INTERVIEW

Entrepreneur, helicopter pilot, farmer, politician and now author. Captain Gopinath, CMD,
Deccan Express Logistics, who made flying affordable in India, has now released his
autobiography called – “Simplify Fly: A Deccan Odyssey”.
In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Captain Gopinath spoke about the inspiration behind the
book.
Here is a verbatim transcript of the interview. Also watch the accompanying
video.
Q: What was the inspiration behind the book?
A: I was very frequently called by CEOs, by the country head of GE, Britannia - Vinita
Bali, they would call me and say Captain, can you talk to our senior management as to
how do you take on a cartel, how do you behave like an insurgent in large companies?
Can you talk to them?
So I would not go out and give a power point presentation like the five ways of
marketing, five ways of timing the stock market or building a brand or operations but I
would just go and tell them what I did. And it would never be only about Deccan, I would
talk about my early days, my village life, my farm life, my army life, my war, and then
also I went back to farming and got into debt, got out of debt and how I set up my
helicopter company and the kind of obstacles that came my way, the bureaucracy, the
politicians, corruption of business people.
Q: We understand you were looking at private equity participation for your cargo
business. What stage is it at and what are the expansion plans there?
A: When I decided to launch Deccan 360 it was at the very height of the stock market
boom, it was also at the very height of considerable amount of wealth I had myself
generated. I think at the very height of success you sow the seed of destruction and a lot
of arrogance sets in. Also everybody was chasing me, people from private wealth,
people from private equity funds and the banks wanting to manage my wealth or invest
in my company.
Then overnight the world economy collapsed and a lot of companies synonymous with
wealth and banking went bankrupt. I think for about a year there was an absolute
shellshock, limbo. Then I decided I should do exactly what I did with Deccan, put
everything I have and start once more. I said let me do it, this is not the time to ask for
money, I must put my money where my mouth is.
So, I mortgaged everything my house, my shares, my stocks and started all over again. I
said let me build the company and let me choose the private equity players at the right
time. And now the company has been launched, we have got a nationwide presence.
We have unprecedented connectivity, we have built our own IT, we have 7 aircrafts now
and another 4 are joining, going to the very bowels of this country. We have nationwide
trucking, nationwide warehousing and all that is in place. Now again the market is
picking up, the economy is on a roll. So people are calling us. So I thought I will choose
the time and the investor myself at the right point in time.
Q: How soon do you think that will be?
A: Maybe 3-4 months, I am not in a hurry.
Q: You also a little while ago dabbled in politics. Do we see you maybe looking at
that at some other point again?
A: Yes, I said it was not my first time and it is there in my book. I was very seriously and
deeply in politics and I contested an election 15 years ago. I was the President of a
political party, of the district because I always felt that all of us we have a profession.
But we are human beings so we need to understand that and you owe something to the
society. I am not saying everybody should contest, you need people to make bread, you
need people to plough the fields, you need somebody to write and write software, but
you also need to take a stand. And that is the reason I did not want to join any political
party to make a point that there is corruption and also to make a point that we are
responsible for it.