MR. Deep kalra

MR. Deep kalraLEADERSHIP LECTURE SERIES

sUBMITTED BY: GROUP # 2139278031ParimalParag139278032Rohan Kher139278040AmardeepPrajapati139278048Ashish Trehan139278075AyushGoel139278005VaradBelawadi139278034Shishir Jain139278072Deepak Edake

Leadership Lecture Series, Session 10: Mr. Deep KalraMr. Deep Kalra started the session in a very candid manner by revealing that he still regrets to not have done engineering and not trying for prestigious institutions like IIT. Mr. Kalra mentioned how he likes to visit schools and colleges often to interact with the students. Without lamenting he went on to say he thinks his life would have been different had he gone on to become an engineer from a premier institute.1. Dream Start: Mr. Kalra founded MakeMyTrip on 1st April 2000 and launched it on 7th October 2000. After graduating from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) he joined a bank (ABN Amro) as it was the thing to do. Banking taught him a lot of things but he didnt find himself cut out for banking, so he quit a few years later. An almost four year stint with AMF Bowling followed his banking job. He was to set up 10 pin bowling in India for AMF at a time when there was almost zero market for it. He worked almost single handed initially and put in a lot of efforts over it without much success. Then he moved to GE Capital where his entrepreneurial skills were tested for the first time, making him realise thats what he wants to do in life. He made two business plans, one for online travel and another for online stock broking. He was funded early by debentures and did not put his capital for the business.2. Trial by fire: This was the make or break phase for MakeMyTrip as the funds he received imploded because of the aftermath of 9/11, happened in 2001. Angel Investment was very little and the company was in serious need of the money, breakeven was still two years away. Thus, in the year 2001; when MMT had only 42 people to start with, workforce was asked to take a pay cut in order to revive the company. The employees were either asked to leave the company or take the necessary cuts in their salary which would be incentivised later in some form or the other. This initiative led to the reduced resource size of 24 which provided the much needed funding as well as the dedicated workforce which was willing to take the company to necessary heights. As a result, breakeven was achieved in 2003.3. Organic Hyper Growth: This was the consolidation phase where the customers started to feel safe doing online transactions on e-commerce sites with the launch of IRCTC website. Low cost careers like Air Deccan and Indigo made the shift from traditional travel agents, where agents sold only the high margin tickets where they could make profit, to the e-commerce site like MakeMyTrip. This created huge opportunity for MMT, thereby leading to the growth phase of MMT where it grew from being a $20mn company in year 2003 to $500mn company in three years time.4. Post IPO growth: With the company soaring new heights, it got listed on NASDAQ and also focussed towards inorganic growth by investing in companies like Ixigo. It also made the acquisition of a few more companies to make with the current business trends.Taking the PlungeMr.Kalra mentioned 5 key points about his life that he feels were responsible for him taking the plunge and establishing himself as one of the most successful entrepreneurs of India. These points are as follows:1. Brutal Self Analysis: Mr. Kalra advised the audience to perform a brutal self-analysis. He stressed on the importance of a self-SWOT analysis to identify your strengths and weaknesses. He also said that you should always play to your strengths and acknowledge your shortcomings.2. Less than Stellar Career: Mr. Kalra said that he believed he did not start as big (a fancy corporate job) as his peers of IIMA. This motivated him to try something different and charter a path of his own.3. Phase of Life: Mr. Kalra advised all the budding entrepreneurs to start early in life. It is because of the fact that an entrepreneur needs to have strong risk taking appetite along with strong physical and mental strength. These qualities are in abundance if one starts in their 20s or even 30s. He also stressed the importance of prior work-experience and how it helps when one wants to scale-up their business.4. Iim the Insurance: Mr. Kalra spoke about the brand equity that one gets being a part of a premier institute like IIT or IIM and how one should use this brand equity as an insurance against their risks.5. Past Failures: It is important to fail in life as it not only gives you experience but also motivates you to put extra efforts so that one doesnt repeat that failure again. This is what drove Mr. Kalra as he didnt want to repeat his failures of past work-experiences in his entrepreneurial stint.Throughout the session Mr. Kalra shared lot of learnings with the audience from his entrepreneurial journey. They are mentioned as follows 1. Culture is inversely proportional to growth: As Mr. Kalra scaled-up his venture he realised one thing that as the organisation increases in size it is very difficult to maintain the culture. It is a challenging task and requires a continuous process so that the values and the culture are percolated deep into the organisation. 2. Power of analytics: Mr. Kalra is a strong believer in the power of data analytics. According to him it helps in reading the market right and also identifying when the market is ready. In online ventures analytics helps in providing immediate feedback on how customers are reacting to the changes made on the website/ mobile app.3. Get the Market right: Giving his own example of how MMT pulled out of India (stopped putting in capital) when the market was not ready, Mr. Kalra said an entrepreneur has to learn to read the market. 4. Dont Fly Solo: While starting an entrepreneurial venture one should not try to do everything on his own, instead should look for good partners with complimentary skill sets to those that one possesses. 5. Horses for Courses: It is also important to know which person should be used when, as you are expanding or scaling up your best bet might not be the people who helped you start the business but somebody who can actually scale up. An all-rounder may be excellent when you start but as you grow bigger you need specialised people. Mr. Kalra also advised the audience not to give a creative person a non-creative job because he will just not be able to do it. 6. Innovate or Perish: Mr. Kalra gave the examples of two companies who pivoted with all their workforce intact, which is a great example of innovation. Both Snapdeal.com and one97.com turned around their business without laying off employees.

In conclusion Mr. Kalra told the audience he did not believe in luck. He said one has to just try harder, if you dont try harder you wont succeed no matter how lucky you are.