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What: Inauguration of NEN E-Week 2012, organised by the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), Calcutta, in association with The Telegraph, on February 11.
Role models: On Day 1, entrepreneurs Pramod Maloo and Swati Gautam (pictures left) shared their biz stories and gave students an insight into the hard work and pains that they had to undergo for their enterprises.
Swati Gautam, who set up the innerwear brand Necessity, spoke about lessons learnt and silver linings. “One of the black days in my life came before the launch of Necessity. I had given my goods to hawkers but Operation Sunshine struck and the hawkers disappeared with my goods. I was left penniless and had no means of getting hold of them. But every black day is followed by a ray of sunshine. I realised the need for a customised brand and that’s how Necessity was born,” smiled Swati, who has now forayed into tea with, well, Necessitea!
Walking the tightrope: For Pramod Maloo, the founder and head of Kreative Machinez, identifying the existing gap in the online industry was the starting point. But business is never a cakewalk. He spoke about the hardships of making it work in a recession-hit market and about taking tough decisions.
“I didn’t know how to pay my employees. I was in a dilemma, should I fire some or keep them on? I chose the second option, and we worked together through that phase.”
Swati urged the girls to be independent and to start a business as soon as possible. “A large number of woman graduates in Bengal do not have proper English skills. They don’t even know how to write an error-free job application. It is important to empower them. Not always will one have a new idea, but what is important is to start small — food, clothes, anything — and then slowly expand, while maintaining a balance,” was her advice to the youngsters.
Q & A: The students fired many questions. On how to set up an enterprise, Pramod replied: “With precision, performance and the right attitude.” When asked if sleepless nights, a toll on one’s personal life, initial struggles... defined an entrepreneur’s life, Swati said: “It is the independence that comes with this profession that should be looked forward to. In a country like ours, we need to generate employment opportunities all the time.”
The E-Week at IIPM will culminate on February 18.
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| Students display their creativity at the Tayloring Tactics Production game at Manageria. Picture by Amit Datta |
What: Manageria, an inter-college B-school fest organised by the MBA department (day section) of the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM),in association with The Telegraph.
When: February 8 and 9.
Where: IISWBM campus, off College Street.
The participants: The fest saw active participation from PG students as well as undergrads from many city institutions, including St. Xavier’s College and Jadavpur University.
Biz basics: Manageria tested the management skills of participants in areas like finance, marketing, brand consciousness and more.
The theme of the event, ‘I think therefore I am’, was a tribute to former students of IISWBM who have made it big, including steel baron L.N. Mittal. “We have a lot to learn from them,” pointed out event co-ordinator Abhirup Paul.
Ideas and images: Day 1 of the fest started with Knowledge ‘’ Brien, a corporate quiz, won by the home team. Next up was wordplay and wisdom in the debate competition, titled “Erasmus vs Luther”. The topic was ‘Freedom of Will’ and would-be managers had to argue whether or not freedom of will prevailed in a business environment. The debate was topped by the Institute of Engineering and Managment.
The high point of the day was the photography contest. Over 35 shutterbugs took part in the event, where they had to click pictures to describe their personality. Won by IISWBM.
Wordplay: Day II started with “Just a Moment”, where students had to impress with their convincing capabilities. The participants were further grilled in events like “Chronicles of Chanakya”, where they had to look for phrases from cues. Teams got eliminated as the rounds got tougher. Adnan Kitabi of Praxis Business School was impressed with the level of competition. “Out of 10 teams, just five made it to the final round, where we had to reintroduce an obsolete product. That was the toughest.” St. Xavier’s College emerged winner in this competition.
Other events like “The Medley” tested students on their knowledge of brands. The champion of the overall fest was IISWBM and following tradition, the home team handed over the trophy to the runners-up, St. Xavier’s College. The second runners-up was Calcutta Business School.
