How entrepreneurs are donning the mantle of CEOs

That prompted him to spend time on learning about technologies that would be non-intrusive, compact, easy to use, “and something that could snap on and snap off to the fountain Pepsi and fountain Coke machines, plus obviously be accurate (especially with translucent fluids like Sprite)”.

To top it all, he also tried to put a barrier to entry for future competitors by making it wireless (to beep into the franchise manager’s beeper). Not being an engineer, he got friends with industrial engineering backgrounds to join him.

“I needed to make sure the people who were joining me have the same level of passion and so I spent time convincing them, joining me on customer visits, and walking through the concepts,” says the fizz-breaker-turned-India’s newest poster boy of the skies Mittu Chandilya, whom Air Asia promoter Tony Fernandes handpicked to run the low cost airlines’ India ops as CEO.

For sure, Chandilya’s courage and determination at a young age stood him in good stead as his career panned out. Prior to the top job with Air Asia India, it took him to head APAC for Ingersoll Rand and even a consulting function for search firm Egon Zehnder, based out of Singapore. In his current role, though, Chandilya has to wear many hats, which obviously come in handy with the DNA of an entrepreneur already in place.

According to research carried out by the London office of the Hay Group, the competencies required for successful entrepreneurs are different from those of CEOs. “It is either the environment or the situation the company is faced with,” says Gaurav Lahiri, MD, Hay Group India, who believes that entrepreneurial CEOs can either be good in a start-up or turnaround mould.

While he emphasizes that good entrepreneurs are driven, ambitious, risk-takers and have a bias for action since their very survival depends on it, they are not necessarily very good at coaching, team-building and talent development since “they get their natural energy by fulfilling their own goals”.

So why is India Inc. hiring a clutch of entrepreneurs as its CEOs? Chandilya is not alone in a galaxy of shopkeepers-turned-ship runners. From Avinash Vashistha of Accenture India, Kavindra Mishra of Pepe and Pradeep Mukerjee of Mercer to Tiger Ramesh of CSS Corp and family businessman turned novelist Ashwin Sanghi – they all have had their share of running their own enterprise at one point or the other.

And though a few like Sanghi continue to do so even today, they’ve dabbled in things far different than what they are doing now. Perhaps, the bleak macro-economic map has something to do with it. Or, maybe, companies in startup mode, like Air Asia, feel the need for zeal even more in trying times such as these.

How entrepreneurs are donning the mantle of CEOs