Dear Entrepreneur Brothers and Sisters,

Today we are celebrating 14th Entrepreneurs' day. Every year on 29th July, we celebrate Entrepreneurs' day. This day being birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Late Mr. J R D Tata, we pay our humble tributes to his memory and arrange this special function.

In 1938, at the age of 34, when JRD was elected Chairman of Tata & Sons, the group included fourteen companies with sales of Rs 280 crore; in 1993, the year of his death, sales were Rs 15,000 crore contributed by over fifty large manufacturing companies, besides innumerable holding, investment, subsidiaries and associate concerns, making it India's biggest business group.

But this is not the only reason of our inspiration. JRD was a visionary leader and his style of management inspires us a lot. JRD adopted a management by consensus style: 'When a number of persons are involved I am definitely a consensus man,' he once said, adding: 'but that does not mean that I do not disagree or that I do not express my views. Basically it is a question of having to deal with individual men heading different enterprises. You have to adapt yourself to their ways and deal accordingly and draw out the best in each man. If I have any merit it is getting on with individuals according to their ways and characteristics. In fifty years I have dealt with a hundred top directors and I have got on with all of them. At times it involves suppressing yourself. It is painful but necessary. To be a leader you have got to lead human beings with affection.' And I think this is the true reason of JRD's success.

Ten years ago, when I joined Entrepreneurs' club, business to me was doing hard work. Being a techno-entrepreneur I was more concerned about new technology, new products, and passion of solving technical problems, and what not. Keeping me and the people around me always busy was the measure of accomplishment. And I am sure if I would have not joined Entrepreneurs' club, the things would have not changed much.

Entrepreneurs' club changed my whole perspective of looking at the business. Experience sharing, book reviews, seminars, enterprise visits, interaction with successful entrepreneurs, lectures by management gurus helped me a lot to develop a strong business acumen. In other words Entrepreneurs' club worked as my mentor in developing my business. Knowingly or unknowingly every member has benefited from the club activities.

Networking through the club activities is extremely helpful for the existing as well as budding entrepreneurs. It helps during all the stages of your business life. We have already established contact with few entrepreneurs from Germany and UK, who are interested to start entrepreneurs clubs under our affiliation. This will make our trust international in a true sense. And this will give our Indian entrepreneurs an opportunity to establish their global tie-ups much faster. In future, Entrepreneurs' International will work with the other organizations like NEN, EDI, MCED, MITCON, MCCIA, TiE etc. This will help our trust to reach more number of entrepreneurs much faster. We are also working on developing systematic mentor-protégée program to help entrepreneurs improve or establish their business successfully. 

During my 10 years association with this entrepreneurship development activity, I got an opportunity to work as club president as well as trust president. Both the times I got this opportunity besides having more deserving people than me. However the foundation laid by the previous presidents and their teams helped me a lot to perform my responsibilities smoothly.

I thank all the trustees of Entrepreneurs' International for their full involvement in the trust activities. I also thank the presidents of all the clubs and their teams for their strong support to promote trust activities.

Finally my best wishes to Wing Commander Vijay Chattur (Retd.) and for his new responsibility as trust president. I am sure our trust will flourish and progress much faster under his able leadership.

Thanks

Jay Hind!

Datta Deshpande

President,

Entrepreneurs' International