Agarwal and his younger rival, Snapdeal Chief Executive Officer Kunal Bahl, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya and Savjibhai Dholakia, chairman of Hari Krishna Exports who made headlines when he gave out Diwali bonuses of cars, flats and jewellery, drew the biggest applause for their speeches at the conference organised by Ravi Shankar foundation and the World Forum for Ethics in Business.
While Agarwal spoke about the principles he had distilled from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' 1997 letter to his shareholders about customer obsession, a willingness to fail, being relentless, a comfort with being misunderstood and thinking long-term, Bahl spoke about Snapdeal's goal of creating 1 million entrepreneurs.
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At 30, Bahl was the youngest panellist but clearly, one of the most recognised. When a man from Ludhiana asked for pointers on strategies for MSME companies, Bahl was quick to jump in and ask him to sell through Snapdeal. He added that he was motivated by a Chinese saying which translated to 'If you want to be happy for an hour take a nap, for a day, go fishing; for a year, get married; for a lifetime, do something meaningful for others' drawing thunderous applause.
Bhattacharya, the first woman to head SBI in the over 200 years of its existence, received a standing ovation for her speech, where she said talked about ethics in business, and spirituality. "Spirituality is not new to Indian corporate. We have a base of spirituality in this country in our roots. In fact, the whole world looks at India as an engine of spirituality," she said.
Hari Krishna Exports' Savji Dholakia, who mentioned that he had not studied beyond fourth grade, said he was in the business of being a good human being. "I use my heart while giving and my mind while taking," said Dholakia, whose diamond exports have grown from Rs 1 crore in 1991 to Rs 500 crore in 2015.