4 entrepreneurs, success stories

Together they tell you how to make an idea work. Reema Saffarini reports.

Becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business is the dream of many students and young graduates in the UAE and probably the world over.

The issue of how one becomes an entrepreneur has been debated, discussed and dissected endlessly.

Do this, don't do that, this is a mistake, this is how you can hit the jackpot… among the many points that professionals keep highlighting.

However, the story is always different when you hear it straight from the entrepreneur who was probably the regular boy or girl next door till they made it in the world of business through enterprise.

Notes met a number of such self-made people at the Second Biennial HCT-MIT Global Entrepreneurship Conference held recently.

The Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) organised the event.

AZIM HASHIM PREMJI:

- Indian businessman, chairman and CEO of Wipro Technologies - one of the largest software companies in India.

- Forbes magazine rated him as the richest person in India from 1999 to 2005.

- Business Media named him the Business Man of the Year 2000.

- Premji studied electrical engineering at Stanford University.

- In 1966, at 21, he took over the family vegetable oil business after the death of his father.

- Premji started off in Wipro with a simple vision.

- Wipro initially dealt in hydrogenated cooking fats and consumer products, later expanding into computer software. It is now ranked among the top 100 technology companies globally.

His Tips for the young entrepreneur

- Work hard

- Believe in yourself and what you want to achieve

- Don't be afraid to take risks

- Learn from your mistakes

- Failure is part of entrepreneurship so don't give up

PROFESSOR ROBERT SUTTON:

- Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University

- He is Co-director of the Centre for Work, Technology and Organisation - an active researcher and cofounder in the Stanford Technology Ventures Programme.

- Cofounder and active member of the new "d.school" - a multi-disciplinary programme that teaches and spreads "design thinking".

- Sutton received his PhD in Organisational Psychology from The University of Michigan and has served on the Stanford faculty since 1983.

- Sutton's honours include the award for the best paper published in the Academy of Management Journal, induction into the Academy of Management Journals Hall of Fame, the Eugene L. Grant Award for Excellence in Teaching, the McGraw-Hill Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award and the McCullough Faculty Scholar Chair from Stanford.

- He was selected by Business 2.0 as a leading "management guru" in 2002.

- Sutton has consulted for a number of companies including Ernst and Young, Deloitte Consulting, McDonald's IBM, McKinsey, Pepsi and Xerox.

His Tips for the young entrepreneur

"I will give you the Stanford recipe," said Sutton.

- Fail constantly, because by making mistakes and learning from them you can become successful.

- Get to know your clients or customer. If you have an idea, gather three or four of your friends and get close to them and see what they like about it and what they don't. If it would meet their needs.

PROFESSOR EDWARD CHEN:

- President of Lingnan University, Hong Kong

- He has held visiting appointments at Yale, Oxford, Stockholm Universities and the University of California (Davis Campus).

- He served as a member of Time magazine's Board of Economists.

- He is director of the First Pacific Company, a director of Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd, Wharf Holdings Ltd. and a trustee of Eaton Vance Management Funds.

- He has published over 100 articles in books and international academic journals on a wide range of subjects on development economies.

His Tips for the young entrepreneur

- As a young graduate or student you need exposure. You need to work in different places and learn about cultures.

- Look for a job and experience. Don't stay cooped inside an office. Exposure is important. Look for a job where you can travel and meet people.

- Always develop your skills. It is important that you develop various sets of skills. Don't specialised in one area, but learn about different fields.

- You are bound to make mistakes. Entrepreneurship is about risk-taking.

- Find a service or a product that would fill a gap or need in society.

SUBHI BATTERJEE:

- President and CEO of Saudi German Hospitals Group that includes the Saudi Entrepreneurship Development Institute and the Health Management Research and Training Institute

His Tips for the young entrepreneur

- You need a mindset, good idea, education and the will to succeed.

- You can learn to become an entrepreneur. It is a skill you acquire.

HOW INNOVATION CAN BE TAUGHT

Robert Sutton, Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University says:

- Innovation is a team sport. The trick is to bring people from various disciplines and make them work together.

- Learn how to fight for your ideas. Fight when you are right and listen when you are wrong.

- Blend experiences. Novices and experts should work together as each has something to give.

- Creativity means doing something new with old things.

- Prototype a lot, fail a lot and fail fast. Traditional education doesn't teach us the importance of failure. It always stresses on success. Failure is the lifeblood of innovation.

The Second Biennial HCT-MIT Global Entrepreneurship Conference

A two-day event that brought together more than 38 entrepreneurs and educators from all over the world.

- Organised by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and HCT.

- Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of HCT, chaired the event and stressed on the vitality of entrepreneurship for the continuous development of the country's economy.

- Keynote speakers included Pat Toole, General Manager of Engineering and Technology Services at IBM and Dr Peter Corr, Senior Vice-President of Science and Technology at Pfizer.

- Also present at the event were Dr Tayeb A. Kamali, Vice-Chancellor of the HCT, Dr Sulaiman Al Jassim, Vice-President of Zayed University, Dr Hadif Bin Jawa'an Al Dhahiri, Director of UAE University and HCT directors.

For more information log on to: www.hct.ac.ae