JAY JOSHI
The death of Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha sparked a lot of debate not just in the corporate world, but in the general society as well. There were a number of views about what exactly caused the apparently successful businessman to go missing and end up dead. While one line of thought suggests that there were in-discrepancies on his part, others claim that he could be a victim of ‘the system’ against which many businessmen say they have to fight to survive and grow.
Running a business is a task fraught with difficulties, and there are a lot of factors that come into play when talking about the success or failure of a business. The availability of funds, business environment, circumstances, and the personality of the founder. Various speculations were made as to how much role did each these factors play in the latest tragic episode.
“When you build a successful business and it starts growing, there are people who come on board as advisors. Not all of these advisors are good. . now, getting wrong advice is one part, and acting upon it is another,” says Vrushank Kanekar, who works with a business consulting firm in Mumbai. “Siddhartha had stated that he was being pressured by lenders and some board members into making certain financial decisions. In such cases, your personality matters a lot. How much appetite do you have for expansion? How do you tackle the situation when you are being pushed by advisors do make decisions that go against your core. It is possible that VGS did not have the appetite to expand by taking the way his advisors were suggesting. We can only speculate.”
Vishwesh Bhat, promoter of SMD Power Solutions, Ponda also cites that business model and the founder’s personality play an important role in how the business is run, and how the founder responds to certain pressure points. “Ideally, one should keep one’s personal life and business separate, and not attach oneself emotionally with ups and downs in business. Still, if the founder takes business journey personally, it is their way of looking at it,” says Bhat.
The incident also sparked considerable debate on social media. A user stated, “Today, not just Siddhartha but thousands of dreams of people who thought they could do something big in India. To do business in India, you just don’t need to know about your business but it’s more important to know about other things like dealing with high interest rates, hundreds of Government regulations, never ending Judicial processes, keeping sarkari babus happy and the list goes on.” Another user tweeted, “Entrepreneurs committing suicide is bad for society and system. Demotivating for youngsters and new startups. Sad day”
While the letter that is allegedly written by Siddhartha stated that government officials were giving him trouble, Income Tax department has stated that his signature on the letter does not match with the one on the filings he made with the department. Secondly, many other allegations about the CCD founder’s income are also being made. However, even as RIPSiddhartha trended on social media throughout the day, netizens did agree that he was an entrepreneur who made the nation proud by taking his brand in top hundred fast food chains in the world.
