IIM Ranchi : Webinar on “Entrepreneurship for New India

Ranchi, Jharkhand | June | 07, 2020 :: Indian Institute of Management Ranchi has signed a MoU with Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), Ahmedabad on May 22, 2020. This will create a conducive entrepreneurial eco-system through setting up of incubation centre at Ranchi and offering several programmes for students and faculty of the two Institutes.

With the joint efforts of IIM Ranchi and EDII Ahmedabad, a virtual webinar was held today, June 6, 2020 on the topic “Entrepreneurship for New India”. Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director General, EDII, Ahmedabad was the Guest Speaker in the online webinar session. Dr. Rohit Kumar, Assistant Professor, IIM Ranchi was the Moderator and students were the respondents.

Dr. Sunil Shukla talked about entrepreneurial ecosystem, entrepreneurial motivation, risk and barriers to entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial mind-set, opportunity driven entrepreneurship, and necessity driven entrepreneurship.

In terms of risks involved, there are two types of entrepreneurial risks- “sinking the boat” and “missing the boat”. Sinking the boat is when an entrepreneurial venture fails even after research and analysis, and missing the boat is when an entrepreneur spends so much time in research and analysis that by that time another entrepreneur grabs the opportunity and becomes successful. “Missing the boat is a more dangerous risk for an entrepreneur than sinking the boat” said Dr. Shukla. He cited various examples from his personal experience to give a better understanding to the audience who had joined the session. While talking about entrepreneurship in Indian context, Dr. Shukla mentioned various Government policies such as Stand-Up India and Mudra funding, and how to make the most of them. He encouraged the audience and mentioned 15 competencies that an entrepreneur should possess to achieve success.

When asked about the impact of Covid-19, he explains that all challenges must be seen as an opportunity, and the ongoing Covid-19 should be viewed as an opportunity as well. Addressing the classic conundrum of “jobs vs start-up”, Dr. Shukla quotes Narayan Murthy, “calculating the opportunity cost would have never landed me as an entrepreneur”. He explains that a person who is an entrepreneur will continue being an entrepreneur even as an employee by serving as an intrapreneur to the organization.

“Many companies those who launched innovative products, there are some inherent difficulty, but at the same time if the companies don’t innovate that means there is no risk, there is no innovation, they are saying that there is no innovation, but by not making any innovation, not experimenting in fact they increase the risk. If you are taking very high risk, that can be risky, but if I am not taking any risk at all, that also be equally risk”, Dr. Shukla Said.

Dr. Shukla also highlighted the importance of Entrepreneurship as a part of the education to motivate the students and develop the entrepreneurial mindset.

The audience also actively participated in the webinar and asked insightful questions that further stirred the conversation as they were addressed by Dr. Shukla.

The session ended with Prof. Satya Ranjan Acharya, Director of Cradle, TBI at EDII addressing the audience with a vote of thanks.