Last Tuesday was an important day for the newly - started Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's (BVB) Institute of Management here in Mysore for the good reason that Sudha Murthy, Chairperson of Infosys Foundation stepped into the premises in the morning to fulfill an important engagement.

One would think that being one of the richest women of our country, she would arrive in a super class Limousine, accompanied by gun totting security, in these bad days of violence. Of course, there was a private security guard, very simple looking guy sans gun. In fact, I asked the guy if he was the gunman with a gun. He meekly said “no gun Sir”.

I reached the place almost on dot at 10. 30 am, the scheduled time, only to be surprised by the janitor who said, “Sudha Murtiyavaru aagale bandubittidare Sir” (Sudha Murthy has already arrived). "Where is her car", I asked and a second surprise awaited me when he pointed at a humble looking Toyota Corrolla. Walking briskly I joined the group led by BVB Karnataka Chairman N. Ramanuja. I have spoken to Sudha Murty a couple of years ago, a couple of times on telephone to get clarification regarding the renovation of Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion, a heritage building at Manasa Gangothri, for which she had donated about Rs. 2 crore.

It was a surprise for me to realise that she could be accessed without any hurdles. Speaking to her too was quite satisfying for the reason that there was no hang - up of the wealthy person she is or the great achiever that she is. Though I spoke to her in English, I was happy when she broke into Kannada with such ease, almost like a duck taking to water. Kannada language dances on her tongue with ease sans the North Karnataka accent and diction. She is quite articulate both in English and Kannada and she might be quite fluent in Marati and Hindi as well, being from North Karnataka. I do not know.

Be that as it may, another surprise awaited me when I was introduced to her by Ramanuja. She interrupted her conversation and told me that she had read my book Abracadabra given to her by her husband N. R. Narayan Murthy, the Infosys Mentor.

For a moment I was surprised; but soon realised the book was given to Narayana Murthy by my son Vikram Muthanna at the time he had interviewed him when Infosys celebrated its silver jubilee in Mysore Centre in the month of July this year. I was flattered when she said she enjoyed reading it. She herself being a prolific, creative writer, I thought it was a tribute one writer pays to another. My wife and I were regular readers of her column in The Week. The truth was that it was the very reason I subscribed to that magazine. I have since discontinued it. Naturally, I asked her why she had stopped writing for the magazine and her answer was that being busy as she is, it was very difficult for her to keep the deadline on which editors insist. I agree!

After unveiling the plaque, she was conducted into the classroom where the first batch of MBA students were waiting to listen to this super Master of Business Administration — Sudha Murty. Instead of lecturing, she preferred to field the questions from the young future business executives. Some of the questions and answers have already appeared in this paper on the same day, 17th October, 2006. Therefore, I shall not inflict upon you a repetition. However, I would like to share with you what is not in the report but was interesting and revealing.

Did you face any financial problem when you started Infosys and what was your goal?
Money was not her goal, nor was it her husband's, she said. Their goal was to give quality product and service. Money was important, no doubt. The financial institutions, including banks, were asking for security. The Bank wanted them to mortgage their property as security for the loan. They did not have any property to mortgage. Between 1981 upto 1996 it was a hard time financially, she said.

At this juncture, I interrupted her saying, like Oscar Wilde, who, when asked by the American Customs if he had anything to declare, said, "I have nothing to declare except my genius," she should have said: “I have my genius to mortgage”. She laughed and said, in fact she had told the bankers that they had two brains and four hands. She said their business prospects improved only after the economic liberalisation policy was implemented around the year 1991. "Our aim was never money".

What were the challenges before an entrepreneur?
A good entrepreneur converts all problems in his favour. But you must have a team, says Sudha Murty. You cannot build an enterprise without a team. It is not Moksha you are seeking where you have to work all alone for yourself. And to build a team you must have certain qualities. You must be selfless, transparent in your accounts, lead by personal example and insist on quality. When Anupama Kulakarni from Dharwad got up to speak, Sudha Murty was a bit excited and even sounded parochial, as she too had come from Dharwad or that part of Karnataka. Admitting that she is a bit partial to girls, Sudha Murty asked Anupama to shoot her question.

What's your dream for society?
The question was like dynamite and quite loaded. Answer to such a question could be short or a long one. Sudha Murty preferred a long one. She went on a journey into our country's past, present and future in a roller - coaster ride of an answer. She recalled with a tinge of sadness in her voice how our country was ruled by others for many years, apparently exploited, thus leaving the country poor. Denmark is such a small country but it is so rich (because it was never ruled by others).

She also spoke of the need to know the nature of a country and its history. She recalled how our country was united to help the tsunami victims. She mentioned of seeing lorries loaded with only fruits and some loaded only with chapathis and some others carrying only chappals for the tsunami survivors and all these items came as donation. She said similarly we must all unite against poverty and work to eradicate it. That will indeed be a grand day. "I expect every Corporate Office to participate in such a unity to fight poverty," she said and added that no single individual, however rich and giving, can solve this problem of poverty.

According to Sudha Murty, unless the poor make progress, especially in villages, our country will not progress. She says, in our country just about 5 per cent of the people get good jobs and the rest remain poor. "Which is why I suggest universal education for all upto 12th standard (PUC) and thereafter they must be given vocational education, so that they can pick up a job soon after leaving the institute or college", says Sudha Murty. In fact, just yesterday our Chief Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy, while speaking after inaugurating the Bhavan's Institute of Management at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Vijayanagar, expressed the same opinion when he said that there was nothing much to be proud of about the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which our Prime Minister hopes will touch 10 per cent, unless the gap between the poor and the rich is bridged as a result of increased GDP.

According to Kumaraswamy the present GDP growth has led to accumulation of wealth by some sections of our people while a large section of our people have remained poor. The Chief Minister even gave an on – the - spot real-life example of a blind man and an engineering college girl student who was unable to get a modest loan from the scheduled banks, who had approached him for help at the venue. Even as the Chief Minister was speaking, the blind man got up from where he was sitting and the girl student was seen walking towards the podium before she was stopped. Let it be.

To revert to Sudha Murty. She was asked the next question:

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
"I have not achieved anything" was her instant response and then mentioned of Lord Krishna and Buddha who never aspired to achieve anything because they were detached from all desires, including that of achieving something. At this point, a non - student who managed to sneak in and occupy a seat amidst the students got up, introduced himself as an English teacher and began to ramble about his achievement in teaching vocabulary to students since 15 years, experimenting in about 150 schools and then gave a bunch of papers to Sudha Murty, probably hoping that she would, with her wealth and concern for education, help in his mission. She also alluded to her days in Telco as an engineer almost 30 years back, spoke of the need of gender equality, natural resistance for any new change, so on and so forth.

According to her, how much money you make is not important. What is important is how many are benefited from your money. She made a clear distinction between corporate social responsibility and individual philanthropy. Individual philanthropy is only a charity which will not act as a catalyst to bring about socio - economic change, but if multi - crore corporates take up social responsibility it can bring about socio - economic change.

The next question was, whether she would like to join politics:

The response was electric: "Joining politics? Why should I? I don't have the bent of mind, which is necessary to join politics. I will be a misfit in politics and I have absolutely no motivation either". She appeared to be happy teaching students, as she was doing in Bangalore University for sometime. "I used to tell a story at the end of the class. And the students used to be so happy". It appears after some years she met an young executive who introduced himself to her as her student. Sudha Murty in a lighter vein asked him if he remembered anything of what she taught. He smiled and told her, “Madam honestly I remember nothing about the subject you taught but I remember every one of the stories you told at the end of the class”.

Do you think there are opportunities for women entrepreneur in these days?
Sudha Murty went a bit nostalgic while answering the question. That is understandable for the reason, Infosys was an enterprise that was jointly ventured into by Sudha Murty and her husband N.R. Narayan Murthy. "Believe me, for nearly 10 to 12 years (after we set up Infosys) we never went out together. It was a 24x7 job. Women are naturally under tremendous stress (as entrepreneurs). In fact, she has to undergo double the tension of her husband".

Sudha Murty came up with a new formula for a husband and wife entrepreneurs to achieve success, which produced ripples of laughter in the classroom. The sutra: "Behind every successful man there is a dumb woman and behind every successful woman there is an understanding husband".

However, she made it clear that there is no formula for success. Success is a combination of many factors like correct time of starting an enterprise, support from the family members, element of luck and, of course, God's grace. She mentioned of the famous German software company SAP, which despite its excellence in quality could not meet the competition and succeed in the European Union. However, when it relocated itself in America it become a great success.

She said people migrate to prosperous countries. India was very prosperous in ancient times. Foreigners came to India through Khyber Pass, across mountains and seas. These days, we find people from India migrating to America and other countries for the same reason. When a student asked what was her inspiration for writing, she appeared pleased for the reason, as she herself said, that all the time she was wondering why nobody was asking any question about her writing — short stories, novels, essays, articles etc.

According to her, the inspiration for all her writings is derived from the people whom she meets whenever she gets an opportunity and not from any book, University or Guru. She said that in the North - Eastern part of India, like Nagaland, Manipur etc., people still talk about Goriwali Rani and Company Sirkar, even though it is 60 years since we got independence. In the tribal areas, Sudha Murty said, women of 100 – years - old have black hair and they were surprised to see her with grey hair.

Sudha Murty mentioned of a thought-provoking question posed to her by a tribal in Orissa for which he himself gave the answer. The question was: "To whom does this land belong? The land is made by God. Trees are gifts from God. Likewise the rains and the rivers. How then do you say this land belongs to you?" Just because the Khata is in your name you claim the land is yours, said Sudha Murty agreeing with the tribal from Orissa. She says if you understand human nature you will understand him without knowing his language.

It seems, once she gave a Rs. 100 note to a blind man and by touching the note he found it too big and thought it was a mistake and told her so. Such was the innocence of the poor people. A similar incident was narrated by our Chief Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy yesterday at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

Sometime back, the Chief Minister was in Chikkamagalur Government Guest House. A woman went to him along with her daughter and requested financial assistance to educate her daughter. The girl told the Chief Minister that she lost her father and her mother had taken a loan for educating her. The Chief Minister was moved by their plight and offered to give her Rs. 10,000 from his pocket, as there was no provision for such help under the government rules. However, the mother said that since she had borrowed only Rs. 4,000 and the expense for her daugther's education was only Rs. 1,000, she would be satisfied if she was given Rs. 5,000 only. In these days of dishonestly and corruption it is a great relief to find people like these with honesty and integrity among the poor.

Sudha Murty, while talking to me earlier, evinced great interest in knowing the origin of Coorgs. Much of what has been written on the subject is nothing but conjecture, I told her. If there is anybody who can throw light on the subject please let me know so that I can pass on the information to Sudha Murty.

K B Ganapathy
Editor in Chief
Star of Mysore
Mysore

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