Kerala business leaders recount tales of struggle, success

KOZHIKODE: The inspiring stories of successful Kerala businesspeople turned a motivation for the youngsters in the city to use the potentials here to emerge as successful entrepreneurs. During the Lead Summit 2016, held in connection with the Rising Kerala industrial expo beginning on December 9, they spoke to the budding entrepreneurs and students about the extensive business opportunities in the state, at The Gateway Hotel on Saturday. C. Balagopal (founder, Terumo Penpol) shared his inspiration to start the venture here, in spite of having several opportunities in advanced industrial states like Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

“What is lacking in people here are awareness and the patience to understand the value of our state,” he said. Never in his life he expected his laboratory started with an amount of '22,000 would be acquired by a US-based $2.5-billion instant test instruments company Neogen Corporation, serving as its base for operations in India. "What I have to tell the youngsters is to adapt to the latest technology and move along with the wave of advancement rather than trying to find out a comfort zone with what you have," he further explained.

"There's endless scope for offering quality products at competitive costs through optimising processes and building on internal competitiveness." He observed that improvements could take place only in a competitive situation. He saw a corollary between building trust and surging productivity in an organisation. George Paul (vice-chairman, Synthite), Sheela Kochouseph (MD, V-Star Creations), Paul Thomas (MD, ESAF Microfinance), Shivdas B. Menon (MD, Sterling Farms Research and Services), N.K. Muhammed (CMD, Vythiri Village) and Saji Kumar (MD, Dhathri Ayurvedic, were the main speakers.