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OUCEAA Activities
Alumni Talk # 1 Devendra Surana
Devendra Surana is an Industrialist , Managing Director of Bhagyanagar India Limited and Director of Surana Ventures Limited and Surana Group of Companies . At Osmania University , Surana completed a B . E . in Mechanical Engineering . He earned an MBA ( PGDM ) from the Indian Institute of Management , Bangalore and was chosen as the “ Brain of the batch ”. He is currently the president of the Telangana state council of FICCI .
On speaking about his views on the transformations that took place with time , Mr . Surana categorised these time frames as Durga , Laxmi and Saraswathi eras . He opined that Durga era was dominated by strength followed by Laxmi era where wealth was of importance and finally the Saraswathi era , in which education and intelligence were of high priority . He attributed the current speed at which things are changing exponentially to the Saraswathi era . Analysing this rate of change , he explained how people belonging to other eras get influenced . For instance , people belonging to the present Saraswathi era will be excited about new technology and growth opportunities while those from the older generations will be petrified . Mr . Surana also quoted his favourite example of how the Tata ’ s empire was built by three generations whereas Flipkart did it in just 3 years . He wants the present generation not to stop learning and continue to innovate .
Mr . Surana also talked about how the population increase ( by about 90 %) over the past 100 years has resulted in increased consumption , demand and price variations . Having said this , he stated that ‘ The number of people being born today has been stagnant for the last 20 years ’ but the only reason why there is an increase in population is ‘ Longevity ’. Going by these trends the population will freeze at 10 billion people . According to him , the world has seen an era of shortage till now and that people of this generation will witness an era of surplus where everything is in excess . This is attributed to digitalisation and communication .
Mr . Surana also mentioned about the trends in business today and how the firms are operating . By which , he meant that unlike the old ideology of a firm to meet customers ’ requirements , today it is all about making a customer lazy . He mentioned that if a company can make its customer little lazy , in what-so-ever way possible , it can succeed in its business . Mr . - Surana brings a new concept called Anti-Fragile , the ability to grow from a certain class of random events , errors and volatility . Mr . Surana feels the world today needs more of antifragility in every step of life .