Entrepreneurship In Technical Institutes

Prof P.V. Gupta

Fellow ISTE
21.05.2010
ENTREPRENEURS– THE CHANGE MAKERS
SOME FAMOUS NAMES
1. Bill Gates
2. Sabeer Bhatia
3. Azim Premjee
4. Narayan Murti
5. Sunil Bharti
6. Sam Pitroda
7. Lakshmi Mittal
8. Rattan Tata ( Nano Car)
9. Verghese Kurien ( Milkman)
10.Dhirubhai Ambani
11.Karsanbhai Patel (Nirma)
12.Amita Roddick (founder of body shop)
13.Shahnaz Hussain (of herbal beauty)
14.Vandana Luthra (VLCC)
15.C K Ranganathan (Cavin Care)
16. Michael Dell (founder of Dell co.)
17. Ray Kroc ( Mc Donalds)
18. Kishore Biyani (Pantaloons malls, Big Bazar)
19. Jashwantiben Popat (lizzat papad)
20.Dr. Reddy of Apollo hospitals
21. Dr. Ram Das Pai
22. Swami Ram Dev Jee
23. Kiran Mazumdar Shah (Biocon)
24. Brijmohan Lal (Hero Honda)
25. Prof. Muhammed Yunus ( Noble Laureate- Grahmin bank)
26. Capt. G R Gopinath (Air Deccan)
27. K P Singh (DLF)
28. Rohtas Goel (Omaxe Ltd)
29.Ibuka & Marita (Sony)
30. Ram Chandra Sharma & Dr. P K Sethi (Jaipur Foot)
31. Frans Often (Netherlands of Light Emitting Diode Lamp)
32. Subrata Roy (of Sahara group)
33. Adi Godrej ( Chairman Godrej)
34. Kumar Manglam Birla
35. Naresh Goyal (Jet Airways)
36. Rahul Bajaj (Bajaj Auto)
37. Y C Deveshwar (ITC)
38. Vijay Mallaya
39. J.R.D. Tata
40. Lord Swraj Paul (Caparo Group)
41. Lord Karan Billimoria (Cobra Beer)
42. Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi (CEO-Pepsi Co.)
43. Nandan Nilekani (Co-Chairman of Infosys)
 DEFINITION: ENTREPRENEUR

(The word was coined by Mr. J.B. Say, a French

economist in 1800)
-One who undertakes an enterprise or business
(Dictionary meaning)

-One who marshals the resources necessary to launch

and/or grow a business that focuses on innovation and
development of new products or services
(Miami entrepreneurship centre)

We shall define it as:

An entrepreneur is an individual who launches a venture
and/or significantly improves it through innovative
means.
An entrepreneur is an individual who not
only is a creater of value but also growth.

An entrepreneurial venture is built around

a need, a need to make lives more
convenient, mobile, secure or exciting.
 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND
INNOVATIVE ENTEREPRENEURSHIP

(i) Starting garment business is an example of

entrepreneurship while starting designer garment
business is an example of innovative entrepreneurship.

(ii)Whosoever designed wooden wheel carts driven by

bullocks was an entrepreneur but whosoever improved
carts with rubber tyre wheels and gears was an innovative
entrepreneur. Similarly man driven rickshaw & motor
driven rickshaw are examples of entrepreneurship &
innovative entrepreneurship
(iii) Manual stabilizer (entrepreneurship)
Automatic stabilizer (innovative entrepreneurship)
(iv) Manual washing machine (entrepreneurship)
Automatic (Fuzzy Control) washing machine
(innovative entrepreneurship)

(v) Desert coolers was an entrepreneurship example

AC is innovative entrepreneurship- Remote
controlled acs.

(vi) Manual water taps and then sensor water taps &
many such examples.

(vii) Nano car (Tata) and Nano Fridge (Godrej) are

examples of innovative entrepreneurship.
Swatch
 THOUGHTS ON INNOVATION

Two Harvard economists, Sachs and Warner, studied 97

countries over two decades to understand what drove the
economic success of nations. To the surprise of many,
availability of abundant natural resources actually
correlated negatively with economic success. Human
ingenuity and innovation is always more valuable than
physical resources.
Vivek Paul, MD – Taxes Pacific Group

Never before in history has innovation offered promise of

so much to so many in such a short period.
Bill Gates- American Entrepreneur
Innovation is a process by which varying degrees of
measurable value enhancement is planned and achieved in
any commercial activity.
NKC

Innovation brings together aesthetic sensibilities and

scientific innovations. As creativity and enterprise blossom
new jobs are created and new income generated for
generations of working people
Dr. Manmohan Singh, PM of India
 CAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP BE TAUGHT?
CAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP BE DEVELOPED?

The answer is emphatic yes, just as managers/ leaders can be

developed in Business Schools.
There is an element of entrepreneurship in each person, which can be
nurtured by providing the right opportunities and training. (Hyderabad
based National Institute of Small Industries Extension & Training-
NISIET)

Where and how?

Management and Engineering institutes & colleges are the best places
for this activity
Subjects & courses on entrepreneurships can be offered to students
during their studies and facilities provided on campuses for developing
innovative entrepreneurial ideas into proto-types.
HBS (Harvard Business School developed a capsule ‘Mgt of Small
enterprises’ for stds eager to start their own business after World
War- II (in 1947).Similarly HBS graduate and venture capitalist Arthur
Rock funded the first Professorship in the field of Entrepreneurship
at HBS in 1980. To-day HBS requires its 900 1 st year students to take
a course called ‘The Entrepreneurial Manager’ and offers 20 elective
courses in the area to its 2nd year students, Even Wharton offers a
major to prepare students for careers as autonomous entrepreneurs
or as family business e-s.)
EDI-Ahmedabad is the pioneer in India. These days most B-schools
offer courses in e’s etc.

Establish
Entrepreneurship development parks (EDP)
Incubators
Organize
Entrepreneurship awareness camps
Entrepreneurship development centers (EDC)
eg. (i) IIM-B’s NSRCEL (Nadathur S. Raghnvan centre for
Entrepreneurial learning which offers teaching &
research, and state of the art incubator).
(ii) IIM-L’s Abhiyan E-cell.
Invite
Entrepreneurship trainers
Entrepreneurs for interface with students.
Projects
Final year projects in engineering colleges should be
live projects which can be exploited commercially
 WHAT CELEBRITIES SAY ON
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN EDUCATION

There has been a substantial growth in our higher education.

However our employment generation system is not in a
position to absorb the graduates passing out from the
universities, leading to increase in educated unemployed
year after year. A multi pronged strategy is needed to make
education more relevant. The system should highlight the
importance of entrepreneurship and prepare the students
right from college education to get oriented towards setting
up the small scale industrial ventures which will provide
them creativity and freedom and ability to generate wealth.”
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Former President of India at
the 76th annual GM of FICCI
There is an entrepreneur within every human being. Our
education system should encourage Entrepreneurship.
The world remains deprived, the society remains deprived
when human beings cannot explore their Entrepreneurial
abilities because as an Entrepreneur, an individual could
have contributed much more to the society than as an
executive working for somebody else. With
Entrepreneurship you can change not just yourself but
also the world.
Noble Laureate- Prof. Muhammad Yunus
 COLLEGE CAMPUS, THE NURSERY FOR INNOVATIVE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The college campus, it turns out, can be an ideal incubator for hatching small
businesses. Nanina’s Gourmet Sauce, a pasta sauce company based in New
Jersey, was started, for instance, in 2005 by students taking an
entrepreneurship course at Monmouth University. Nanina’s products are now
sold in nearly 400 supermarkets and gourmet shops in New Jersey and
Manhattan, and the company’s director of operations is 23 year old Nick
Massari, a student in that class.

Undergraduate courses in how to start and run a small business are becoming
as ubiquitous as Economics. Gone is the conventional wisdom that running a
small business cannot be learned by sitting in a classroom.

According to the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, more than 2,000 colleges
and universities now offer atleast an entire course of study in entrepreneurship.
That is up from 253 institutions offering such courses in 1985. More than two
lakh students are enrolled in such courses, compared with 16,000 in 1985.
 MIT SETS CENTRE FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has established

an academic centre dedicated to development and
entrepreneurship.
Created with a $50-million funding from the Dubai-based
Legatum, a private firm that invests in global financial
markets and in initiatives supporting sustainable
development, the Legatum Center for Development and
Entrepreneurship will support aspiring entrepreneurs from
the developing world, helping them acquire the knowledge
required for successful business development. Legatum has
significant interests in India, with almost $1 billion invested
in the country.
 HELP FOR INNOVATORS

Honey Bee network, India which identifies individual

innovators, provides them financial and technical
assistance, helps them file for patents and devises models
for self-sustenance – has so far mobilized over 75,000
innovations and traditional knowledge practices from over
500 districts.
National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) of the Hyderabad
based Wadhwani Foundation (website: www.nenonline.org)
It offers platform for budding entrepreneurs.
TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs)-industry chambers promotes
entrepreneurship.
 TYPES OF ENTREPRENEURS

A- Techno Entrepreneurs: Manufacturing Business

Entrepreneurs
Business Entrepreneurs: Retail Business, Service
Business
Social Entrepreneurs (Noble-laureate Mohammed yunus)
Educational Entrepreneurs (Dr. Ram Das Pai)

B- Small Business Entrepreneurs

Big Business Entrepreneurs

C- 1st Generation Entrepreneurs

2nd Generation Entrepreneurs (Family Business
Entrepreneurs)
Age, Qualifications, Experience, Gender do not matter
in the making of an Entrepreneur.
SOME INNOVATIVE ENTERPRISES

Dabbawallas
Sachet selling
Designer clothes
Voltage stabilizers
Software solutions
Coaching academies
Multi-speciality hospitals
Call centres, bill collection centres
Security services centres
Services Centres
 SOME AREAS FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Health care
Environment conservation
Environment friendly buildings
Rain harvesting
Skyscraper farming
Water conserving toilet systems
E-wastes disposal
Garbage disposal
Waste water reuse
Energy Efficient devices
Cheap laptops (example: HCL’s laptops weighing less than a kg and costing
less than Rs. 15000), Netbooks, Smartbooks
Areas relating to clean technologies, green technologies, waste management
and waste recycle technologies, Non conventional Energy technologies, Service
technologies, Manufacturing technologies, New technologies such as Bio
technologies, and Nano technologies, offer wide area for enterprenurers.
Samsung Nano Silver washing machine rinses cloths in a bath of water & silver
ions. TheSilver ions kill nasty germs.

The Tata swatch is a cheap portable water filter that uses a grid of very tiny
silver partical to shift dangerous bacteria out of drinking water.
 EXAMPLES OF “GREEN” INNOVATORS

Kumar Builders from Pune have installed solar water heaters

for 1,400 residential flats (under construction) which will
save over 3,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually.
Saving one megawatt hour of electricity is equivalent to
preventing a ton of carbon emissions, which is how we get
the term carbon credit.

Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) is also reportedly

designing commercial buildings, which don’t require air-
conditioners. Tata motors are planning to go for green
vehicles where the exhaust will no longer produce
poisonous gas emissions, but organic steam.
Designer Anita Dongree is installing windmills and solar
panels at her new factory at Jaipur.
 The Ministry of Science & Tech has identified
various areas to harness S&T for solutions to
vexing problems like WAR (Wining Agumentation &
Renovation) for water, TAP-SUN (Technology and
Products) for Solar Energy Utilization through Net
working),
Special Public-Private Partnership Schemes
including (i) Small Business innovation Research
(SBIR)
(ii) Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme
(BIPP) (iii) Biotechnology Industry Research
Development Assistance Programme (BIRAP) etc
and many more.
The Teachers & Students of technical institutions
can make full use of the opportunities offered by the
ministry in exploring ideas for entrepreneurship and
innovation.
 FACTORS THAT INHIBIT ENTREPRENEURSHIP
• Lack of Motivation, shyness and inhibition on the part of the
individual.
• Ignorance of the opportunities that he can avail.
• Lack of requisite managerial skills to start and manage enterprise.
• Lack of finance for initial investment
• Lack of familial and community support for enterprise
• Scared of the cumbersome and time consuming process in
establishing an enterprise and even if he starts the enterprise, he is not
sure of the sustained support from the agencies.
•Some Sources For Financial Help
D.I.C – District Industries Centre
NBARD- National Bank of Agricultural & Rural Development
NSIC - National Small Industries Corporation
SFC - State Financial corporation
Commercial Banks
 SUCCESS FACTORS
A- Ability to identify ideas, opportunities & sources
B- Build ;capabilities & teams
C- Confidence, (face) Challenges and Competitions

D- Determination, Decision (making)

E- Enthusiasm
F- (clear) Focus
G- Goal
H- Humility
I- Initiative
J- Judgment
K- Knowledge
L- Learn (from others’, from mistakes); leadership (qualities)
M- Management & Mobilizing of financial & resources
N- No (to die)
O- Open to suggestions, Observation
P- Patience, Passion and Perseverance
Q- Quality (in what ever he does)
R-Risk taking, (nurturing) relationships
S- Stead fast and self control
T- Trustworthiness and team work
U- Upright, Understanding (of Business, of the prospective Customers)
V- Vision
W- Work hard
X- (E) xecution
Y- Youthful energy & enthusiasm
Z- Zeal (Can do)
 Ramesh Chauhan
(Chairman, Bisleri)

His mantras for being a successful entrepreneur

• First of all, never think that it is easy because the market is

huge and getting a small piece of the cake won’t be difficult.
• Be prepared for eventual hiccups. You may have to bear
losses and even humiliation in the first couple of years. But
hang on.
• Before launching your business, carry out foolproof research
on every aspect of the business – product , technology,
competition, market size, product quality, operation, et al. It
shouldn't be like I have got an idea , so here I am.
• Do it only if you are passionate about the idea.
 Story of an Enterpreneur
An entrepreneur observes, seeks an idea & converts it into reality in spite of
failures. Nine year ago, Laura Udall noticed that her young daughter Rachel
suffered back pain from lugging her books back and forth to school. Udall, a
former saleswoman (at AT&T), decided to develop & market a backpack light
enough for children to wear safely.

She founded her company in 2003 & hired an industrial design firm. But after
getting frustrated with a lack of progress, she turned to her husband, Nick. “He is
brilliant at coming up with things, so he went into the garage and came up with
our first prototype for a rolling book bag,” she said.

Today, Udall, 52, is chief executive of Zuca Inc, a $2 million business in

Campbell, California, that makes luggage. Her husband works for her as vice-
president for design & manufacturing.
 Another Example

Shawan Runacres, a U.S Berkley graduate came to India 8 years

ago with her husband, found that the only way expat families could
find domestic staff( Help) was thro a reference with in the community
or thro neighbours which did not always work. So she decided to set
up ‘Domesteq Services’ co to provide house-hold services to expat
community but now she has more Indian Clients than expats.

The Co has a Vice-President (o) a manager (Training & Placement),

an asstt. Director (Special Projects) a member & consultants.

The Co trains Domestic Help in various chores, even teaches them

English, to work as cleaners, cooks, children matrons, etc. before it
places them in job. It has the attention of National skills development
corporation, to create a curriculum for skill development of Domestic
Staff. (HT-15.5.10)
An idea that turned her into an
Entrepreneur
 Peggy Newton of Lefanon, Missouri, came to New York to be
among the skycrappers – a club of tall ones; She was 5 feet 10
inches in height and had the same trouble other girls of height
had in securing desirable dresses. From a life insurance
company she learned that the average height of American
woman is 5 feet 3 inches and that one woman out of four is more
than 5 feet 6 inches in height. So she planned her own business
with manufacturers and established the first clothes shop for tall
girls and made it work. She became an entrepreneur.
Grief leads father into an Entrepreneur to
create bomb-defusing robot
The knock on Brian Hart’s door came at 6am. An army colonel, a priest and a police
officer had come to tell Hart & his wife that their 20 year-old son had been killed when
his military vehicle was ambushed in Iraq.
Brian Hart didn’t channel his grief quietly. Committed to “preventing the senseless
from recurring,” he railed against the military on his blog for shortcomings in
supplying armor to soldiers. The one-time Republican teamed with liberal senator
Edward Kennedy to tell Congress that the Pentagon was leaving soldiers ill equipped.
And then Hart went beyond words to fight his cause. He became a defence contractor.
He founded a company that has developed rugged, relatively inexpensive robotic
vehicles to disable car bombs and roadside explosives before they denote in hot spots
like Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, Hart has won over military brass he so harshly
criticizes. Three years after starting Black I Robotics Inc, Hart won a $728000 contract
from the Pentagon to further develop the ‘Land Shark robot’.
Technology to protect troops is a subject uncomfortably close to home for Hart, who
says the death of his son, army private John Hart, left him in “total devastation”. Brian
Hart can’t forget the call he got from his son in Iraq a week before he was killed by a
gunshot on October 18,2003.

“He asked me to help him: Get us body armor and vehicular armor,” Brian Hart said
”He thought he’d be killed on the road in an unarmored Humvee. And a week to the
day later, he was. ”
The Pentagon contract requires Black-I to supply three of its six-wheeled,
electric-powered vehicles this year and provide support. The military will test
two units, while Boston’s Logan airport will get one for bomb-disposal duties.
If tests go well, soldiers in Iraq could be using the robots as soon as next year,
Hart says.

His company is also trying to secure an additional $1.5m in Pentagon funding

next fiscal year. At 275 pounds and 4 feet long, Black-I’s Land Shark looks
like a dude buggy without a seat for a human driver. Hart hopes to make them
available for sale next year, with expectations that the cost would be $65,000
to $85,000 per robot.

The vehicle can pull tilling equipment to plow up soil where an explosive or
trip wire may be hidden. Or it can drop off ‘disrupters’ that can be maneuvered
near a bomb and set off, with jets of water disabling the bomb.

Hart contends Land Sharks will be far less expensive than many of the
Pentagon’s current bomb-disposing robots. Those models have more
sophisticated electronics, but also are more fragile than Land Sharks, which
use car batteries rather than lighter and pricier lithium-iron batteries.
 SOME SUCCESS STORIES

S K Bahl(an electrical engineer) – Logicstat voltage

stabilizers, Delhi

Bharti Bhushan (again an electrical engineer)– Jindal

Electricals, Ludhiana

Dr. Ajay Satia (medico)– Satia Paper Mills Ltd, Mukatsar, Pb.
Some young entrepreneurs
(Ref India To-day, Aspire March
2009)

1. Sarath Babu 28, BITS Pilani & IIM-A Graduate, Founder:

Food king (Catering Service)
Seed Capital Rs 2000
Current turnover Rs 7 crore (Food King)

2. Vivek Pahwa age 27, MBA (ISB-H)

Founder & CEO of Accentium web (first website-
desimartini.com, secondshaadi.com, new website in
education, personal financing and content aggregation)
Seed Capital Rs 4.5 crore
Growing at 100% year on year. (Web-Portals provider)
3. Atul Khekade 26, Computer Science & IT
graduate
Founder: Airnetz, a commercial flight pool services
Seed Capital Rs 5 lakhs
Current turnover Rs 5 crore. (Service-Provider)

4. Saloni Malhotra Age23, Engineer

Founder : Desi crew, rural BPO that trains talent in
villages of small towns, incubated at IIT-M
Current turnover Rs 1.5 crore (Trainer)
5. Amit Agarwal 28, management graduate
Co-founder, Star Agri warehousing & collateral management
that provides end to end logistics solutions to farmers.
Seed Capital Rs. 5 lakhs
turn-over Rs 3.86 crore

6. Kaushlendra 28, Agricultural engineer & MBA from IIM-A

Founder kaushalya Foundation that aims to make Bihar the
vegetable hub of the nation.
Started w/o any initial investment, Current turnover Rs 2.5
crore

7. Rajat Sethi 23,B.tech IIT-K

Answer to low carbon requirements.
8. Arvind Lamba 24, B.Tech from IIT-Allahabad, IIM-A Graduate
Founder: Mantis Technologies which is an online ticketing & business
management platform for bus operators & travel agents- making travel easy.
Seed capital Rs 40 lakh
Current turnover Rs 1.5 crore (Services Provider)

9. Nelvin Joseph ,23

CEO-Avtin Dynamics Product Spara which reduces power losses
Seed Capital Rs 10lakh

10. Deepak Kalhan ,28, Computer graduate

Digitalising Market Places
Seed Money Rs 10,000
Expected turn-over Rs 1.5 lakh
11. Anand Chhatpar 27, Grad Univ. of Wisconsan Madison
CEO, Brain Reactions that uses creative college students to brainstorm new
products & services for Fortune 1000 Companies.
12. Prakash Mundra, age 28 (Newage Pundit) Marketing
graduate
Founder Sacred Moments, Customized designer Puja kits
Seed money Rs 4 lakh
Current turn-over Rs 1 crore
13. Dhruv Lakra – Founder of Mirakle Couriers, Mumbai –
(MBA Student)
Social entrepreneur – engaged deaf adults for carrying
couriers.
14. Harish Handa – (Engg degree from IIT-K, Doctorate in
Energy Engg – Unit of Massachusetts) – Founder of SELCO
based out of Bangalore
Pioneered access to rural solar electrification to 8,00,000
charts across Karnatka of Kerla and has now moved to Gujrat.
At the recent 6th open house IIT-D students show-cased innovative
solutions. It included Domestic Chair Lift- a Chair mounted on an
inclined plane fitted on stairs, just sit on it and push the button to go
up & down. Can be used by old, physically challenged or heart
patience.
Water-less urinal was another item. It has a mechanical trap which
prevents the odur from going out, useful for saving water in public
toilets.
Role of ISTE
The ISTE can play a very effective role in creating awareness in
entrepreneurship among students of technical institutions in the
country and nurturing future entrepreneurs.
ISTE may reserve a page or half in the news letter to regularly
publish details of students and teacher entrepreneurs & their
entrepreneurial activities. It should also institute “young entrepreneur
of the year”, awards in different disciplines of Engineering and
Technology on all India basis similar to the annual ET-entrepreneur
(From Industry) award. For these awards it may involve Industry &
Industrialists who may be ever ready & willing to fund such a move.
This will improve Industry- Society interaction and bring revolution
in entrepreneurship culture.
 FINAL THOUGHT
Entrepreneurs are not super-humans. What is different is
their approach towards things, their vision, their inclination
towards treating challenges in a more creative and positive
way, and their determination to achieve their vision against
all odds. Change is the essence of creativity, and these two
are inseparable qualities possessed by every successful
entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs transform their ideas into
businesses. They have persistence and loads of
determination to succeed in them. They always believe in
making their mark in their own way.

The best way to conclude is with the lines of Calvin

Coolidge: “Nothing in the world can take the place of
persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than
unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded
genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the
world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and
determination alone are omnipotent.”