Life stories of Indian and South East Asian business leaders
I have written two life story books on Indian business leaders and one on South East Asian business leaders. The first is Added Value - the life stories of leading South East Asian business people published in 1999 by Murmeli , the second is Added Value - the life stories of Indian business leaders published in 2010 by Roli Books (https://rolibooks.com/) and the third is Profiles in Enterprise - inspiring stories of Indian business leaders published in 2015 also by Roli Books.
Many people these days like to listen to audio books, podcasts and interviews rather than, or in addition to, reading books, magazines or newspapers. There were so many inspiring and extraordinary stories told to me by the subjects of my books that I thought podcast fans might like to hear the best of them in this podcast - https://lifestoriesofindianandsoutheastasianbusinessleaders.buzzsprout.com.
Life stories of Indian and South East Asian business leaders
Bhavarlal Jain, (1937-2016) founder of India's Jain Irrigation (https://www.jains.com/), the second largest global micro irrigation system
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All of the people in my books are outstanding entrepreneurs but, every now and then, one of them demonstrates an extra "something" which I can't easily or simply define. Bhavarlal Jain is one such person. Like most, he had an eye for an opportunity, but he had an unusual approach to admitting his failures. In 1997 he took out a half page advertisement in the leading Economic Times of India where he apologised to his investors and stakeholders. He said "I am sad that, for the first time since our inception, we have fared badly....... I feel it is my duty to account for, to own up, to admit my misjudgements and apologise." Do you know of any leading entrepreneur anywhere who has done that?
The interview is a little longer than normal but, for those who are interested in understanding the Jain religion, I think you will find Bhavarlal's explanation useful; not just to how it applies in day to day life but to how it relates to business.
But there is another reason for including his chapter in Profiles in Enterprise and that is his obvious deep love for his wife, Kantabai and her contribution to his success. As he put it "we were one person in two bodies - one soul in two bodies."
Please note that these interviews took place some time ago - over 25 years ago in the case of the South East Asian life story book and around 10 to 15 years ago in the case of the two Indian life story books. However, their stories are correct to the time of the interviews and the objective is to demonstrate the entrepreneurial skills they exhibited at the time of the interviews in building their businesses.