BRAToSPHERE

Tag: ARTICLE

  • CampusPreneurs – Article in Management Compass magazine

    It all started on quiet Tuesday when I was chatting with varun reddy, my friend from L, on the phone when he told me about an article he had recently written for a magazine. I instantly got interested, and asked him the details to which he enthusiastically obliged.

    About two weeks from that, he was in Bangalore for a short trip, and we again spoke about the article. I then expressed my interest in contributing for the same. Varun referred me to the contact in the magazine, and lo! I got my first assignment – An article on entrepreneurship!!

    Submitted the article on two days flat, and got a confirmation that the article has been accepted an would be the lead story in the april issue of the magazine. As promised, the magazine was couriered along with the cheque( YIPPEEE!!) last week.

    For the benefit of the BRAToSPHERites, I am publishing the article here.

    Campuspreneurs
    With a booming economy and India shining, entrepreneurship is the new in-thing for the young graduates from premier B-schools

    By Bharat Jhurani

    “16 students deferred their placements in pursuit of entrepreneurial ventures.”
    – March 15, Times of India Bangalore edition

    This and many similar stories have become more and more common with each passing year, and the number of students opting for entrepreneurship is only headed upwards. Every year, more students are opting out of the comfort of campus placements, and venturing out to set up their own enterprises. Campuspreneurs, as they are commonly called, has become an everyday buzzword.

    Seminars, conferences and workshops are being organised across the world, emphasising on the importance of entrepreneurship for the country, the society as well as the individual. The US startup, Visa, a much debated legislation that aims to slow down the brain drain of skilled workers from US and incentivises them to create startups (and American jobs), has been updated to be friendlier to H1B visa holders as well as foreign students studying in the US. Every government has now realised that entrepreneurship alone would help in boosting the economy, and bring in the much required growth.

    Every B-school campus worth its salt is looking for potential students who would create jobs for themselves and others rather than ask for a job at the end of their graduation. Today, entrepreneurship is regarded as one of the best development strategies for a country’s economic growth; it sustains the country’s competitiveness in facing the increasing demands of globalisation. With all this, India is already recognised as the land of a billion entrepreneurs the world over.

    Benefits
    In my entrepreneurial journey I have been asked many times, “Is this the right time of your career to be taking such a risk?” The answer is, yes. There is no better time than right now. Instead of wondering at the age of 50 what it could have been like, I will like to take this one chance to find out. Besides, there is nothing like starting out young. One is raw, fuelled by passion to prove things and set new standards.
    Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple, the biggest names in the corporate world, were all startups found by young students in their pursuit to follow their dreams. It is now India’s turn to give such leaders to the world.

    Starting out straight from the campus has many advantages. To begin with, when you go around speaking to your seniors and alumni (who could be possible competition), they are more generous with their advice than they would ever be to anyone in their own age group. When I asked my batchmates, seniors, and alumni that what made them quit promising jobs, or give up lucrative pre-placement offers and prompted them to take the proverbial plunge into uncertainty, I found one commonality in their replies; their definition of risk and their attitude towards it. An entrepreneurial ecosystem has been set up over the past two-three years across premier institutes. Incubators at IITs & IIMs have managed to give student entrepreneurs an access to early stage funding through grants from government departments, alongside venture capitalists, who are hunting for the next big ideas within college incubators. Funds such as VenturEast, Nexus Venture Partners, and SeedFund are increasingly backing companies from such college incubators.

    In 2008, during my second year at IIM (Lucknow), looking at the entrepreneurial zeal and drive among the students, a full day was reserved for “entrepreneurial ventures” for the first time in the history of premier B-schools, as companies queued up to hire summer interns at the institute. The move was aimed at helping students who would like to start their own ventures rather than accept offers with salaries below their expectations in a time of meltdown. Even now, with the economy back to normal and the job market booming like never before, the start-up days have many takers with the numbers only growing every year.

    Can Entrepreneurship be taught?
    Many say that entrepreneurs are born not created. But everything needs polishing and this is what good education does to an individual. The context changes the perspectives; entrepreneurship education has taken a huge leap towards achieving this. It has moved on from its days of helping small and medium enterprises (there is the consulting club to do that), to setting up new-age incubators and helping in employment generation. Entrepreneurship education is now more in tune with broad innovation education.

    Even more striking than the vast increase in the entrepreneurial activity levels is the practical approach to teaching entrepreneurship. Professors have realised that a good entrepreneur needs not know various models, and theories behind it, but should gain more knowledge about the finer aspects like hiring the first employee, setting up the office, getting the first client, and making a brand out of it. The students are no longer kept trapped in a classroom and led by the faculty alone. The entrepreneurship elective is no longer synonymous with only commerce and management literature. In fact, there are many institutes like Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, which offer two year courses in entrepreneurship. Nurture Talent, a startup by an IIM alumnus, is also into the field of entrepreneurial education. There are many more executive programs provided by management institutes related to training people in management education.

    What are the risks?
    The higher the risk, the higher the benefit.

    This is the basic statement by which any investment is decided, any action is calculated & any activity is pursued. This is the fundamental truth of management, and anything related to do with it. There is no doubt that giving up the certainty of a monthly cheque and job security is a major risk. But then, so is taking up a 20 year home loan with the belief of a steady income for the next twenty years or the folly of not using a business loan calculator. As a rational human being, one should not just calculate the risk in taking the entrepreneurial step, but should also calculate the risk of not taking the risk at all.

    Dheeraj, my globetrotting batch-mate, who is working for an FMCG major in Singapore, just decided to give it all up one fine day and setup an Internet company in India. Does he miss his job and the perks? He said, “Sure, you do miss those five star hotel stays, business class international travel, and plush offices but I guess it all seems too trivial when compared to the kick one gets in working towards conceiving what you really believe in!”

    Realising that many students fear venturing out on their own, and instead take the comfort in opting for campus placements, the IITs, IIMs and many other premier B-schools have come up with the concept of deferred placements wherein a student can opt out of the placement, start his own venture and can appear for the placement process anytime in the next two to three years (the number of “cushion” years varies from B-school to B-school).

    In the last few years, entrepreneurship has started gaining acceptance from the society. The social taboo is diminishing and failed startups are no more looked down upon. These days, family, friends and the society at large, including potential employers are more welcoming towards people who have tried setting up an enterprise.

    The E word is in!
    With the older generations, securing a government job was considered to be the best way to retire in peace – you join a company, grow through the bureaucracy and then retire with the promise of a handsome pension. In the present capitalistic world, this kind of culture does not exist. Darwin could not have been more correct in saying “survival of the fittest”. Companies that follow their American counterparts just believe in HIRE AND FIRE. And rightly so, we are all here to make profits, aren’t we? It is the NGOs that are there for charity.

    With the economic uncertainty rising, job security is as uncertain as the assured success of any startup. Who knows what will be your job profile tomorrow? Or, who will be your boss in the future? There may be a hundred reasons to quit a job, but your employer will surely have a thousand more reasons to fire you. These reasons have fostered ideas in the minds of the youth to create opportunities and capitalise on them. Now-a-days, most parents (I would not say all yet) do not complain if their child walks out of a premier B-school to pursue a personal project from his/her engineering days and dreams big from the very beginning. For example, one of my seniors from IIM Lucknow dropped out 3 months after joining the campus, and now he has the opportunity to fly – he makes engines for Hero Honda, develops Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAVs)!

    What if I fail?
    Most companies face failures initially. It’s an unsettling fact for the student entrepreneurs, but old news for start-up veterans. But the good news is that running a failing company may actually help a career, but only if the entrepreneur is willing to view failure as a potential area for improvement.

    As a parting note, I would like to propagate a thought that our mentor once shared with us – “You become an entrepreneur by choice, and not because you are not doing well professionally”.

    — The author is an IIM-L alumni from the batch of 2009, and after selling chocolates for two years, is about to commence his entrepreneurial journey

     

    The link up to the article is presently at http://www.mediamates.biz/management_compass/lead_1.html

    It can subsequently be accessed from the archive section (april 2011) of the “management compass” section of the parent website – www.mediamates.biz

    HAPPY READING!

  • Article in BusinessWorld Magazine

    Writing has been a passion since long, and I remember writing right since I was in the 1st standard. Yes, I wrote my first ever story when I was in the first standard. I had drawn a picture on my notebook with the new set of crayons. The bedsheet was more coloured than the paper, and obviously mom was furious. I told her what the picture meant, and how the bedsheet played a vital part in the overall scheme of the story. I was saved from a sound thrashing. So, that people, was my first ever story.  Though, Mom tells me that it was just to cover up the bedsheet mess, and we have ever since agreed to disagree on the same.

    And in this pursuit of convincing my mom that I actually enjoy writing, I picked up writing. I started off by writing the examinations, and then graduated to writing diary.( A habit which has stuck from the past 10 years!).

    In this writing career (really?), spanning several years, there have been several times that I have been published. Don’t believe me? I should show you my school section magazines, I was published twice there in three years.

    I also vividly remember the instance when I was baby sitting one of my cousin’s son. This was sometime during my tenth standard. The little brat ( he now follows my blog! Can’t name him), was not allowing me play my new video game in peace, and I had to shut him up. I told him a story. A story with lots of strange creatures called BOO. I could not use devils, as my cousin would not really like me scaring his kid, and harry potter mania had still not caught on. After the story, the kid was so psyched out, and till date is afraid of me, when I utter the B word. My first tryst with influencing people with my stories.

    I had written a couple of times to gokulam, I also wanted to write for tinkle but did not know how to cartoon, and by the time I realized that we just need to send the story I was reading playboy. Gradually, I started writing for rediff, contributed to jam Mag, was involved with the college magazine, and realizing that I just want to write without others approving it, I started blogging.

    I am still waiting for the writing to be made on the brick on the wall.

    Now here, I would want you all to read, not one of my stories, but an article I had written sometime back for Business world. This is about life at IIML, and in B-Schools in general, and my stay there. Hope it helps the aspirants to be better equipped.

    Pfa the scanned copy of the article.(right click and save the image on your computer harddisk, or atleast the temporary cache,  to zoom it. Technically challenged.)

    The article has been published in BUSINESSWORLD – THE ULTIMATE B-SCHOOL GUIDE.

    (Note: alternatively, you can download the article from here)

  • Why are we like this?

    Let us accept it. We stay in a very Hippocratic society. No matter how much we show off as accepting the new norms of living, and acting cool to be comfortable with western “fads” like live-in relationships, inter caste marriages, etc.. we do not accept it. Period. We are like that only.

    The present generation might think we are all cool about it, but question yourself ( and here I am talking to those in their twenties, and facing this), how many of you would actually not turn out to be like your uncles, who Is considered to be the biggest villain in your life right now.

    A typical setting in an Indian Sindhi family, and a big joint family, where the parents would plead their daughter that they are comfortable with her relationship with that Bengali guy, but..

    Mom: “Beta, we are very progressive, and we totally accept your relationship and your feeling for that Roy guy”

    The daughter is happy listening to this, very well knowing that this cannot be all this easy.

    “But..”, the mom starts after a brief pause.

    “Think about what your mama would think about us. Know what, yesterday, the bagal wali auntie was asking me about you and why you not getting married”

    “They would blame us directly that we could not raise you well, and we gave you too much freedom and thus failed as parents”

    The emotional monologue would continue for long, till you (the girl) get persuaded that you are the villain, and would be a black mark on the family. So, please avoid this situation. Point black. In much more many words.

    ‘Virginity is believed to be directly proportional to ones character’. This is how most of the soon-to-be-bestowed-upon-UID card holders treat it to be. And here comes the biggest component of the so called hypocrisy so very rampant in our country. On one side we have the women, who would like to protect “it” for their own prince charming, and on the other hand we have the males with their wild hormones who just can’t wait to get rid of this inferior looking V tag. The irony (or the so called hypocrisy) here is that these very men would want a bride with her hymen intact!

    This makes me wonder why even in the 21st century there is so much hypocrisy and double standards surrounding ‘physical intimacy’. After all, what does virginity have to do with character? Why can’t we just take physical intimacy the way it is – Physical intimacy and nothing more.

    And well, here the so called progressive Indians of tomorrow (the twenty something’s of today) are also to be blamed.

    This double standard is so ingrained in our brains, and was perfectly depicted in the situation that happened last Saturday night. I was on some association function, and was fully decked and dressed to attend this do. I was there on behalf of my uncle, who could not make it. It was attended by the entire association of the south india, so had to be in the best most-eligible-bachelor looks, on instructions from my Mom. “wear a suit. you look very good in it. There would be a lot of sindhi families coming over!”

    After the late night meet, I went ahead to meet a friend ( a girl), to make up for my absence all day. We were talking on the road, and walking in the street where she stays. After some time, the girl comes closer to my ear, and utters, “Don’t look back so obviously, but see the guy on the first floor in the third building on the right behind me?”

    “No”, I say non-chalantly.

    “Arrey, don’t look so obviously. There is a guy, who is trying to hide behind the towel hanging in the balcony and staring at us curiously”

    “Why? You know him?”, I again ask as if it was the most obvious question in the world.

    “Arrey, he is watching assuming something would happen. It is 2 in the night!”

    OKAY. So that is the reason, you cheap pervert there behind the towel. Can a guy and a girl not be just good friends, who happen to meeting at 2 in the night. And if something was bound to happen, I would not be standing here on the street. Speaks a lot about US Indians. The twenty something Indian, the future of the country.

    Needless to say, just to entice the behind-the-towel guy more, I did want to pose something (like this picture) and create an illusion allowing him to fulfill his high( I don’t know Why?), but alas, my friend preferred getting back to her place, and I had to go.

  • Heart vs. Mind

    This quintessential fight between the heart and the mind keeps happening all the time. I am sure each on of us regularly face this dilemma, and come to a standstill where we have to select a path. And that, as iterated in the previous post, leads to confusion. Opportunity??

    It’s typical in our society to feel a conflict between what we want to do (our heart) and what we feel is practical (our mind). We end up living  a good part of our lives doing things that we don’t really like or enjoy. We do and say things that we think are cool, and would help us “fit in” into this artificial sphere formed by the society. We try keeping ourselves contended in our mind, and never realize that it is the heart that needs to be contented.

    This does cause heartaches at every point in our lives, but we just get used to it and move one. What would have happened if we had rather listened to the heart in that critical confusing moment? We might have not been this rich, this comfortable, might not be having these luxuries, might be. But then, we would have been much much more happier. And who knows, following your heart, no matter how impractical it might seem, might lead to never foreseen opportunities, and new avenues. A more content life!

    Is my heart at fault? Are my feelings just silly and frivolous? Or maybe it’s my mind that’s to blame. It seems like it’s always coming up with conflicting messages anyway.

    I remember seeing a poster in a book shop in vizag when I was young – “ choose a career in something you enjoy, and you will never ever have to work a single day in your life!”.

    How many of us actually be able to do it? The conformist society comes in place,  and camouflages the entire thought process. The security, risk averseness, secure life, etc all these come into picture leaving the dreams on a standstill and keeping them on hold, most of the times forever.

    What does one do in such a dilemma? Whose side does one take in such situations – Heart or Mind?

    Heart vs. Mind?

    A perfect analogy to this heart mind thing would be this. Imagine yourself as this young 28 something guy, who wants to ( heart calling) get married to this good looking simple girl, and has been pursuing her leaving his flirtatious behaviour behind. Now, in this pursuit, where he starts thinking if he would actually get the simple girl ever, there is this awesomely good looking super hotel seductress( read mind) who shows herself. This simple guy is now getting attracted to the deep cleavages( read benefits in a secure manner) and is drifting towards her, forgetting that his heart still wants to be with the simple girl. The simple girl would be a better deal, but right now the seductress has much more to offer! But.. But.. The true love, the heart, still stays with the simple girl!

    What do you do? Simple girl? or Seductress??

  • >POPULATION Everywhere

    >
    July 11th, mark the day, is the World Population Day. It seeks to raise awareness of global population issues.

    What do you think about this? Population is a good thing or bad?? The world over, it is generally believed that increase in population results in decrease of standard of living. True. You have one more person to share your resources.
    it is is like I have Rs. 100/- and will divide equally amongst everyone.( Well, i know it is not a socialist society we live in). Now if the population is 100, each one gets Rs.1/-. great. If the population was 125 rather, each one would get Rs. .80. That is a good 20% less than what they were getting earlier. So, obviously on the outset it seems the increase in population is a bad thing. I get lesser to live.

    What would you do? What would your reaction be? Would you dash out onto the streets excitedly, thanking God and start celebrating the arrival of an extra eighteen million people bringing with them long-awaited economic prosperity? Or would you go into some kind of a panic and perhaps start thinking of applying for a permanent residence in neighbouring Bangladesh?

    In the mid-1970s, India was so worried about its explosive population growth that policemen and officials travelled to villages to sterilise men, who hid in sugar cane fields or climbed trees to avoid vasectomies.
    School teachers, under pressure to meet family planning targets given to them by the government, forced fathers of their students to sterilise, before a public outcry drove authorities to abandon these desperate attempts.

    Nearly three decades on, a new, non-coercive policy — emphasising education of women and health care rather than demographic control — has thrown up surprising results.

    Population growth has slowed from four percent in the 1960s to about 1.7 percent now, fuelling hopes of stable growth by the middle of the century in a country with the world’s second largest population at 1.1 billion people. (source:Financial Express)

    Now i would like to believe optimistically that population growth could turn out to be a boon to the economy, one of the fastest growing in the world. Since half of India’s population is younger than 25, it gives the country a potential edge over China, where an ageing population — the result of a one-child policy – could slow its economy by 2030.

    It is an advantage for India now because the country is entering the demographic dividend phase while China is exiting it.

    Demographic dividend refers to a period — usually 20 to 30 years — when a greater proportion of people are working, which cuts spending on dependants, aiding economic growth.

    Well, like all good things in life, there is a catch. Whether India can benefit from its young population will depend on economic development and equitable social development. Education will sure play a very important rule, and equitable growth from all corners would ensure benefit-ting the whole nation in general, rather than just increasing the rich-poor divide.

    Don’t get me wrong, i am a staunch supporter of capitalism, and survival of the fittest theory, what i am trying to emphatize is the importance of opportunities that should be given to the lower strata such that it becomes a level playing field.

    Until now, the world blamed India for its huge population, but now it could envy it.







    The above article was inspired from this ad, being shown in Delhi metro.

    On an ending note, i would like to make clear, that the question about population growth and its relationship to economic growth and development has bedevilled economists for decades, if not centuries, and it is not a yes-no answer to it. And of-course, this phenomena, which i am considering a boon now, could turn into a bane in no time, if the growth from now on is not controlled, and the socio-economic divide just keeps increasing.