I come from a
world and a past life where I have been trained to look at the opening and shutting
down of businesses as just another economic data point. But once in a while the human side of my self
gets the better of me and I tend to reflect on the story behind the success or
the failure of enterprises.
When Manjula
Sridhar, with whom I recently struck up a professional acquaintance, forwarded this piece I was transported
to one such world of reflection. Here is
the link to the story. http://calacanis.com/2015/07/01/circas-biggest-crime-was/
And more about
this amazing woman Manjula Sridhar whom I am beginning to admire the more I get
to interact with her, for her belief in
what I call the pure form of entrepreneurship.
The pure form tries to solve a genuine problem for its own sake and
creating an economic engine like an enterprise is a means to solve that problem
in an economically sound way.
Like me,
Manjula seems to be not very excited about the current view of entrepreneurship
as a one way street to a billion dollar valuation in less than five years, no matter
what you do to get there. And like her I
wish I could move around in public transport and live a full life, all on my
terms.
More about
Manjula at https://www.linkedin.com/in/manjulasridhar
The story set
off many questions that Manjula and I exchanged. About whether capitalism leads to necessarily
the most desirable outcomes for society, for example. Businesses that serve a socially relevant
purpose for instance do not seem to survive simply because they cannot generate
the rate of growth in valuation that investors often seem to seek.
And
cheerleaders in our media of this kind of highly blinkered view of allocation of financial
capital seem to perpetrate the belief among aspiring entrepreneurs that this
is the only form of entrepreneurship that is worth pursuing.
Social outcomes
do not matter in the process. And not to
speak of any notion of responsibility that business must have towards society. As long as they deliver returns to investors,
enterprises lead to Pareto optimal outcomes.
Or so it would seem is their belief.
The trouble
with this view is that there is no room for social costs and investments in
this calculus!
Anyway I think
this is a matter on which the views of pea-sized intellects such as mine will
make any difference. But I guess this
corner in cyberspace is my little world where I lay bare my thoughts and feelings, as I have said
many times before.
And so here my
tears for poor little Circa, whom I describe as a victim of a joint conspiracy
hatched together by sensational journalism and senseless capitalism.
Nanni...Namaskaaram
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