A one-to-one with Narayana Murthy, Infosys co-founder

In my various roles in the global high-tech sector, I get to talk to many successful entrepreneurs from electronics and EDA, to IT and telecoms. It’s not often that I get to talk to successful Indian entrepreneurs, but when you do, this can be very inspirational in itself.

One such occasion was last Friday evening in London, when I was given the opportunity to talk one-on-one with Mr. Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys. He was in London for meetings, and as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, he was encouraged by the chairman of TiE Global, Apurv Bagri, to speak to an audience comprising TiE’s UK chapter. Two hours before the event, I spoke to him to talk about his experiences of starting up a tech company in 1981, how it is different now, and what he would do differently plus offer tips for other start-ups.

Mr. Murthy is well-spoken and gentle, and you get the idea that he is both philosophical and ethical in his approach to business, particularly in his view on the hurdles that were put in front of him and his co-founders back in 1981.

We covered various topics – from the start-up spirit and what it was like then in 1981, to what it is like now for start-ups and also his tips for other start-ups. We also talked about what he would do differently if he were to start again, and also his mentoring and philanthropic values.

The start-up spirit – the obstacles and the perseverance

When asked about the mood during the start-up days, he talks about how in those days India was a closed country and where there was a tremendous ‘friction’ towards business.  In particular he had illustrated it with the experiences in getting a license to import a computer.

He contrasts the conditions then with those now – and in particular, how India was an unfriendly environment for start-ups looking to operate globally. For example, he talks about it taking 40 visits to the capital Delhi just to get the license to import that computer, and each visit would take at least 2.5 days by train. Banks would not give loans, and it would take 10-15 days for approval from the Reserve Bank of India just to travel overseas. He also told of how it would take 3-4 years just to get a phone line.

He says that while they encountered these difficulties, entrepreneurship is all about a passion that drives you to overcome those hurdles. Mr. Murthy comments, “We were very positive in those days – we saw every bottleneck as an obstacle race, as a chance to show we were smart and perseverant and we were optimistic.”

One of the key things that came out from the discussion with him about starting up is that he wanted to prove that entrepreneurship could find a place in India.

When I asked him about his tips for start-ups today, whether they are in Europe, the USA or India, he was very enthusiastic about the opportunities for entrepreneurs today.  “The issues today are not infrastructure, or bureaucracy. The issue today is the market, competition, and how smart you are.”  He talked exptensively about product differentaion and adding incremetal value, and of the importance today of branding to ensure that your products can command decent levels of pricing.

Although Infosys might be a IT outsourcing company, so many of his perspectives are applicable to any emerging electronics company in India or one that is looking to start up today. It is very useful to have the wisdom of someone who has successfully taken an Indian business global and listed it on Nasdaq. It is more useful to try and learn from his experiences to try and emulate that success. India has so much opportunity to do this today, especially when many in the developed world are talking about China and India becoming the global powerhouses of 2020.

The full interview and audio podcast of my talk with Mr. Murthy is available on The Chilli’s web site.