“Do what you love, Love whatever you do” – R.Sreenivasan, Director IWSB : Welcome address at the Convocation 2012

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

Distinguished guests, students of the Class of 2012, parents and all the family members of the Graduating Class, members of the IWSB Board, the media, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the IWSB’s Third Convocation and Graduation Ceremony.   At the outset, I would like to welcome our Chief Guest, Deep Kalra, Founder and CEO, MakeMyTrip.com. I welcome, one and all present here, this evening.

——–

The pioneer of online travel in India, Deep Kalra founded MakeMyTrip in April, 2000. Drawing on his experience from his years at GE Capital, AMF Bowling Inc. and ABN AMRO Bank, under his stewardship, MakeMyTrip has become the largest online travel company, as well as the largest e-commerce business in India.

Deep is a member of the Executive Council of NASSCOM and chairs the NASSCOM Internet Working Group. He is also a Charter Member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) and serves on the Board of TiE, New Delhi. Deep is also a member of CII’s Tourism sub-committee and a regular speaker at numerous internet and travel conferences across the world. He currently serves as an independent Director for IndiaMart.com, a leading B2B website. Deep is also a founding member of “I am Gurgaon”, an NGO focused on the improving the quality of life in Gurgaon.

Deep holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi (1990), and a MBA (PGDM) degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (1992). His interests include adventure sports, swimming, yoga, quizzing and traveling to places off the beaten path.

Deep is one of the faces of the transformational India and it is an honour and a privilege to have him with us today. I welcome you Sir, as the Chief Guest of today’s occasion.
———-

 

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

I would also like to welcome our Chairman, R.Satya Narayanan, Vice-chairman Mr. Gautam Puri and Members of the IWSB Board who have come down specially to be with us today. Thank you all for coming.

It is a very special moment for us with 59 students of the Class of 2012 graduating today. The students at the IWSB have a very pivotal role to play in the progress of the school and the Class of 2012 have shouldered their responsibility in an excellent manner. I would like to highlight some of the achievements of the last academic year.

 

CURRICULUM

Our focus at IWSB has been to offer a curriculum that stokes entrepreneurial thinking and leadership, and also in tune with the fast changing global business trends and this has been one of our significant strengths. Our students benefit from this exposure and the industry values this a lot.

We have had over hundred entrepreneurial leaders coming to the campus during their two years as part of our ‘My Journey series’ every week. Each one, when they experienced the incisive questioning about minute details of running business by students, during the interactions and Q&A, have always asked me and our faculty, what do we do to foster this kind of spirit among students? Thanks to the faculty who have made this happen.

Some of the notable new courses offered to the students this year include  -Financial Engineering, Managing Entrepreneurial Firms and Family Business, International Marketing, Retail Management.

NEN, National Entrepreneurship Network, has selected IWSB as their academic incubation campus for designing new programs. IWSB and NEN are working closesly on this front for the coming academic year.

Also the TYE, The young entrepreneurs program, with TIE that is designed and executed by IWSB has successfully completed its second year. We are in talks to offering this to the college going youth too across the country where we will technology to a great extent.

IWSB continues to use technology to aid teaching. We have extensively used WEBINARs as the means to reach to vast student population across the country in facilitating understanding of business and entrepreneurship. We have significant road map ahead in this direction.

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

The Curriculum Review Committee, chaired by Academic Dean, Prof. Veeresh Sharma will soon release a draft of their recommendations that are currently being reviewed by faculty, area leaders and others. We hope to have the final recommendation of the committee in the next couple of weeks and we wish to implement in the coming academic year.

ENTREPRENEURIAL Endeavors and companies on Campus

We have been very delighted to have quite a few entrepreneurial talent on the campus. Our 2012 graduating batch saw –

–         JMD Pratza by kanu Mangotra in the food space

–         Arete Investors by Rishab Pruthi, Gaurav and Kriti Kankani

–         NOW by Sumeet Sharma, Arpit Kala in the convenience shopping

–         Antral by Sumit Gunjan and Arvind in education

and

–         Maharani by Anurag from the first year  in handicrafts exports

I am sure we will see many more emerging in the coming year

 

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

FACULTY

IWSB has been able to make a mark among the Young B-schools (IIMA research report of last year) in the short span of time, only because of outstanding faculty. Each of our faculty bring with them a deep passion and commitment to facilitating and bringing the best out of our students. They walk the talk. We have faculty like, Prof Navneet, who runs an integrated Marketing communication firm on the campus. We have entrepreneurial faculty to facilitate entrepreneurial students.

Our recent faculty achievements and publications in top ranked journals, by Prof Raju Mazumdar in finance area, Case publication of Prof Krishna in marketing, are testimony to the excellence that we pursue in business education.

Our permanent faculty figure stands at 14 and have had equal number of visiting scholars too who have contributed immensely to every student who is graduating from IWSB.

India Immersion Program and Exchange programs

IWSB is getting recognized as No.1 entrepreneurial campus in India and abroad too. Apart from NEN naming IWSB among the top 7 entrepreneurial campus for the third year running, world class business schools are touching down at IWSB campus. We have had informal exchange agreements for this year with a couple overseas universities and corporate bodies on India Immersion, which we will be formalizing this year. We should have about half a dozen of these agreements in the coming year for Student, Faculty exchange and research initiatives.

We have hosted two universities –

• State University of New York, with 18 students and faculty;
• University Leadership team from San Diego State

On corporate leadership front in India Immersion, we have hosted –

• A dozen business leaders from Hitachi, Japan
• Leaders Quest brings Five hundred BCG consultants to India that Satya and I would address, of whom 15 will invest a day with our students on April 23 and 24 this year. I am looking forward to the batch on the campus and also Alumni, including this graduating batch to take advantage of this program

We are working on introducing FIELD program modules across the two years, of which this year, they started with Live projects/ The Experiential Learning Programme, that provided students an opportunity to work for companies, apart from the typical internship programme. All of the participating companies have reported a high customer satisfaction. Many of these projects are implemented. Our students continue to work on projects for not-for-profit organizations with similarly great results.

EVENTS

Events at IWSB serve multi purpose objectives. The students augment their class room learning with several learning events outside the classroom. The various student clubs organised events like the –

–         Shodhyatras

–         Eduthon: A 10Km Run for educating underprivileged

–         Rangmanch – The dramatics society

–         IWPL – The Sports Club

–         Tasveer- The Art and Culture Society

–         Blood donation camps

The enthusiastic celebrations of events like Holi, Dandia, Diwali, Krishnashtami and painting competitions brought the entire IWSB community together as a family.

E-Bootcamp, which we launched last year, will be an annual tradition for the School along with the Annual Business Plan competition, Srijan.

These events serve as a platform for the students to interact with industry leaders, and academicians apart from interacting with contemporaries from other institutions.

AWARDS

Our students and alumni participated in several national and international competitions and have brought laurels to the school. Notable mentions include

–         Jaydeep (Alum PG10) – A winner at IIT Mumbai, has been invited for Stanford University’s Social entrepreneurship Summit in April

–         Anurag – Business plan competitions at IIT Kanpur, Mumbai and a few other places

I congratulate each one of you for your efforts and success.

The IWSB Excellence Scholars symbolize the extraordinary ability, leadership, commitment and quality of participation of the PGP students in the IWSB campus life. I congratulate each one of them for a well-deserved recognition.

PLACEMENTS

The IWSB graduates continue to script new success stories as far as placements go. The increased interest amongst young and fast growing companies, who see IWSB graduates as tailor-made for them, and also increase in leading national and international recruiters, is a testament to the rich entrepreneurial leadership talent at the school.

As is the news, a couple of our students will be placed internationally.

A formal announcement on the placements, once completed in the next couple of weeks, will be made. I would like to thank our friends in the industry for their continued association with the school.

CONCLUSION

While we have made considerable progress on several fronts, being a school in infancy, we still have a long way to go. The Board and industry have been a solid source of support in our work. The Faculty – Resident and the Visiting Faculty have contributed significantly to the development of the school. The resident faculty and management staff at the IWSB have always stood out with their innovative ideas and dedication in building this school. I look forward to building on these contributions.

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

Now a few words for the graduating class –

I congratulate each one of you for completing the two arduous years successfully at the IWSB. I do hear many of you sharing, how these two years have been transformational. I still can vividly recall the outbound we went two years ago on our induction program as you all entered the institution. Congratulations to the Scholars of Excellence and those who have made it to the Awards List too. We are very proud of you. I wish you all the best as you embark on the journey of realizing your dreams. As you set about charting new career paths, I urge all of you to pursue what you enjoy and enjoy whatever you pursue. I am sure you will be of immense value to the organizations that you contribute and also to the society at large. You are, and will always be, an integral part of the IWSB family, and we look forward to sharing in the joys of your accomplishments as corporate leaders, entrepreneurial leaders and worthy citizens of this world.

I leave you with a quote from our ancient literature –

“You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

And I quote Swami Vivekananda –

“Just believe in yourself, the world will be at your feet”

I look forward to seeing you all again and again on the campus! When the new batch walks in, we wish to have all our Alumni for the re-union sometime in October! I am sure I will see you all being there sharing your experiences and insights with the new batch.

Our wishes and love with you all, for ever!

Thank you.

“Embrace the mindset of endeavour and not that of entitlement” – Satya, Chairman, Board of Governers, IWSB, at Third Annual Convocation of IWSB, 2012.

Deep Kalra, Founder MakeMyTrip.com; Satya, Chairman, BOG, IWSB at the 3rd convocation of IWSB

Satya, Founder CL Educate (formerly Career Launcher), as the Chairman BOG, Indus World school of Business delivered a short but very impacting address –

I still vividly recall Azim Premji, addressing us on our convocation at IIM Bangalore, two decades ago. Today, Deep is on the campus to address you. Azim, was heading Wipro, then known for consumer goods and not as much for technology. Perhaps Wipro was just of the size of MakeMyTrip today, that Deep has founded and anchored.

I would just like to share my biggest learning in life.

PLEASE EMBRACE THE MINDSET OF ENDEAVOR AND NOT THE MINDSET OF ENTITLEMENT.

Entrepreneurship dismantles all these entitlements.

We may have got many degrees from best of the schools; our parents may be well known; all these do not hold water.

What is that you can move by what you are; nothing is very sacrosanct than endeavor. At the end of the day, I recall the mindset of endeavor. We are recognized by what we deliver at the end of the day!

You should be known by your religiosity of the day. If I don’t move the moon, the day has not been worthwhile.

Attitude and Work-ethic beget what you deserve.

Thanks and Best wishes.

“Once you figure out what is your MOZZO! You will make it” – Mr. Deep Kalra, Founder and CEO, MakeMyTrip.com @ 3rd convocation 2012, IWSB

Deep Kalra, Founder MakeMyTrip.com, Guest of honour for 3rd Convocation at IWSB is being felicitated by the Dean - Acads, Prof Veeresh Sharma

I commend and congratulate the faculty for creating the environment, that has seen these youngsters blossom and take off.

I also congratulate Parents! You need to be proud of your young wards that are going to make a difference to the world.

It is a special day when Tendulkar got his hundredth hundred. You will remember your special day. You will look back with contentment and joy. Some of you were so eager, that you wanted to grab the certificate from me or even forgot to get the photo clicked. Keep that enthusiasm going!

Satya and I have some karmic connect. We both started at the same time. I got to know that we graduated from the same institution, St. Stephen’s college, just a year apart! Then our connection at TIE and today, I am here.

This is the second convocation ceremony I am attending. The first one was when I passed out of IIMA! Today is a special day for me too, as I am giving my first convocation address as a chief guest.

At the end of this ceremony, flinging of your caps will happen. Is this the culmination or a beginning?

It is the beginning of your career, in one of the brightest times of India. You have had wonderful two years on IWSB campus – going through the grind, ups and downs – courses, my journey interactions with over 100 leaders and so on.. You are experiencing a WOW moment now!

It is an opportune time for me to share a few lessons that I have learnt thus far, which could be of value to you in your journey ahead –

• Learning never stops.
  • Formal education may have, but the amount you learn from your peers, colleagues, market place and environment would continue. You need to be keen. You need to figure out every moment, the secrets of success and keep incorporating in your script as you travel.

• Discover what makes you tick, what makes you happy.
  • The sooner you realize the sooner you make it happen. People talk about ‘getting into the zone’.
  • Before parents get worried, chart your untreaded path. It took me eight years to figure out what I want to. And here I am in front of you. Had I not found out my ‘love’, perhaps I would not have been here sharing my learning.
  • Create opportunities and grab opportunities. If you do what you really love, sky is the limit. Once you figure out what is your ‘Mozza’, you will make it.
  • It is not necessary that you have to become an entrepreneur. I do see a few of you are keen. You can use your degree as a noose or as a ropeway to higher goals. There are many of my classmates who have joined big corporates – one of my batch mates will soon be a CEO of Wipro. Finding your calling is the key.
• Life ahead will get tougher. I keep promising my family that I will slow down. But the journey becomes so exciting that you get hooked on.
  • Next 10 years you should look forward to work hard and sweat it out. Gather whatever you can to strengthen your armory.
  • Subsequent 10 years you will start working smarter along being harder.
  • Then perhaps being smarter will suffice
• READING is the key
  • I keep reading and re-reading. Do not give up. Books like ‘Seven Habits of highly effective people, I must have read a dozen times. Every reading as I progress in life makes a new meaning. I keep applying in new ways and in new places too.
• Value of Analytics
  • In the businessworld and the decision support systems that you will create or use, Analytics will play a very important role. You use analytics all the time to understand behaviours and create opportunities. You should focus on it. Every one has got data! How you analyze and make a meaning out of it will derive and drive your business.
• Resilience Vs Stubbornness – Back yourself and your instincts
  • There is a fine line between the two. There have been at least two occasions in my early years of MakeMyTrip, that I thought of hanging up my towel.- 9/11 happened and SARS followed. The travel world collapsed. Tough times they were. We kept going…
  • If I look at people around me, Satya (founder CL Educate); or Sanjeev Bikhchandani (founder Naukri), who delivered last years Convocation address here at IWSB, all have the same trait – of bouncing back with passion and perseverance.
  • Back yourself and your instincts – Be yourself. It may take a little longer, but you will reach your path and the journey will continue to be wonderful one.

I would like to conclude this precious address by quoting one of my favourites – Jeff Bejos, The founder of Amazon –

“WORK HARD! HAVE FUN! MAKE HISTORY! TWO OUT OF THREE IS NOT AN OPTION”

Best of luck!

outbound 2011 – induction of pg13 @ IWSB, knowing thyself!

Outbound 2011 – inducting pg13 @ IWSB – Knowing thyself, a set on Flickr.

The academic year of pg13 started with pre-term, of which the outbound module is a very enabling one for the new learners on the campus, as much as the old and seasoned ones….

Along with Vivek of great escapes and Satya, the outbound was planned meticulously to give each participant an experience worth remembering for life time, for what they will gain from the exercises that they would go through. It all depends on ones own eagerness to explore, introspect and learn. To that extent, even though exercises were designed to put every one through similar situations, the take-away will be very different for each one, depending on the conscious investment one makes in the entire process.

Entire entourage set to drive in a couple of buses and cars late in the evening. As Satya wanted to test his car in the hilly terrains, we both found ourselves leading the cavalcade by an hour ahead by the time we were out of Delhi. The gap kept on increasing as we hit the foothills and we reach Bhimtaal by 3:40am, well ahead of the scheduled arrival of about 7am. So we parked the vehicle by the roadside and had a few winks by the time the bus reached the winding roads of the hills. Reaching the Saat Taal half an hour before the buses arrived, we refreshed ourselves to receive the battalion, with unique ‘wake up call’…. push ups the moment they disembarked the buses. This shook many out of the slumber and for the uninitiated this would have given the hint of things to come by…

The climb to the camp on the top of the hill overlooking the saat taal, with the backpacks on our backs, was a real test of ones strength and stamina. With my Camera bag also tugging along, it took some effort from me too as the innumerable tours that I undertook in the last 8-9 months threw spanner on my physical fitness regularity. I realized how unfit I had become. I discovered that I have put on about 5 kgs during this sedentary period, though not sedentary due to criss-crossing the country, yet sedentary in physical fitness terms.. This has made me lazier!! This outbound was a wake-up call for me too!!

As usual, the hectic three days had a lot of excitement, beginning with induction of the new entrants to IWSB value system and integration of the new hearts, bodies and souls with the entire ecosystem of the institution, and facilitating the others to introspect and offer themselves for greater responsibilities towards themselves, the community and the society at large. As we could see, we have been able to succeed to some extent, hopefully it will grow on each one of us. The facilitation and exercises took various forms like – group activities like football exchanges, tent pegging, kayaking, handicap treks, musical and cultural evenings around bonfires; the individual pushing of boundaries happened through rock climbing, rappling, zummaring, river crossing, flying fox, kayaking, swimming etc. The new members also bonded with each other very well when they were thrown a challenge of making a meal on the last day.

Yes, there have been a few taken-for-granted behaviours that did detract from the effectiveness of the program, but I am sure the realizations since then would serve each and every one good for life time.

Personally, my learning included –

a. I will be healthy and physically fit by pushing boundaries more and more even during my daily life
b. I will be part of every action and contribute to every cause irrespective of experience; work with enthusiasm as if I am doing it for the first time, even though I might have done many times over
c. I will be serious about every thing I do. No work is small or big
d. I am capable of finding new ways of engaging, even though the activity may look apparently old
e. So many more boundaries to be pushed, so many more capabilities to be explored…I will continue to do it..

There is so much within. Even when we feel that we are completely exhausted, we have so much in our storage…. if only we can dig deep and push ourselves…

I have but one life…

Sreeni@iwsb.in

kindly follow this set for more updates of pg13

Convocation of Class of 2011, Indus World School of Business – Creating Entrepreneurial leaders

Sanjeev Bikchandani, Founder Naukri.com delivering convocation address

As the sun was setting and the sky was opening up with a light drizzle, IWSB’s campus wore a festive look, for the Class of 2011 walked in a ceremonial procession to take the last bow at their alma mater to be awarded with their graduation degrees. Sanjeev Bikchandani, founder of Naukri.com, one of the celebrated first generation entrepreneurs of India in recent times was the guest of honour to award the degrees and excellence awards to the budding entrepreneurial leaders.

Sanjeev, was indeed the right person to be there for the apt occasion of the second convocation, as IWSB is setting new standards for being only one of a kind institution in the country in facilitating youth to become entrepreneurial leaders.

The welcome address by the Director, Prof Arindam Lahiri, outlined the achievements of this year. In short span of time, the students in IWSB have received national and international recognitions including Rural Management Association of India’s (RMAI) best rural business model national award, Cherie Blair Foundation NEN fellowship for young women entrepreneur. The institution has been honored by NEN (National Entrepreneurial Network) for the third consecutive year as one of the most entrepreneurial campuses of the country. The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) co-opted IWSB to launch its much-acclaimed international programme, TYE – The young entrepreneurs programme for school going students. In the first batch, about 50 students (of classes 8-12) selected from various schools of Delhi underwent this programme at IIT Delhi, with IWSB anchoring the whole programme.

Exhorting the youngsters, both the graduating batch and the PG12 batch, Sanjeev spoke to them about the humble beginnings of his journey as an entrepreneur from a middle class family. He said that three things are very important to excel in life.

• First – look for meaning in whatever you choose to do, and not go after money. He shared his struggles for the first seven years of not being able to take salary regularly from his firm. Success lies in there.

• Second – persistence and perseverance are the key to success. Look for a pot of gold in twenty years and not in twenty months. Have a plan for what you would like to achieve in five, ten and fifteen years and be focused at any cost. One in hundred do it and they make everything happen.

• Third – Dream Big, Start small – your dream needs to be audacious but it gets built in small ounces every day. Secret lies in what you do to succeed in these smaller steps towards achieving the big dream. Nothing is small if you really pursue purposefully.

Earlier, Satya, Chairman of Board of governors (BoG), IWSB and founder chairman of Career Launcher group, in his address shared his journey and said that being humble while chasing your dreams is the key to success.

Gautam Puri, Vice-chair, BoG, concluded the formal session with his address on vote of thanks.

The whole of the evening was taken care of by the PG12 students with active support of the faculty. Kudos to the organizing team.

IWSB Excellence Awards Winner for the year – Ankita Gupta

Ankita Gupta, winner of the medals for excellence, with Sanjeev

Ankita Gupta, who has won national and international laurels that include the RMAI and Cherie Blair Foundation NEN fellowship, received the BOG excellence award as well as the IWSB entrepreneurial leader for the Class of 2011.

Ankita Gupta – A final year student and recipient of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women-National Entrepreneurship Network Fellow 2010 Award, Ankita is a perfect representation of the IWSB values. A consistent performer and leader throughout her academic life, for Ankita, the visit to an exhibition by the National Innovation Foundation last year was the start of a new journey.

Sahyog, a project initiated by IWSB alumnus Mr. Jaydeep Mandal of PG10 and his batchmates, Ankita worked along with her batchmate Shobhit of PG11, as a part of Sahyog to start and change the way woman in rural India lived. The project was about producing affordable sanitary napkins to facilitate better personal hygiene. Unlike most of us who see an idea, appreciate it and forget it, Ankita pursued it with passion. The woman of Sararsariya Village manufactured sanitary napkins at a small cost and retailed them within the community at an MRP of Rs. 2 per unit, bringing hygiene and livelihood to the village community. Now Ankita plans to join a young firm in the rural marketing space to gain precious experience to pursue her dream of rural entrepreneurship.

Tradition of creating entrepreneurs at IWSB

The very purpose of IWSB is to stoke entrepreneurial leadership and the results started to show from the first batch – class of 2010 itself.

• Prabhakar Borah and Jitumoni Mahanta from the class of 2010, started their venture in food processing – Fusions Eureka – in Guwahati even before they finished their PGPM

• Jaydeep Mandal, another class of 2010, MD-Aakaar Ventures, based out of Delhi, doing consultancy in the area of grassroots innovation to market place and has also launched a line of Herbal beauty products.

• Vipresh Sharma, class of 2010, First person to graduate from a farming family, went back to his roots in Aligarh to start Bhagwati Herbal Agro Solutions that focuses on organic farming and rural employment

• Saurav Goyal, during PGPM study, started exploring the education space. Finally on passing out, Saurav moved into open play schools in his home state of Chattisgarh

In the current passing out class of 2011

• Jayesh Suri, at the end of his first year, jumped into entrepreneurship along with his childhood friend, in his hometown of Ahmedebad. BLIS (Bhuved Land Information System) www.bhuved.in helps in understanding the existing land condition and future development of the area as planned by government development authority – the information which can be useful for builders, developers and constructions related business; also provides an ERP for mining industry which includes best choice of supplier information, billing, inventory management modules giving comprehensive site management capabilities.

• Krishna Boddapati Reddy has been running his educational consultancy for education abroad. He intends to spread this to cater to greater educational needs of the underprivileged children. He along with a few of his batchmates and pg12 batch have been proactively running the SEE (society for empowerment through education) program that teaches about 50 kids at IWSB.

• Sushant Yattam intends to open an Artist Microfinance Co., currently the model is functional in South Africa. He intends to import idea and the model to India. It intends to promote the artists that are unable to get a proper platform due to financial support. We are sure Sushant will find his place in the space

In the present batch (2010-2012) four students have already start their own ventures.

• Kanu Mangotra – (JMD’z Pratza) A first year student has turned a simple idea around to meet the obvious needs of the college community that she is part of. Kanu supplies burgers to canteens of colleges in Greater Noida. It started with eight pieces and one canteen, and now she is the regular supplier to two institutes with two more in the bag to be started right after her first year exams. Kanu currently employs one woman, a widow, and her association with the Society for Empowerment through Education (SEE) at IWSB has given her the idea of employing woman who work as construction workers and are looking at better work environments. With her workforce set, Kanu plans to take a few classes from her Hotel Management friends to obtain know-how on upgrading and preserving quality. Her next steps include starting a kiosk at the institute, taking care of catering services and supplying to one of the large eatery chain in the country, with her precious profits till date acting as seed fund.

• Sumeet Sharma has also made a small beginning with another student Arpit Kala (Concern – NOW) that is into retailing perishable food products to hostels and homes. Additionally he is exploring the possibility of putting up a unit making bullet proof jacket.

• Syed Inam ul Arsh is from Jammu & Kashmir who is actively working on creating an educational consultancy in Srinagar. After completion of the course he intends to take his educational avenue guidance consultancy for the young generation of Jammu & Kashmir to the next level. His motivations, locating of gap and an opportunity to help fellow citizens.

There are a few more who are rearing to take off in their second year of the programme with business plans in place. Long live the entrepreneurial spirit of the institution and the country.

sreeni@iwsb.in

IWSB featured in “The theory and practice of rearing businessmen”, Economic Times, INDIA EMERGING, FEB 11,2011, Page 15

Colleges are discovering a great opportunity in educating entrepreneurs and incubating companies. Radhika P Nair and Peerzada Abrar find out more.

Economic Times, Feb 11, 2011, Page 15: Straight from the gut - Satya; IWSB in Theory and Practice of rearing Businessmen

WHEN it comes to educating future entrepreneurs, “catch them young” seems to be the reigning philosophy. While many of the top management and technology institutes in the country, like the IIMs and IITs, have set up incubation centres and introduced electives that cover aspects of entrepreneurship, tier-II and tier-III colleges are the ones who have turned to entrepreneurship education in a big way.

In fact, there is a move to inculcate entrepreneurship even in school children. The National Entrepreneurship Network (NeN), a non-profit organisation that helps develop entrepreneurship education system at academic institutions all over the country, conducts an annual Entrepreneurship Week, or Eweek, across colleges in the country. This year, they brought it to schools as well and got school students to try the “50 exercise”.

Originated at Stanford, this game involves teams of students coming up with an idea, forming a company on paper and investing a maximum of 50 (not real currency) in the company. At the end of the half-day exercise, they see what they have earned and learned.

Ahmedabad’s Satyameva Jayate International School (SJIS) teaches entrepreneurship to even six year-olds. Hina Shah, the founder and director of SJIS, said they use specially designed modules to teach the children.

However, can entrepreneurship actually be taught in a classroom? And, have these entrepreneurship courses produced entrepreneurs?

FOCUS ON PRACTICAL TRAINING
Bangalore-based MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT) is one of the many institutes that have started focusing on entrepreneurship as a viable option for its students. “We give importance to practical aspects of enterprise as courses tend to focus only on theory,” said K Rajanikanth, principal, MSRIT.

The institute has an entrepreneurship development cell, which provides training to interested students on a voluntary basis. The institute also has an incubation centre, which provides the entire infrastructure for the incubatee for two years. Rajanikanth said they are also planning to set up a seed fund soon.

One of the successful start-ups to come out of the MSRIT incubator is Gumbi Software, an education solutions provider, set up by Harsha Mahabala, a 2006 Computer Science student of MSRIT. Mahabala always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but he was planning to study business administration before setting up his own venture. “Without the support and mentoring I received at my college, it would have taken much longer to start up on my own,” said Mahabala. Today, Gumbi Software is a 13.5-crore company.

CREATING ENTREPRENEURS
While Mahabala always knew he would become an entrepreneur, for Jia Jain it was chance and not choice that made him start a chain of fine-dining vegetarian restaurants, called 1947, in Bangalore. After passing out of Jain University’s MATS Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship in 2005, Jain set up his first outlet in 2006. He said there was a constant focus on entrepreneurship at the Institute. This led him to think of entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to a corporate job.

He now has five restaurants and is eyeing a turnover of 8 crore this financial year. The Institute’s Centre for Entrepreneurship provides office space and infrastructure, mentoring and also administers a seed fund. The Centre has incubated 23 companies so far.

ENTREPRENEURS PARK
The entrepreneurial culture in non-metro locations is also pushing various institutes to build the eco-system. Coimbatore-based PSG College of Technology has set up an entrepreneurial park in association with the Department of Science & Technology and financial institutions to promote technology-based enterprise.

It has successfully graduated around 89 companies in the last 11 years out of which 60 are still in business. “The institute was a launch pad for me to not only develop the technology but take it to the market as well,” said G Rammohan, who did his masters in material science and business administration from PSG.

Rammohan, who incubated his firm Vestige Technologies at PSG in 2007, provides biometric and electronic tagging technology solutions for tracking assets, jewellery and manpower. The 20-employee firm, which has bagged many contracts from government agencies and the private sector, has reached a revenue of over 1 crore.

ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET
This focus on creating entrepreneurs is far from new. The Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) was set up in Ahmedabad in 1983, with sponsorship from financial Institutions such as IDBI Bank, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and IFCI. The sole aim was to create new entrepreneurs and providing additional training for businessmen who are already running businesses.

“Entrepreneurship can be successfully taught like any other discipline,” said Dinesh Awasthi, director of EDI. He said EDI’s curriculum focuses on imparting knowledge, skill development and building on inherent aptitude. Awasthi said a little over 69% of EDI’s students are successfully managing their own businesses.

According to Awasthi, EDI has created “an ethical entrepreneurial mindset, coupled with entrepreneurial competencies”. For providing further support to students, IDBI, in collaboration with SIDBI, is offering collateral-free loans up to 1 crore, especially for EDI students.

MAKING, NOT RUNNING VENTURES
Career Launcher, an education service provider, has set up the Indus World School of Business (IWSB) in Noida in 2008 to bridge the gap in enterpreneurship education. While the Institute offers campus placements, the focus is on entrepreneurship and the institute has about a dozen start-ups incubating at its labs.

Ankita Gupta is one of the many IWSB students who are already running ventures. She is part of a project selling affordable sanitary napkins to women in more than 20 villages in Uttarakhand. Gupta has collaborated with a local innovator, who has developed a machine that can produce 2,000 sanitary napkins in a day.

Vipresh Sharma graduated from IWSB in 2010 and started an organic product venture, Bhagwati Herbal Agro Solutions. The venture earns around 25 lakh per annum in revenue. “Other B-schools mainly talk about how to run an organisation, but here I learnt how an organisation can be developed,” said Sharma, who is the first member in his family of farmers who has studied beyond class seventh.

ROLE OF THEORY
While experts, lecturers and students agree that practical training is important, most say that classroom-based theory also has its place in entrepreneurship education. Rohit Prasad, who heads the Centre For Entrepreneurship at Management Development Institute (MDI), is of the opinion that some basic aspects can be taught in the classroom.

“Subjects such as accounting, managing human resources and legal points to consider while setting up a company can be taught in the classroom,” said Prasad. “Classroom courses give the basic knowledge on how to create an enterprise. Practical training adds to the theory,” said Mahabala.

NOT ONLY ABOUT ENTREPRENEURS
Almost all experts concede that such education might not create entrepreneurs immediately. “It takes time for an Institute to start creating entrepreneurs,” said MDI’s Prasad. “It is wrong to expect that start-ups will quickly be created by colleges that have a focus on entrepreneurship in their curricular and extra-curricular programmes,” said Laura Parkin, CEO of NeN.

“The skills imparted in an entrepreneurship programme is useful in a regular corporate job as well,” said Rishikesha T Krishnan, professor of corporate strategy and policy at IIM Bangalore. He added that the institute, which currently has an elective in entrepreneurship, is planning to make entrepreneurial thinking a compulsory module in its flagship MBA programme.

“Entrepreneurship education still has a long way to go. We have not yet started creating a large number of good entrepreneurs,” said C Amarnath, professor-incharge of IIT Bombay’s Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE). However, “those who want to become entrepreneurs will get there with or without specialised education,” he said.

With focused classroom programmes, interesting practical experience and the right support system, entrepreneurship education can give students a clearer picture of how to become successful entrepreneurs.

Build a business plan for yourself, not for an investor – Satya in Economic Times – INDIA EMERGING [Feb 11,2011 Page 15]

Economic Times, Feb 11, 2011, Page 15: Straight from the gut - Satya; IWSB in Theory and Practice of rearing Businessmen

The Economic Times Column – STRAIGHT FROM THE GUT – Feb 11, 2011
HE first dropped the class 12th exams to pursue a career in cricket and then cricket to pursue education. Satya Narayanan R, son of a class-three postal services employee, thus started Career Launcher, which today is a 150-crore education service provider. In conversation with Peerzada Abrar of The Economic Times, Satya explains how his entrepreneurial dreams became a reality despite lack of resources.

VISION
My early childhood, in Hyderabad, was a very difficult period, full of struggle. We were four children in the family. My father’s salary was below 1,000. The money used to get over before the end of the month. I would attribute the foundation of my entrepreneurial skills to that period, whether it is the value for money or emphasis on education.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS A CRICKET MATCH
I once dreamed of playing cricket for India. At the age of 14, I was among the 30 people that former Indian cricketer Bishan Singh Bedi selected out of the 1500 players who had come to hone their cricketing skills under him. At one point, the reason for my existence was cricket. I would eat, sleep and breathe cricket. I played for Delhi state and my college and won many trophies. Sports teaches a lot of skills that are important for an entrepreneur, such as focus, mental fitness, teamwork and an attitude that says that the match is not over until the last ball.

MONEY NOT THE MOTIVATION
The idea to start something on my own was in my head since the day pharmaceutical major Ranbaxy picked me up straight from IIM-B campus. It was a very entrepreneurial company at that time. I became a brand manager from a management trainee, but I wanted to move on — on my own. I conceptualised the idea of training programmes in group discussion and interviews for CAT aspirants. Career Launcher was started in 1995 from my home in Delhi, with a few chairs in the room. I had just 5,000 in the bank as a corpus. But personality development programmes became popular among students. We made 10 lakh in 1997, which became 2 crore in the year 2000. We expanded our services to top B-Schools such as the IIMs, TISS, XLRI, MDI and S P Jain.

CONVICTION
The year 2000 was a crazy period of dot-com bubble and bust. VCs were investing aggressively in internet firms. Education start-up Egurucool attracted $10 million that time. But we were not tempted and remained focused on our idea. We also attracted venture capital from Intel and made an acquisition to expand. I learnt that we should not build a business plan for an investor, but for ourselves. An investor is not your god, otherwise he himself would have become an entrepreneur. An investor is incidental to your business plan.

INNOVATION
I could see the end of honeymoon period, even though the whole ecosystem was gung-ho about the rapid growth of the education sector. I was restless and trying to decide what to do next. So we started kindergarten to 12th standard schools, a business school and ventured into vocational education. Till the year 2005 we were 100% test prep company with revenues of around 50 crore. We reinvented ourselves and today we are an 150-crore company with 40% of the revenues coming from non-test prep areas. We want to go deep into school, vocational and higher education. The aim is to be a 500-crore firm by 2015.

SATYA NARAYANAN R, CO-FOUNDER, CAREER LAUNCHER satya’s blog

posted here by sreeni, sreeni’s blog sreeni@iwsb.in

E-Bootcamp @IWSB – Eurekas, WOWs and Tête-à-têtes with Entrepreneurs and Investors

E-Bootcamp at IWSB Campus

E-Boot Camp at IWSB on Dec 4, 2010.

IWSB campus not only wore a festive look but also had many eager learners from various institutions and corporate who were there to listen, interact, participate, share their ideas and seek opinions and advise on their ideas.

It was an amazing day the budding entrepreneurial aspirants for sure, but the dozen wizened entrepreneurs and investors, who took time off to spend their precious time to be at the event, were left inspired by the eagerness of the students and entrepreneurial aspirants.

There were three panel discussions and interactions followed by a session by Sreeni – “Think Big, Start Small”, that focused on breaking the myths about ‘starting a business with sophisticated ideas and big money that we want’

The first of the panel discussion had three eminent personalities – Girish Batra (Alum IIMA), Founder, NetAmbit; Vivek Agarwal (Alum IIMC), Founder, Liquid and eGurucool; and Gagan Kumar (Alum IIMB), Accel Partners,  representing the world of ‘investors’. The session was moderated by Girish Batra.

The second panel had Shantanu Prakash (Alum IIMA), founder Educomp; Gautam Puri (Alum IIMB) co-founder CL;Sreeni (Alum IIMB) co-founder CL and Director IWSB;

The third panel had  Vivek Bihani (Alum IIMB) and Co-founder Magic Software and Founder InSync advisors and Arindam (Alum IIML) Director IWSB and co-founder CL

Here in is the capture of the first panel discussion on “Opportunities – discovering one”

The inaugural address with the first panel – Girish, Gagan and Vivek

Moderator – Girish : Q. How do you create an Idea? How do you think about being an entrepreneur? What is the motivation of becoming one?

Me too challenges are higher. Thinking need to be unique. How do you chase about going ahead.

Capital and manpower are challenges in the initial stages. Examples are few, resources are limited, less control on resources, capital, challenges you go through; can you anticipate some of them, how do you bring risk mitigation;

Gagan –

Discount whatever I say, since I am only a facilitating person. Girish and Vivek have created business

Why become an entrepreneur in the first place? Even if you have taken a call, it is a fashion today to say I want to be an entrepreneur!!

Vivek –

That is the basic question. It cannot be over emphasized. Why are we getting into this?

I was reading a quote – “Lot of start-ups do not succeed. Those who succeed are the happiest people in the world” –

You have got to select a problem to solve. And if you do, you will make huge monies. You are wondering what next. It is worth taking a shot. Not having to say later on, why have I not taken the shot? I never really wanted to do it, because never wanted to say to my children – “ I did not try”

Gagan –

I was at IIMB a couple of weeks ago at an entrepreneurial event – you need to evaluate first why you want to get into it. It is going to be a grind.  70 Lakhs additional people joining Facebook every month, what could have been the initial motivation? It is paying dividends now, after all the grind put the people behind.

You can go to corporate, enjoy life, 5-9 job. So if you are convinced of a job you should go there. Go only when you are going to enjoy..

I also look at Satya – Way back in 1993, I thought as much as many others ‘Eh kya karega, padhayega ‘(what is this fellow going to do? Teach?). We all were ridiculing in those days. Look at today, we think “arey yaar hame kyon yeh vision nahin tha!”

You need to be prepared for a number of challenges …I am sure Satya will have hundreds of stories to tell..

Girish –

When I look back, in 1999, when I took this challenge.. I felt I was looking for happiness. Lot of times our actions are determined by what we do…  Now 4000 people strong, may be 7000 people strong pretty soon..

It feels good to see giving back to the society.

So questions are – What is your aspiration? What you are looking at? I was speaking to a friend from IIMA. I realized that his aspiration is not to scale up. If you really want to do business, your path should be clear – the actions you take, the plan you want to follow.. Yes, luck does play some role too…

What is the end-goal in your mind and start working towards it. What would you be like when you are 40-45?

Moderator – Girish : What do you think makes an Idea succeed?

Gagan –

Team, market size of the idea, customers tracking, scalability, certainly differentiating factors, what works, who pays for it… so many questions to be explored

Last 2 years we have done 20 odd investments at the seed stage.

At most of the companies what they are today was not what they started with..

• A Social networking company, started off well… but today it is SAS platform for recruiters.

No idea is bad. It may not be fundable initially but if the idea can make some segment happy about using the product or service, I am sure the Idea will succeed eventually.

Vivek –

Another way of what they are sharing is..

There is a lifestyle business. One gentleman came and was speaking to me. He is aggregation of courses for people. Do you want your son to take over your business at some time? He said yes. Perhaps he is in a lifestyle business… it is a family-centric approach.

Pursing one idea aggressively. You may want to corporatize. If it works fine, else you may to shut shop. In this model you may have partners and in terms of product and people may grow huge..

No bad ideas, as Gagan mentioned. When I started eGurucool, we prepared a vision of what we wanted to do. We spoke to investment bankers. We were discouraged from raising funds, since everyone asked for documentation of idea and plan … How can we send it across, someone may copy it. It was stupid, we realized later. How will anyone fund without sharing your ideas?

There were 75 companies that were working on the same idea. We raised capital and we executed better. If you are the only one working on an idea, perhaps then the idea may not be with potential. Google guys were willing to sell the idea to yahoo and but yahoo thought it was too expensive and not worth it… now look at google, when they executed the idea!

Good Idea with bad execution does not succeed. But a bad idea with good execution can take it long.

Look at what your interests are.

Two of my friends set up an HR firm. Why will anyone fund you?  Software platform that will reduce the work; I had asked how will you do it without a techie.

Steve jobs said “Steve wozniac; I got a techie to be my co-founder”

So first know what you really like and what you do not have and get people with that expertise…

Girish

Execution is the key to success. It is a lot about being practical, pragmatic and you should have your eyes and ears close to the ground. You need to have the ability to learn fast and quick. Name of the game is execution.

If you have an idea where there are already a few players, kindly find gaps – product side, services side….

Always go to people who have experience in your domain to get their opinions. Bouncing off with people. Do not be hesitant to share idea. The real success is in execution and not in just idea. Idea has to be good, but execution can make a killing out of even a mundane idea, else we kill a brilliant idea.

E-Bootcamp at IWSB Campus – The audience and the arena

Vivek

Try out a few ideas in the campus itself. Pool 1000 rupees and create small businesses of selling ICECREAMS, TSHIRTS etc. a lot of learning happens through…

Girish

Challenges are plenty. Journey is going to be bumpy. You will not have the support systems you want. You will have to be aware and try how to mitigate the challenges early.

Challenges will be on multiple fold – Supply as well as Demand side ..

• sourcing raw material
• people : how do you attract talent; you wear all the caps initially, but how do you attract the people…
• market side
• demand side
• regulatory compliance

You will have bad and good times. How do you take care of personal and emotional challenges.

Moderator – Girish : How will you take care of challenges?

Vivek –

I will share from my experiences –

You have to be convinced and passionate about your idea… you have to be stubborn headed about it. Think that the whole world is wrong…What is the ideal way of building business?

If I were to do a business today, let us take online community business.. If I were a good techie, I will get a good marketing guy or otherwise. I will spend some good money and put the website. I will outsource or get people on contract. Get good feedback from early users and then reach out to the angel investors..

Have a couple of co-founders, with supplementary and complementary skills. Then  keep the costs low

Make sure your expenses are behind the cash flows. Kindly keep raising capital, so that you can move faster

Getting into execution – You will have to be the chief techie, chief peon…. That is the part of the early growth process. It is not going to be easy.

There are a set of trade-offs, it helps you to understand which way you are going..

Let us say you are selling HR software…making recruitment process easier. Girish, may say I need finance also, I am tempted to get that too…It is always good to get your core competence and what you want to build… stick to it..

People – when you hire people, we get equity and … ‘

‘Hire for Attitude, and train for skills’ we need people who are flexible and dynamic. As you grow you need people with grey hair… Getting one good guy than four compromises is better. You may need to even pay him more that what you make for yourself, but just do it.

The eminent visitors sharing a laughter

Gagan –

In campus we hang on with same friends. Try to create teams that are very diverse. Get the complementary skills..

Ego: Who will be the CEO. Whom should I speak to? He should be outgoing, good sales man, he has to be the face of the company; The one who grinds should be COO. Being humble is one of the critical traits we should look for..

Q&A

We start with our own 2-4 lacs and I do not want to go to anyone else if I want to get 10-15 lacks they may give, with many stings attached. What does the panel have to say about it

Panel –

If you want to have 10 lacs, I think you will have to get it from friends. If you need 40-50 lacs then you may enthuse investors. Get 20-25 lacs from angels; get things going

Prove your idea with your own money before you can convince others…

I feel you need to get rid off “Strings Attached”.

Size of the market? How do you evaluate…

You need to get the size of the market certainly for any idea.. Even if you are coming out with a completely new product, you should understand the need and wants. Estimate what will satisfy and how much will the demand be. Do a survey that will give reasonable data to crunch..

After starting  business after investing 20-30 lakhs and feel I need more money?

I started my business with 1 Lakh. It is a complete misnomer to feel that you need very big investments.

It is important to distinct between personal capital and capital for growth

How do you get on to the good execution?

1. Two kids – Flipcart – selling books online – we said kaun kharidta hai

• Showed traffic and transactions
• Then we took the plunge
• Entry barriers – A large book store said they already had gone online and they are multiple times of Flipcart
• But in a couple of months Flipcart became a multiple of the stores
• Good search engine work

• So PROOF OF concept is important at the same time keep your eye on costs, that is the key.

• Does being introvert not help in setting up a business?

1. 1. It is not about idea, it is all about execution..
   2. No body is going to fund us only on idea..
   3. You need to talk about your idea to a host of others
   1. i.      Customers
      ii.      People to recruit

• One team that has won many b-plan competitions but has not started the enterprise yet… Conviction and willingness to slog is the key

So if you are an introvert, but have ideas and are willing to work hard, find someone who will front-end your interactions with external world. Because networking and interacting will take your “proof of concept” to the outside world.

(the interaction is not complete, as I had to rush out of the hall).. Will write the other panel interaction in a separate blog

Kindly leave your comments or write to sreeni@iwsb.in

IWSB – Seeking Leadership in a changing World – Satya Narayanan R (Chairman, Board of Governors – IWSB)

IWSB – Seeking Leadership in a changing world

The world is changing. Leadership in a changing world comes to those who are anchored in the tomorrow. Not the yesterday. On the business side, I am sure you are anchored in the future. Similarly, on the education side, IWSB is deeply and singularly anchored in the future –  the world of entrepreneurship which is where the world is moving, according to me.

To us at IWSB, entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial leadership is a fundamental behavioural model, not an activity!

A Testimony :

As I sit down to write this note, I receive a heartwarming news from Arindam Lahiri, Dean – IWSB that our PG-11 students, Ankita and Shobhit, who were at IIM Bangalore in the finals of the RMAI competition on the summer projects that were rural India centric, have actually been crowned the winners. So, the winners podium read as  – IWSB (First Prize), IIM-Lucknow (Second) and IIM-Indore (Third). Needless to say, the project was on rural transformation in India through entrepreneurship and innovation.

This is just an early testimony to the value IWSB would bring to the world of management education this decade. My conviction comes from an undeniable truth of the world – The Change!

How has the world changed ?Over the past two decades, the world has shifted from being an administered society to an entrepreneurial world!  The change is far more remarkable in the developing world than we care to take note of!

66% (13 out of 20) of the top-20 Fortune500 companies have changed over the past decade and a half. The MarketCap leaders or stars in India today  were unknown small and medium enterprises even a decade ago.

80% of the enterprise wealth represented by the BSE  is contributed by just about 200 stocks and half of these did not even exist on the stock market or were miniscule just a decade ago. Nine of the 25 wealthiest people / families of the world are Indians this year compared to none in 1996.

There is only one common theme to all these shifts in the world – Entrepreneurial Leadership.

What about the future ?

There is an observation that the richest man of 2030 is not born yet and the idea with which s/he will make that fortune is not known yet.  Even today, over 90 per cent of the business entities in India would be classified as ‘Small and Medium Entreprises’.  A visible percentage of these SME of today will emerge as the star companies or organizations of tomorrow.

Focus on the Emerging and gast growing Companies :

I believe that the top notch B-school of 2020 will get there by focusing and contributing to the world of entrepreneurship. These contributions would come in various forms – knowledge creation through active research,  entrepreneurial education, real world incubation, growth support to the CEOs, in-take of students linked to this goal,  reaching out to the ‘Bharat’ and so on.

IWSB already has a head-start in this space. Right from inception, IWSB has focused on this sweet spot singularly and the dividends are beginning to come our way!  The red carpet at IWSB rolls out to the CEOs of young and dynamic companies such as Nettpositive, Pinstorm, Netambit, Infoedge, SKS microfinance, Educomp, Career Launcher, Gaja Capital, Core Tree, and so on.

Half of these entities are still unknown to the readers of ‘The Economic Times’ or a CNBC TV-18 viewer.  However, IWSB students are already working in these stars of tomorrow.

At the same time, large entities who continue to focus on growth love recruiting entrepreneurial youngsters at any stage of their growth. Perhaps, Google’s success can be half-explained by their DNA that is closest to entrepreneurship even at this stage and size!

Any CEO or head of HR who is intent upon bringing in the talent that comes with the self-starting entrepreneurial attitude, values that works for the morrow and the work-ethic that is contagiously positive cannot afford to miss out on the youngsters from IWSB.

Of course, our students are our best ambassadors!  Now, We have a few CEOs too!

Sincerely

Satya Narayanan R