Entrepreneurship development Archives

Entrepreneurship – Job and Wealth Creation

(Entrepreneurism must be practiced to be learned)

Entrepreneurial success does not take place in a vacuum. Entrepreneurs exist in the context of their particular geography – be that their local, national, or even supranational economy and society. This mix of attitudes, resources, and infrastructure is known as the entrepreneurship ‘ecosystem’.

Having an entrepreneurial mind-set is critical to being successful as an entrepreneur. An entrepreneurial mind-set stands alone in terms of its importance. No other attribute, personality, inherent entrepreneurial proclivities, training, or demographic profile is common to all successful entrepreneurs whether Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, or the neighbourhood florist or grocer.

Family controlled businesses, both private and publicly-traded, are characterized by unique challenges that threaten their continuity and distinct core competencies.

The challenges are primarily the result of issues presented by the changing ecosystem, government laws, and interaction of family, management and ownership -particularly where the family wishes to perpetuate its influence and/or control from generation to generation.

A large majority of successful companies started as entrepreneurship and few survive into the second generation. Family Business Management has to undergo changes in order to thrive in India.

The leadership issues, adoption of technology, modern HR practices and corporate governance will help companies to become more competitive and relevant.

It is imperative that students learn entrepreneurship as a course to delve deep and understand “What is entrepreneurship” and what it take to have an “Entrepreneurial mindset”.

IILM University focuses on providing such an education to students through an entrepreneurial ecosystem. This course aims to give basic fundamentals to students towards understanding the ecosystem for entrepreneurship and startups and a direction towards developing a mindset for pursuing this as a desired program in as a specialization and an area to work on for wealth creation. The students are also given an exposure into understanding the fundamentals involved in ideation, researching the idea, knowledge about finances in the entrepreneurial space.

While understanding the entrepreneurial journey it would be of fundamental importance to understand the entrepreneurial and startup system in India which is aggressively promoted by GOI. The Startup India initiative launched in January 2016 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered incentives to such ventures to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation

Students will explore some of the myths and key facts about entrepreneurship, and find out what it takes to be an entrepreneur, so that they can conduct their own self-assessment and identify priorities for their own growth as an entrepreneur.

Students will learn how to unlock creativity and innovation to help generate more and better entrepreneurial ideas. This course provides learners with insights to re-frame their thinking in order to maximize their chances for success.

The course provides learners with an understanding of the attributes and perspectives of an entrepreneurial mindset, and the process to acquire one. The course introduces concepts that enable a person to start a trans-formative process in the way they think generally, and in the way they think about business specifically. This new way of thinking has the potential to positively impact not only them, but their family, and community.

So what can a learner expect to gain from this course? At the end of this course a learner:

Will be able to argue effectively against all of the reasons for not starting their business (or reaching some goal);
Will be able to operate effectively within the new framework or model for starting a business (or any new endeavor), thus increasing their chances for success; and
Will be able to make the initial business startup decisions of what type of business to start, and what type of business owner to be.

Entrepreneurism must be practiced to be learned

Maybe a student knows and wants to be an entrepreneur, but you’re not sure where to start? This course is for anyone aspiring to be an entrepreneur – regardless of the industry or type of venture you might have in mind.

The course will enable a student to think and maybe start with a project and develop insights to pursue detailed learning towards job and wealth creation.

A country with large publicly funded science and technology infrastructure and a considerable education base, India has not been able to comprehend its innovative potential due to a fragmented innovation ecosystem. Many initiatives have been taken by the government towards intensification of the innovation ecosystem, the most imperative ones are: i) the establishment of the National Innovation Council, whose mandate is to coordinate various innovation-related activities, and ii) the new Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2013, which is intended to encourage entrepreneurship and science-led solutions for sustainable and comprehensive growth. Centering on the new policy initiative, this article describes the current innovation ecosystem and the challenges it faces, and it discusses the efforts made by the government towards the promotion of innovation for entrepreneurship development and sustainable growth. With the implementation of this new policy the early indications are that India is poised to take a big leap towards innovation-led growth.

The aim of the government has been to build employment opportunities for youth while edging on economic growth. Entrepreneurship development is one of the mechanisms adopted by the Government of India towards the creation of job opportunities. There have been notable efforts taken by the government by announcing conducive policies and also efforts by various government departments towards fulfilling the above vision. The government’s assumption is that support for innovation will augment entrepreneurship development, which will in turn accelerate economic growth.

This article provides the necessary background to place the current innovation ecosystem within the Indian context, highlights some of the related challenges facing India today, and describes efforts made by the government towards the promotion of innovation for entrepreneurship development.

The core of India’s current economic systems goes back to the time of colonial rule and its dictatorial and fragmented formation. The country was made to forcefully serve as a market to its colonial bosses and their industrial products. The foundations of the today’s legal, financial, educational, bureaucratic governance systems were inherited from the colonial period. However, one key area of change following independence involved the adoption of a closed economy that relied heavily on central planning, restricted imports, and nationalization of industries. The people of India, especially the young, crave employment. There is a constraint to employment opportunities offered by the various sectors of economy, but the government does provide employment guarantee programs. However, these programs are targeted at providing basic needs and tend to provide labour-intensive jobs that have no link with innovation. To sustain rapid growth and alleviate poverty, India needs to aggressively harness its innovative potential, relying on innovation-led, rapid, and inclusive growth to achieve economic and social transformation. The innovative potential of the young Indian population, if provided support through an effective innovation ecosystem, holds potential for developing entrepreneurship and providing the growth and job opportunities that India needs.

India’s national innovation system

National innovation system in India is a huge and multifaceted system comprised of knowledge producers such as science and technology institutions, academia, and innovating individuals and knowledge users (e.g., industry-production/services in the public and private sectors). There are financial institutions such as the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), which lend support for innovation and also for commercialization of innovative technologies besides entrepreneurship. Also, various fiscal incentives are offered by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research towards the R&D activities performed by institutions, academia, and industry for supporting, nurturing and leading their innovations towards completion. Strong efforts have been made to harness the innovative capabilities of these structures by connecting them to one another and to industry and society, forming an innovation ecosystem.

India’s innovation ecosystem

Broadly speaking, an innovation ecosystem is a combination of two distinct but largely separated economies: i) the knowledge economy (comprised of knowledge producers), which is driven by fundamental research, and ii) the commercial economy (comprised of knowledge users), which is driven by the marketplace. In India, the innovation ecosystem includes the entire national innovation system described in the previous section, plus individual innovators and entrepreneurs; mentors; government policies; angel, venture capital, institutional, and industrial funding mechanisms, intellectual property rights mechanisms; technology transfer mechanisms; market inputs; and incentives, awards, and other innovation-recognition mechanisms, among others. Ideally, these various structures and mechanisms facilitate the smooth translation of innovations through the various segments of a complex innovation chain that takes ideas from “mind to market”.

Thus, the functional goal of the innovation ecosystem is to enable technology development and innovation. But, how well is India’s innovation ecosystem performing today? According to the Global Innovation Index (WIPO, 2014), India ranks 76th among the 143 countries surveyed, having fallen 10 positions since the last report and having fallen relative to other BRIC economies.

Key challenges faced by India’s innovation ecosystem and entrepreneurship in general are listed and described below are fragmented policy and policy implementation, Inadequate funding of R&D, Difficult and lengthy funding procedures, Constrained regulations for Angel, venture capital and private equity investors, Inadequate infrastructure facilities in villages

Conclusion

India has a large, demographically diverse population, with many young people seeking employment. The country is on a path to growth, but the rate of growth has been slow. The government has realized the roots of the basic problems and made appropriate reforms, mainly in the areas of administration, economy, and labour, as it tries to free itself from negative aspects of its colonial legacy. There has been a significant development in the area of science, technology, and innovation in past 20 years, and many initiatives have been undertaken in that direction. Realizing that the innovation-led entrepreneurship development holds promise for expansion, the government has taken key policy initiatives with a robust innovation agenda.

There are formidable challenges in realizing the goal, but as this article has shown, the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2013 is a big step in the right direction, because it addresses most of the key challenges in developing an effective innovation ecosystem. The main initiatives are provision of funds and removing the sluggishness in the ecosystem for innovations by improving linkages and making it vibrant in a comprehensive way. The policy is in place; now, its success depends on its implementation. Some time will needed before conclusions can be drawn about the policy’s ultimate effects on the growth path. However, the new direction reflects strong growth aspirations and resonates with the zeal and zest of the youth who wish to journey on the risky path of innovation-based entrepreneurship.

In a broader sense, innovation is important to the advancement of society around the world. New and innovative products can increase the standard of living and provide people with opportunities to improve their lives. Breakthroughs in medicine and technology have significantly improved living standards around the world. Innovation has also lead to significant improvements in the way businesses operate and has closed the gaps between different markets.