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tv   Leaders with Lacqua  Bloomberg  September 3, 2016 4:30am-5:01am EDT

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haslinda: hello, and welcome to "high flyers," the show that gives you a 360 degree view of asia's business elite. today we meet the mastermind behind the second-most popular word processor, trailing only microsoft. he was ranked asia's wealthiest entrepreneur under 40 and he is highly ambitious. he has a string of projects in the pipeline. .et's meet arun pudur
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it all came from fixing scooters. that's where he learned sales, service, andstomer how to solve problems. that experience helped him succeed in tech and motivated him to expand into other sectors, including retail and real estate. his motive is never take a backseat in anything you are involved in. and now it's time for this highflyer to join us and tell us about his remaining goals. arun pudur, welcome to "high flyers."
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you made your first billion at 26. it all started when you were 13 with borrowed money of $150. tell us the story. aun pudur let me make correction. it was an investment. the best bank that you have is your parents. busy asking for a bicycle or whatever. i asked $150 at the time that was big money. that was almost two months salary for some people. i didn't want to start a business on my own. felt i wanted to get into this business. $5,000.arning i said why not me do the same thing. haslinda: you are fixing honda scooters in the garage. arun: just left us without any
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notice. there was an option to close it down or two do what you're supposed to do. i decided why not. i used to observe him doing it. within a matter of five or six months, i would go to school and open up by appointment. in six months, we turned around the company. we were making close to $300 a month. sold, youwhen you sold it $200,000. it all went to mom. she still owns 5% of my tech company. it was a fantastic deal. we started franchising. we started getting long-term contracts with people. that is where i learned everything.
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i did not go to an ivy league college because my parents wanted us to go to the school or that school. we had the capability to do i learned a very important tool. if i can get somebody to give me get a billionn dollars. the facts are boiled down to human interaction. that's where learned my sales and marketing and my customer handling. everything was done practically in the street down there. get and attract people. ride, this used to should be a massive grudge. raised champion
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dogs. what do you learn from that experience? arun: the dog breeding was a fantastic experience. it was so experienced to go to a veterinary doctor. i used to say overnight. as a teenager, i used to have a room. when my friends were dizzy, i was busy making money. cellframethat led to arun pudur . arun: i worked under somebody. when i joined the company, india making less than 2000 u.s. dollars a month. $500reed to pay me about in salary. i was just out of college. he wanted me to work him.
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he did not have the money to pay me. company, i the started franchising for him. i wanted to do something big. about 70 franchisees. he was supposed to pay me for it, which he did not do. i under the -- understood the value of the contract as well. if i can do that for him, why don't i do it for myself. haslinda: you thought really big. you were going to compete with the big boys, we are talking about microsoft. you did not think of microsoft as a competitor. compete. can't imaginelem is i used to there was only one type of car. if you have no choice, it's a
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dictatorship. that's how microsoft operates. ,f i had a choice for people that's an opportunity for us to work in. market was people who couldn't afford paying three months of your salary to get this software. to buy illegal software. i want to create a product that was affordable. they could use it at a pc that's 10 years old. haslinda: the first six months were very difficult. you were on the verge of going broke. what saved you? arun: we were trying to go the typical fashion. we were trying to get large orders. it didn't happen. verye think software is a comfortable business. the dirtiest.e of
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alloware charts to do not orders to come in. businessmen, i said what should i do next? you go to the biggest holy. that was the hard moment for me. i said let a go to the government worried we offered an offer they couldn't refuse. was whateverthem your pain right now, we will give you the software and handle the migration. we will give you free training. even if they give me $.50 to implement a product. we started off with one ministry. we wrote 100 licenses. go nationwide.
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every ministry is going to use this product. thennt to 70000 and millions and millions of software's were being sold. we had the biggest customers, the government. these are massive sectors. that's why we grew. has yet toellframe become a household name like microsoft did is that by design? arun: exactly. the dollars should go to r&d to make your product better. people andvest on r&d, you help keep product that people love. word-of-mouth is one way for you to survive. that's what we were on. bady year, if you have a
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product and not giving what promised to deliver, they are not going to use the product. unless it's free. even if i give you an app for free, it lags your phone. we put so much into r&d and decided to offer a 40% offer. i did not have to do the selling at all. they sold the product like crazy. localizing the product was very important. an you sell a product to indian is different than selling in china. it's the same thing in malaysia or south africa or zimbabwe. we are in 72 countries now. we have retail selling products. the product is sold and people can connect with it emotionally. people are buying you, not your product. if they love you, they will buy
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anything from you. that's how business works. haslinda: sold. next, -- arun: i always to my people, just imagine it. ♪
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haslinda: cellframe has been so successful. you diversified into
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agriculture, commodities and real estate. what's the thinking behind that you -- that? i have a fantastic network of partners. he comes from a mining background. he calls me up and says where not you looking at mining? we put the money back in. we just keep in the bank, that doesn't make any sense. 2008, the world was running away from the market. we thought that things were available at such a good price. they were given away for free. we started to enter into this business. i rely on my partners substantially. that was a perfect time to start diversifying. i always wanted to do that. i am in the business of making money. is it about hiring the
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smartest people in the industry? arun: absolutely. professional networks and people are interconnected. technology has changed way people interact with each other. you can find a guy with 25 years experience that can deliver what you want. last week we wanted a guy with experience working in uganda. it was a very specific thing. it took my people less than 15 minutes to find an expert in the region. you have to rely on people to grow. 100 people working for me directly. 14,000tly, we have people working for the corporation. we grew through the network. what i have learned today is nothing learned in school. you started off as a
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technology company. increasingly, you will be occupying more of the business. arun: pretty much. building ofng at the non-technology sector. even during a downturn, it's a requirement for health care. that will always be there. prices can fluctuate. demand will always grow. i have never seen a situation where demand collapses. grows, peopleion want more stuff. haslinda: that's interesting to note that order percent of your employees and that being entrepreneurs themselves. what kind of culture is within the company? , i've toldllframe this before, i always tell my
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people why do you want to work with me? that is the first question i asked in an interview. you can do the same thing. if you're comfortable delivering me the product, by doing it on your own terms i am comfortable with that. , even of thee population is growing, getting the right people for the job is a big challenge. given an option, everyone wants to be their own boss. we see people globally freelancing. everybody wants to be a freelancer. i give the option to my employees to work from home. will takeemployees the option of working from home. then we offer them options. are you comfortable to set up
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your own team and run it on your own? we will give you a three-year contract. these people have been working with me for five years. i know how they deliver polity. it makes things very easy for us. haslinda: just about anyone can become an entrepreneur. what is hindering people? is it fear? arun: there is one of the factors. that yoution states are better off doing a nine to five job. 1% of the 1%.e you have about 2000 billionaires. it's such a small club because we like to take risks. it's not like they're going to blow all their money people -- money. if you can imagine it, it can be done.
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just imagine it. but the effort that is required in to get it done. the biggest challenge that people faces is the fear. what if i'm not successful? if it doesn't work, you can always come back and work for me. it's not a problem. haslinda: next on high flyers -- you still visit the toilet. ♪
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haslinda: the wealthiest man under asia under 40, when you , you had your money nine private jets, supercars. there was a time when you used to go to the armani boutique. what kind of lifestyle was that? arun: it was fun. of theu reach the top $100,000.f i make human beings like to keep moving forward. i was that kid who have a lot of cash and i didn't know what to do with it. thatally, you want to get shiny thing you can find.
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what can i say? what happens is is you become involved in the process. extra ornaten monica miles faster. haslinda: you always wanted to be a pilot. arun: that was my initial dream when i was very young. my mother said that's never going to happen. opportunity to travel. we travel all over the world six times already. i want to do it in style. time and youh a start selling all the stuff you bought, you're getting a dime for the dollar. this is not the way for us to move forward. , youyou are a billionaire
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need to have this and that. you see the lien is losing their fortune very fast. i was lucky enough to learn the lesson very fast in my life. i cut my losses and move forward. business focus on my and my people and my stakeholders and not just frivolously throwing away money just because i have the money. a i started to become smarter. haslinda: you set up a foundation. 10% of what you make goes to the foundation. arun: we focus on education and equal rights. we are very passionate about that. let us allocate a certain amount of money. we started off with $400 million to this year we are trying to take it up to $1 billion. this is all our own money, which we feel we need to invest. every project that we take, we
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get involved personally. are passionateho about it and volunteered to work for us. there are a few people who have experience. this is a social enterprise. we wanted to run like a all-time national is this. we want maximum bang for the buck arun -- buck. you are in the moviemaking business. you are not. not yet. in time. i was involved in the movie business when i was young. haslinda: how was it like growing up with your father a cinematographer? arun: you have glamour as part of your business. idea.an in india, people fault your feet.
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that is a sign of respect. you see these huge stars falling he isfather's feet and such a big star. thing, youy this still eat three times a day and you still visit the toilet. nobody is any different at all. it's part of my plan. in the next couple of years, we are looking at the issue of the entertainment business and africa. we think there is so much culture and language and so much diversity over here that can be exploited and we have worked on a couple of projects on an independent aces. we are going to set up something substantially large. cellframe has not deem urgent.
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we have four companies focusing roboticssecurity and and enterprise solutions. each of these companies are multibillion-dollar companies. there are a couple of people who have those companies. i may be the one guy who's got four companies that are a billion dollars each. if you want to list the company's, i am handing over my babies to each one of them. we are moving forward. of this will be base. have a large i think we are ready. haslinda: you have done just about everything you want to do. what's next?
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i think there is a book coming. arun: that is something my family has wanted me to do. i feel like sharing like experience, i have a good social media following. i do share what i have the time. i am trying to put together a book which will be a very simple guide for people to do what i have done, to replicate what i have done. very rarely will you see billionaires saying how they did what they did. it's a very simple way of doing business. it's just you need to imagine. once you imagine and commit yourself to that and have a focus on that, anything is possible. if i can do it, anybody can do it. indian means everything. , one of theion ancient races in the world that
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survived. we are the most peaceful race that still exist. we have never invaded anybody. we don't necessarily come with a is this dna. we want to do this. i have never gone to any country where an indian wasn't successful. in silicon valley as well. you look at the top five companies, you will see they are run by indian ceos. india, but it always remains inside you. are,tter how far away you it's the same values that we grew up with and it never changes. haslinda: thank you so much for eing on "highfliers."
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