I had the exciting opportunity to interview an intelligent, highly successful technology entrepreneur in Northern Virginia. Listed below are excerpts from the interview, briefly presented as a summary. In respect of privacy, the identity of the individual concerned is not revealed.

Entrepeneur Interview

“Effective people are not problem-minded; they’re opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems.” -Stephen Covey

It was this strong belief that turned an aspiring technology professional into a successful entrepreneur. An excellent example of the seamless execution of these elements of entrepreneurial success is Mr. XYZ, the president & CEO of XYZ Inc.(http://www.xyz.com), a provider of full range of professional IT services from custom software development, to quality assurance to project management. His company is listed as one of the top small business enterprise in Northern Virginia employing over 140 consultants. He has over 10 years of experience in engineering, finance, sales, data warehousing and offshore outsourcing. He is one of the active members of the local chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a non-profit organization focused on generating and nurturing next generation of Indian entrepreneurs.

Mr.XYZ earned his BS in business administration from University of Minnesota and holds a PMP certification from Project Management Institute. His entrepreneurial passion took roots when he started helping his father, a reputed attorney in his home state of Tamil Nadu, India run his business. As an apprentice, he transformed an ailing law practice into a successful business, leveraged the use of information technology and re-structured the law practice. These early accomplishments had a huge influence on his successful career later on.

Mr. XYZ is highly ambitious, well organized, meticulous and educated risk taker characterized by passion, perseverance and persistence. His definition of entrepreneurship was the identification and transformation of a business opportunity into a viable business with self-sustenance. After graduation, he had a short two year stint as a technology consultant during which started analyzing the technology trends, specifically in data mining and data transformation. Being a keen problem solver, he was able to immediately identify immense opportunities for specialized consulting services in business intelligence and business transformation areas. He observed that there were not many companies providing tailored consulting solutions in the areas of data quality, data management, budgeting, forecasting and business analytics. After gaining enough expertise in that area, he started thinking about feasible business ideas and eventually hit upon the idea of starting a business consultancy firm. The passion for a business startup coupled with flexibility of being his own boss drove him to initially establish the consulting business in partnership with a good friend of him. With mutual investment from both partners, the consultancy grew to 8 consultants, but due to financial and strategic differences, both the partners split and went to launch their own companies.

Armed with savings from the partnership, Mr.XYZ did not give up his entrepreneurial spirit, instead focused on the lessons learned, reinforced ideas, streamlined business processes, hired marketing and sales staff and launched a new consulting firm – AstaCRS Inc. He was of the opinion that entrepreneurs will always face failures and it is the optimism, perseverance and tolerance which will lead them on the path to success. Today AstaCRS Inc. is a thriving consulting business which has plans for offshore software development and marketing financial reporting products. In contrary to what we have learned in class, this venture was started without a business plan, with self-directed capital because he knew for sure that his business ideas will work, that he can deliver value proposition and that the market was ripe to implement his ideas.

During the interview I could clearly notice how all the information we had gained on entrepreneurship in class discussions really transpired in the form of entrepreneurship success. Mr.XYZ had faced many setbacks when executing his business ideas transform into real, viable business results. He had to face competition from some well established players in the market, but his niche consulting expertise combined with tailored solutions brought in excellent business opportunities which were wisely exploited. Apart from being committed, aggressive, detail-oriented, Mr. XYZ seeks constant feedback from customers, staff and industry experts. He was fortunate enough to have the company of high-energy, highly motivated staff who worked hard along with the management to build a solid reputation and credibility for the company. Management was highly decentralized with the sales and marketing teams having authority to make instant decisions in pursuit of business opportunities. Finance and Human Resources were under centralized control. Recruitment of consultants and customer service were given high importance – a trademark of consulting niche. Furthermore, when I asked Mr. XYZ to elaborate the way he created his team he explained how he tapped people from his past jobs with whom he had great relationships and in whom he had trust and confidence that they can be an integral part of the business.

As the entrepreneur was talking about his life and his work experience I realized that there were much more factors that had guided him to success. His diverse schooling and college education in multiple countries allowed him to develop multi-cultural skills, understand consumer behaviors and improvise communication skills. His parents and fiancée were of great influence in his success, but unfortunately the stressful entrepreneurial life took a toll on his personal relationship. He broke up with his fiancée and regrets the unfortunate event, but for him his ambition and goal to succeed were his number one priorities in life. He explained how initially the lack of market knowledge led to some disastrous results and lost business. But soon he realized the mistakes and hired a marketing associate to do industry research and compliment his business strategy.

The interview was a great learning tool for me. It gave me an opportunity to understand how entrepreneurs think of business ideas, the traits they display, their personality characteristics, how swiftly they jump on opportunities, how meticulous and organized they are, the immense personal zeal and enthusiasm with which they forge ahead willing to accept failures and learn from mistakes, their noteworthy sociable and networking skills and above all their strong confidence and passion to make an impact in society. In conclusion, Mr.XYZ emphasized the importance of personal values, ethical behavior and empathy towards fellow beings. He encourages positive energy, high performance activities and ability to provide high quality solutions to pressing business problems. As stated rightly, the path to success is laden with thorns but a successful entrepreneur, through hard work and perseverance, will not falter and will always realize his business goals.

This interview was an eye-opener for me to understand the struggles and accomplishments of any successful entrepreneur. I am grateful to Mr. XYZ for sharing his valuable time and discuss his entrepreneurial journey. The knowledge and the perspectives gained from this exciting conversation will help my team build our business plan and I hope to utilize this knowledge to startup my own business in the near future.