WEOY winner loves work, growth and dreams of building global banking giant

The founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank was named EY World Entrepreneur of the Year at a glittering ceremony on Monaco on Saturday night.

Speaking afterwards, he told The Yorkshire Post about his first visit to the United States and his early impressions of Wall Street’s banking giants.

“I sat back and pondered, here are institutions that were started by individuals once upon a time. The individuals are long gone, but the institutions are growing.

“What drives me is the desire to grow an institution built in India that Indians can be proud of and the world will sit up and watch.”

He launched the lender in 1985 with seed capital of less than US$250,000. Today it is an international group with $2.8b in revenues, 605 branches and international offices in cities including London, New York and Singapore.

Mr Kotak was born and raised in household with an extended family of 60 people and one kitchen. The family had a cotton trading and agriculture business. He said: “It was capitalism at work and socialism at home.”

In the early years, he forged several partnerships with global banks to leverage their brand and expertise. He had an auto finance joint venture with Ford Credit and an insurance joint venture with Old Mutual.

In 1995, Goldman Sachs became a minority partner in the investment banking and stock broking part of the business, in which it acquired 25 per cent.

In 2007, when the Indian growth story had all the major investment banks lining up to enter the country, Goldman Sachs offered to buy out KMB.

But Mr Kotak rewrote the rules by buying out Goldman instead. Over the past ten years, he boosted the group’s assets 25 times and its income 30 times.

Today, KMB is considered the fifth most valuable bank in India overall.

Mr Kotak said: “I do believe that entrepreneurship is about building a sustainable instition over a long period of time and it has to outlive individuals. I take this award on behalf of all entrepreneurs around the world who are building sustainable institutions.

“I also believe that entrepreneurship is giving back. It is creating out of the surpluses solutions for the very challenging world.”

He added: “I come from a country where out of the 1.2bn people only 400m Indians have a bank account and therefore the size of the opportunity in front of us is twice what the entire Indian banking system has done over the last many, many years.

“At the same time, through the medium of banking and intermediation we have an opportunity to reach out and provide finance to small businesses and the underprivileged and work towards getting them into society.

“I am also committed on a personal level to a very important social cause of education for the underprivileged. If India is to progress we need a lot more young Indians to be educated and come into the organised sector.

“More than 50 per cent of Indians are below the age of 25 therefore I see the Indian opportunity of creating significant value for our stakeholders along with it being able to do significant good for the society and the country, making a small difference to the future of the world.”

Rebecca MacDonald, chair of the judging panel, said judges were impressed by the way he created a new bank in a challenging and highly regulated environment that has a positive impact in the community.

Fergie says consistency kept him at the top

“IT’S CONSISTENCY. That’s my strong point,” Sir Alex Ferguson told an audience at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

“It’s important that you stand by your beliefs and philosophy and don’t change.

“That allowed me to manage Manchester United for the length of period I did.”

The 72-year-old won 38 trophies during his 26 years at the helm, making him the most successful coach in the history of international football.

He has since taken up a teaching position on Harvard Business School’s executive education programme.

Taking part in an interview at Monte Carlo’s opera house, Sir Alex discussed leadership, man management and his formative years in Glasgow.

“A journalist once wrote I did well despite coming from Govan. It’s because I came from Govan that I did well,” he said.

He paid tribute to his parents, his teacher and his Boys’ Brigade officer and said he was fortunate to grow up in a working-class neighbourhood which valued loyalty. On leadership, he said: “Your personality has to be strong when you are leading people, when you are encouraging them and developing them and inspiring them.”

He said he had no problem with players having egos, so long as they worked hard and played as part of a team. He said: “People with egos have to win.”

But he would stamp down hard on players who he felt were becoming too big for their boots. He said: “Success can change people. I have seen it many, many times. If I saw it in the changing room I would give them a reminder.

“I used to say to parents I want your boy to go back the same person.

“It is important for the mother to recognise her son.”

Russian entrepreneur’s rocket-fuelled success

WHEN Alexander Galitsky started his career as an entrepreneur it was a criminal act.

Growing up in the Soviet Union, he started making electric guitars so he and his friends could form a band.

But the authorities got wind of his enterprise, raided his parents’ home and confiscated his stock.

At 17, the Ukrainian threw himself into study and moved to Moscow to study physics.

He became a top executive in the Soviet space programme and, following the fall of the USSR, used his technological know-how to become an internet pioneer. With Almaz Capital, he became one of the founding fathers of the Russian venture capital industry.

He said: “Talented people in any part of the planet using the internet can create great companies for the global market.”

Inspired by Deng Xiaoping

SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS must be more innovative than their rivals and unafraid of competition, to work hard and treat employees as a family, according to Yang Guo Ping, founder of Dazhong Group.

The chairman of the Shanghai conglomerate and EY country winner told The Yorkshire Post that he is motivated by the “revolutionary speech from Deng Xiaoping when he travelled to the south part of China... to keep innovating, keep revolutionary thoughts in our mind.

“Without the thoughts and vision from Deng Xiaoping there would be no DZ and no great revolution right now for China.”

Mr Yang said that feels more social responsibility as a consequence of his trip to Monaco for the WEOY awards.

Camera icon celebrates 100 years of enterprise

LEICA CAMERA is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

And what a century it has been for the German company.

Chief executive Alfred Schopf told The Yorkshire Post: “The most iconic images on the planet are shot with a Leica. Che Guevara is a Leica image. The Vietnamese girl escaping from napalm is a Leica photo.

“The Hindenberg disaster is a Leica photo. Leica is very much incorporated with the last century.”

On the qualities of a successful entrepreneur, Mr Schopf, WEOY country winner, said: “Setting your goals, going for the goals, going in a controlled way and then being prepared for hits. And be dedicated.”

He sold 300,000 cameras last year, up 10 per cent on 2012.