DREAM WITH YOUR EYES OPEN
An Entrepreneurial Journey
Ronnie Screwvala
Rupa; 185 pages; Rs 500
For many reporters like me who covered the media industry in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, the polite and soft-spoken Ronnie Screwvala was our favourite dial-a-quote. He was always ready to respond on any issue and invariably provided incisive analyses that made your story richer. But as he stepped into the big boys' club and his companies grew, access to Mr Screwvala became harder, there were fewer meetings and, of course, he had acquired a plethora of experts to answer mails - formal, cryptic responses that lacked Mr Screwvala's acuity.
That is probably why his book Dream with Your Eyes Open stands out. It gives you the same perceptive insights of an entrepreneur who grew at an amazing pace in the past few decades, from a toothbrush manufacturer to media baron through UTV and then exiting a large part of that business. It also stands out because, unlike many other books of the same genre, this one examines in detail his failures and the lessons from them.
Biographies of successful people often leave you with a feeling of awe at their ability to turn everything they touch into gold. Mr Screwvala's book is different. It is a must-read for aspiring entrepreneurs, though perhaps not those hoping to enter e-commerce who may find his pace of expansion too slow. Lucidly written, the book provides the key takeaways of each chapter in a bullet points at the end of each chapter. In case you are not the kind who is inclined to read the 185-page book in its entirety, you can choose the chapters that interest you based on the kunji (crammer)-style pointers from the chapter and then read what you find inspiring in detail.
Mr Screwvala's enduring theme across the book is that entrepreneurs should not be frightened of failure, it's part of the game. "I have never understood why people are so afraid to fail. Or why they hesitate to stretch for that next rung on the ladder of life just because they might topple over," he writes. He provides ample examples from his own mistakes - as a young man he organised a rock concert in Mumbai and lost Rs 50,000; later, he produced a super-dud movie Dil Ke Jharoke Mein, in which he lost his entire Rs 10-crore investment.
His early failure soon taught him that as someone who was considered an "outsider" in the film industry he would have to sign up with a big name to understand the Bollywood model. But despite negotiations with all the top players - Yash Raj Films, Amitabh Bachchan Corporation, Sony Pictures and NewsCorp - no joint venture materialised. Reaching the top of the media and entertainment business required getting a big-screen name, he realised.
His mantra, however, was to do non-conventional films and position, market and distribute them successfully, which is what he did with super hits like Rang De Basanti, Chalte Chalte and Barfi, becoming a force to reckon with in the business. He also talks about his first attempt at an initial public offering (IPO) that ended in a disaster because the market tanked.
Disappointingly perhaps Mr Screwvala does not elaborate on his exits from businesses or about getting big international broadcasters like Disney in. But he answers some of the key questions that every entrepreneur would like to know: When do they take the plunge? Does age matter and when do you time your exit from the business? On exits, Mr Screwvala has some simple suggestions. For instance, he says it's best to avoid investment bankers because they are the reason for lengthy and costly delays. Plus, a potential investor is always the banker's past or future client, so there is a conflict of interest. He also endorses the view that exits are always about creating value and letting go when the need and opportunity arises, even if it might sound like non-commitment on the part of the promoter.
As for taking the plunge, Mr Screwvala says no one knows better than the person himself when to take the leap to entrepreneurship based on his best guess, logic, intuition, research and the support of people one trusts. What is more important is to visualise this leap. Nor is there an optimum entry age - in fact, being older is not necessarily a disadvantage. That is because you may have higher fixed overheads (such as children, house loans and so on) but a shorter learning curve because you know much more about how the world works. This may be music to older aspiring entrepreneurs, though many start-up entrepreneurs in e-commerce who have been able to garner millions from private equity funds are unlikely to agree.
