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Hindustan Times - Horizons (Delhi)
January 7, 2004
Radhika Sachdev
In true NRI tradition, Romesh Wadhwani, the founder of Aspect
Development, a global provider of B2B e-commerce solutions
has established the Wadhwani Foundation in Mumbai.
The Wadhwani Foundation recently funded a Chair Professorship
in Entrepreneurship at Romesh Wadhwani’s alma mater,
IIT Mumbai. Laura Parkin, Executive Director, Wadhwani Foundation
talks about the organization’s entrepreneurship development
plans.
Have you identified any particular areas
where Wadhwani Foundation would like to assist entrepreneurs?
Our intent is not to give money directly to potential entrepreneurs,
as that is the way to launch successful businesses. Instead,
we have created a National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN)
of five premier institutes, who will fund programmes and activities
to inspire and support new entrepreneurs.
The support can come in the form of knowledge (say, in accounting,
legal, finance and technical fields); skills (the ability
to identify a value proposition, manage risk, sell goods and
services, process information, and priorities task); and networks
(with potential customers, financers, suppliers, co-founders,
and employees).
What in your opinion are the barriers
faced by potential entrepreneurs in India?
The main barrier relates to a lack of market-orientation,
along with the general misconception that entrepreneurs and
businessmen are all gamblers and risk-takers.
The fact however is, that a good number of successful entrepreneurs
do not take any risk – they just identify and manage
risk. NEN will be developing programmes for students and executives
that will hopefully help develop these key skills in Indian
entrepreneurs.
The trend in India is to graduate, obtain
an MBA and then launch a business. Is that the right path
to entrepreneurship?
I am afraid not. It’s not correct to expect that a
student should immediately launch a business upon graduation.
My recommendation is first gain some experience in the industry,
learn the market, and when you see an opportunity, and are
prepared for it, be ready to seize it. For a more immediate
launching of entrepreneurs, NEN institutions will offer seminars
and courses to executives contemplating the launch of a new
business.
How were these five NEN institution selected?
It was long-drawn, rigorous process. The judges panel included
Harsh Mariwala of Marico, Jerry Rao of Mphasis, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
of Biocon, Naina Lal Kidwai of HSBC, Sunil Mittal of Bharti
Telecom, Rob Chernow, SVP of Kauffman Foundation, Prof. Howard
Stevenson of Harvard Business School and myself. Close to
250 institutions participated in the selection, out of which
17 made it to the semi-finalist’s list and we finally
zeroed in on five. Broadly, our selection criteria were:
| 1.Potential Impact |
| Has the Institute |
| number of |
| the past? And, would |
| in NEN increase the |
| scope of their already |
| entrepreneurship |
| |
| 2.Leadership: |
| Is there a lot of |
| entrepreneurial |
| activities in terms of |
| support or student |
| |
| 3.Innovation: |
| Has the institution |
| run such programmes |
| |
| 4.Demonstrated |
| execute: |
| Have these |
| been successful? |
| |
| 5.Strength and |
| area of |
| development: |
| Will the institution be |
| such efforts, down the |
| |
| We were very |
| BITS because it was |
| a very strong |
| development |
| through its alumni. |
| school and distance |
|
| Snapshots |
| The opening
of the economy, technological enablers, the
growth of new markets and the example of successful
Diaspora have made entrepreneurship a much-discussed
subject in the country.
Recently, the Wadhwani Foundation short-listed
five prestigious institutes – the
Birla Institute of Technology & Science
(BITS), Pilani; the Indian Institute of
Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A); the Indian
Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B),
the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied
Biotechnology (IBAB), Bangalore and the
S P Jain Institute of Management and Research,
Mumbai – as the nodal centers of its
National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN).
After building three companies in three
decades and currently building his fourth,
Wadhwani felt he had lots to share on the
values that successful entrepreneurs can
create for themselves, their families, and
for the society they live in.
“The economic greatness of a country
is fuelled by the strength and vitality
of its entrepreneurs. India has the raw
entrepreneurship potential to make it one
of the world’s fastest growing economies.
However, to unleash this potential, we need
to actively encourage, mentor and support
our first generation entrepreneurs, which
is what we are attempting to do through
this Foundation,” says Romesh Wadhwani,
himself a first generation entrepreneur. |
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|
| |
| spawned a high |
| entrepreneurs in its |
| participation |
| scale, quality or |
| existing |
| programmes? |
| |
| |
| enthusiasm for |
| development |
| institutional |
| interest? |
| |
| |
| developed and |
| in the past? |
| |
| ability to |
| |
| programmes |
| |
| |
| passion in an |
| entrepreneurial |
| |
| able to sustain |
| road? |
| |
| impressed with |
| already running |
| entrepreneurial |
| programme |
| Their practice |
| learning |
|
| programmes,
in particular, are very well co-ordinated. We were also
impressed because there is tremendous scope for distance
learning programmes in entrepreneurship. |
Who will co-ordinate activities between
these five institutes?
NEN will be developed and run by the five partner institutes
themselves. Their efforts will be largely co-ordinated through
the Wadhwani Foundation’s team, based in Mumbai.
When we say, “create entrepreneurial
opportunities” do we mean merely in the urban sector
or are there any specific programmes targeted at the rural
youth as well?
NEN is specifically keen on launching entrepreneurs who have
found and built high-growth organizations.
Our agenda is not industry-specific or region-specific, i.e.
specifically urban. We realize that an entrepreneur building
a company like Amul is likely to require skills and resources
as that of an entrepreneur building a company like Infosys.
Tell us something about the Wadhwani
Fellowship programme that you have recently launched.
These Fellowships will bring faculty members from India to
the US together to study models and best practices in entrepreneurial
development, and fund some relevant research or development
of educational content in this area. Later, the Fellows will
also conduct workshops in India, in order to share information
and spark innovation in entrepreneurial education.
How does Ashoka come into this picture?
We felt that leading social entrepreneurs also create enormous
value by tackling social problems with the zeal, creativity
and determination matching that of business entrepreneurs.
Yet they suffer from lack of support, financial or otherwise.
That’s when we decided to work with Ashoka, an organization
that is supporting over 1,200 social entrepreneurs in 43 countries.
The aim is to identify Wadhwani-Ashoka Fellows – social
entrepreneurs who are building non-profit organizations in
India that are employing new approaches to solving problems
faced by the severely disadvantaged.
You have also commissioned a National
Entrepreneurship Survey. When is this report due?
The National Entrepreneurship Survey is co-led by Prof. Amar
Bhide of Columbia and the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore.
The study is an effort to understand the environmental issues
that influence entrepreneurship, both positive factors and
barriers to entrepreneurship. The study will focus on factors
that can and should be addressed through government policy.
You are also running a Wadhwani Grants
Programme. What does that do?
This is targeted mainly at the disability sector, supporting
efforts in special education, preventative and rehabilitative
health, economic reform, and development of people with disabilities.
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