Are management graduates meant to be corporate servants or corporate masters? This very question challenges the Indian middle class mentality. We are programmed to study hard, earn management degrees, land lucrative jobs in MNCs, earn handsome salaries and live happily ever after. This would seem like a fairy tale to the working class populace of the yesteryears. What often goes unnoticed and unsaid is how happy and contented are these people with their fascinating jobs. Agreed that a salaried job has its own perks like big paychecks, foreign postings, job security, and lesser responsibilities, however, it also has its downsides of getting caught in a rut, boredom, lack of autonomy and freedom, constraints on creativity et al.
On the very first day of my MBA, when one of the professors asked how many of us would want to be entrepreneurs, more than 50 hands shot up which constitutes nearly 60% of the class. But the irony of it all is: the entire class has signed up for placements, including yours truly. This clearly shows the divide between having a dream and following it through. What is stopping us from following our dreams and becoming entrepreneurs? Is it the opportunity cost? Or is it our upbringing that has seasoned us to always play safe? Or might there be a more ominous reason - Lack of proper grooming and encouragement?
People tend to look at start-ups as an unsafe career option. True, during the inception of any enterprise, money might not come by very easily. Cynics may argue that given the time value of money and opportunity cost, a salaried job has higher returns than an entrepreneurial venture. But what they fail to consider is the bigger picture beyond all these mathematical calculations. I came across this quote by the Economist, John Maynard Keynes which I liked very much– “A large portion of our positive activities depend on spontaneous optimism rather than on mathematical expectation. If animal spirits are dimmed and the spontaneous optimism falters, leaving us to depend on nothing but mathematical expectation, enterprise will fade and die.” As an entrepreneur, one can create wealth for the society, create jobs, and solve problems of poverty, unemployment and underemployment rampant in many of the developing countries today. If there is apt vision, mission and innovation, money would follow on its own.
India being a developing country has a pressing need for entrepreneurs. With the booming economy and the emergence of new sectors, the landscape for starting new enterprises has never been better. We cry ourselves hoarse praising the likes of Dhirubhai Ambani, Narayana Murthy for putting India on the global map. If Ambani was contented with his salaried job in Yemen, we would not have had Reliance today. If Narayana Murthy had continued with his job in Patni Computer Systems, Infosys would not have become a household name today. If we have at least a few hundreds of visionary entrepreneurs like these today, India will soon surpass all the world economies. Why settle for being servants when we can be masters? Heck, we have got the talent for it!
Now coming to the grave question of what steps need to be taken to promote entrepreneurship among B-school students, many are of the opinion that entrepreneurs are born, not made. But I personally feel that this is not true. Each one of us has it within ourselves to be an entrepreneur. With grooming and nurturing in the right environment, we can all hope to become successful entrepreneurs in our chosen fields.
First and foremost, Indian business schools should take a hard look at the way they function. In most of the Indian B-schools, more emphasis is laid on the placements rather than on entrepreneurship. A B-school is as good as its placements. The problem is not only with the schools but with the whole education system. Most of the Indian business school rankings are based on the placements that a school offers. Show me one ranking system that ranks a school based on the entrepreneurship programmes that it offers. Without proper incentives, the schools are forced to focus more on placements than on other development programmes. Talking about curriculum, most of the schools structure their course studies depending on the industry requirements. Where are the good ol’ days when the curriculum was structured to provide overall development to the students? These days the sole aim of schools is to prepare the students for their job interviews. Even individuals with an entrepreneurial bent of mind are forced to take the beaten path in a bid not to be left behind.
Thankfully the scenario is slowly but surely changing in most of the B-schools. For instance, in my alma mater, Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur, a new initiative called “Deferred Placement Programme” was recently introduced wherein which the students who wish to take up entrepreneurial ventures can opt out of placements, but they would be allowed to appear for the placement procedure for two years after the completion of their degrees. This would encourage more students to experiment with new ventures of their own with more confidence since they will have something to fall back on if the ventures fail to take off. Many other premier institutes are following suit and encouraging more students to take the entrepreneurial plunge. Students from different institutes can form entrepreneurial committees in their respective schools through which they can convince their institute authorities to introduce this programme which aims at motivating students going the entrepreneurial way.
Furthermore, these entrepreneurial committees should aim at motivating potential entrepreneurs by means of organizing guest lectures by eminent entrepreneurs from different sectors to learn both from their success stories and failures. The student community should take the initiative to organize more and more entrepreneurship fairs, games, workshops, business plan competitions and summits at B-school events. Since in most of the business schools, including my own, the students have a say in what courses they would want to study as a part of their curriculum, the student community in each school should insist on the introduction of entrepreneurial courses in the curriculum as this will go a long way in infusing practical as well as theoretical skills in the students. The aim of these courses should be to promote creativity, innovation, risk-taking, autonomy, self-confidence, leadership and team spirit. We can also form forums for students where different ideas of students can be pondered on critically, brainstormed by some of the best brains and previewed from all angles. This can result in some solid business plans taking shape which can be further pursued by the students as a joint venture.
It takes money to make money! One of the main challenges encountered by students wishing to become entrepreneurs is capital, which might not be easily available. Most of the institutes have entrepreneurial cells or incubators which encourage students to submit business plans of their proposed ventures and if the business plan is feasible, innovative and implementable, capital aid is provided for the start-up. The placement committees of the B-schools, along with inviting companies to the campuses, can also invite venture capitalists on campus to provide financial assistance to budding entrepreneurs. Students can form advisory councils to provide assistance to one another on their business plans. It would also be a good idea for different B-schools to come together and form a joint entrepreneurship cell where students from all participating colleges can share ideas and a common platform.
Like the Lead India advertisement which goes, “Tum chalo toh Hindustan chale”, instead of sitting around waiting for the institutes to do something, it is time we started taking things in our hands to make them happen. If the entire student community takes it upon itself to promote entrepreneurship, it will not be long before India starts manufacturing Dhirubhai Ambanis, Narayana Murthys, Azim Premjis by the dozen. It is about time we stopped following the herd and started following our dreams!
On the very first day of my MBA, when one of the professors asked how many of us would want to be entrepreneurs, more than 50 hands shot up which constitutes nearly 60% of the class. But the irony of it all is: the entire class has signed up for placements, including yours truly. This clearly shows the divide between having a dream and following it through. What is stopping us from following our dreams and becoming entrepreneurs? Is it the opportunity cost? Or is it our upbringing that has seasoned us to always play safe? Or might there be a more ominous reason - Lack of proper grooming and encouragement?
People tend to look at start-ups as an unsafe career option. True, during the inception of any enterprise, money might not come by very easily. Cynics may argue that given the time value of money and opportunity cost, a salaried job has higher returns than an entrepreneurial venture. But what they fail to consider is the bigger picture beyond all these mathematical calculations. I came across this quote by the Economist, John Maynard Keynes which I liked very much– “A large portion of our positive activities depend on spontaneous optimism rather than on mathematical expectation. If animal spirits are dimmed and the spontaneous optimism falters, leaving us to depend on nothing but mathematical expectation, enterprise will fade and die.” As an entrepreneur, one can create wealth for the society, create jobs, and solve problems of poverty, unemployment and underemployment rampant in many of the developing countries today. If there is apt vision, mission and innovation, money would follow on its own.
India being a developing country has a pressing need for entrepreneurs. With the booming economy and the emergence of new sectors, the landscape for starting new enterprises has never been better. We cry ourselves hoarse praising the likes of Dhirubhai Ambani, Narayana Murthy for putting India on the global map. If Ambani was contented with his salaried job in Yemen, we would not have had Reliance today. If Narayana Murthy had continued with his job in Patni Computer Systems, Infosys would not have become a household name today. If we have at least a few hundreds of visionary entrepreneurs like these today, India will soon surpass all the world economies. Why settle for being servants when we can be masters? Heck, we have got the talent for it!
Now coming to the grave question of what steps need to be taken to promote entrepreneurship among B-school students, many are of the opinion that entrepreneurs are born, not made. But I personally feel that this is not true. Each one of us has it within ourselves to be an entrepreneur. With grooming and nurturing in the right environment, we can all hope to become successful entrepreneurs in our chosen fields.
First and foremost, Indian business schools should take a hard look at the way they function. In most of the Indian B-schools, more emphasis is laid on the placements rather than on entrepreneurship. A B-school is as good as its placements. The problem is not only with the schools but with the whole education system. Most of the Indian business school rankings are based on the placements that a school offers. Show me one ranking system that ranks a school based on the entrepreneurship programmes that it offers. Without proper incentives, the schools are forced to focus more on placements than on other development programmes. Talking about curriculum, most of the schools structure their course studies depending on the industry requirements. Where are the good ol’ days when the curriculum was structured to provide overall development to the students? These days the sole aim of schools is to prepare the students for their job interviews. Even individuals with an entrepreneurial bent of mind are forced to take the beaten path in a bid not to be left behind.
Thankfully the scenario is slowly but surely changing in most of the B-schools. For instance, in my alma mater, Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur, a new initiative called “Deferred Placement Programme” was recently introduced wherein which the students who wish to take up entrepreneurial ventures can opt out of placements, but they would be allowed to appear for the placement procedure for two years after the completion of their degrees. This would encourage more students to experiment with new ventures of their own with more confidence since they will have something to fall back on if the ventures fail to take off. Many other premier institutes are following suit and encouraging more students to take the entrepreneurial plunge. Students from different institutes can form entrepreneurial committees in their respective schools through which they can convince their institute authorities to introduce this programme which aims at motivating students going the entrepreneurial way.
Furthermore, these entrepreneurial committees should aim at motivating potential entrepreneurs by means of organizing guest lectures by eminent entrepreneurs from different sectors to learn both from their success stories and failures. The student community should take the initiative to organize more and more entrepreneurship fairs, games, workshops, business plan competitions and summits at B-school events. Since in most of the business schools, including my own, the students have a say in what courses they would want to study as a part of their curriculum, the student community in each school should insist on the introduction of entrepreneurial courses in the curriculum as this will go a long way in infusing practical as well as theoretical skills in the students. The aim of these courses should be to promote creativity, innovation, risk-taking, autonomy, self-confidence, leadership and team spirit. We can also form forums for students where different ideas of students can be pondered on critically, brainstormed by some of the best brains and previewed from all angles. This can result in some solid business plans taking shape which can be further pursued by the students as a joint venture.
It takes money to make money! One of the main challenges encountered by students wishing to become entrepreneurs is capital, which might not be easily available. Most of the institutes have entrepreneurial cells or incubators which encourage students to submit business plans of their proposed ventures and if the business plan is feasible, innovative and implementable, capital aid is provided for the start-up. The placement committees of the B-schools, along with inviting companies to the campuses, can also invite venture capitalists on campus to provide financial assistance to budding entrepreneurs. Students can form advisory councils to provide assistance to one another on their business plans. It would also be a good idea for different B-schools to come together and form a joint entrepreneurship cell where students from all participating colleges can share ideas and a common platform.
Like the Lead India advertisement which goes, “Tum chalo toh Hindustan chale”, instead of sitting around waiting for the institutes to do something, it is time we started taking things in our hands to make them happen. If the entire student community takes it upon itself to promote entrepreneurship, it will not be long before India starts manufacturing Dhirubhai Ambanis, Narayana Murthys, Azim Premjis by the dozen. It is about time we stopped following the herd and started following our dreams!
1 comment:
hey deepti,
was wondering if u cud help us in conductin a entrepreneurship workshop in our school. we jus want some ideas as to how to conduct one
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