Integrity and good governance are integral to building a great company. One of the key contributions institutional investors bring to entrepreneurs today is the need to build governance within the corporate ecosystem, said Ramakrishnan Kalyanaraman, Executive Director and Head, Investment Banking, Spark Capital.

Most start-up entrepreneurships rarely distinguish between a personal balance sheet and a corporate balance sheet. Because for them, the company is the individual and the individual is the company. But unless they draw the distinction ‘squarely and clearly’, it is going to be difficult to make that separation, he said at a panel discussion on Building Great Companies at the third edition of the CII Southern Region Emerging Entrepreneurs Awards 2013. The session was moderated by R Ramaraj, Senior Advisor, Sequoia Capital.

It is going to be extremely difficult to build greatness at the corporate level. That’s where the accountability to external investors comes in. It will be useful to have an external investor because he is going to drive the entrepreneur to set certain benchmarks and practices to move on that path of greatness, said Kalyanaraman.

According to Sarath Naru, Managing Partner, Ventureast: “We are not looking at greatness in an entrepreneur. We are not expecting them to build a great company. My advice to emerging entrepreneurs is that don’t think of building a great company. You need to think about the customer and his or her satisfaction.”K Ganesh, Chairman of Portea Medical, said business is not about sustainability or greatness. If a company is shut down, who will cry? May be the entrepreneur himself, employee, family, friend of investor? It is great if the customer cries when you shut down even for a day. CK Kumaravel, Managing Director, Groom India Salon and Spa, said women should come out of the four walls as they are ‘our greatest strength’.

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