World Cup fever adds to E&Y award frenzy

The World Entrepreneur Summit of Ernst & Young took off with a flying, unusual start.

With the World Cup round the corner and football fever slowly peaking in Europe, the tenor of the summit was set by E&Y Worldwide Chief Operating Officer Paul Ostling.

He asked the participants from different parts of the world packed in the Grimaldi Forum to vote on who would win the World Cup. The clear verdict was  Brazil with 49 per cent of the votes in its favour.

Having set the tone, Jim Turley, chairman and CEO of E&Y Worldwide, outlined the two key themes to be discussed  over the next few days.

One, opportunities and challenges in Central and Eastern Europe and second, corporate social responsibility. Turley said success of many businesses in Central and Eastern Europe best demonstrated the power of entrepreneurship, thriving through challenges in a difficult and the ever-changing environment.

No person better to demonstrate this than the first speaker at the Summit, Greek serial entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of one of Europe's best known low-cost airline, easyJet and CEO of the easyGroup. In an interactive session Stelios outlined the key aspects of entrepreneurship.

Coming from an established Greek family with interests in shipping, Haji-Ioannou wanted to set up his own venture. Why? Because he had some of the key personal attributes of an entrepreneur -- he wanted to be his own boss from a young age, he would get bored easily with one thing and he relished risks.

Haji-Ioannou went ahead with his own shipping venture. This was a business he knew well and it was necessary to start on a strong footing. He confesses, "I am not a self-made man."

Having established himself in shipping, he went to his father for financial support to start a low-cost airline called easyJet.

He adopted the colour orange for all his aircraft and on Wednesday, the two words that come to one's mind when one thinks of easyGroup are "easy" and "orange".

This was a deliberate strategy to create a brand differentiator and strong personality in the minds of consumers. Having established his airline business across Europe, he started 16 ventures, all with the "easy" brand extension.

When a woman participant asked him about easyMale, another of his ventures, his quick reply won loud applause, "It's not what you think it is. It is a brand of male toiletries." His businesses now span travel, leisure, telecom and personal finance.

Finally, who is his role model? Richard Branson for having established multiple businesses successfully; the founder of IKEA, who is known for his humility and Michael Dell, for having created a focused business in a market of hyper-competition.

Clearly, Haji-Ioannou left the audience with rich ideas and lessons in entrepreneurship.

Access India: Formula for success

If Stelio Haji-Ioannou of the easyGroup is known as a serial entrepreneur with a high success rate, he says that one of the reasons for his success is also his ability to stay out of businesses that may not take place. An example of a business offer that came to him which he turned down? To start easyFuneral. He emphasises that it was a wise decision in hindsight because it is not an area which generates repetitive business because you die only once.

Bollywood connection

Lord Chris Patten, the former Governor of Hong Kong, (who came into the spotlight because it was during his time that Hong Kong became part of China in 1997) who is in Monte Carlo as a key speaker, has an interesting India tenet in his family. His daughter is the foreign filmmaker 'Sue' aka Alice in the Hindi film Rang De Basanti.

Photo finish

A last minute anxiety whether chairman of the jury Sunil Bharti Mittal will make it on time for the award deliberations (since his Air France flight got cancelled) lifted, with him boarding an alternative Lufthansa flight and landing at Nice and then to Monte Carlo on time.

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