Entrepreneurship for Shoumyadeep Ghosh, Managing Director & Chairman of D S Motors, has come to be all about what happens once the entrepreneur leaves the company. For the future phase of D S Motors, the entrepreneur’s idea lies in shifting his focus from pure growth to having good systems, good people, customer trust and an organisation that can generate value by itself.
The history of D S Motors dates back to 2007 and since then it has gone through various ups and downs. Now, for Ghosh, the future looks like an era of organisational maturity, where one has to shift one’s focus from being problem-solving oneself to becoming the leader who can create systems and people which can solve problems themselves. This also means creating stronger management systems, developing future leaders, improving employee training and making the organisation less dependent on individual intervention. For Ghosh, the founder’s role eventually has to change from being the engine of the organisation to building an engine that can continue to function effectively through capable people and strong processes.
The concept behind this philosophy is that Ghosh finds stagnation far more dangerous than failure because failure creates opportunities for posing questions and improving on things whereas stagnation does nothing despite markets moving ahead. In this regard, Ghosh’s philosophy is based on evaluating constantly as he wants to know how the organisation will have done things differently had it started all over again. This mindset also reflects his belief that markets, technology and customer expectations are constantly changing, and organisations cannot depend only on what worked in the past. Continuous learning and adaptation therefore become an important part of remaining relevant.
Understanding people is essential to this whole process of change. Ghosh feels that employees, customers and even business partners all want to be valued, heard out and respected. Emotional intelligence and listening thus become essential traits of a good leader. For Ghosh, listening is not something passive but a method of collecting intelligence from employees, customers and even the market. A frontline employee may notice a customer concern before it appears in a formal report, while a customer may identify a process weakness that an organisation has become accustomed to. This makes listening an important part of understanding both opportunities and risks.
Similar considerations apply to the concept of credibility. Trust is considered a kind of strategic capital by Ghosh, which is achieved through responsible behavior, sincere communication, and reliable connections. In case of D S Motors, the aim is not to make unrealistic promises but to assure the client that he or she can rely on the company in times of need. According to Ghosh, credibility takes years to build and can be damaged quickly, which is why protecting long-term relationships remains important. For a business, dependability can create loyalty in ways that advertising alone cannot.
As far as technology is concerned, it is not treated as something which will replace business advantages such as relationships, experience, good judgment, and knowledge of the local market, but as an accelerant. Technology, in turn, is capable of providing more speed, more information, better automation, wider reach, and efficiency. The future, according to Ghosh, is in a combination of human ability and technology, not one versus another. This approach also allows traditional businesses to retain their strengths while adopting newer tools for data-driven decision-making, digitalisation and operational efficiency.
This point of view has a special meaning for entrepreneurs outside of the major cities. According to him, India’s regional market, youthful population, and increasing connectivity present a lot of opportunities for the companies located in small cities. He suggests that geography should not be treated as a mental barrier. Entrepreneurs in smaller towns can access knowledge, technology, digital tools and wider markets while continuing to use their understanding of local customers and regional needs as an advantage. For Ghosh, thinking globally while understanding locally can create meaningful opportunities for businesses outside metropolitan centres.
In the end, the philosophy of entrepreneurship that Ghosh subscribes to is one of resilience, responsibility, learning, evolution and legacy. Success to him does not only mean the ability of a founder to make it big, but also how he is able to lift people up through his accomplishments. In the case of D S Motors, survival means more than remaining in business, but staying relevant. It also means remaining useful to customers, meaningful to employees and capable of adapting to a changing market. For Ghosh, the larger measure of an entrepreneurial journey is not simply how high a person rises, but how many people rise because of what has been built.
