to have, you know, as per current SEBI requirements, at least half the board has to be, you know, comprised of independent directors. So selecting the right directors, you know, who can add value on the basis of their past experience, their expertise, corporate governance norms being followed not just in form but also in spirit. For example, communication with your shareholders, both institutional and retail, the frequency of that, the quality of that. So there's a whole new dimension that comes into play. You are far more under scrutiny. You know, your life becomes, depends on which sector you are in, of course, a little more Q on Q, which is quarter on quarter. So I think it's important to accept that as a way of life, not just accept it but start to enjoy it. Because you know, once you're listed, the canvas is so much broader. You have so much more ability in terms of finance at least to do so much more and make such a large impact that possibly you couldn't before that. I think it's these governance issues, the structure, communication to outside investors, processes and systems that need to come into place. Otherwise, I think in terms of the business or the entrepreneurial spirit, I don't think anything should change.
Yeah. No, so that becomes also the criteria for the company to prepare themselves maybe for a couple of years before with these governance running it before going public to be able to manage that better.
Yeah, it's amazing. So one interesting thing, India possibly in the next five six years will become third largest economy and will be possibly Viksit Bharat 2047. Where do you see startups contributing? Obviously large businesses will contribute to this journey. I think every constituent in the economy will have to contribute, whether it's the educational space, whether it's the startup ecosystem. I think the startup ecosystem would contribute by way of new ideas, by creating, you know, employment. And it's just, you know, they have a zest and a spirit that's quite differently positive. You know, obviously they're very, very agile and I think they have a lot of value to add even to the larger businesses, which I was talking to Sudhir about earlier. And you know, I mean, entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurship today is considered as being something that is looked up to as opposed to 10, 15 years ago where if you said you're an entrepreneur, people thought that you're, you know, pretty much doing nothing. So the whole band or spirit of entrepreneurship is looked up to today much more than ever before. There's an ecosystem for entrepreneurs to flourish in. So many entrepreneurial ventures have grown. They've been listed, hugely valued. And I think that's the role that entrepreneurs would play in an economy that's fast growing and on its way to become a developed economy.
Yeah. With new technologies being assimilated by them faster, new learnings, new technologies which, you know, can be assimilated by larger companies as well.
Absolutely. And you know, one of the things that earlier when we were speaking, you mentioned saying that, you know, you are deeply involved with BITS. And we actually have colleagues who have worked in, studied in BITS who are employed with us. You backed quite a few BITS entrepreneurs and how do you see in terms of your involvement in BITS leading to entrepreneurship cell and then leading to...
