In the session titled 'India's Techade', Infosys Founder NR Narayana Murthy spoke on multiple key issues in a conversation with Sourav Majumdar. The Indian start-up landscape is booming, and while there have been some startups that have tasted immense success, there are several others which have floundered, here's what Narayana Murthy told start-up founders at the Business Today Tech Today Congress
According to Narayana Murthy, startup founders are young, and hence are prone to making mistakes. However, it is important for them to accept their mistakes and then change their path as per required
“These are all youngsters and they are highly impressionable. And, therefore, prone to committing mistakes. We should not be extremely harsh on them. But as long as they are willing to learn from their mistakes, quickly change their path and move towards what is in the interest of every stakeholder they should be fine," NR Narayana Murthy said
Further advising startup founders, Narayana Murthy stated that as long as possible, they need to tell all of their stakeholders that "See, some of you have lost some money. Therefore, what we will do is we will run the corporation very well, we will create a certain kitty and we will do good social service. And second, for those of you who have a part of your stocks in the company, we will work 10 times hard and make sure that money will grow and compensate for whatever losses we have made”
At Tech Today Congress, NR Narayana Murthy also spoke about the importance of merit and values in the prosperity of a nation and companies alike. According to him, to prosper, any nation has to revere and practice meritocracy, a set of values and live in peace with its neighbours
Narayana Murthy said that if companies want to have long-term investors, they need investors to trust them with their money. "They must feel you are working hard, leading a reasonably simple life and thus will provide a good growth rate in both topline and bottom-line. And importantly, no corporation can prosper by taking up a fight with its competitors/peers - just like a nation. In a war, the winner loses and the loser dies,” said Murthy
Speaking about the trials and tribulations that he faced when he wanted to take Infosys public in the early 80s, NR Narayana Murthy said, "When we were raising money for our IPO, we had to invest our own kitty of Rs 1.2 crore because in those days the total equity required was Rs 3 crore. 40% of it had to come from us. I raised 65%, Nandan (Nilekani) raised 35%," said Murthy
Narayana Murthy shared that he went to relatives who were well to do and they asked hundreds of questions but they didn't put any money (in Infosys). "The only people who put money were my sisters, brothers, cousins who had very little savings and had tremendous confidence in me. They did it because they observed me from my childhood and they had seen I was very careful with money," said Murthy
NR Narayana Murthy emphasised the importance of employing AI in a judicious and assistive manner rather than focusing on gimmicky applications. “I don't think we need to use AI in autonomous cars. It shouldn't be our priority. Improving public governance, reducing corruption, improving agricultural productivity, water availability should be a priority,” he said
The doyen of India's tech industry Narayana Murthy was all praise for Business Today Magazine for its insightful articles. "In Business Today (magazine), you produce such wonderful articles. For me, there is so much data in your articles. So deep. I have saved so many of your articles," he said