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What can you learn as an entrepreneur from Mangalyaan?

by MSA Kumar

24 Sep 2014 was a landmark day in Indian space research as as Mangalyaan, India’s MARS orbiter inserted itself successfully into orbit. There have only been three other successful orbiter missions to Martian orbit: from the United States, Russia, and the European Space Agency. Even more impressive than India succeeding in its first attempt is the fact that Mangalyaan is the cheapest interplanetary mission ever undertaken. It cost $74 million; NASA’s Maven Mars mission cost 10 times as much and three times more time.  In this amazing achievement, there are five key lessons to be learned by businesses and more particularly by entrepreneurs.

The big dream: It all starts with creating an audacious inspiring goal.  When our former PM announced the mission 3 years ago, many would have laughed at the audacity – but not the group of scientists at ISRO.  The starting point is always a big idea, a big dream.  When Dr. Muhummad Yunus started his microfinance project, he had one big dream – Put poverty in a museum.

Self- Belief: ISRO scientistsdidn’t look at past history of their own failures (Chandrayaan)or the failures of other more advanced countries on their Mars missions.  They focused on the task at hand and outcome surprised the whole world.

Frugality:  It is not about big money, big funding or big headlines talk – Mangalyaan taught us entrepreneurs, it is really about knowing what to do.  Bootstrapping still works!

Constraints need not be limiting:Terri Bresenham, CEO of GE Healthcare India once said: “If necessity is the mother of innovation, constraint is the mother of frugal innovation.”  An entrepreneur who keeps on cribbing about the constraints he faces will not run his business efficiently.

India is not about low cost; it is about superior capabilities: India is seen as a source of low cost labour as demonstrated by the success of IT/ITES Industry.  This is a mistaken notion. Indian scientists and engineers are world class who also happen to be available at lower costs. Mangalyaan success proved this point in a convincing manner.

The above five learnings from Mangalyaan success comes along with high “Result Orientation” – that’s the bottom line- one can dream, envision and plan, but it is only when you actually get the results that you will be taken seriously.