Junior World Entrepreneurship Forum highlights opportunities for success in business

PUNE - Europe Asia Business School (EABS) played host to the Junior World Entrepreneurship Forum in Pune this past week.

The forum, founded by KPMG and the Emlyon Business School (France), serves as a platform for budding young entrepreneurs to listen to, interact and benefit from the experiences of successful entrepreneurs from across various industry and societal strata.

The Pune edition of the forum witnessed the participation of over 25 successful entrepreneurs from diverse industries, nationalities and social strata sharing their success stories and advice.

The occasion marked the first time that this event has been organized in India.

Delivering a powerful opening address, both Sanjay Jha, Founder CricketNext.com and Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, CEO Zensar Technologies, dwelled on four striking themes of entrepreneurship “Entrepreneurship at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, “Entrepreneurial cities of India”, “Avant Gardener - The changing face of Entrepreneurship in India”, and “Madayanti - Versatile Women Entrepreneurs”.
Jha further goaded every member in the audience to acknowledge and accept that self confidence is the most important attribute in entrepreneurship.

He told them that “The man you see in the mirror is the biggest differentiator in life”.

Dr.Natarajan went on to describe the key attributes of a CEO as “‘C’lairvoyant, ‘E’vangelist and ‘O’ratory.”

The Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) discussion was scintillating in the way it opened the eyes of the audience to the opportunities available in that societal strata and the attitude required to succeed there.

Sanjeev Rao, an INSEAD alumnus and founder of G2I Ventures quipped “let us not try and teach the poor, let’s learn what they want”.

Giving a new perspective on the issue of disparity of incomes in India, Bhaskar Babu, CEO Sarvoday Microfinance, quoted to much applause “I do not want to get richer by making Mukesh Ambani poorer. I want to lift the bottom without pulling down the top!”.

Xavier Bertrand, CEO of Chanel India and Trustee Planet Finance, opined “the aspirations of youth has the power to transform the world”.

The panel discussion was followed by a captivating interaction with successful BOP entrepreneurs in Pune, including Vijay More - Founder, Amir Chicken and Eggs and Mukesh Jha and Janardhan Prasad, Co-Founders of Dial-an-Auto.

The Avant Gardener panel discussion aimed to explore the change in the Indian Entrepreneurship scenario.

Panel chairperson Pradeep Tagare, Director Intel Capital India, provided examples of small companies utilizing the internet to operate breakthrough businesses from remote locations.

Listening to him was an opportunity for the audience to get fantastic insights into the mind of a seasoned Venture Capitalist. Praneet Mungali, an ISB alumnus and founder of Sanskriti School in Pune, spoke about non-traditional approaches to the traditional education industry.

Atul Goel, MD Goel Ganga Group gave insightful nuggets about entrepreneurship in the space of urban development and the growing appetite of governments to fund societal change agents.

Shashank Paranjpe, MD Paranjpe Schemes, discussed how superior infrastructure provides the core foundation for creating an entrepreneurship-friendly ecosystem.

Amit Grover, an IIT-IIM alumnus, who runs an entrepreneur training academy provided invaluable tips for budding entrepreneurs.

He persuaded them to “not keep their ideas close to their heart. Instead, constantly validate them with friends and experts.”

The last forum of the two-day event brought together an eclectic mix of young as well as seasoned women entrepreneurs.

The enthralling session turned out to be an eye opener to the largely male audience - as nuggets of insight flew fast from all the women on the panel.

Dr. Uma Ganesh, CEO Global Talent Track and a first generation entrepreneur opened the discussion by talking about the changing perspectives and prejudices in society about women entrepreneurs.

Gunjan Aggarwal, an ex-investment banker turned entrepreneur spoke about how “entrepreneurs are job creators while the rest are job seekers”.

She persuaded the audience to have passion and loyalty towards their idea but to be open to the fact that “what one starts with is not necessarily where they end up”.

Harini Calamur, producer of the award-winning movie Jhing Chik Jhing, voiced a powerful idea about how “women are able to bring whole new approaches to business management as historically they have rarely been at the helm of things, and therefore, don’t carry set thought patterns about ‘how things must be done to succeed’”.

Awe-inspiring Kruti Jain, Director Kumar Builders, who inspired confidence in the women in the audience by talking about her entrepreneurial endeavours at an incredibly young age, was also present as a panel member.

Dr. Nikhil Agarwal, Director EABS and an alumnus of Cambridge University, officially closed the event with the comments “JWEF is a great start as it gives the budding entrepreneurs a chance to interact with likeminded people and thought leaders from across 50 countries. We can leverage this opportunity and maybe take it further by formulating a consulting firm powered by EABS students to aid micro entrepreneurs take their business to a newer level.”

The Europe Asia Business School (EABS) is a premier business school set up by alumnus of Harvard and Cambridge Universities. The school is funded by Intel Capital and Helion Ventures and promoted by top industry executives like Dr. Ganesh Natarajan (former Nasscom Chair) and Mr. Sanjiv Agarwal (founder IBM Daksh).

EABS offers a) 1 year Full-time PGPM program and b) 2 year weekend Executive MBA program at Pune and Gurgaon campuses. Website: www.eabs.ac.in. (ANI)