Maintaining the trust of the consumer is critical to our business
There's no reason why I can't be a mogul. When I step into a room and I'm there to have a conversation, if it pertains to business, I want to be respected as a guy who knows what he's talking about. And that, to me, holds more weight than anything else.
Consumers recognize, and don't like, corporate lying.
The 1980s were fantastic. This was a time when we were at the peak of our creative work. The question of whether we would exist or not - something which everybody used to ask, including ourselves - stopped. Profits kept pace with growth requirements. HCL had credibility - that was the biggest barrier we had to break.
When Warren Buffett invests in a company, he is conferring upon that company something very unique: his credibility.
From my experience in working with bureaucrats and politicians, if you are a credible business group, they will definitely help you. At the end of the day, they, too, want development of their constituency, state or country.
I have never broken a contract in my career.
I will tell you flat out that I continually find Yelp and products like it to be increasingly worthless to me as a consumer.
Our deals and performance speak for themselves. And whoever doesn't feel comfortable investing with us will not.
When I started Biocon in 1978, the obstacles I needed to navigate were manifold - ranging from infrastructural hurdles to issues related to my credibility as a business woman. With no access to venture capital, money was scarce and high-cost, debt-based capital was all I had.
"(Big name research firm) says our market will be $50 billion in 2010." Every entrepreneur has a few slides about how the market potential for his segment is tens of billions. It doesn't matter if the product is bar mitzah planning software or 802.11 chip sets. Venture capitalists don't believe this type of forecast because it's the fifth one of this magnitude that they've heard that day. Entrepreneurs would do themselves a favor by simply removing any reference to market size estimates from consulting firms.
Businesses have to make gestures that go beyond words. Persuasion no longer works.
