Padma Vibhushan Shree N.R. Narayan Murthy – A truthful entrepreneur

- Suryaprakash

The Kuwait Kannada Koota (KKK) a non- profit cultural organization havings its base in the state of Karnataka in India celebrated Karnataka Rajyotsava Day for which Padma Vibhushan Shree Narayan Murthy was invited to Kuwait to be the chief Guest.

A morning session was conducted at GUST auditorium on 9-November 2012 wherein Shree Narayan Murthy delivered a thought provoking 40+ minute speeche on Entrepreneurship. Being a loyal and truthful entrepreneur, a global icon, the founder and Chairman Emeritus, Padma Vibhushan Shree N.R. Narayan Murthy his speech was taken in with awe and wonder by all those who listened to his speech. Though Mrs. Sudha Murthy was also invited she could not come to Kuwait since she was tied up in India for family reasons. But she was remembered for her thoughtful and inspiring speech which was delivered about four years ago in Kuwait.

Mr. N.D. Vasuki who compered the event welcomed the dignitaries on the dais including Padamvibhushan Shree Narayan Murthy, H.E. the Indian Ambassador to Kuwait, Shree Satish Mehta, Mr. Ahmed Fauzi Mussad Al-Saleh. Presdient of Kuwait Computer Services who sponsored the event and Dr. Sudhakar Nayak, President of KKK.

Dr. Surendra Nayak in his speech extended warm greetings to one and all on the occasion of the celebrations of the 28^th Karnataka Rajyotsava Day. He said he was honored to have Shree Narayan Murthy to be with us all for today’s celebrations. In order to maximize the benefit of Shree Narayan Murthy’s visit, Dr, Nayak said KKK had invited businessmen who contributed to the welfare of Kuwait, some selected school children of some Indian schools in Kuwait, other prominent association members and students of GUST as well.

H.E The Indian Ambassador to Kuwait spoke highly of Shree Narayan Murthi by referring him to Sir in his speech. He was highly appreciative of this great man’s achievements He referred to him as one of the Modern India’s heroes and said the charities with the wealth earned are something unparalleled and hence Mrs Sudha Murthy and Mr. Narayan Murthy have set a perfect example on giving back to the society. He said KKK had in fact given a Divali gift to all Indians living in Kuwait by bringing such a great personality to be amongst us on this day.

Mr. Ahmed, on his part first congratulated KKK for bringing Shree Narayan Murthy to Kuwait. He fondly remembered her by saying that her inspirational speech stood in good stead for him and many others in times of the economic depression. He briefed the social developing activities of the non-profit organization FAUZIK which also promoted education program for the children of special needs.

As Shree Narayan Murthy rose to spoke there was thrill and excitement among all the attendees. The 40 plus minute speech delivered by him was actually a crash course on Entrepreneurship to all the attendees. Each word he spoke reverberated with life and positive energy.

His speech began with showering of accolades on Kuwait for accepting the large Indian population to live and work in its land. From there on the speech touched various important topics in a logical manner.

Indians’ commitment to Kuwait:We should be loyal to the country which gave us scope to work and earn money for our better living.

How Entrepreneurship can shape society’s future?Youngsters in Kuwait should bring in innovation in such a relaxed atmosphere and leverage its power of innovation to have a better society.

Importance of Entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurs are transformers. They transform the world into a much better living place.

Definition of Entrepreneur: An entrepreneur is one who can think out of the box. An idea though to be silly could transform the world. Entrepreneurs create a discontinuity in the flow of normal thinking and produce products that have never existed before.

How Entrepreneur help society?They create jobs in the process of creating wealth. The only instrument that can literally eradicate poverty is entrepreneurship.

Attributes of an Entrepreneur:There are some attributes an entrepreneur must have.

Effective Communication: Communicate the power of idea to the market. The communication should be in most simple way possible. Be clear about power of the ideas.

Market Study and market acceptance: Most people improve on other people’s ideas. In early 80’s the number of engineers in India increased tremendously. Very few jobs were available for them. So basically there was a demand for talented professionals in the West and a huge supply of talented engineers in India. So Infosys which began its operations connected the demand and supply streams and the flood gates opened up. Hence it is very important to do market study and have market acceptance of an idea. Sometimes ideas may not be successful.
Team Work: No single individual can create a large corporate. We need complementary strengths for succeeding as a company. A team should be mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.
Leadership: Any team should have a leader who leads by example. He should ensure that the team members follow a good value system. Team should trust each other member and repose confidence in each other’s capabilities.
Capital Investment: Any idea to successfully implement needs an initial investment. This in a nut shell is all about entrepreneurship. All the young minds take up your challenges in a positive way, have a goal and work hard towards achieving your goals in life.

After his speech there was naturally a thunderous applause followed by an interactive session with the audience.

A brief on Padma Vibhushan Narayan Murthy

Padma Vibhushan Shree Narayan Murthy is a B.E. (Eletcrical) engineer and also did his M.Tech from IIT Kanpur. He founded the Infosys Limited, a global software consulting company headquartered in Bangalore in 1981 and served as it CEO during 1981 – 2002 and as its Chairman and Chief mentor during 1981-2011. Under his leadership Infosys was listed in NASDAQ in 1999. He is currently the Chairman Emeritus of Infosys. Infosys in a short span of 31 years has now a turnover of 7 billion USD and a market value of nearly 40 billion USD. This was made possible by the clear vision HSree Narayan Murthy had for his company. The vision was to strive continuously to gain respect from clients, employees, authorities and the society by doing right things. The aim was to create wealth in an ethical and legal manner.

His innovative Global Delivery Model catapulted Indian IT services on to the International Stage for IT outsourcing. This brought billions of dollars to Indian shores thus propelling Indian’s economy. His innovative and compassionate leadership have been recognized worldwide. Some companies he has served and is still serving as Board member are HSBC, Ford Foundation, Rhodes Trust, The Indian School of Business, The UN Foundation, IIM Ahmedabad, Cornell University USA, Singapore Management University, INSEAD (Paris), Wharton School USA, Graduate School of Business at Stanford University USA.

He is also the recipient of many awards some of which are Padam Vibhushan award by the Government of India, Asia’s Businessman of the year (2002), Ernst and Young’s World Entrepreneur award for the year 2003, The Economist ranked him among the ten most admired global business leaders in the year 2005, he is listed as one among the 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time by the Fortune magazine in the year 2012. Recently he received the Hoover Award for the year 2012 for his philanthropic contributions. He has about 25 honorary doctorates from universities in India and abroad.