When viewed in the global entrepreneurial context, the entrepreneurs of Indian origin have 2 traits that inform company building. The first is the ability to deal with change, to the point of driving chaos, and second is a deeply ingrained efficiency mindset.
Thriving in Chaos
Life in India is a masterclass in unpredictability.
Take something as simple as a meeting. If you’re scheduled to meet someone at 11 AM in Bengaluru or Gurugram, and lets say Google Maps shows a travel time of 1 hour, we have 2 options. If we REALLY have to be on time, we will provide a further 30-45 min buffer, OR we start on time and risk running late. Most folks do the latter and hence arrive somewhere between 11 and 11:30 and keep updating the host. The host at their part knows this well and may have blocked extra time to make sure they are a little “flexible” with their calendar. This is just one example.
Indian entrepreneurs expect a lot of movement to the point of chaos.
Employees may not show up at work as expected on a given day, Customer payments may get delayed, there maybe a power outage or worse, Internet cut for an extended time; there may be change in government laws affecting them directly, and so on. These scenarios are not mythical, they very much happen on an everyday basis, hence, the Indian entrepreneur develops the ability to deal with it.
Here is a quote from one of our very successful companies and seasoned entrepreneur, when asked about a general externality – “Sir, I know very little these days, even less about … “. He is basically taking it day by day, incident by incident. It wasn’t defeatism. It was seasoned adaptability.
Toothpaste Economics & Startup Grit
The Indian approach to frugality starts young – Indian families can always get yet one more squeeze out of the toothpaste. We have seen our parents do it, and we do it too.
I live between the US and India, and when I am in India, my efficiency antenna goes up, vs when I am in US. I may not think twice about paying a $10 surcharge on Doordash but frown on the $0.25 surcharge on Zomato. It’s in the air. Perhaps because we see how people stretch the marginal dollar all the time around us, it gets embedded into our psyche.
This ethos translates directly into startup building — where every dollar counts, and stretch becomes strategy.
From “Raju” to Global Gentleman
There’s a great 90s Bollywood film called Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. Raju is a common name in rural north India and points to a sub-urban simpleton. His transformation into a “Gentleman” points to a metamorphosis into an urban, sophisticated person dealing with the modern urban complications with flair. There are hilarious situations in the movie when he tries to deal with this change and eventually comes to terms with it. Of course, by the end, he strikes a balance between his roots and the modern world — and yes, he wins the heroine too.
There is a similar story with the Indian entrepreneurs building global businesses. They tend to find their way through a series of amusing situations. They learn “scale”, “capital allocation” vs “efficiency” and the ability to change holds them in good stead.
Not everybody wins, but many do. And some are now winning big.. This is what we call the Global Indian Alpha – more about this in the next one.