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Thursday, April 12, 2007

Book review: The High Performance Entrepreneur

Name: The High Performance Entrepreneur
Author: Subroto Bagchi
Publishers: Penguin Portfolio

Misc: 244 pages, Rs 395

Highlights: Simple and straightforward, yet compelling - a practitioner’s guide to entrepreneurship.

My rating: 4.5 /5


There’s nothing like hearing it from the horse’s mouth. Learning from someone who’s “been there, and done that” is a valuable asset to add to your wealth of experiences.

And when it comes from the Chief Operating Officer of a company which is the youngest in the world to become PCMM Level 5 certified, a SEI CMMi Level 5 certified in just 5 years, and has hit the $100 million mark in revenues in just six years since it has been founded, you bet… it can’t get better. The man is Subroto Bagchi, COO, MindTree Consulting – who started the company in 1999, with a group of some of his colleagues from Wipro, which recently had its IPO over-subscribed 27-28 times!!

To the common man, Subroto Bagchi would be known better, as the writer of the column “The Times of Mind” in Times of India. Many others, especially students, would have had the good fortune of hearing this terrific orator.

“The High Performance Entrepreneur” is slightly different from an autobiography of a great achiever, in the sense that, the narration and explanations in the book, is in the style of a handbook, a practical guide. Mr. Bagchi explains the stages in building an enterprise from scratch, step by step, in the order that it is supposed to be done, and which has worked so well for him and his company. And he supplements each of this with experiences drawn not from the journey of MindTree. He also cites examples and lore related to many other high performance achievers like Azim Premji, Narayana Murthy, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Lance Armstrong et al.

And despite the treasure trove of wisdom he has opened for the wannabe entrepreneur who reads this book, he firmly believes "You really do not need to read this book-for that matter any book-to start your own enterprise, just like "...no amount of reading about romance is equal to the act of falling in love...the actual experience (of starting a company) is in the enactment. So, go on and do it"

If you ever dream to become an entrepreneur, this book can help you to lots of things right… and right – the first time itself!! Worth every rupee it costs!!

My favorite excerpts from the book (few of them)

  • High performance entrepreneurship is not an accident. It has to be planned that way
  • “Building a company is not like planting one giant tree. It is about creating an entire forest some day. You may not know how… … Yet, you must live that thought… you must be exhilarated by the prospect of doing it.”
  • “If you do not love to make money, do not start a business”
  • “When you build a team, you do not start by looking at compatibility and sameness. You look for complementary skills and diversity.
  • “Resilience – it is the one thing above everything else that makes an entrepreneur very different from everyone else.”
  • “…Winners are invariably associated with their ability to think differently, act differently and deliver differently”
  • “The no. 1 job of an entrepreneur is to sell his ware.”
  • “Listen to everyone. But form your own opinion about things.”
  • “Do not try to solve every problem that comes your way. See if you can change the rules of the game instead.”

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