LEADERSHIP TALK SERIES- STOP “WORKING”!!!!!!!

After many moons of harping by the IIML admin, we finally got the opportunity to kick-start the Leadership Talk Series on 20^th May 2011. First up on deck was a man who had made a habit of facing adversity eye to eye and trumping it with clinical precision.

Mr.Vijay Shekar Sharma, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of One97, was kind enough to accept our invitation, grace us with his presence and regale us with his talk and very early on it was evident as to why he was regarded as a renowned industry speaker.

To give a small background about the company, One97, based out of Noida, is the largest mobile phone value add services provider in India with approximately 5billion transactions every month.  As incredibly as that sounded to my telecom illiterate ears, his journey over the past decade to take his company from down in the dumps to up in the sky was absolutely fascinating to hear and left me agape. Within a few minutes he had undivided attention of the entire class and there was nary a stray mind wandering thereabouts.

Apparently One97 was not his first venture, he had created an Indian Search Engine fresh out of College and had even managed to sell it off. Hearing his story, I was totally floored and astounded as to what he had accomplished in such a short time. I could only recall the dialogue from ‘Ghulam’ –Bhethi Leher ke saath to har koi tair leta hai, lekhin asli insaan who hota hai jo un lehron ko cheerkar aage nikaltha hai!! (English Translation- Anyone can swim along with the waves, but a true man is one who can fight it and swim against the waves) Just to hear him mention how he managed to set up his company only to get knocked down after a couple of years (supplier pulled the plug) and at that time facing a behemoth of a competitor with huge financial backing and still have the courage to soldier on and face the storm and triumph was awe-inspiring.




The biggest lesson we took form this session was “Believe in yourself-Never give up”. It is important to sustain this belief, otherwise it may be tough to sustain the enterprise, let alone succeed. It was also wonderfully heartening to hear him say that, if faced with an adversity that is very challenging, then its God’s belief in your ability to overcome it. Size of the problem is the benchmark of who you are! If someone had thoughts of being an entrepreneur, these stories would just steel the person’s resolve to forge ahead no matter the consequences.

After this rousing speech, we moved on to Q&A session where there were further exchange of ideas coupled with a final quick session about how to seek funding from venture capitalists. He ended the session on a crescendo by encouraging us all to go beyond being just services to advanced western worlds and instead focus on effective contribution to our society by creating new jobs with innovative ideas and working hard to achieve the same.




All in all after a solid session lasting 2.5hours, inspired by Vijay’s success, people returned back to their rooms talking about their ideas with a high level of motivation. Seeing this bunch, one might have thought that our day had just begun. This after a draining day starting with another one of the innumerable quizzes and back-to-back sessions of classes. The day was indeed long, the sun had long set, but in the minds of budding entrepreneurs, a vision was just taking its birth and a direction was just about beginning to take its shape. As Robert Frost would say- I have, miles to go before I sleep, Miles to go before I sleep……

-Shiva