"The tallest businessman can sweat"

Two men of experience and three budding entrepreneurs shared vignettes of the whens and whims of entrepreneurship at the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce-India (WZCC-I) meet at Hotel Diplomat on November 28, 2005.

At hand were the WZCC’s international vice president Homi Davier from Houston and international director Bomi Boyce from Toronto to guide and encourage a roomful of members of the Bombay chapter, host for the evening. Speaking of intents and hurdles were the young Cyrus Driver of Calorie Care, a health food delivery service barely a few months old, and author publisher of Zoroastrian based literature Marzban Giara who had been selected to present their stories on the occasion. Farokh Todywalla, who deals in arts and antiques had an array of items for display and sale.

Davier, who runs Capricorn Travels — a successful travel agency — and until recently owned Baltic Airlines and an airline catering business, both of which he has now divested, spoke of the birth of the WZCC and how he and WZCC president Rohinton Rivetna drew up the charter in record time, adapting the charter of the South Asia Chamber of Commerce which had just been established. He urged Zoroastrian entrepreneurs to employ the best people and use the WZCC members for guidance and advice.

"You need to be a dreamer to get into business. If you are not a dreamer, don’t get into business. If there is no risk there is no pain and no gain,” said Davier. According to him, an entrepreneur needs vision and the selectivity to focus on a project that excites him. He needs some experience of the industry he chooses. He must undertake due diligence of his scheme, the sources of supply, the market, the infrastructure, etc. "Have a business plan with five to 10-year projections. Without it don’t go looking for money. Keep a close watch on expenses and sales – they move in inverse proportion.”

Boyce, a management man initially with Killick, then with IBM and subsequently on independent consultancy, focused on the attitude an entrepreneur must have: A curious mind capable of innovation on demand ("You can be a successful entrepreneur if you can chip and chop and stay ahead of the pack”), persistence, the ability to fight dejection, maintain a passionate belief and chase his idea to fruition. A successful entrepreneur is demanding of himself and is able to carry his family with him. He must remain amiable with everyone; he cannot sulk. He must have some style and flair and choose a business that suits his style. Above all, he must have an eye and feel for opportunity. And of course, marketing skills. A good entrepreneur will have his market ready before his product hits it.

According to Boyce, India currently offers scope for event managers, hydroponic/greenhouse cultivators of exotic vegetables and cell flower whose shelf life extend to about 20 days, service agencies providing health, home and office care and creators of corporate logos for gifting.

Above: BPP chairman emeritus Jamshed Guzder (extreme right) receiving floral tributes from Zarine Commissariat and Davier Inset: Minoo Shroff

Driver, with a background in the finance field acknowledged that he had no experience of the catering business. Coming from a normal, well fed Parsi family with rounded contours, he said he had spent 10 months in research before launching Calorie Care – a trendy concept in a work dominated world where time for leisurely consumption of healthy home food was becoming increasingly scarce. So he has acquired a team of nutritionists and chefs to provide customer tailored meals with the accent on individual health requirement, the entire day’s meals and snacks being delivered to office or home in prepacked containers from his kitchen in Sewri. Currently with a client list numbering a hundred, Driver said he had no budget for advertising but would like to expand to other metros in India. He was also on the lookout for suppliers of various inputs like fruits and vegetables, packaging material, etc.

Driver was advised to target hospital nutritionists as well as clubs and hotel apartment blocks to increase his client base. Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) chairman and WZCC-I president Minoo Shroff cautioned the budding entrepreneur against over-extending himself: "Bombay is a big enough market. You can earn in crores in Nariman Point alone…Logistics is very important.”

Giara recalled how he reached his niche quite by chance when he helped Dr Baman Surti publish his English prose rendition of the Shahnama, going on from there to publish Dastur Khurshed Dabu’s Words of Wisdom, cassettes of devotional songs, the book on Parsi statues and other works of value to Zoroastrians. "The idea was not to make money but to provide service: teach people to pray and benefit from Zoroastrianism.” His Zoroastrian Pilgrim’s Guide aims to promote the idea of pilgrimage to benefit agiaries in the mofussil, help spread prosperity in the community if dharamshalas are back in demand, he said.

Shroff, a respected management consultant, spoke from his experience as vice chairman of Raymonds: "The tallest businessman can sweat” in tense moments of negotiation. "Inspiring trust and confidence is most important. Know your business, hire the best talent. You must be able to convince the other man that you are able to deliver,” he emphasized. "Risk and daring are the sine qua non of entrepreneurship. In every situation when you want to be on your own, you are cutting off the security…There is a very fine line between risk taking and gambling.” The aware entrepreneur has the knowledge to discern it, he noted.