Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta Resources plc. visits SJMSOM

On 17th December 2011, Anil Agarwal, Chairman of Vedanta Resources Plc. visited Shailesh J Mehta School of Manangement, IIT Bombay campus to share his thoughts on entrepreneurship and business.
He started his talk by showing a video of 10 minutes which captured the time from his early childhood in Bihar to the recent Vedanta-Cairn deal. The concise video showcased glimpses of landmark events which included the footages of the day when he established his first company, when his companies were listed in worldwide stock exchanges, major global acquisitions and his dream of owning the largest aluminum smelter in the world. The main idea behind his visit was to interact with the students of School of Management (SJMSOM) and share his experiences on what made him the person that he is today and also on the hot business topic – “Vedanta-Cairn deal”.

He spoke to a vibrant crowd from various academic disciplines of Master of Management, Ph.Ds. and Doctoral Students. The heart-to-heart talk from this eminent personality included stirring quotes such as “Everyone’s going to die, you have to make sure that you die the last”, “You have got to be hungry to be successful” showed his prowess in giving an inspirational boost to budding entrepreneurs.

After speaking for about 10-15 minutes about his past experiences, anecdotes of entrepreneurship and notable events, he prompted the audience to ask questions.  There was gamut of questions asked on how he raised capital for the businesses, what were the issues faced when going international, his toughest business challenge, etc. He was of opinion that we as young generation need to be humble and be hungry for success all the time. The limitation comes from our minds while the heart will tell one to move on and keep exploring.

The three pillars of Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay is Innovation, Leadership and Entrepreneurship. Right through his talk he depicted the unquenchable zeal for leadership and entrepreneurship, and opined that entrepreneurship does not mean owning a company but, owning an idea and leading a team. Also, local people should have a sense of ownership for the business of a successful venture and it is important that an ecosystem is built by the entrepreneur.

The every flowing words of encouragement lauded IIT-B-ites for their impressive achievements in the field of technology and management and praised their exposure to immense opportunities and ever-growing brand value. He emphasized that management education with an engineering background is a premium opportunity and has very bright prospects, and he concluded with an inspiring one-liner – “The only thing required to succeed is courage and zeal.”