PORT OF SPAIN: Going against the grain and finding opportunities in a crisis situation are among the important criteria towards establishing a successful business, Malaysian businessman Datuk Vijay Eswaran told the Commonwealth Business Forum.
The executive chairman and CEO of the QI Group of Companies said a look at the Fortune 500 companies showed that almost half of them began after the first and second World Wars – formed in the midst of destruction and in the midst of havoc and chaos.
“This is when some of the most brilliant and innovative technology has evolved, over the past century. The Chinese have the same word for opportunity and for crisis.
“So generally, that is taken to imply that in every crisis there is an opportunity,” he said in his speech titled “The Innovation Mantra: Technology – The Key to Growth and Development”.
He said the real challenge in running a business was that in every opportunity, one has to undergo a crisis.
“So even in innovation there has to be challenges and a price that has to be paid for this process. The first thing we have to learn is, to go against the grain.
“We have been coached, and structured, and our thinking and parameters have been driven into granite, so to speak. Innovation begins in looking the other way,” he said.
The Commonwealth Business Forum, held in conjunction with the Commonwealth Heads of Govern-ment Meeting, promotes practices and policies for the enhancement of global trade and investment.
