Speaking at GSF 2012 today, Disney India MD Ronnie Screwvala, who sold his company UTV to Disney earlier this year, and has been a serial entrepreneur, shared his views on the aspects of entrepreneurship and some things that worry him about the current state of entrepreneurship. On being "Pioneering": Over the last 15-20 years, I've wondered if being pioneering is a sharp asset or not. Being before your time is one the most riskiest things. 10-20 years ago, when you were pioneering, there were certain industries that were mature, and you were disrupting. Now there are industries that are pioneering, and you don't know what direction they will take. My learning is that pioneering cannot be an asset. On Diversification: Where is the focus? When you're diversifying, it's almost as if you're trying to hedge, thinking that your original idea wasn't good enough. If you've not got a focus right, diversity is for the sake of it. On Competition and Competitiveness: In India, it's fantastic to be fiercely competitive. You need to be extremely competitive, but there's a fine line between that and trying to grow the sector. I would urge the younger generation to be professionally competitive, but with nascent industries, build the ecosystem because the competitiveness can drag the market down. On Scale: There has to be tremendous obsession. We don't think big in India. If you are focused and can bring about scale, your probabilities for success can be substantially higher. We've got to obsess over how we…
