How to Handle Contrarians: Uday Kotak’s Masterclass in Entrepreneurship

In an exclusive interaction with Arnab Goswami, the Editor-in-Chief of Republic Media Network, Uday Kotak shared his strong ideas on how to handle contrarians while giving insights on entrepreneurship as well.

Uday Kotak's Early Life

Since Uday Kotak grew up in a bustling joint family consisting of about 60 members, he was from the very beginning made familiar with the idea of having contrarians around him.

Kotak said, "This family consists of 60 individuals and Kotak has lived with 60 people under one roof, which is something that is extremely rare in today's day and age."

The Founder of the largest private sector lender in India elaborated how there were 60 members in his family and only one kitchen.

"For many people who know how tough it is to have so many people in one kitchen, you understand the challenges of a joint family more than anything else. But family gave me a deep sense of culture," he said.

According to Kotak, being a part of a joint family gave him a sense of learning to live with contradictions between family members, uncles, aunts, parents, grandparents, cousins, sibling rivalries.

"But the bonding and the pleasure of being together was awesome," he said.

 

Uday Kotak On How To Deal With Contrarians

Kotak said that one of "the most important aspects of people is how open is the leader to listen to a point of view which is different from what is a standard point of view."

It is this openness to listen and have people who are reasonably critical of a particular point of view, which he thinks is extremely important for a leader.

He added that the leader may agree or disagree, but the ability to listen to a contrarian point of view is crucial for leadership.

Also Read: How Uday Kotak Built a Rs 4 Lakh Crore Business Empire from a 4% Spread