Captain Gopinath speaking

Last week I had the privilege to hear Capt Gopinath of Air Deccan speak in person. Our organization had invited him to speak on innovation. I had seen couple of TV interviews earlier; I was impressed with his simplicity and analytical ability and was looking forward to hear him. The auditorium was overflowing with people.

Capt. Arrived 5 mins late, there were the inevitable jokes with comparison with Air Deccan. But once he started, people were captivated by him. He had a pretty good career in army but soon he quit his job to start of as a farmer on barren land with just Rs 6000/. He told us how he doggedly pursued to make his dream come true. He talked of his innovation in making the barren land start yielding organically when everybody was after the chemical fertilizers. How got the loan on the literally useless land. He went on to become a successful silk farmer. He was recognized by Rolex Company for it.

He then went on to start Deccan aviation a helicopter company a first in India. He started of from nothing again. He persuaded a Japanese company to provide him a helicopter to start of with. The Japanese had hesitated to sell him the helicopter because of political instability, but he exploited the instability and the subsequent elections to expand. He could also grab the opportunity because the chief ministers of states were competing for investments. He also did not forget to tell us that. He did not pay single paisa as bribe to get the license, but he did not get give up for 3 years. I missed the Air Deccan part.

Overall, the take away was, you can innovate in small and every thing you do. Be it farming, marketing or selling yourself or the big ideas, but most important thing was not to give up. He often quoted Einstein who said something like “I am no different from others, but only I stay on the problem longer than others do”.

One important think he told us was instead of complaining about politicians and doing nothing, take it as given and work around it. Most politicians are guys who have come up from the rough and tough world. People who do not have anything else (other profession) get into politics. They have come from the world of survival of fittest literally. So let us take it as reality and work with it. I personally felt it was a very relevant message. We literate people have become arm chair commentators bitching, whining and complaining but doing nothing.

Capt. Gopinath as a person is a likeable man common man of RK Laxman who also is his logo. He resembles him. He is simple, clever, a good analyst, a person who can express his views in a simple clear way others can easily relate to. He often related to the small innovations he did as went on. This reinforced the message very clearly.