KC John on ‘Entrepreneurship , an attitude’

June 26, 2010 | Posted by aartipandey << back to blog

KC John an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Ahmadabad has extensive experience in the financing of the projects in the public-private partnership mode at the World Bank and the Ford Foundation. John has addressed major strategic and operating challenges in scaling high-technology start-up companies since 1995. As founding partner in entrepreneurial companies, John has over 15 years of mobile computing, communication and collaboration product development experience, including strategic business development, product management, and strategic alliance for innovation network. He has been involved in multiple merger & acquisitions and post-merger integration in the technology space. His professional association included Qualcomm [Fortune 500] and start-ups like, River Run, BayPackets, and AGNITY. He also mentors a group of first-generation entrepreneurs.

John ,and not Sir is what he likes to be addressed as, gave us an insight into Entrepreneurship. He defined Entrepreneurship as an attitude, as an approach to discovering opportunities and leveraging on them by creating an economic value. He emphasized on the word “discovering”, saying that an Entrepreneur does not rely on searching an opportunity, he rather discovers one. He defined Entrepreneur as a creative destructor, who creatively destroys the old methods/ technologies. A destructor is the one who disrupts the equilibrium of existing game. An entrepreneur, for example in the technology space can either invent a new technology or at the right time, just bring several technologies together and be the best in doing that.

What are the traits of an Entrepreneur?

Tolerance for uncertainty
Tolerance for ambiguity
Ability to spot an opportunity around a prior experience
Ability to create order from chaos

He accentuated the need for a team when starting one’s venture. Team members who supplement and complement one other are the foundation of a strong venture. As a team, one does not fight around the personalities rather one debates around new ideas. One has to believe in one’s venture for the endeavor to be a success.

Entrepreneurship is not just restricted to starting one’s firm, it an attitude which can be developed even while being employed. An employee who has an attitude of an Entrepreneur, would immerse oneself in the business of the company but still keep one’s interest larger than the business of one’s company. He /She would discover new opportunities for the company.

“ Start loving your failures , there is always a take away from them “ , is what John replied when queried about the failures in Entrepreneurship. His charismatic personality combined with his thoughts on Entrepreneurship captivated the audience for an hour and a half. He motivated Gladiators to follow the less travelled path, and not get intimidated by failures.

Aarti Pandey

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