What areas would you identify for the IT entrepreneurs of India to look into when starting a new venture?

The question of choosing an area while starting a venture in information technology would have been appropriate in the seventies. Today you start out in an area where you have some basic skill. So the people who started Amazon.com are different from people who are intoweb mining technology. The area you choose depends upon the skills you have.

But there are two routes. The technology route and the business route. With the technology route you work to develop a new tool or a product and sell it and start working on another tool. Venture capital funding for these kinds of ventures are easy to find as the venture fund gets a quick return.

It is not so common in India. On the other hand there is the business route where you have to be in for the long haul. There is a longer gestation period and needs greater sustenance. You have to continuously add value to your organisation and the people. The path is difficult and needs commitment to the product. It is more similar to the traditional business done by businessmen. While the technology route is basically workmanship -- you develop something, be it a tool or a web portal and sell it. On the other hand in the business route you invest money and expect returns after three to five years. You are responsible for the lives of100 people. It's there for the long haul.

Nasscom chairman Raj Jain told us recently in an interview that most IT-entrepreneurs in India are from a technology back ground and there is need for more people with a business background to come in. Your comments.I feel it is happening already. In fact every business has stages where it is led by the technology trained entrepreneurs who know the field. Later when the businessmen see the opportunity in the field they too jump in. That stage has come for the Indian software industry.

But it will also need a huge domestic market for software services to develop. Businessmen are into business for profit whereas the technology guy gets his kick from technology itself. Of course there is a huge exports market for software but what is important is that the businessmen must see the profit opportunity.

Change is a constant factor in the IT industry, how is IT- entrepreneurship different due to this factor?

In information technology you have to look at yourjob in terms of assignments. The industry works on an assignment mode and it is a question of mindset. You have certain numbers of assignments in so many years in this industry. If you ask me where Globsyn Technologies will be in 2002, the answer is I do not know. It is not ignorance, but the nature of the industry.

When we meet financiers we can talk in terms of six to 12 months only. That is why the leader is so important in this business. What would you think of Microsoft if Bill Gates leaves. Microsoft will survive, but somewhere you will feel uncomfortable. That is why a dynamic leader is important in the industry. That is why at PCL I oversold myself. Every week I gave three to four interviews -- it created an image on the basis of which we got business and manpower.

IT-infrastructure is one of the areas chosen by you when no ones else was considering it. What led you to this area?

After PCL I wanted to do something that would have a long term bearing. I wanted to create something and thattook me to IT-infrastructure. The model I am trying to evolve needs three players -- an entrepreneur, the state government and a corporate MNC who come together to create top class infrastructure for the IT business. In all the Indian states I find at least two of the three factors available. I see in West Bengal the corporate MNC is missing and in Andhra Pradesh the entrepreneur is missing. Each of these parties have distinct roles in the process and the entrepreneur is the person who does the pushing and changing. He is the one who creates the mood.In your book you have spent a lot of time discussing the management of success and failure...

As I have said in my book -- the executive lives with his successes and the entrepreneur lives with his failures. An executive is egged on by the successes and an entrepreneur finds his strengths from failure.

Entrepreneurship is a lonely road and whether you are bothered by what others think is an important factor. Fundamentally you must enjoy the process, and ifyou are enjoying you will sustain. It is a mental state too and as you change with age at a particular point you become ready for entrepreneurship when you are not bothered about other's opinions.

It is a psychological factor that has a link with your childhood. See even at the age of nine there are some kids you would trust with money and some whom you would not. At 36 these tendencies are still there and the kid you trusted at nine can still be trusted at that age.

You must go to the roots of the person to excite him and get his participation. A good boss is someone who is able to get these instincts out of you. So entrepreneurship is about these instincts and the sustenance depends on keeping these satisfied.