As the sun was setting and the sky was opening up with a light drizzle, IWSB’s campus wore a festive look, for the Class of 2011 walked in a ceremonial procession to take the last bow at their alma mater to get their degrees. Sanjeev Bhikchandani, founder of Naukri.com, one of the celebrated first generation entrepreneurs of India in recent times was the guest of honour to award the degrees and excellence awards to the budding entrepreneurial leaders.

Sanjeev, was indeed the right person to be there for the apt occasion of the second convocation, as IWSB is setting new standards for being only one of a kind institution in the country in facilitating youth to become entrepreneurial leaders.

The welcome address by the Director, Prof Arindam Lahiri, outlined the achievements this year. In short span of time, the students in IWSB have received national and international recognitions – Rural Management Association of India’s (RMAI) best rural business model national award, Cherie Blair Foundation NEN fellowship for young women entrepreneur – to name a few.  The institution has been honored by NEN (National Entrepreneurial Network) for the third consecutive year as one of the most entrepreneurial campuses of the country. The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) co-opted IWSB to launch its much-acclaimed international programme, TYE – The young entrepreneurs programme for school going students. In the first batch, about 50 students (of classes 8-12) selected from various schools of Delhi underwent this programme at IIT Delhi as the venue, with IWSB anchoring the whole programme.

Exhorting the youngsters, both the graduating batch and the PG12 batch, Sanjeev spoke about humble beginnings of his journey as an entrepreneur from a middle class family.  He said that three things are very important for them to excel in life.

• First – look for meaning in whatever you choose to do, and not go after money. He shared his struggles for the first seven years of not being able to take salary regularly from his firm. Success lies in there.

• Second – persistence and perseverance are the key to success. Look for a pot of gold in twenty years and not in twenty months. Have a plan of what you would like to achieve in five, ten and fifteen years and be focused at any cost. One in hundred do it and they make everything happen.

• Third – Dream Big, Start small – your dream needs to be audacious but it gets built in small ounces every day. Secret lies in what you do to succeed in the smaller steps towards achieving the big dream. Nothing is small if you really pursue purposefully.

Earlier, Satya, Chairman of Board of governors (BoG), IWSB and founder chairman of Career Launcher group, in his address shared his journey and said that being humble while chasing your dreams is the key to success.

Gautam Puri, Vice-chair, BoG, concluded the formal session with his address and vote of thanks.

The whole of the evening was taken care of by the PG12 students with active support of the faculty. Kudos to the organizing team.

IWSB Excellence Awards Winner for the year – Ankita Gupta

Ankita Gupta, who has won national and international laurels that include the RMAI and Cherie Blair Foundation NEN fellowship, received the BOG excellence award as well as the IWSB entrepreneurial leader for the Class of 2011.

Ankita Gupta – A final year student and recipient of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women-National Entrepreneurship Network Fellow 2010 Award, Ankita is a perfect representation of the IWSB values. A consistent performer and leader throughout her academic life, for Ankita the visit to an exhibition by the National Innovation Foundation was the start of a new journey.

Initiated by IWSB alumnus Mr. Jaydeep Mandal of PG10 and his batchmates, she worked along with her batchmate Shobhit of PG11, as a part of Sahyog to start and change the way woman in rural India lived. The project was about producing affordable sanitary napkins to facilitate better personal hygiene. Unlike most of us who see an idea, appreciate it and forget it, Ankita pursued it with passion. The woman of Sararsariya Village manufactured sanitary napkins at a small cost and retailed them within the community at an MRP of Rs. 2 per unit, bringing hygiene and a livelihood to the village community. Now Ankita plans to join a young firm in the rural marketing space to gain precious experience to pursue her dream of rural entrepreneurship.

Tradition of creating entrepreneurs at IWSB

The very purpose of IWSB is to stoke entrepreneurial leadership and the results started to show from the first batch – class of 2010 itself.

• Prabhakar Borah and Jitumoni Mahanta from the class of 2010, started their venture in food processing – Fusions Eureka – in Guwahati even before they finished their PGPM

• Jaydeep Mandal, another class of 2010, MD-Aakaar Ventures, based out of Delhi, doing consultancy in the area of grass root innovation to market place and has also launched a Herbal beauty products.

• Vipresh Sharma, class of 2010, a first graduate from a farming family went back to his roots in Aligarh to start Bhagwati Herbal Agro Solutions that focuses on organic farming and rural employment

• Saurav Goyal, during PGPM study, Saurav had a plan to open a play schools in his home state of Chattisgarh

In the current passing out class of 2011

• Jayesh Suri, at the end of his first year, jumped into entrepreneurship along with his childhood friend, in his hometown of Ahmedebad.  BLIS (Bhuved Land Information System) www.bhuved.in helps in understanding the existing land condition and future development of the area as planned by government development authority the information which can useful for builders, developer and constructions related business; also provides an ERP for mining industry which includes best choice of supplier information, billing, inventory management modules giving comprehensive site management capabilities.

• Krishna Boddapati Reddy has been running his educational consultancy for education abroad. He intends to spread this to cater to greater educational needs of the underprivileged children. He along with a few of his batchmates and pg12 batch have been proactively running the SEE (society for empowerment through education) program that teaches about 50 kids at IWSB.

• Sushant Yattam intends to open an Artist Microfinance Co., currently the model is functional in South Africa.  He intends to import idea and the model to India. It intends to promote the artists that are unable to get a proper platform due to financial support.

In the present batch (2010-2012) four students have already start their own ventures.

• Kanu Mangotra – (JMD’z Pratza) A first year student has turned a simple idea around to meet the obvious needs of the college community that she is part of. Kanu supplies burgers to canteens of colleges in Greater Noida. It started with eight pieces and one canteen, and now she is the regular supplier to two institutes with two more in the bag to be started right after her first year exams. Kanu currently employs one woman, a widow, and her association with the Society for Empowerment through Education (SEE) at IWSB has given her the idea of employing woman who work as construction workers and are looking at better work environments. With her workforce set, Kanu plans to take a few classes from her Hotel Management friends to obtain know-how on upgrading and preserving quality. Her next steps include starting a kiosk at the institute, taking care of catering services and supplying to one of the large eatery chain in the country, with her precious profits till date acting as seed fund.

• Sumeet Sharma has also made a small beginning with another student Arpit Kala (Concern – NOW) that is into retailing perishable food products to hostels and homes. Additionally he is exploring the possibility of putting up a unit making bullet proof jacket.

• Syed Inam ul Arsh is from Jammu & Kashmir who is actively working on creating an educational consultancy in Srinagar. After completion of the course he intends to take his educational avenue guidance consultancy for the young generation of Jammu & Kashmir to the next level. His motivation, locating an opportunity to help fellow citizens.

There are a few more who are rearing to take off in their second year of the programme with business plans in place. Long live the entrepreneurial spirit of the institution and the country.

sreeni@iwsb.in