The Year of Young Entrepreneurs
1st AGM of WZCC-I
by Homi R. Mullan
The First Annual General Meeting (AGM) of World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce – India (WZCC-I), held on Sunday of September 12, 2004 at West End Hotel, Mumbai, radiated energetic messages from the Directors and the Members, equally useful for the Young as well as Established Entrepreneurs, Businessmen and Professionals. We would like to share these happenings with the Enterprising Zoroastrian community, nationwide and worldwide. The current year has been announced as ‘The Year of Young Entrepreneurs’, whereupon the activities of WZCC-I will be focused.
Minoo Shroff, President, WZCC-I, in his Keynote address, had a lot to give and share, from his continuous communication and interaction with the Corporate World, with the Big Zoroastrian Business houses, and with the Young Zoroastrian Entrepreneurs in India and abroad. How Mentoring helps a young entrepreneur and how satisfying it is to the Mentor, and to maintain this relationship over decades. He expressed that the progress of WZCC-I was gratifying, considering that eight months were intensely spent in the set-up activity and establishing communication after the twin launch of the New Delhi Chapter, followed within a week by Mumbai Chapter. After establishing Chapters at Pune, followed by Ahmedabad, it was encouraging that the New Targeted Chapters were Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. Dubai Zoroastrians who ventured there forty years ago, gave their Heart, Funds and Support to the Maiden Export Trade Delegation, from India to Dubai, which was well planned and organized by Meher Kersi Bhesania (Dubai) and Edil Katrak (Mumbai) who led the inspired team which was well disciplined, resulting in very high strike rate in business deals including signing of a venture. Minoo Shroff, on narrating the examples of Zoroastrian Entrepreneurs of London, sited the example of Karan Billimoria, OBE, 43 years of age, who was determined to be an entrepreneur and to succeed in England, and who performed the feat of ‘carrying coals to Newcastle’ by establishing a business in Beer & Wine, and had the audacity to brand these as ‘Cobra Beer’ and ‘General Billimoria Wine’ (dedicated to his father). He has experienced great success. Another Z-Entrepreneur success story from London narrated by Minoo Shroff was that of ‘Café Spice Namaste’ which caters to Parsi Foods & Parsi condiments, books on cookery and the like, started by enterprising Cyrus Dotiwala, who started as a Trainee Chef at the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai, had an incubation period of 15 years in India, had set his eye to succeed in London. Even with the patronage of the Australian Prime Minister and having a lucrative job as a Chef in Australia, Cyrus returned to India to try entry into England. After being rejected for a UK Visa he went on to achieve the honour of OBE and was offered British Citizenship; and, the British Government gave Cyrus £1 million to put up a Catering Institute for Ethnic Society. The tenacity displayed by Cyrus (who wore his Chef’s Cap at a function so as not to forget his profession) is a good example for Z-entrepreneurs. Minoo Shroff said that the Entrepreneurial Bug is coming to India, stating the example of Jehan Bhujwala, a dynamic young entrepreneur with a genuine love for wild life has created ‘Shergarh Teneted Camp’ an Adventure Tourism business at the Kanha National Park, Tehsil Baiher, District Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh. An entrepreneur, Bhujwala was willing to help himself by putting forth his own 50% contribution and the BPP’s Venture Capital scheme (Zoroastrian Investment Corporation Limited) helped him with advisory services and the balance 50%. Minoo Shroff concluded by asking members to look into the future with great optimism and plunge into the ‘deep end’ of the swimming pool.
Overseas: A message paying tributes to WZCCI by Rohinton Rivetna, President of the parent WZCC body, was read out. Rohinton said that WZCC’s progress in India was simply astonishing, and expressed that ‘staying away from Mumbai, we find being a Parsi is a real advantage’. Dadi Mistry added that in North India ‘Parsis are trusted for their Jabani, Standards and Morality’. Kersi Limathwlla expressed that the relentless and voluntary efforts made by Yazdi Tantra, Secretary Mumbai Chapter, to get the WZCC world network on to a common platform (website has made WZCC-I proud and Yazdi Tantra has been appointed as Technical Director on the World Board of WZCC, managing the WZCC website.
Finance & Membership Overview: The first year’s accounts showed a surplus, which came as support from members and Chapters’ contribution from their fees to the Chamber. A new Director on the Chamber’s Board is Mrs. Anu Aga. All Chapter Chairpersons automatically become Directors of the Chamber. The newly formalised and elected Board of Directors will serve a three-year term. Following Jamshedji Guzdar with his commitment of Rs.2 Lacs as Patron-in-Chief, other Patrons Burjor H. Antia and Minoo R. Shroff with each contributing Rs.0.5 Lac have joined the list of Patrons. Many members have started converting their Annual Membership to Life Membership (of 15 years tenure). With current Membership strength of 355, members were urged to convert to Life Membership and to introduce more Members to WZCC-I.
Business: How an old and established business has benefited through WZCC activity, was narrated by Urvax Hoyvoy, who said that WZCC-I helped to rejuvenate contacts in Dubai. To this, Minoo Shroff added the importance to ‘re-invent’ your self. Someone is running faster than you, so to ensure and secure your future, you must run faster. Reference was made to a document on Corporate Governance authored by our Delhi-based member Fali Nariman. Corporate Governance is to be for all Businesses and in any walk of life; small businesses must govern themselves as large businesses do, was expressed and emphasised by Kersi Limathwalla. On the question of what incentives the WZCC would offer, Minoo Shroff quoted the U. K. entrepreneurs who expressed that ‘leave us alone’ was the greatest and the only incentive they look forward to. The need to break the inertia from the professional paradigm was expressed by Adi Engineer, Pune Chapter Chair.
Corporate Quiz: A spellbound performance resulted out of a well researched question bank by Kersi Commissariat, equally complemented by Zarine Commissariat anchoring the Quiz session, and the audience in house full capacity responding splendidly. A tribute of sheer guts was paid to the members of the participating four teams: Khushru Gotla (Indenting Agent) + Godrej Dotivala (Distinguished PRO of BPP); Vispi Mistry (Computer Data Processing business) + Aspi Acharya (Edible Oil Business); Farrokh Rustomji (Corporate Chief Executive) + Ruby Rustomji (a couple team); and Adi Engineer (Corporate Consultant, Pune Chapter Chair) & Kerman Kasad (H.O.D. Corporate Communications, Pune Chapter Secretary). The fifth participation was from the audience. Many questions related to J R D Tata and the house of Godrej. One of the most intriguing questions was : with whom the joint venture was formed for starting TITAN watch industry, and the answer was Tamil Nadu Industrial Corporation; but later, on discussing the same, we came to learn that TITAN was coined from Tata Industries (TI) and Tamil Nadu (TAN). Another intriguing question was : in the field of retailing business, what is ‘Five-finger Discounting?’, which was amusingly announced, by juggling the five-fingers, as ‘Shop Lifting’. Whilst the first prize went to the Pune team (Adi Engineer & Kerman Kasad), the first prize amongst the audience went to Adil Irani, our ‘Aloe Vera’ man, who livens up the spirit at all our gatherings.
To continue from here on, for the whole year around, visit the WZCC Worldwide website and explore your world of opportunities, and interact internationally.