This is the age of innovation and imagination in the field of information and knowledge. If you are thinking of a venture in business, there is unprecedented and unmatched opportunity here.

Not about capital

Twenty years ago, there was the predominance of traditional manufacturing industries. In South Asia, there were many opportunities in capital-centric industries such as the jute, sugar, steel, and textile industries.

In India, big names like the Birlas, Singhaniyas and Modis used to dominate the market. That scenario has completely changed today. Industries that were never heard of before have not only emerged, but currently rule the business sector. For instance: Infosys and Wipro; Sunil Bharti Mittal and Dipak Parekh; Flipcart and Snapdeal. The canvas of Indian business has changed.

If you research the top businesspeople of today or go through the list of Forbes billionaires, you will observe that their lines of business have changed. The direction of business has changed. We now have companies like Facebook and Google, Microsoft and Apple, and Alibaba and Amazon, who virtually run the global show.

Capital is no longer the biggest strength of entrepreneurs today, but innovation and entrepreneurial initiatives are. If you have a new idea and the promise to deliver, there are plenty of venture capitalists and private equities to fund you. Capital is no more a constraint. It is all about coming up with something new that is going to make a difference.

Changed lives

What are the things that have changed the lives of the people in the last 20 years? First: the mobile set. It has practically become the single most important device for information, communication, entertainment, and much more. With a mobile phone, you will be able to do all your transactions. From settling your household bills to paying your kids’ school fees; from purchasing airline tickets to buying shoes for your spouse; from making charity donations to giving salary to your employees; you can manage everything from your mobile. The mobile wallet is slowly beginning to replace your money wallet.

Second: the travel industry. As more and more people prefer to fly in budget airlines, the business has become so competitive that costs can no longer deter people from travelling.

Third: access to information. There used to be a time when we used to spend months going from one place to another to get one piece of information. Now any information about any part of the world is available to you at one touch—and that too for free.

Embrace change

Technology is creating efficiency. It is reducing costs, and at the  same time, it is pushing the world to be unthinkably competitive. Look at the smartphone giants Samsung, Apple, and their Chinese and Indian counterparts: every day, they come out with something new at a lower price. On the other hand, look at Blackberry: an example of how rapid pace of change can make a technology and an entire industry redundant.  

Blackberry and Nokia once ruled the world of mobile phones. Where are they today? They are both examples of arrogant falls in business. They thought that they could overrule the rapidly changing technology and consumer expectations. Blackberry, for instance, did not embrace the front-facing camera and other apps when people needed it. Nokia refused to adopt the Android operating system until it was too late. These two examples speak of a very critical dimension of the business world—reading the pulse of consumers every day and taking action without delay.

Innovation matters

The world is going to be so compact, so technology-driven, so integrated, and so efficient, that if you cannot catch up with the race, you cannot survive. That is the message. That is the race for tomorrow. And that is where the opportunity exists.

Twenty years ago, at least 10 of the world’s biggest businesses and companies were nowhere in the scene. They are all driven by young minds and young brains. The  prediction is that in the next 20 years, there will be plenty of new names in the field of technology. In the next 20 years, there will be more Mark Zuckerbergs and Steve Jobs in the global scene.

Once, the whole world looked up to the Silicon Valley. Today, there are IT cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad in India. Nobody can beat China in hardware. For the automobile industry, it used to be the US and Japan. Now, neither of them have the edge. Even Japanese automakers have to set up factories in India to be competitive.

Geography, age, gender, nationality, climate, society—nothing can stop you if you are really committed to excel. The founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, saw a computer for the first time when he was 33. He came from an ordinary background, and now he is China’s second richest man.

Jan Koum, the co-founder of WhatsApp, was a Ukrainian immigrant. Once he used to sweep floors of a grocery store in California. When Facebook announced it was buying WhatsApp for $19 billion, Koum became an instant celebrity.

Money does not matter; Jack Ma and Jan Koum did not have money. Age does not matter; Larry Page and Sergey Brin were just 25 and 24 years old when they started Google. It is not about race or geography; Forbes recently reported that Indian immigrants in the U.S. started 8 percent of all technology and engineering ventures, whereas the total population of Indian immigrants was less than  one percent  of the US population. The research also showed that Indians began 33.2 percent of all immigrant-founded startups in the US, outnumbering the next seven immigrant groups combined.

Look at Flipkart: Sachin Bansal and Binay Bansal started the $7 billion company with Rs 400,000 out of a small flat in Bangalore. They expect to post sales of $1 billion this year. The founders of the mobile advertisement network InMobi—Naveen Tewari, Abhay Singhal, Mohit Saxena, and Amit Gupta—are all below 40. They started the venture out of a small one-bedroom flat in Mumbai in 2007. Now they have Facebook and Google in sight!

There are countless other examples. These all speak for a world where you sell your idea, your innovation, and your entrepreneurship. Nothing else matters. You just have to imagine, have a dream, be committed to it, and pursue it fully. That is the way. That is where our collective future lies.

This is an excerpt of Chaudhary’s speech at an international forum of Terapanth. Chaudhary is the President of Chaudhary Group