Prof. Atul Nerkar, who teaches us this course, has this amazing style of conducting his classes. In every class we discuss a case which involves a new entrepreneur. We are supposed to provide our thoughts about the case in advance, and the comments are then discussed in the class. Finally, we watch videos of the entrepreneurs talking about what they went through when the situation in the case was actually unfolding.

We were through 6 classes already, and had come across some very interesting individuals who started equally interesting ventures. The 7th case however, seemed a little vague. Partly because the case was very small in length, and partly because it had almost no data in it. I wondered what the learrnings from this case would be.

Fast forward to the classroom! The initial slides showed that I was among the minority who said that the venture would not be successful. We were given 2 more handouts in the class (a first) to take us further into the developments of the case. Then Prof. Nerkar solemnly informed us that unlike the usual routine we would not have any video for this case. In its stead (drums rolling, and change in tone) Jay Dehejia, one of the entrepreneurs from the case itself, was waiting outside to come in and address our queries. I have “Jay himself? Awesome!!!” engraved in my notebook. That’s how amazing the feeling was!

It was a pleasant surprise. We were not told that this was how this case would be discussed. Having a stalwart such as Mr. Dehejia in the classroom is not something one gets to see often. Jay gave us his perspective as he had ‘lived’ through the case. We talked about challenges in starting such ventures, basics of PE and Pledge funds, why PE or Pledge, and most importantly about when to start as an entrepreneur. The elaboration of the discussion would be a mini case in itself. This was one of those sessions which add so much to you within such short time.

The Entrepreneurship course has made me reconsider what I want to do with my life. This is what a great course does to you. If Prof. Nerkar poses the same question again, my answer will be a resounding “Yes! I will.” Thanks Professor!!

Premjeet Gaikwad, Class of 2010

We had the First International conference on Entrepreneurship right here on campus. It was organized by ISB’s Wadhwani Center for Entrepreneurship Development in partnership with the Rand corporation and the Legatum institute, and it dealt with a broad theme titled – ‘Catalysts of Entrepreneurship – Policies for Growth’.

The focus of the conference was education and infrastructure and we had a whole host of dignitaries who graced the occasion and presented their perspective on how public policy can and should be moulded to make way for more successful entrepreneurship. An official release of whatever was discussed would soon be out, and I can perhaps give more specific corroborated details then, but as of now, I just wanted to pen down a few things that for me, were major takeaways.

One, the conference brought together people from different walks of life – policy makers, academicians and entrepreneurs, and this confluence of thought gave rise to a lot of healthy discussion and debate not just amongst the panelists, but between students / audience and the panelists as well.

Entrepreneurship in education and infrastructure in India are by and far two of the hottest topics on peoples’ minds, given the recession and the need to think out of the box. And no entrepreneurial venture can succeed without the proper backing from policy makers. And having representatives of every set of entities gave students like us, who have so far had a rather contrived view of the world so far, a much broader perspective.

The delegates from Rand and Legatum provided a completely independent view of the situation at hand, delving into their painstaking research and pointing out how policy can actually influence entrepreneurship.

They backed it up with research findings and their view on how improving the policy framework can have a direct positive effect on improving entrepreneurial effort in the field.

Secondly, in the arena of education, some of the points highlighted were extremely logical and moved in a sort of natural progression, towards the topic of the need / want of governance in education. Chaired by Mr Manish Sabharwal of Team Lease, this session was extremely informative and very vibrantly active. A few of the points that the panel put across were extremely incisive. For instance, while describing the entrepreneurial opportunities available in the arena of education, there was talk of the number of opportunities available in primary and pre-primary education.

The panelists mentioned that affordability is by and far the least considered aspect when a parent chooses a school for their child.

Also, effective and regular appraisals of the teaching system are of importance and one can look at these accreditation exercises as a good opportunity to do something new. Somewhat akin to organizational certifications like ISO and BS7799.

Now, another very interesting point that was raised, was about the mushrooming engineering colleges and business schools in some states of India. People pointed out concerns about how these mushrooming colleges were posing a threat to the quality of Indian education. I, for one, believed that these colleges would ultimately bring down the overall quality of Indian education, since the individual quality of teaching at each of these colleges was certainly not very good, and the quality of students they churned out on an average, was not particularly wonderful. But a very unique point of view that came out, was that market forces would certainly force the poor players to down their shutters and walk out of the game, since the bad colleges would only manage close to 5 to 10 students!

Another point that was picked up and this is one that is rather vociferously debated all the time, is one that says that expansion of educational institutions dilutes quality. Well, to a very great extent, that is indeed true, but at times, these expansions are by and far the only way to reach out to more number of people. So, in order to increase the reach of education to consumers at the base of the pyramid, expansion is absolutely essential. But when it comes to the pinnacle institutions, an expansion must be looked upon with utmost caution and must be executed with finesse.

Coming over to infrastructure, the key point was of public-private partnerships and how entrepreneurs can benefit through primarily liaising with the government. It made a lot of sense, since through PPP’s, the initial capital investment, need not be exorbitantly high for a small player, and hence the entrepreneurial reach of such ventures can be rather high. Another key point that was raised was one of the need to develop not just the urban and uber urban areas but to concentrate on a more holistic development plan, whereby every urban area has its satellite town developed as well.

And finally, on the road ahead, there was talk of how industries must collaborate to bring in more entrepreneurs, since more entrepreneurship would spell more growth for the industry as a whole. Another key point raised was that academia and the industry must collaborate on more policy – oriented research that can effectively be driven to action. Plus there was talk on how the present taxation system can be tweaked to invite more entrepreneurs into the fold.

All in all, it was extremely invigorating, getting together with so many bright minds. What I have presented here is still just a small gist of the whole story, as much as I could remember off the top of my head. But the truly interesting part of the whole event was the impact of so many different perspectives, albeit all collated at the same venue, and covering the same topic.

- Sindhu Subramaniam (class of 2010)

One such label is Entrepreneurship, one of the most mystical of words across campuses worldwide. Year on year, people enter the gates to start something, with a sense of courage and purpose one can partly claim to originate from the valley and partly to the Hugo inspired minister. In engineering schools, the desire was to come up with the next big product, the most complex circuit which would resemble a Noah’s Ark of chips and batteries, and would also prove a point. Years later, in B-Schools, the desire metamorphosed (not exactly the word, but yes, you get the point) to conceive something more strategic, and of course, that’s the basic idea.

But the charm of entrepreneurship lies also in the value added during the process. It enables real income generation even multiple rungs down the activity chain. And that is the most commendable part of the enterprise, in creating, raising and maintaining an economic independence of people who are even indirectly associated with the process. And primary to this is the vision of the entrepreneur, his courage, conviction and undying commitment in the face of all odds. I plan to profile a few of our students and alumni on their journey through ideation, risks and self discovery on what they perceive their future to be.

 A new venture, which is owned by the husband wife duo of Abhishek-Chandrani (ISB, Class of 2009) and not yet a full fledged venture, is a healthy foods outlet hosted from the campus cafeteria. I have watched the execution quite closely as A-C went about planning their work till they finally decided to work their plan. The plan which started on paper during the Planning an Entrepreneurship Venture (PaEV) curriculum culminated to a big bang launch during the annual Alumni meet, Solstice 2008. PaEV is an innovative exercise @ the ISB where students can actually go the whole nine yards from ideating to creating a business venture, as a part of a credit curriculum. The plan needs to be defended on all strategic and operational aspects in front of bankers, VCs and other successful entrepreneurs.

A-C have identified the healthy foods connection, clinically separated it from “health foods”, connected with the officials at School for logistics and permissions, convinced the cafeteria authorities for space to host the outlet, managed the equipment, decided on the menu, employed a paid staff, managed suppliers and the inventory, priced products, designed the promotions, and just recently executed a masterstroke in consumer behavior by introducing an offering called Mind Booster in the placement season. All of it while they toiled the backbreaking ISB schedule. This exercise was primarily meant to assess market reactions and also to pilot execution capability. A-C have been B-School fundamentalists in motion since the owners applied in the afternoon concepts they learnt in the morning and with real investments at stake. For the owners, to identify the connection from concepts to customers will be a vital aspect of the study.

On the other end of the spectrum lies Adib Ibrahim’s Invention Labs (IL) incorporated from Chennai. A unique company which primarily does product development, its succinctly stated desire is to be “India’s inventors”. A lofty desire indeed and that makes it so much more fascinating. But unlike many new ventures that we come across from B-School alumni, IL perhaps addresses an area oft neglected in the Indian context, product design and development. It’s an area where engineering, management, creativity and consumers coalesce and who have experienced it will tell you, it is an unambiguously a tough proposition. To run your own enterprise out of that is tougher still.

And the uniqueness is there as well. In India most startups concentrate on a service which is quite different from product development. The initial stages are common across enterprises where the market research is to be established. However for product development there are myriads of other factors to be considered. Engineering factors coupled with user centric design at the high level, filtering them to low level requirement specs for the developer, modularity aspects, and complex decisions in make or buy of allied technology, all come together. The hardware design, the software algorithms, for embedded systems the accompanying board support, finally the hardware software integration followed by months of acceptance testing. Added to that, constant interaction with vendors for sourcing of components, outsourcing certain mechanical or electro-mechanical tasks to other SMEs and in between all these, preparing several reams of documentation as the product goes for an industry specific standards compliance and certification. This is the minimum that has to be done. Each of these waterfall steps are visited multiple times in an iterative fashion as the product goes for multiple reviews and defect proofing. Discrete teams and oft-changing requirements create an integration nightmare where the architecture has to be constantly smoothed and occasionally revamped.

Those who have been involved in product development would tell you, its backbreaking work and can be deeply frustrating at times. A simple one line defect can put off the schedule for weeks. The entire process takes months of intense labor with actually burning the midnight oil. Market pressure for the product release adds its bit to the process. But on the judgment day, when after months (sometimes years, depending on the industry) the machine works, it’s a feeling unparalleled in sensibility, to a level that it raises a sense of nostalgia.

Here’s wishing A-C and Invention Labs (http://inventionlabs.in/about.html) a successful road ahead.