pleasure to be here on this wonderful
morning I’m going to talk to you today
about how to build a business that’s
profitable yet socially responsible and
I’m going to take you through certain
glimpses of my life and my journey which
brought me to this decision to quit the
corporate world and do something which I
believe will have a huge impact on the
society I started my career as a
door-to-door sales person how many of
you know door-to-door salespeople right
you’ve seen the door-to-door salespeople
so I started as a door-to-door sales
person in breach candy went on to into a
corporate career which you heard about
and then as I moved up the ranks I was
very grateful to the Lord that I could
make it to the top but I said okay this
is great
done the corporate did thing I said
let’s try entrepreneurship but I was yet
not certain that I could quit and you
know set up something on my own so I
started with what’s called the
intrapreneurship which is get an idea
within my company get funding created a
new business and moved into that
business to set up this new company so I
did that successfully and moved from New
York to Hong Kong when I finished that I
said now I’m ready to get into the world
of social entrepreneurship or
entrepreneurship basically you know in
my journey around various continents I
was on the World Economic Forum you know
doing panels and I heard a lot of big
global leaders business heads
billion-dollar CEOs come and say the big
issues of the world pollution corruption
malnutrition health all these issues
were being talked about and all of these
discussions ended with one simple
solution to all these problems and that
was education so I said hey here is
something we have all the problems in
the world if we have an educated
ethically conscious environmentally
conscious students who go out into the
world and make an impact we will be able
to create a tsunami of response a
tsunami of impact so that’s what got me
into this whole idea of setting up an
educational institution
now that’s the idea what happens after
the idea the idea is just the starting
point once you’ve got this idea
you then have to write hundred pages on
this idea if you can’t write hundred
pages this is not an idea worth pursuing
you will have gaps in your understanding
you will have gaps in your thoughts of
how do I do the marketing strategy how
do I put the product out there go to
market and so on so forth these are all
things you will be thinking go out they
do all the research you can full fill it
back put it back in your plan till that
plan starts talking to you that plan
will become a self-fulfilling prophecy
it will start telling you it will build
your confidence now you’ve got a decent
plan what happens next you go into the
market you talk to your friends your
family you share the plan multiple
people they will critique it they will
ask you with questions they will find
holes in your plan great you incorporate
all of that back into the plan so then
it becomes a stronger plan something you
are confident that you can hit the world
with ok now we have a decent plan then
we move to the next stage of the
ideation process which is stress testing
the idea now no business plan person
will tell you this but I believe that
whatever you’ve thought is the revenues
in one year 5 years 10 years imagine you
get half the revenue and imagine
whatever costs you’ve predicted over
that journey you get double the costs
right you’re having the revenue doubling
the cost is it the plan still going to
work is it going to still work and that
will tell you that okay I’m now
committed to this idea financially
emotionally I’m now there I’ve got my
head around this idea now I move to the
next stage of the ideation process which
is passion right ideas without passion
go no place right you need to put in a
lot of effort you’re going to go to tens
of thousands of people talking about
your idea and they’re going to slam the
door they’re going to say we’re not
interested they’re going to say this
doesn’t work they’re going to call you
out and say you know what this is not
going to work for you now how do you
pull this through so I’m going to give
you a little story glimpse about how as
a door-to-door salesman I had to deal
with this issue
right I used to go door-to-door selling
in Bombay Bombay is as you know
professional city right both
husband-wife go to work so if you have
to be a door-to-door sales person in
Bombay you have to hit the target market
at 6:00 in the morning right imagine how
happy will your mother be at 6:00 in the
morning if I’m going to ring your bell
not too happy right she’s wondering
what’s happening here now you ring the
bell you say good morning ma’am I’m from
whichever company you represent and what
happens she goes bad
right the dough goes slamming in your
face she doesn’t want to hear you you
try it again you try it again you get
doors slammed on your face it’s very
depressing you’re like my god how am I
gonna do this I’ve got a target if I
don’t achieve the target I’m going to
get fired and if I achieve the target
great but nobody’s willing to listen to
me by the time you even get to the door
there used to be lots of gates in Bombay
city who had a board around them what
was the board saying dogs in sales went
onto route right so you’re told you’re
equivalent to a dog so that’s what
you’re feeling right now you’re going
you’re knocking on doors you’re getting
door slammed on your face it was very
depressing very very upsetting I came up
with an idea I’m going to share that
idea on the condition that you don’t
tell anybody this idea okay
so the idea was how do I get inside the
door so imagine this you’re the mother
you it’s 6:00 in the morning
I’ve rang your bell you’re got up very
groggy you’re thinking like oh my god
who’s come here is it the milkman or so
and so forth and so you walk to the door
dingdong you open the door I’m like good
morning ma’am I’m from HSBC I know
what’s gonna happen right I know what’s
gonna happen the door is gonna slam on
my face so what did I do
I went now I’m inside your door right
I’ve crossed the threshold so the door
is gonna hit me on my leg sometimes hard
because if they are angry sometimes
slowly but the reaction was the same the
door would hit me on my leg and I would
go not falling on the floor and I’d get
up and say ma’am I think I thought now
where did we grow up all of us Bombay
Bombay is known for Bollywood right
acting so I got a few tips that you need
to put a little risk Listerine on your
eye and tweet
so that that teardrop comes at the right
time right so you look into the mother’s
eye and say I think I’m really hurt I
really just kinda have a pain killer and
I’m gonna go now she’s feeling bad all
our mothers have beautiful hearts right
they’re wonderful people she’s thinking
because of her someone is fallen on the
doorstep so she would come in and she’s
like okay I’ll get you a glass of water
and a painkiller she would go and get
the glass what a painkiller what a
painkiller water I’m just about to have
the painkiller and I was like man I
think I not had breakfast today now I’m
not asking for a double cheese omelet
with french fries on toast right all I’m
asking for is a cup of tea now every
mother’s beautiful heart she’s committed
to this kind Act
so she would tend to go and make that
chai right it’d take five seven minutes
to make the try five seven minutes to
drink the tea BAM 15 minutes sail done
all I needed was time nobody was giving
me even two seconds of time and here I
have all the time in the world right to
do the pitch then it was kunti fault
painkiller choice hill country fault
painkiller trial gun default painkiller
choice a one short sometimes six
painkillers yeah I know I see that look
this guy’s crazy right but but that’s
what I’m trying to tell you you’re gonna
get doors slam why am I telling you the
story doors are going to continuously
slam on your face either find a way
through the door or there’s always
another door
there’s always another option of doing
the same thing slightly better in a way
think out of the box keep trying keep
trying don’t give up because if your
ideas and your passion about that idea
to create social change is very very
deep inside you then you’re not going to
give up no door is going to be enough
let thousand doors shut on your face it
does not matter right so now we’ve got
the idea and we’ve now got the passion
behind the idea now comes the most
important thing plunging in taking the
risk
friends you heard about me becoming a
global CEO at a young age the only
reason that was possible friends because
I have taken a million risks in my life
and failed a million times wait a minute
that doesn’t that equation doesn’t make
sense you’ve made you’ve made it to the
top of the corporate ladder and you
saying on the same point you failed a
million times something doesn’t sound
let me give you another equation which
will help you answer the first equation
and that is when you risk you fail you
learn the person who doesn’t take any
risk has zero failures zero learnings in
this competitive world that you are all
getting into right it’s a hookah world
I’m sure you’ve heard the term hookah
volatile uncertain complex ambiguous
this world is getting disruptive
businesses are dying every week month if
you don’t know how to deal with this
fast-moving fast-paced unpredictable
world the only way to deal with it is
learning failing constantly learning
constantly failing constantly learning
so for me it is actually I risk I even
forget the failure part in fact when I
fail I’m like yeah I learned most of you
have this stigma that failure means oh
my god what will my family say what will
my parents say what will XYZ a person
say friends if you really want to get
into the hard world of entrepreneurship
or social entrepreneurship remember
you’re gonna fail a million times and
only then will you succeed so
embarrassed I mean embrace failure
that’s the only way forward so you’ve
now got the risk side of the equation
let me explain it with another slight
simple example let’s say we go out there
into this beautiful lawns beautiful
flowers lovely Arabian breeze and I say
how are you doing they’re like wow we’re
doing very well guys I have just
released I’m get now adding some
information to you I’ve just released
fifty or hundred poisonous cobras in the
lawns you know what’s gonna happen to
you the moment you hear us you’re gonna
rue like oh like you know the slightest
you’re going to start seeing what you’ve
not seen before you’re going to start
hearing what you’ve not heard what have
I done
I’ve had it risk to the equation
suddenly your transform your senses are
your faculties have expanded it’s been
scientifically proved friends that we
use less than ninety percent of our
brain power so when you take risks when
you push yourself to take more risks you
start expanding yourself and that’s
very very important if you want to grow
right you want to learn new things
you’ve got to take that plunge so I
would really encourage you to go into
this world thinking taking risks is an
amazing thing right and failure is the
only way we can succeed is if we fail
the multiple times now so you’ve now got
through the point that yes I’m going to
take it this huge risk I now need to go
into action mode because talking is
cheap right so I’m going to tell you how
smashing the deadlines can change your
life completely action-oriented
timing oriented I was in London where I
had a brick boss we had four Brits two
Americans one German one French one
Australian when Japanese one Chinese one
Brazilian and me Indian we are part of a
global management team we came up with
this decision to do an acquisition in
Germany in Frankfurt Germany so my boss
said we need to do due diligence due
diligence is essentially the part of
looking at the balance sheet looking at
the assets looking at the synergies the
technology the people and so on so forth
right so you put that all together who
will do the due diligence so my good
friend from Germany puts up his hand and
says sir I will do the due diligence I
understand the German market okay great
now my good friend from New York
colleague put up his hand I’ll do the
due diligence so the first guys was
asked how long will you take for the due
diligence he said two months the second
guy from America the Americans always
like to get one up on the European so he
put up his hand and he said I’ll do the
due diligence it’ll take me one months
so they started arguing no we have to do
this analysis that analysis so on so
forth I put up my hand my boss said
Teheran what do you say I said I’ll do
the due diligence I’ll take two weeks so
the German and the American who are
arguing with each other suddenly pounced
on to me saying you don’t know anything
you’ve come from India you have no idea
about the European markets this is not
something you should be doing you need
so much time blah blah blah so they were
pouncing on me I was like my boss came
in between no let Tarun do it I said
okay so here I go I fly the very next
day to Frankfurt I land in Frankfurt
guess what I’ve never done due diligence
in my life
right there so now I put my back to the
wall
I’ve worked 15 18 20 hour days 14 days
later I have my due diligence report I
go and submit it to my boss he looks at
it glances through it and he finds
certain errors and my heart is sinking
oh my god I’m gonna get fired right I’ve
taken this big leap of faith at the end
he kept going and he finished the
document and he said but it’s got enough
for us to take it to the next stage of
due diligence which is signing an NDA
and financial closure I was very
thrilled
long story short six months later I get
a call for my boss and he says Taran why
don’t we have dinner in New York so I
fly to New York at the dinner my boss
opens a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne
and he says congratulations Tarin you’re
the new global CEO of the Treasury
business I was like wow literally out of
the blue like I was like blown away this
is not true because all my colleagues
remember the Americans the Germans they
were 10 to 15 years senior to me and
from Ivy League schools and I was not
from there any of that so why me was my
question to my boss why me and he said
just one thing you know how to smash the
deadline I said what do you mean by that
mark he said remember that day when we
were having that discussion on due
diligence if you hadn’t put up your hand
for a two-week due diligence we would
have lost this 20 million dollar asset
because our competitor had already made
a competitive bid so the world of
business is highly competitive timing is
everything
whichever business you get into timing
is everything right so you’ve got to
make sure that you make that jump and he
said because I’m looking for heads of
businesses who can smash the deadline
and then I was like wow write something
which I had done which would make a
difference now you’ve done all of this
you are now set with your business idea
last point you’ve got to stay the course
it’s going to take tough time so when I
went into this business of setting up a
school it took me I had to liquidate all
my financial assets sell everything I
owned my property leverage myself to the
hilt went to 20 banks got rejected
rejected rejected non-stop right you’ve
got to stay that course you’ve got to
believe in your idea
today I can proudly say the banks are
now chasing us and I had this beautiful
call from a student of mine she called
me from Delhi saying sir I want to share
some good news with you I said yeah sure
she said I got into my dream company of
Google and I was like wow you made my
day
she said you made my life thank you very
much ladies and gentlemen [Applause]