 The chief guest for the day Mr.K.B.Chandrasekhar, is the co-founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Jamcracker. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of e4e Inc., a global technology holding company and co-founder of the web-hosting pioneer Exodus Communications and the Chairman of the Board of Aztec Software and Technology Services Limited.
Mr.K.B.Chandrasekhar was born in Kumbakonam and brought up in Chennai and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Anna University. His career as a high technology entrepreneur has spanned Exodus Communications, Fouress Inc., Rolta India, Ltd and Wipro. In 1999, he established the Anna University- K.B.Chandrasekhar Research Centre at the Madras Institute of Technology as a collaborative venture between Anna University, Chennai and the K.B.Chandrasekhar Family Foundation. In the same year, Mr. K.B.Chandrasekhar was honoured as the Ernst & Young Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year. His latest venture, called Jamcracker is currently a leading provider of ‘On Demand Delivery and Management Software’ headquartered in Sunnyvales, California, with regional offices in Scotland, UK, India etc. Two of his noted articles are titled, “ Why Saas is back”, “ On Demand software: from revolution to evolution.”.
In his speech to the students, Mr.K.B.Chandrasekhar talked about the lifecycle of an entrepreneur quoting his life experiences as the best example. He felt that entrepreneurship was a hazy dream pursued by a person, but with an intense determination to achieve it. “ It is a journey where every event is a milestone conveying the start of a new beginning and all the jobs that one pursues- a building stone to shape one’s career.” He advised the students to be passionate, pursue their dreams, capitalize on the opportunities and expect the unexpected as well. He encouraged the students to use “Wify – what is in it for you” approach in dealing with people so that the person is receptive to our ideas. He felt that the major characteristic of a management student was that of a decision maker, incorporating the education gained into practice. During his speech, Mr. K.B.Chandrasekhar related some of his experiences to incidents in Mahabharata.
 This was followed by a question and answer session, where some of the questions posed were: the scope for female Indian entrepreneurs, risks of entrepreneurship etc. Mr.K.B.Chandrasekhar emphasized that an entrepreneur should have the ability to synthesize incomplete information into a course of learning and continuous improvement. He also mentioned in life, failures may happen while chasing one’s dreams and that such failures should be seen as opportunities to learn from mistakes. While answering a question about venture capitalists, he cleared a popular misconception by replying that a venture capitalist invests not in the product/concept but in the person. In short, he motivated the audience to think that; “Destiny is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
Contributed By
Deepti Murali, 2nd year MBA
|
