CEL Newsletter(August Edition)

8/4/2019 CEL Newsletter(August Edition)

1/18

CENTRE FOR

ENTREPRENUE

E-cafe

V O L U M E I I , I S S U E I I

CenterFor

Entrepreneurial

Leadership


2/18

CENTRE FOR

ENTREPRENUE

Chief Editor:Amit Raj

EditorsBasanti NashineIshan KawleyRadhika Parik

WritersAmit RajIshan KawleyKedar PradhanMisna SameerPiyush SinghPriyanka UnnithanRadhika Parik

Designers:Amit Raj

Jay Khattar

A very special thanks

to :Amrit Pal

Newsletter Team



3/18

P A G E 3

THE QUEST TO STAND TALLAccording to the English dictionary, an entrepreneur is a person

who organizes and manages a business undertaking, assuming the

risk for the sake of the profit. However, there is much more toentrepreneurship than this simple definition. In a nutshell, entre-

preneurship is freedom. Freedom to live your values, freedom to

work with people you care about, and freedom to innovate. This

freedom can be in any field, without any age barrier, and which

sets one apart from the rest.

So in order to inspire students to try something out of the box,

to believe in their ideas and also with the vision of promoting the

spirit of entrepreneurial thinking among the BITSian community

the idea for CEL was seeded by the BITSAA Center for Entrepre-

neurship and Venture Capital (CEVC). The vision statement of

CEL reads :

To inspire BITSians to play a prominent role in leading diverse entre-

preneurial activities in the country and make a significant contribution

in global entrepreneurial innovation.

To put it simply, we believe that an early exposure to entrepre-

neurship will certainly help BITSians take India to the forefront of

the world but also help raise the quality of life in the country.

In light of our aim of promoting entrepreneurship on campus,

CEL officially launches its regular newsletter to reflect not only

on activities within the campus but also throws light on the latest

ramblings from the entrepreneurial world. Unlike the convention-al newsletter where experts


Amit Raj


4/18

P A G E 4

I have a different

vision of

leadership. A

leader is someone

who brings people

together.

share views on fields of their expertise, articles here would also

cover the students aspect on issues of interest in this field.

CEL at BITS Pilani K.K Birla Goa Campus has been involved in pro-

jects and events which give students a sneak peek into the entrepre-neurial world. In just a few years of its foundation it has attracted

names such as Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Tech-

nology, IIM Bangalore etc. We have a rich array of inspiring alumnus

such as Shantanu Garg, and Akash Raman, amongst others.

Carrying forward t he CEL legacy, this year we have planned a varie-

ty of activities such as Meet the Entrepreneur Lecture Series, Open

Houses, Workshops, CEO Conclave and other activities for the en-tire BITS community.

Finally in the words of our Ex-President, Amitabh Mishra Entrepre-

neurship can never be a destination, its always a journey. I firmly

believe that no idea is good or bad, its the courage to have faith in

our own ideas and carry them forward which is the thin line that

lies between ourselves and our dreams



5/18

P A G E 5

We're gambling

on our vision,

and we would

rather do that

than make 'me

too' products.

Let some other

companies do

that. For us, it's

always the next

dream."

A Young Steve

Jobs

THE APPLE STORY: FINDING WHAT YOU LOVE

As Steve Jobs quits as the CEO of Apple, its time to look back at

his extraordinary vision and leadership which guided Apple to its

position as the world's most innovative and valuable technologycompany. Heres an extract from his Commencement address at

the Stanford University on 12thJune,2005. Its about finding what

we love in life and eventually turning them into real success sto-

ries.

I was lucky , I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started

Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10

years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2

billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our

finest creation ,the Macintosh ,a year earlier, and I had just turned 30.

And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you start-

ed? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very tal-

ented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things

went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and even-

tually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided

with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the

focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let

the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped

the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and

Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I

was a very public failure, and I even thought about running

away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on

me ,I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had notchanged that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love.

And so I decided to start over.

Jobsgiving the

speech



6/18

P A G E 6

Im convinced

that about half

of what

separates the

successful

entrepreneurs

from the non-

successful ones is

pure

perseverance

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the

best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being

successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, lesssure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative peri-

ods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another

company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who

would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer

animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation

studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I

returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the

heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful

family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired

from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed

it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm

convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I

did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it

is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the

only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And

the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found

it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll

know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better

and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't set-

tle.



7/18

P A G E 7

Good business

leaders create a

vision, articulate

the vision,

passionately own

the vision, and

relentlessly drive

it to completion.

SCULPTURING ENTREPRENEURS: THE WAY

FORWARD

My fascination with entrepreneurship is not new. As I travel

across Mumbai (which lies at the core of Indian economic ambi-

tions) aboard a suburban train, both the fairy tale and horror ver-

sions of the great Indian growth story are derisively visible. It

pains me to see the extent of disparity that is crippling a massive

section of society from gaining their rightful place in the econom-

ic and social hierarchy. Hence this comes as no surprise that the

country with the most number of billionaires in Asia is home tonearly one third of the worlds poor.

Sometimes I feel I am living in a country that has made

its peace with living amongst contradictions. Today, India is a coun-

try where centuries coexist. If technology and consumerism

buoyed certain sections of society reap most of the countrys

economic scalps, a skew parallel still languishes in age old meth-

odologies and obsolete resources. This pluralism looms large inthe face of a nation where mammoth disparities in income con-

tinue to grow, reducing percolation of benefits of an increasingly

expanding economy.

Youth unemployment figures as major stumbling block to

growing social disequilibria leading to economic disorder

and poverty of the society .The interim social balance

sheet describes the energy and vibrancy of the youth as anasset and (if not handled intelligently) a liability to the na-

tion. India is a case of huge unemployment on one hand,

transitional struggle of the nation to tame its energy to-

wards gainful alternate employment on the other. If there

ever was a need to sculpture entrepreneurs it is now. The

PiyushSingh



8/18

P A G E 8

Do not wait to

strike until the

iron is hot; but

make it hot by

striking

youth energy towards entrepreneurship to address the massive

problems of underdevelopment.

The system of entrepreneurship that has evolved in the developedeconomies has been quite successful and has considerable applica-

bility in countries which appear to need more technological dyna-

mism. The system needs modification however, for developing econ-

omies like Indias. In particular, roles of entrepreneurs are somewhat

different in India than in an advanced economy. In advanced coun-

tries, most resources are already in or near their highest-valued use

Any increase in their productivity requires new technologies

(broadly defined). Without new technologies, economic growth

winds down and business life stagnates. Small businesses started by

individual entrepreneurs and the initiative of large established com-

panies play complementary roles in developing new technologies. In

an under-developed economy, however, increases in living standards

do not require such high levels of technological innovation. Almost

by definition, the actual productivity of its resources is below that in

developed countries as a direct result of technological inferiority.

Rapid growth can be achieved merely through the introduction into

and diffusion through the economy of such superior technologies.

India today is throwing up innumerable vistas of change. Opportuni-

ties and shortcomings are two sides of the same coin. For long has

the notion of entrepreneurship remained buried under cultural and

socio economic reservations, it is our chance to break free and con-

vert our demographic quotient into an advantage and not a night-

mare.



9/18

P A G E 9

A self-help group

(SHG) is a village-

based financial

intermediary usually

composed of

between 10-20

local women

RURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP DIVISON

RED aims at providing a self sufficient and sustainable financialmodel to the Nirmaan-Goa chapter, an organisation working pri-marily on philanthropic lines by establishment of Self-help groupsin the slums of Goa. Meet Sugra Khan who recently conducted acandle making workshop for the women in Zari. An interview inwhich she shares her experience about the market dynamics ofthe products made in SHGs.

Q. Since how many years have you been involved in con-ducting these workshops?A. Its been almost 6-7 years since I started conducting work-

shops for the women. I work under the umbrella of Governmentas well as Agnel organization Goa. Whenever theres a workshopto be conducted, they contact me.

Q. What kind of products do you teach the women to

make?A. Im currently teaching the women of Zari how to make can-dles .Apart from this I even teach tailoring, and flower knitting.Considering that the women for whom I conduct workshops are

all housewives, these sorts of products can be easily made sittingin home and provide an ample opportunity for the women to ex-plore their creativity.

Q. What kind of marketing strategy is followed for thesale of these products?

A. We sell our products on a shop to shop basis. We visitdifferent shops which sell gift articles and sell them ourproducts. More than often if the shopkeeper (buyer) gets agood quality product the first time, he places us the subse-

quent orders. Most importantly we sell our products at arelatively lower cost however at the same time ensuring asignificant profit margin for the women working in theSHG. For instance, if a shopkeeper orders a fancy candlefrom a place like Mumbai, he has to pay R.s 250/- whereasour women sell it at R.s 150/- only.

Ishan

Kawley



10/18

P A G E 1 0

In India about

1.6 million SHGs

have been bank-

linked with

cumulative loans

of Rs. 69

billion

Q. Do you think this is a sustainable business and can go on

to prove to be a major source of income for the women

working in SHGs?

A. Yes indeed its a sustainable business. Today one of my students, alady, who was a part of my workshop earlier, earns R.s 10,000/- per

month by selling candles. However to ensure a continuity in the de-

mand for your products you need to be creative. You need to come

up with different designs, with different colors, shapes and sizes and

try to make your product look more attractive. Thus apart from the

financial benefit, this is what keeps the women engaged as they get a

chance to be creative and try out different things.

Q. How has been your experience working with the women

in Zari?

A. Oh, its been a wonderful experience! The women have been very

enthusiastic and have shown a keen interest in learning this art. I

hope this goes a long way in making them self-dependent and finan-

cially sustainable.



11/18

P A G E 1 1

An idea not

coupled with

action will never

get any bigger

than the brain

cell it occupied

GOT AN IDEA ? WHAT NEXT ?

Entrepreneurship can never be a conscious, well defined careerchoice. The way I see it, entrepreneurship almost always goeshand-in hand with other domains, ranging from social change toinnovation, education or energy conservation. When Id attendedGrassroots: (Social) x (Profit), I was particularly intrigued by Osa-ma Manzars take on entrepreneurship. You identify a problem andyour whole life is about solving it and all your energies and re-sources are directed towards the same. The tougher bit? A lot ofyour customers wont even know that they have a problem. This

is where the entrepreneurial acumen comes in. That is when,without as much as realising it, you truly become an entrepreneur.

(Of course, the above is a slightly romantic interpretation of Osa-mas take on entrepreneurship.) One day, perhaps over yourmorning coffee, a brilliant idea that could well change the worldwill dawn on you. You will go from being mildly intrigued to wildlyobsessed with your own brain-child. You will indulge in countlessfantasies where your idea takes the world by storm, and its stra-tegic execution makes you a gazillionaire. But after a while, if youridea has not been acted upon ,it will simply fade away. And youmight have to stand back and watch someone else execute the

same plan, which you let go so easily. It is one thing to hold fortheloquently on the status quo, but it takes an entrepreneur getaround to actually solving an issue. And it takes business acumento eventually generate profit from such a venture. I think Ivepainted a vivid enough picture to persuade you to act upon anybusiness ideas you may have.

For college students the best way to test the feasibility ofyour plan would be to have it enter a B-Plan completion.While you work on the abstract, presentations, Executive

Summaries, revenue models (and the other million and onerequisites for any standard B-Plan competition), all theloopholes (yes, there will be loopholes) will reveal them-selves. You can work towards removing them, without hav-ing to bear the financial losses of learning through experi-ence and implementation. Issues like marketing your idea,

Radhika

Parik



12/18

P A G E 1 2

When I have an

idea, I turn down

the flame, as if it

were a little

alcohol stove, as

low as it will go.

Then it explodes

and that is my

idea.

profit generation from the venture, span and sustainability will have

to be looked at meticulously. So essentially, a formal business plan

will be a test of how good your plan is. Youll know yourself whetherits worth the time and effort. And most business plans competitions

reward their winners generously. So if your plan is deemed the best

by a panel of (usually) renowned judges, you could even use the

prize money as starting capital. There happen to be a lot of prestig-

ious B-Plan competitions you might want to consider entering- Epsi-

lon (the intra-BITS B-plan competition) and NextBigIdea Funded by

NSRCEL at IIM-B and hosted by CEL during Quark, to name a few

Among the higher pedigrees are IIM Bangalores Vista and IIM Luck-

nows Manfest. IIT Bombays e-summit and IIT Delhis EDC also

boast a great backing from mentors and venture capitalists to

groom the ideas to viable businesses. Local level competitions like

the YEF B-plan competition organised by the Goa Chamber of

Commerce also command respect. There is tremendous scope for

budding entrepreneurs in the college Biz Plan circuit at both nation-

al and international level. So if you have a plan in mind, get cracking!

It might just be the inspiration for the next Social Network. Whats

more significant is that your plan isnt limited to winning a competi-

tion, but graduates to an actual, tangible business. Sadly, thats the

case with majority of b-plan winners.



13/18

P A G E 1 3

Opportunity

is a

parade. Even

as one chance

passes, the

next is a fifeand drum

echoing in the

distance

OPPORTUNITIES

Tata Jagriti Yatra(TJY):

TJY is an annual 18 day train journey over 13 destinations in India,

covering 9000kms, comprising of highly motivated and socially

conscious individuals, particularly students and young working

professionals from diverse backgrounds. With a vision to promote

enterprise led development among the Indian youth, TJY gives the

Yatris an opportunity to meet and interact with individuals and

institutions involved in creating tangible social and economic val-

ues. Over the course of the journey, theYatris get a first-hand

knowledge about formulating and developing ventures to address

the pressing challenges faced by India. Promoting entrepreneur-

ship in general and social entrepreneurship in particular, TJY, as

the names suggests, is a journey of awakening for each Yatri.

Applications for TJY 2011 is now open. To apply, register on the

website and answer the given questionnaire. For more details log

on to: http://jagritiyatra.com/

StartingBloc Fellowship:

StartingBloc is a non-profit organization that aims to educate and

empower the youth with the vision of making a change in the

world at large. It promotes the idea that social value creation can

go hand in hand with economic value creation.

The StartingBloc Fellowship brings together young leaders

who dream to make a difference in the world. The Fellow-

ship begins with the Institute for Social Innovation. At this 5

day transformative experience, the Fellows participate in a

survey of social innovation and an innovative case-study

competition and sessions with industry leaders. Upon com-

pleting the Institute, new Fellows become members of a

Misna

Sameer



14/18

P A G E 1 4

As you seek new

opportunity,

keep in mind

that the sun does

not usually

reappear on the

horizon where

last seen

tightly-knit network of 1,500 StartingBloc Fellows from across the

globe. The Institutes are at three different locations: Los Ange-

les, Boston and London.

The applications for StartingBloc Fellowship 2012 will soon open. Toapply, submit a resume, two short (300 word) essays and a bio-data,

along with an application fee of $35.To apply, log on to http://

www.startingbloc.org/application

CIMA Global Business Challenge:

Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) organizes

an international business competition annually, endeavouring to en-

liven the business leaders in students. The competition tests theirfinancial knowledge, business management and communication skills

and grooms the students for the business world. Ever since its in-

ception in 2009, the competition has grown exponentially, attracting

undergraduate students with a keen interest in finance and business,

from all over the world. Students in different countries compete

against each other at the regional level competition, to claim the

glory of representing their nation at an international platform.

Information regarding registration for the CIMA Global Business

Challenge 2012 will be available on: http://www.cimaglobal.com/

Events-and-cpd-courses/globalbusinesschallenge/



15/18

P A G E 1 5

PPT Salon:

Indebted for

life:).

TESTIMONIALS:Summer in a Start-up excited me from Day One. From the moment

Amitabh Mishra (ex-President, CEL) shared his plans to bring on the

yearly CEL initiative, it sounded like the perfect way to make Summer

2011 productive.

It helped that as a CEL member mapped to the Summer in a Start-up

team (SiS), we got to contact an interesting palette of start-ups-each

more unique than the other ranging from design, management and

tech .Enough to make a nervous first yearite want to take a second

look at her resume and fret about prerequisites. But SiS managed to

pull out quite a surprise there-most of the companies only demanded a

good command over English and basic computer skills! And herein, PPTSalon really caught my eye in a big way! PPT Salon designs power-point

presentations for corporates, individuals or simply for anyone who

wants a well-designed ppt to carry his message across. Armed with a

mind-blowing website (check out! www.pptsalon.com), their tongue-in-

cheek requirement list read:

With apprehensions galore, I stepped into the shoes of design intern

at PPT Salon after being picked out by the CEO Mr.Abhisek Sarda who

incidentally believes anyone can design! Apart from working on realprojects right from my 1st day at work, I was overwhelmed by the faith

Abhisek (yes, he insists everyone call him by first name) had in my just-

above-average creative talent. From making beautiful presentations

every day to enjoying refreshing informal sessions on branding, market-

ing, photography, business strategy, never before had life been

more satisfying.

For all sceptics who think start-ups or design start-ups for that

matter have nothing to offer to an engineer, my recent Face-

book status would suffice: PPT Salon: Indebted for life:).Priyanka

Unnithan



16/18

P A G E 1 6

And of

course, the

football

games atthe office

TESTIMONIALS:

As my first year at BITS drew to an end, I started looking around forthings to do over the 2 and a half month long summer vacations. Since

Im a member of CEL, and was a part of the Summer in a Startupteam, I decided to apply to a couple of companies. The first step is usu-ally the most difficult; here, it was getting over the apprehension of notbeing good enough to be considered. But once that was through, thingsfell into place.

Design Play had caught my eye the first time I went through the list ofcompanies; an architecture and design firm, it was founded around 10months ago by 3 graduates of the Massachussets Institute of Technolo-

gy, and the work it was doing seemed pretty amazing.

It was a pleasant surprise when I was shortlisted, and even more sowhen I was selected. The internship was in Delhi, and was due to beginon the first of June. Design Play has its operations in India, US, andChile. The atmosphere of a startup was evident all over. The internswere pretty much considered full time employees, whose inputs werevaluable to the firm. Being able to interact with the 3 co founders(Nitin Rao, Kaustuv DeBiswas and Somnath Ray) on an everyday basiswas a great learning experience.

From getting firsthand experience by working on real time projects,weekly presentation sessions on work and random things sparking offdiscussions that stretched late into the night, to impromptu late nightdinner plans, and of course, the football games at the office, DesignPlay was an experience I wont forget.

Kedar

Pradhan



17/18

P A G E 1 7

THE YEAR THAT WENT BY :



18/18

P A G E 1 8

THE YEAR THAT WENT BY :

CEL Newsletter(August Edition)

Documents

Transcript of CEL Newsletter(August Edition)