Ratan Tata breaks his silence on start-ups post-Covid, says crisis will force entrepreneurs to adapt

Several members of India Inc, from Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra to Biocon boss Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, have shared their views on how entrepreneurs, start-ups and small enterprises can survive the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Monday, industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata, who had been refraining from commenting on the Indian economy, finally broke his silence. In an Instagram post, the Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus said that the entrepreneurs and CEOs of the country can brave the coronavirus outbreak which is wreaking havoc on the economy.

Stressing that the entrepreneurs are likely to face several challenges and difficulties going forward, the 82-year-old business tycoon said that he trusts the new-age businessmen to innovate, adapt and find their way out of the current crisis. He also appreciated the entrepreneurs for displaying their farsightedness and creativity in the past.

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In past difficult times, entrepreneurs have displayed far sightedness and creativity that could not have been believed to exist. These became the flagpoles of innovation and new technology today. I hope that the ability to find another way to build a product, run a company, run operations a better way, will emerge as an outcome of the current crisis. I won’t downplay the challenges and the difficulties embedded in these current times. But my confidence remains high in the inventive nature and the creativity of entrepreneurs today who will find ways to enable new or modified enterprises that would be the benchmarks of tomorrow. It can all start on a clean sheet of paper that looks at ways of doing things that were never thought of before. This crisis will force entrepreneurs to adapt and create.

A post shared by Ratan Tata (@ratantata) on May 10, 2020 at 11:06pm PDT

“My confidence remains high in the inventive nature and the creativity of entrepreneurs today who will find ways to enable new or modified enterprises that would be the benchmarks of tomorrow,” wrote the Tata Trusts Chairman.

“It can all start on a clean sheet of paper that looks at ways of doing things that were never thought of before. This crisis will force entrepreneurs to adapt and create,” he added.

In the last month, several fake WhatsApp forwards, misquoting the Tata boss had come forward. Tata took to Twitter multiple times, to bust fake news and tell his followers that he was being misquoted.