INTERACTION WITH AN ENTREPRENEUR

18^th March, 2017

An interaction between a practicing entrepreneur and students of MBA was organized on Saturday, 18^th March, 2017. The guest entrepreneur was Mr. Vicky Daswani, who is an active entrepreneur in the field of medical appliances and who likes to motivate young students to take up entrepreneurship as a career option.

After self-introduction, Mr. Vicky opened his discussion on a very informal note with why there is a need to promote entrepreneurship today and mentioned that entrepreneurship is a means and not an end. With help of a PPT prepared specially for the day, he went on to discuss how entrepreneurship among the young can contribute to job creation and formation of socially responsible organizations. But at the same time also cautioned the gathering of MBA students that extreme care needs to be exercised during the thinking and planning process and that entrepreneurship should never be an emotional decision.Entrepreneurship operated in an environment that has no entry barrier, many competitors, has very low margins, labour intensive, no proprietary technology, few economies of scale, weak brand distinction and no regulatory protection.

Mr.Daswani, however, exhorted the young crowd not to get discouraged and went on to discuss the support systems, old and new, existing in our country and how youth can take advantage of them – broad youth entrepreneurship programmes, business start-up programmes and those designed to foster a strong entrepreneurial culture. He discussed this in terms of a framework for effective programmes and also effectiveness of such programmes.

Later, Mr. Vicky brought to notice the dark side of entrepreneurship and its pitfalls only with a view to explain it confrontation with risk and what strategies need to be designed for this. He, however, made the interaction very interesting and exciting for students by explaining to them the various self-employment opportunities available to them, based on their basic education like B.Com., with practical examples in fields like commerce, arts, other common fields and also in traditional field like farming and some out of box areas. Few of the many careers he discussed were import-export, insurance surveyors, business reporters, e-commerce, KPO, elder care, video production, blogging, graphic artist, stand-up comedian, travel agency, etc.

Mr.Daswani finally discussed the book principle to entrepreneurs along with some critical observations he had to share with students. The students were very excited at the end of this session when they fired Mr.Daswani with a volley of questions and doubt, which he dealt with very professionally and practically.

Prof.PrashantRajurkar thanked Mr. Vicky Daswani for his being here, for spending his valuable time with TIME students and for his practical and motivating insights in the area of entrepreneurship. Prof.AbhishekShahu presented Mr.Daswani with a memento as a token of our appreciation for interacting with students.