Introduction
Introduction
The project is all about current Global Elites of the Africa who was born in India or whose forefathers
were born in India but due to somesocial, economic, cultural or political reason they had to settle in
different parts of East Africa. The project talks about the entrepreneur or their entrepreneurial journey
who created major footfall in the history of Africa. Our main focus is on the three profiles which I have
chosen for this project. All three entrepreneurs are unique in their own way they have covered all the
major business sectors of the Africa like education, banking, manufacturing etc. some are educated and
some are not; but they have all the required entrepreneurial skill which a successful entrepreneur needs in
business like greed for Money, Capitalist mind, Enthusiasm, Never give up mindset etc. which made them
successful in building their own business empire in the East Africa. Other than this Mr. AtulShah and Mr.
VimalShah both have their businesses in the area of retailing which I am personally interested in and Mr.
SudhirRuparelia has an unique story to tell us which I have discussed in the later part of the project.
Thats whyI have chosenthem for this project.
The project also include brief Historical and Political background of the people who settled in East Africa
in earlier century , detailed description of their migration, settlement, entrepreneur journey of their
families, their success, their failure and their learning which helps upcoming entrepreneurs in their own
journey. We will also discuss about Trading Diaspora and Middleman Minority of Africa. Moreover in
later part of the project we also talked about GijisbertOonks thought, theories and research work on this
subject which threw some light on Indian diaspora in abroad and their different approaches like Settled
Stranger, Global Elites, Factors which affectFamily business, migration etc. we will also see how the rock
fallers of Africa name Madhvani family, Mehta family, Shah family, Ruparelia family are similar in their
own way that leads them towards the path of the success.
Portfolio of entrepreneur with Gujarati and East African origin
1. AtulShah
photo citation
Personal details:
Name: AtulShah
Age: 56 Years
Nationality: i. Ethnic (country of origin) Kenya
ii. Host country- Kenya
Generation: Second Generation Entrepreneur
Organization: Nakummat Holdings Ltd.
Education: Primary Education
Purpose/ Reason for Migration: Economic
2.VimalShah
Personal details:
Name: VimalShah
Age: 58 Years
Nationality: i. Ethnic (country of origin) Kenya
ii. Host country- Kenya
Generation: Second Generation Entrepreneur
Organization: Bidco Group of Companies
Education: United State International University, Africa(BSc)
Purpose/ Reason for Migration: Economic
3.SudhirRuparelia
Personal Details:
Name: SudhirRuparelia
Age: 61 Years
Nationality: i. Ethnic (Country of Origin) Uganda
ii. Host country- Uganda
Organization: Ruparelia Group
Generation: Fourth Generation Entrepreneur
Education: A-Levels(UK)
Purpose/ Reason for Migration: Economic
B. Association with Country of Origin
After leaving India most of the entrepreneurs generally dont associate themselves as an Indian origin.
First generation entrepreneurs still have contact with their relatives and friends or they generally have a
collective memory or a myth of return in their mind for their Homeland which may become reason for
circular migration but their children and grandchildren generally dont have much connection with their
ethnic country. For example, In our course Nanjibhai Mehta who is the Founder of Mehta family in East
Africa frequently visited India, he mentioned in his book (dreams half expressed) that he travelled India
around 45 times throughouthis life while in case of MuljibhaiMadhvani he did not have much connection
with India as compared to Nanjibhai Mehta but he sent his children to study in India so that they can
know Indian culture. I personally know few whose fathers have settled in East Africa but they sent their
children to complete their schooling or graduation here in India so that they can know about Indian
tradition and culture. However they prefer to do their masters in Oxford OR Harvard University and then
returnto their family businesses in East Africa. But most of current generation doesnt want to associate
them as a part of an Indian Community. They feel that they are the part of a host community and associate
themselves with Host people; theydont like being called Outsiders or someone treat them as an Outsider.
As per the article of Economic Times, Mumbai in 2010,Mr. AtulShah is very much
connected with India. He also said that they celebrate festivals like Holi and Diwali more
traditionally than the people of Mumbai though he himself was born in Africa. He travels
India very often and purchase lots of equipment from here for their factories and he also
has the OCI card (overseas citizenship of India card) which is introduced by Ministry of
Overseas Indian Affairs which helps all the Asian East African people to stay connected
with India. But right now they dont have any investment plan in India because they have
very large expansion plans for Africa.cytation
While Mr. AtulShah doesnt have any kind of association with India but his family also
follows fewIndian traditions for example, Before opening of any new branch of their
supermarket he used to break coconut as per Indian tradition so that the success door for
business will remain open without any trouble and thats how he connected with India but
other than thishe preferAfrica for their personal and business purposes. There was no any
other association with India.
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?
Style=OliveXLib:LowLevelEntityToPrint_ET&Type=text/html&Locale=english-skin-
custom&Path=ETM/2010/01/31&ID=Ar00804
http://www.redpepper.co.ug/indian-intl-delhi-public-intl-become-one/
Atul Shah is a Businessman and Entrepreneur at Kenya. He was born in Nandi hills, Kenya in
1961 And he is the MD&CEO of Nakumatt Holding Limited. He is a Second Generation
Entrepreneur in his family. Atuls father, Maganlal Shah migrated to Kenya from India in1947
and opened a retail clothing store opposite the Nakuru open Airmarket. This suggested that his
father might came to Africa for finding better business or economic opportunities in host country
but for Mr.Atul Shah it becomes an home country.
From the ancient time India has a very well establish trade relation with East Africa.
From the beginning of the seventieth century bhatias, luhanas and khojas from
Kutch and khathiawad were sailing their ships on the Indian Ocean. Thakkar
community had established a very good trade relation with East Africa through sea
route. They literally colonized East Africa, build their houses there and settled there
to trade till that part came to be known as Suburb of Halar .<dariyalala>Many
entrepreneur like LadhaBhaThakkar, JeramShivji and others have major role in
establishing trade there. History portraits that Vasco Da Gamadiscovered Europe to India sea
route in 1497 but very few people knows that a Gujarati sailor named Kanji Malam helped him to
found this sea route which shows that how ancient the trade is between Gujarati merchants and East
Africa. Gujarati Muslim known as Malemo Cana may have shown Vasco Da Gama a remarkably
detailed map of India while he was at Malindi.
Independent Indian entrepreneurs used to go to Africa before the colonial aegis (from the first
century). Indian began to trading substantially in East and Central Africa from around 1250. Economic
reason for settling and unsettling in the second half of the 19 th century is that Traders faced economic
declineduring that period. But all Indians knew about Gujarati traders in East Africa and also known
about ThariaTopar and JairamSewji who were successful business man in Africa from Gujarat and
recruiting Gujarati business People, Financiers and entrepreneurs. so some people went there, done
apprenticeship under them and started their own businesses there and other people went as part of
chain migration.
They went there and work for their relatives and after settling they brought their family members
there. During 19th century, traders from Porbandar, Surat and Kutch encourage the trade of cloth, metal
and glass and in return they buy ivory, copper and cloves from them and sell it in India or Europe. At
that time the ivory and clove business is very successful in that region. Ivory is used for making piano
keys and as a show piece.
Prior to late 19th century Britishers started indenture labour system and manyIndian had to leave India
as part of indenture labourer. Some had to go forcefully and many other Indians prefer to go there for
finding better employment opportunities. Indian migration in Kenya began with the construction of
Uganda railway in 1896 - 1901. At that time more than 32000 indenture labourer were recruited from
British India. After completing their contract many came back to India and other prefers to stay there.
Many Gujarati stayed there and set up their small shops there and set up their identity as a dukawala
there. By the end of the 1920, there was a sizable Asian population in Kenya who demanded a greater
role in political aspect of Kenya. Indians have greater economic strength than black Africans. In 1927
Indians won the rights of 5 seats on the council compared to the 11 reserved for the Europeans.
Gujarati dukawalas and middleman industrialist have played an very important role in development
of African economy but Idi Amin felt that Gujarati Asian Cyloc dominating our economy, not giving
proper return to Africans, trying to colonize African economy so he gave order to all the Asian to leave
the country. At that time he became the hero in the eye of African people but later he started to abuse
African people. After that when YoweriMusevenis Government came, he returned all the Asians
properties back to Asians and allowed all the Asians to came back to Africa.
European wanted to colonize Africa on the other hand Indian people wanted to establish good trade
relation with them. This is the main difference between both settlers. In Darialal book written by
GunvantraiAacharya when RamjiBha talked with Dunkirk in jungle. Dunkirk expressed his thoughts
that you are economically strong, you have your army, you have power then why dont you rule the
country? And RamjiBha replied that its not our job its kings job. We just wanted to do trade here. In
this talk we can see the difference between both the communities.
In 1970s when Idi Amin expelled Asians from Africa it took major turn in the life of all Asian people.
They were given the time of 90 days and most of Asian had to settle in different parts of the world like
UK, US, Australia, Canada and other country but interestingly none of them prefer to come back to
India.
Profile
1. Atul Shah
Atul Shah is the managing director and the chief executive officer at Nakummat Holding
Ltd., the largest privately owned super market chain in East Africa. They have 50 branches in
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and around 7000 people working under him with annual
sales of US$650 billion. Maganlal Shah, F/O Atul Shah migrated to Kenya from India in
1947 and started a small shop in Embakasy, Nairobi. In 1961 family shifted to Nakuru and
set up clothing store,Vimal clothing store. In 1972 they started another shop named Tiku
fancy store, they decided to close down their first store and give their full attention to their
second shop which shows his fathers entrepreneur skills and spirit. He was not afraid to start
a new business at new place in fact he enjoyed venturing new businesses. As soon as he find
a new opportunity at new place he quickly move away from their current place, on the other
hand many people are either afraid of leaving old business or they are emotionally connected
with their previous business which is not good attitude for their business health.
They used to sell readymade garment of local Kenyan manufacturers at that time in their
second shop. Their business was so booming that Atul decided to request his father that he
wanted to drop out the school and want to join their family business and at that time his
father also wanted a helping hand in business so Atul dropped out his school after completing
his primary education and joined his family business. His first job was shelf stocker and
general floor assistance in 1975 they started diversifying their business and exporting
readymade clothes and material to Uganda. So Atul had done his apprenticeship under his
father after leaving his formal education. For example many other entrepreneurs like Steve
Jobs and Bill Gates, Atul Shah is also a college drop out. In fact he has only completed only
his primary education, he didnt even think about college at all as that was a major trend at
that time. But not everybody who left their education is able to become successful
entrepreneur as Atul Shah. Though he is not educated from the high class universities, he is
giving employment to those graduates which proves that it is not what you have with you as
a material wealth but what matters is what you have in your inner selves for success.
Towards the end of 1973, they have given out lots of goods on credit and not able to recover
that amount from creditors. Most of creditors disappeared and Shah has declared bankrupt at
that time and had to close down his business. He had accumulated debt around sh1.2 million.
Later Atul and his brother Vimal started selling Bedsheets in a small shop named Furmattes
while their father was still working with his brother. It shows the Never Give UP spirit of
Atul Shah. Though they were declared as bankrupt he was not lose confidence in himself but
accept the situation and decided to fight with that situation and took responsibility to improve
that situation and thats why he is in this position today.
Their business got much needed boost in 1978 when the price of coffee, which was major
export trade item of East Africa, rose phynominally in the world market and by the June of
the same year both brother managed to pay sh300000 debt of his father. Together with their
father both brother managed to bought his uncles business Nakuru Metrresses and his uncle
later moved to UK. And by the and of 1979 they managed to pay all debt which his father has
accumulated and later they also started diversifying their business and started importing other
retail products like sufurias, umbrellas and plastic basins. Here the luck factor in business
came into picture. The phynominal rise in the price of coffee brought their charm back into
the business. The only thing entrepreneur need to take care is they have to keep their eyes
sharp in the market for finding opportunities and their mind focused for capturing that
opportunity. Hard work and luck always payoff.
They opened their first store outside Nakuru in Eldoret in 1984 and todayThey have 50
branches in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda.in recent interview he also talk about his
ambition that he wanted to become and pan African retail player in Africa and also want to
nurture the next generation of retail leaders of Africa. He wanted to facilitate the training of
retail management graduates in all African countries in collaboration with different business
school. Atul Shah was named by the financial times of London as one of the 50 emerging
market business leaders.
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000036154/the-non-quitter-who-founded-
nakumatt-supermarkets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atul_Shah
https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/no-secret-to-doing-business-in-africa-says-nakumatt-
md-atul-Shah/ interview
2. Vimal Shah
Vimal Shah is an Asian-Kenyan businessman and the CEO of BIDCO oil refineries which is
the largest manufacturer of east and central Africa and manufactures detergent, shops, baking
powder and canola as well as other edible oils which has 49% market share in Kenyan
market. His father bhimjideparShah was born in india in 1932 and migrated to Kenya some
time prior to 1970 and opened a petrol station in Nyery. in 1970, He started BIDCO
Industries Ltd., a garment manufacturing companyand later on they switched to shop
production and edible oil manufacturing in 1985 and 1991 than he moved its international
headquater into Nairobi, kenyas capital. At the age of 22 Vimal joined their family business
of garment manufacturing.After coming into his family business he immediately started
thinking about expanding his family business. He didnt like an older way of doing business
which was on a credit basis and generate more dead stock because of less local demand.
He decided study entire garment market and enter into new business and discovered that
when crushed, cottonseed deliver oil as well as by-product for making shop. Shah
immediately spotted an opportunity in that business and made a business plan for plaughed
into that business and this is the first step Shah has taken in strocking his luck. He has
completely changed his parents garmnet making business into the largest edible oil
manufacturing business but for that he have to deal with many success and failers in his
journey which is described below.
But for that they need finance and tried to get loan from bank. But banker concerned about
their lack of experience in that business. At that time he decided to focus on three
things,start small, aim big, keep at it. When no bank is ready to give loan to him hescalled
the planned business down to easier stage they shipped oil from malasiya in a bulk quantity
insead of growing seeds at home that suggest attitude of change the plan, but not the goal
which any entrepreneur need from getting out from failure.
Later they built shop facory with the investment of $2.7m, 60% by bank and the rest by
family and friends which shows the vertical integration approach in the business. He also
mentioned about his initial problems. At starting no one wanted to buy their products, they
personally went round to country to inspire rural seller to sell their products. I can relate this
incident with the Rajkot, india based two business group whose foundind fathers also has to
face same situation at the beginning. 1. Balaji Namkeen and 2.gopal namkeen. Both the
firms now has spread their business in different states of india. Their founding fathers Mr.
virani and Mr. patel personally used to go to the market for selling their product because of
lack of the demand.
In 1992, Kenya claimed to be that turned out not to exist so the currency crashed. At that
time BIDCO was heading for the crash, too. It owned $13m for a 1991 loan, which it was
repaying 16 kenyan shilling to the doller. Later the shilling slummed to 30 at that time Shah
had decided to get done with these debt and they paid the full debt at that rate. And later it
proved to be the best decision because the exchange rate went to 84 shilling. If they didnt
paid their debt theyd have been dead. This incident introduce us with his decision making
power if Shah did not took right decision at the right time or he may wait for doller to
decrese may be we would not know his name today.
In1995, they started with a small soap factory at thika outside Nairobi, then ventured into
edible oil in 1991. And later they expand their business into Uganda and tanzia. The group
has an ambition of becoming pan- African player in Africa, be a market leader in household
products such as ditergent, shops, cooking oil in africa by 2030. As perShahsthougt some
might feel its impossible as those bankers thought in 1980s. but Shahdindt consider any of
their views he just take an calculated risk in business, do what he love to do and has
faith in himself which iventualy lead him towards success.
skeptics will always exist, and some time you should listen to them, but dont let their
views let you off the track., says Shah. Look at the best case scenario and the worst and
belive in your own conviction be persistent, and never give up.
If you come with something new today they will give you 100 reasons why it wont grow. That is why your own conviction
is so important. Look at the best case scenario and the worst case scenario. Be persistent, never give up, is his advice.
https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/be-persistent-never-give-up-the-story-of-vimal-Shah-and-
bidco/
3. Sudhirruparelia
The path of thissettled stranger in Africa is not as easy as it looks.when he was born
hisPerents has three successful shop in kampala. In 1972, when ruparelia was only 16,
idiaminexpelled all Asians from African, fortunately his perents has passport of Europe
so after completing all the legal formalities he went to UK with his perents. But he did
not wanted to stay with his perents so his perents settled in northen side of UK while
ruparelia settled in southern side of UK, nearer to London. He wanted to stay free from
parental control and had two priorities in his life 1. He wanted to fed himself and 2. He
wanted to complete his eduction but the second one he felt more important so he started
working in a chemistry laboretery for erning his livelihood. He was studing accounting at
that time but he enjoyed the thrill of making money more and left his formal education.
He started working in supermarket in night and also started driving taxies in night shifts.
In 1974 he bought house in UK and in 1977 he married with jyotsna, banker. He keep
doing odd job and saved money. He saved $25000(reinvest) by 1985 and return to
Uganda. Which shows his capitalist mindset. He made money in US, insteand of wasting
money in parting he reinvest his money in Uganda. And started his journey towards
becoming globle elite of Africa. He has a greed for money which lead him to left his
education and started his own empire. Though he has a capitalist mindset he also has
socialist character in himself. He consider one of the most notable philantrophist of
Uganda because he has given away millions in building hospitals, schools, churches,
mosquies. He also owened schools in Uganda which has many scholarship schemes for
different communities.
As per his thinking he loved Uganda but his heart was in Africa. After returning Africa he
felt that basic commodities was missing in the country so he started importing basic
commodities like sugar and ciggaret from traders at the Mombasa port. At that time there
were not alcoholic beverages plant in Uganda they mostly dependent on
imports.Ruparelia approached East African Breweries Limited in Kenya struck a deal and
took a sole distributorship in Uganda for some most popular beer brand and became the
largest suppliers of alcoholic beverage brand of kampala.
Thus finding a market gap and fill the gap like no one has did it previously is the most
important skill in entrepreneurship which this businessman understood deeply.
He soon started a foreign exchange business and made a lot of money from it then he
oppend Uganda s first forexbeurio, Crane Forex Bureau. Which is still exist as crane
financial empire. Then he started investing in realestate. There are properties I acquired
between 1984 and 1991 for $50,000. They are worth $12 million today, says
Ruparelia, he continued to reqire more and more properties at law price later ruparelia
decided to venture in bankintg and applid for licence which cost $1million to him today
crane bank is Ugandas second largest bank in Africa. thus entrepreneurship is all about
venturing in to different fields and do it as no one have done it previously.
http://venturesafrica.com/africas-newest-billionaire-ugandan-tycoon-builds-1-1b-fortune-
from-the-ground-up/
Gijsbertoonk is one of the well known writer in the field of the well known writer in the field of
diaspora and migration.he wrote a book named setteled stranger and in that book he wrote about
many theories related to our subject which is gujaratiEast African letrature through narratives.
Settled strangers are migrants who have settled for three or more generation in their new
location. Many of them see them shelves as a settlers for example sudhirruparelia who is the
fourth generation entropreneour in his family see himself as a settler or insider or settled stranger
but in the viewpoint of natives or local Africans, he always remains as a outsider or a stranger. In
this book gijsbertoonk talks about one such group of settled stranger the south asian people
in East Africa. He talks about problems faced by south Asians during 1970s when idi expelled
south Asians from the africa and they settled in different parts of the world like UK, US, and
Canada and became twice migrants. He gave the idea of stranger and wonderer that migrant
traders who decided to settle in their host societies remain strangers. In this work the stranger is
in contrast with wanderer, who comes today and goes tomorrow while the staranger is comes
today and stays tomorrow. He is locally known but remains an outsider also knows as sojourner
orientation so that he can expand his business as much as possible. He is not emotionally
connected with people sothat he can earn price benefit. He keep doing his business earn profit
and went back to his homeland after the trade season were finished and comes in the next seoson
so he keep doing circuler migration between homeland and host land while some stranger accept
their culture, life style, religion and decided to setteled there after three generaion they became
settled stranger while others just came know the place and went away and keep their identity as
a wonderor. For example gujarati people went Africa, explore there, find opportunities there and
at the end settled there. They do not invest in long term projects rather they invest in a liquidate
projects. They work hard, do even night shifts and make a good amount of money as
sudhirruparelia did in UK. And later they went back to their homeland and buy houses or set up
good businesses there. But if the socio-economic situation of home land is worst, they may opt to
settle more perminantlyand invest in a long term projects as many Asian first generation
entropreneour did in East Africa. In that case thay may prefer to take holidays at work, avid
overtime or niche work, improve their life style. It also dependent on friendly behavior of host
country.
He also gives the concept of middleman minorities. Asian people work as a middleman between
Europeans and Africans. Asian dependent on European rulers for their trading licences, tax
exemptions and the building of educational institutions. At the same time, however, European
dependent on the Asians to carry out the functions of civil services, pay taxes, and explore
trading opportunities that were difficult to exploit for the Europeans, such as inland trade and
agriculture products.For the european Asians were the middeleman between local producer and
themselves. For the Asians, European were the middleman between themselves and the European
market.Gujarati business man has more power there at that time because European has to
dependent upon us for accounting perpose however we popularly known as asiancyloc or
conservative gujarati because we used to write accounts in only gujarati language so that other
people cant understand it and they had to dependent upon us. Also gujarati people has different
passport of different countries in one family for multiple purposes, for trading purposes. For
example in one family father has a passport of UK then at the time of pragnacy of his wife he
sent his wife to dubai so that his son can get dubais citizenship easily also thay marry woman
who has another countries passport. So that if he want to expand his business in dubai or want to
sent his son dubai for educational purpose, he can do it easily and this nature of gujarati helps
them a lot when idiamin expelled Asians from africa. At the time of emergency it works.
Oonk also talks about melting pot and fruit bowl. In melting pot everyone
freely(economically, politically, sociologically and sexualy) mixes with oneanother. In the fruit
ball we live together but stay apart. Ethnic and racial difference plays a good roll in it. As that
was exactly the case in East Africa at that time and even today these differences exist in a large
part of world.in Africa it self they have different racial differencesamong them i.e. hutu, Burundi
etc.
Oonk also talked about world citizen that noe a days, the family directories of these families
include telephone numbers and addresses of family members in UK,US,Africa,India,Canada and
many more countries. They devide various citizenship among family members from the nuclear
families. Which shows that these families are now becoming world citizens in true meaning and
have became a globle elite at some or the other places. Globle elite it means that people who can
freely interact with member of parlament and other political representative, those people who
have their own charity funds and businesses in many different part of the world like
manubhaimadhavani, nanjikalidas Mehta, sudhirruparelia, atulShah, vimalShah etc. Asian
African can be described as typical middle man minority elite. They were economically
dominant but numerically(politicaly) insignificant.
http://www.redpepper.co.ug/indian-intl-delhi-public-intl-become-one/
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?
Style=OliveXLib:LowLevelEntityToPrint_ET&Type=text/html&Locale=english-skin-
custom&Path=ETM/2010/01/31&ID=Ar00804
similarity
roll of fm
conclusion
we can go as deep as we want in the subject of gujaratiEast African
entropreneurship because we have lots and lots of gujarati who went there and
build their charm themshelves there. three of theme I mentioned above but the list
has no end of it. Many other entrepreners are also there who are consider as the
builder of African economy like manubhaimadhvani, nanjikalidas Mehta,
manuchandaria, kareemjijivanji family and many others. By their stories we came to
know that entrepreurship is all abot venturing into new business.
Entrepreneur: a person who think of a unique idea or concept to start an enterprise and brings it
into reality. Read more: http://keydifferences.com/difference-between-
businessman-and-entrepreneur.html#ixzz4esmOL6IA
On the basis of my analisis we can asy that being a successful entrepreneur is far better than
being a successful businessman. If you wanted to grow constantly in the market you have to have
uniqness in your ideas and in yourself. Its good to be successful businessman and manage your
business constantly. It matters to have knowledge about certain thing but the more important
thing is how you implement that knowlwdge in your field. You have to have skill which
entrepreneur has to put yourself ahead than the others. I think most of the founding father has
that skills in themselves thats why hw got success in his business but if his children and grand
children dont have that skill they can manage their business successfully but perhaps they face
competition from many new entropreneurs for sustaining in market on that otherhandif they got
this skill from their forefathers they can became the rockfellers of the industry like
manubhaimadhvani.
And if we critically analize all the profile than we came to know that for being successful in the
business entrepreneur have to be active in every part of game whether it is social, political or
cultural. If entrepreneur only take active part in business and not maintain their political or social
relation they have to be victim of some political situation without any involvement in that. what
we can see today in our real corporate world. Entrepreneur has to get his work done by anyway
at that time he need to be practical without getting involved in any other feelings like what
dhirubhaiambani did in his business life. They used to get their work done than whichever way it
is, whether they have to use some political relation there or you have to pay some amout of
remuniration there. What Jayantbhai used to do in their business they had a very good political
relations with African politians which help a lot in making such an huge empire.whilemanubhai
was good in accounting and other aspects of business which shows a roll of family memebers in
the business. In this situation entrepreneurs are not expected to follow gandhian philosophy
there.
Furthureif we see all three entrepreneurs mission in the next few years it is the same mission all
three have in their mind is to become a pan-african retail player.They all want to expand their
business in evry part of the East Africa. That shows their love towards host country and more
than love it shows their capitalist thinking. They dont have any plans for india but they have a
larger expansion plan for Africa. Other than this we have seen that every entrepreneur has many
skills commen in themselves i.e. risk tolerance, desire, greed for money, vision, flexibility and
open- mindedness, decision making, creativeness etc. which eventually lead them towords
success not immediately but definitely.