E-cell inauguration at CBS

After so many hurdles and time constraints the Entrepreneur Development Cell (EDC) has been inaugurated in CBS today with the assist of Ms.Rajeshwari who is heading the EDC of CBS and student representatives- Dwarakesh and Arjun Shankar. There couldn’t be a better day than today for the inauguration of EDC, just after the exams and more importantly before the results and the day before the festival of lights, which brings in all of us a kind of festive mood. The chief guests present in the panel for today’s inauguration are Ms. Priya and Mr. Sudeep Jain IAS- Commissioner Rural Development. Dwarakesh welcomed the guests and invited Arjun Shankar to give a presentation on entrepreneurship and qualities of an entrepreneur. After Arjun’s unequivocal presentation, Dwarakesh gave a laconic introduction of Ms. Priya and invited her to enlighten the budding entrepreneurs about the EDC’s history and purpose.

Ms. Priya started off by saying how the EDC works, where students of different Colleges and B-schools join together for enriching their entrepreneurial abilities. This was followed by a clip of Kiran Mazmumdar, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon, where she talks about entrepreneurship- “creating business for yourself and job for others”.

She proceeded to elucidate the National Entrepreneur Network’s (NEN) ecosystem. This was followed by a speech by our chief guest- Mr. Sudeep Jain IAS. We came to know how selfless he is after listening to the introduction. He is a Guinness World Record holder for planting 254,464 trees in 24 hours using 300 persons. When he commenced his speech he proved his selflessness again by saying that he is not a record holder; the team is the record holder and he just led the team of 300 persons on achieving that milestone. A great example of leadership indeed!

He commenced his speech by referring to the presentation made by Arjun Shankar saying that he overlooked one of the qualities of entrepreneurs in his speech which is necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. The missing quality is passion, to be a successful entrepreneur one must be passionate about his vision. One must get excited in what he/she is doing. If they do, attaining large scale success and growth is inevitable. He asked the students as to what are the hindrances for an entrepreneur in commencing a business firm. Undisputedly finding finance is placed on top of the pyramid in the hierarchy of hindrances by the students. He changed that perception with examples of Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani,etc. He said that a good business plan will motivate venture capitalists and banks to fund the projects.

He suggested that we should start business while studying, so that we can be guided by staff and guest speakers, which is an untradeable opportunity. He also suggested institute’s management to have a course which will educate them where should students have business while studying. He concluded his inspirational speech by saying “think big and work for it” a fitting finale for his speech.

CBS E-cell couldn’t be motivated more- thanks to the inspirational speeches of Ms. Priya and Mr. Sudeep Jain. CBS has provided the platform to improve our entrepreneurial skills and NEN has promised in mentoring us. It all rests in our hands now and we will never seize to amaze you!

Contributed by K U Mohammad Anwar Sadhath, Marcom Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

A thought provoking session with Mr M.M Murugappan

It was a highly anticipated moment when we got to know that Mr. M.M Murugappan would be addressing us. It wasn’t necessarily a speech or talk, rather it was more like an open house which focused on the topic “Creating value comprehensively for all stake holders”. To start with, stake holder was a very interesting term to use- which means basically everyone who is directly or indirectly involved with the business. Business is said to involve a group of people who serve customers. Our society constitutes the people who work around us, who contribute to our day to day living and in turn create value for us.

The student fraternity of CBS was briefed about the various businesses that the Murugappa group has under its sleeve, and is looking to move ahead in taking India global. CUMI is one prime example of this. CUMI is focused to make industrial consumerables which focuses on ceramic for industrial applications. When asked about how easy or difficult it was to do business in Russia, Mr. Murugappan said that it was a challenge. However, the Murugappa group decided to retain the Russian management there. And also to add to it, the Indian staff that was positioned onsite at Russia performed far better and got accustomed to the culture, climate, food and people faster than expected.

Mr. Murugappan also threw light on what he thought were the key success factors in any form of business. They are: Passion, Quality, Respect, Responsibility and Integrity. Keeping these five factors tightly coupled and as important drivers, one could establish considerable credibility and success. And not to mention- ‘Good work always gets recognition’- was more like the icing on the cake.

Contributed by Vivek A – International Management Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)