3 key learnings to set up a successful business. # #1 How to Handle Failures? During 1980-87, while pursuing his studies, Hemant Kanoria was also involved in his father’s flour mills and animal feed business. In 1987-88, the government had changed some schemes and stopped giving flour mill quota and as a result, Hemant Kanoria’s father had to close his flour mills. Advice of Hemant Kanoria’s father on failures: - Entrepreneurs should never give up. - Some of the tips to handle failures are: - If one business is closed, then start another business - Never keep failure in your mind and heart and don’t get depressed - Every failure is a step to learn something new - Learn from your failures and improve your current business processes or strategies   # #2 How to Seek New Business Opportunities? In 1989, India was facing the following issues: - Financial crisis - 1989 - Gold in Pawn  – 1991 - Poor Infrastructure including roads, airports, power Hemant Kanoria and his father identified a business opportunity in this situation. They realised that they should enter into financing and infrastructure business. In this way, they will also be able to work for their country.   Where there is a problem, there is a business opportunity If there is no problem, then there is no business opportunity So, identify a problem people are facing that you can solve through your products or services. # #3 How to Establish a Company that runs Long-Term? In 1992, SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd. decided to get listed on the stock exchange so that they can get more investors. Thus, they decided upon an IPO amount of Rs. 1,80,00000. But, on the day of announcing the IPO, Hemant Kanoria and his brother, Sunil Kanoria met with a road accident and they were not able to reach their venue. In the hospital, they realized that: An Organisation should be Immortal. You should do the succession planning of your organisation in a manner that the organisation continues even after you. Tips to make your organisation immortal: ==a. Hire Like-Minded People:== Once your business is running successfully for 2-3 years, start bringing like-minded people into your business. Next, tell your philosophy to these like-minded people and train them to grow your organisation further. ==b. Consider Yourself  a Custodian:== When you start getting money and success in your business, you start thinking that all this belongs to you and you have achieved this only through your efforts. But, you should change your thinking and start perceiving yourself as a custodian. If you are the Chairman of a company, then you should start working as a custodian. You should start deploying the profit earned by the company among the stakeholders in the form of dividends, salary, bonuses, etc. so that you can grow your organisation further. If your company is not growing, then it cannot survive. ==c. Keep Organisation’s Ideology as per the Vedic Scriptures:== It means consider your organisation’s ideology in the following way of Vedic trinity: Brahma – Create the products, services, and processes in the organisation Vishnu – Preserve or grow what you have created Mahesh – Keep disrupting your business models or what you have created before someone else does this So, when you create something (product, service, or idea), grow it, and then you should disrupt it according to the changing business environment and technology. After that, you can come up with a new idea and the cycle continues. But, often, it has been seen that businessmen are not able to disrupt the idea or product they have created. As a result, most of the companies get closed. For example: Kodak was closed because they were not able to disrupt their thoughts. They were not able to see that camera was now available on mobile phones and thus, people didn’t buy more cameras except for the professional purposes. So, disruption is continuously going on in the market. Some of the examples of disruption in different industries are: - Ola and Uber - Taxi industry - Airbnb and OYO – Hotel industry Disruption is the system of evolution in the business world. Outcomes - Start another business, if one business is closed - Keep learning from your failures - Identify a problem people are facing that you can solve through your products or services - Make the succession planning of your organisation in a manner that the organisation continues even after you - Hire like-minded people and train them to grow your organisation further - Consider yourself as a custodian of your organisation