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Moulding Entrepreneurs
A one-day, state level workshop was organised by
Departments of Bachelor of Business
Administration (BBA) and Bachelor of Travel and
Tourism Management (BTTM), St. Xaviers College
on the theme Moulding Entrepreneurs on the 11th of February 2011.
Anyone can be an entrepreneur
are words that
distinctly claim our attention inviting our youth
today with the call to innovate, and the call to
succeed. About fifty participants both students
and faculty of various colleges heeded that call
to entrepreneurship, with the guidance of the
facilitators Dr. Jerome Joseph, Professor Indian
Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Mr. D.S.
Prashant, Agnel Institute of Entrepreneurship Development.
The day began with M.s Vanessa Furtado, faculty,
BBA facilitating the inauguration. Fr. Walter
welcomed the Chief Guest Mr. Shekhar Sardessai,
CMD, Kineco Group, Guest of honour, Mr Anthony
Pacheco, the facilitators and participants.
After which Chief Guest Mr Sardessai, proceeded
to share his experience of his journey as an
entrepreneur. He emphasised that even as
entrepreneur, team unity was a key factor is
getting through successfully. He inspired the
participants with his advice that if one focuses
with purpose, anyone can be an entrepreneur. He
did away with the misconception that
entrepreneurs are born and not made; we all have the talent.
He ended his speech with a beautiful presentation
he had received as e-mail; it highlighted the
differences between rich and poor countries; with
the message that the ATTITUDE of rich countries
was what helped them out: an attitude of
innovativeness and perseverance. Mr. Sardessai thus set the tone for the day.
After the refreshing tea break, the first speaker
for the day professor Jerome Joseph, working at
IIM for 25 years now, set the wheels in the
motion. Where Mr. Sardessai stated that talent
exists within every one of us, Dr Josephs
mission was to guide us as to HOW we should nurture that talent.
He put forth several interesting points like how
socially marginalized India needs more
entrepreneurial talent than commercial India.
Success is walking from failure to failure
with no loss of enthusiasm Winston
Churchill...read the first slide of his
presentation. Dr Joseph explained that in the
battle between intelligence and hardwork,
hardwork emerged winner, as it is always all about the effort we put in.
He presented a case study on social
entrepreneurship, NKF, a kidney foundation in
Singapore. The facts of the case are thus, that
NKF, started by entrepreneurs, followed a
needs-based frame. In this case, NKF shifted
from the mechanistic model of management followed
by such foundations everywhere, to a more
holistic humanisation of patient care, services and relations.
He also quoted Nelson Mandela, you sent us a
Gandhi, we sent you a Mahatma and proceeded to
identify core entrepreneurial competencies of
Efficiency; which according to him, consisted of
analytical ability and organised working;
Effectiveness, which consists of thirst of
knowledge and resilience; Enabling, which
includes synthesizing and Entrepreneurial, which
includes strategic capability and innovativeness.
His presentation was followed by a
question and answer session. Thus, Dr Joseph
attempted to enthuse in all present, a sense of
developing an entrepreneurial mindset and
capabilities while encouraging innovativeness and new ideas.
The workshop resumed after a delicious lunch with
Mr. D.S Prashant taking the reins and guiding
participants through very pragmatic topics such
as innovation, sources of business ideas,
creating a business plan and the various options
available to first time entrepreneurs in the area
of business planning and funding.
On the topic of innovation Mr. D.S. Prashant
emphasised that one does not necessarily need to
create a whole new product/ or service, small
improvements in the same, better quality, a new
method of production, opening of new market, a
new source of raw material or even better
organisation of any industry amounts to innovation.
He explained that a business idea could be the
result of painstaking analysis of business
opportunities available given the business
environment or a very intuitive process. He
emphasised that, what is crucial is not what you
do, but how you do it, as it is the planning and
execution of the enterprise and the competency of
the entrepreneur and his team that separates
those who succeed from those who fail.His session
was interspersed with apt examples of
entrepreneurs and start-ups that have succeeded
based on an idea that already exists, with
innovation in the business model and better
organisation. The Jumbo King Wada Pav enterprise
in Mumbai, which sells the humble wada pav,
albeit with better hygiene, variety and at a
competitive price is an excellent case in point.
Mr.D.S.Prashants sessions on Business planning
and government schemes were followed by a Q&A Session .
Thus concluded a fulfilling day of deliberation
on the theme Moulding Entrepreneurs
