OVERVIEW of 1st day of WORKSHOP

Yesterday we had a mesmerizing talk by Mr Sunil Handa. His lecture not only captivated the spirits of the audiences but also entertained us with timely jokes.

He started with a real life story about one of his student Narendra at IIM-A. He talked at length about the hurdles he faced in his way to become a successful entrepreneur (today he is holding a 1700 crore business).he emphasized that to be an entrepreneur “ Push yourself from inside ,Be cruel to yourself ‘

He told his life story and about his upbringing and it was really surprising to know that his father was a low paid worker in a textile mill. He recalled how he used to share even the old clothes of his brother in the childhood and then he reminded his BITS story.

He appreciated BITS for playing a fantastic role in his life .After passing out from IIM-A he just preferred to work for a small company though he was getting placement offers from big companies. He left the company job in 21 months just to start up his own venture so he started with a management consultancy and later on ,he started a pharmaceutical manufacturing industry which became largest manufacturer of IV fluids in the second year of its operation and it is third largest in the world today.

He emphasized on the fact that the cream of brilliant minds who reach BITS after a grueling BITSAT should not be contented with a job whatever be the pay package. That’s why he motivated everyone to be an entrepreneur. In his opinion:
“Put your Fears aside and be Brave, be Adventurous to be an EntrepreneuR.”

A question was raised from the audience regarding what is the difference between taking risk or a calculated risk. Audience was content with the answers they got for the queries that arised in their minds.Thich kept the audiences engrossed 100% in the lecture. He quoted a beautiful thought that “Human beings are infinite if we get something we like ,we never get tired of it ” In short explore your ideas and stick to them .According to him business is a spiritual khoj, and his message to students was “Don’t do jobs , do business “ Don’t be an employee ,be an employer …be a HERO”

Then he told us about the steps he has taken in bringing reforms in the Democratic system as a member of ADR ( Association for Democratic Reforms) and how he helped afflicted people in Gujrat earthquake by setting up a school.

At the end he emphasized that every person along with job or business can use his skills of organizing, engineering and negotiation to help and serve the society to make this earth a better place to live.

Kavikrut ,an eminent speaker and COO of the Mobile Medics began with an interesting question: What is important for a social entrepreneur- Impact or the Money.Then he drew a clear cut demarcation between the two. He elaborated about the idea he had , its implementation and difficulties he faced so as to motivate the students to become a social entrepreneur and give them real issues which a social entrepreneur faces. In short he provided us with a REALITY CHECK because its well said All that glitters is not gold.After all this he discussed different models like Charity, EMRI model and Optimized/Maximized profits.

He started with the challenges which his team faced for their venture Mobile Medics. He emphasized on problems one faces while starting a venture in rural INDIA like Trust building or Working conditions .The next hurdle is finding like minded people in a team who are just focused for one thing. For all the challenges, he refers solution to be Patience and Persistence.
He discussed how he actually implemented his idea, the money he started with was all the prize money (USD 35,000) and how he got an immense support from BITS Incubation Centre.

He kept up the inquisitiveness of the audience by telling them how he went about implementing his idea and what made the execution of his ideas difficult. The major difficulty was Unavailability of medical team, doctors were not available or they denied to work in the harsh conditions. For this problem, he proposed a Practice school kind of a thing for doctors.Second was the legal issues he faced while the most important is Problem of Self Motivation.

He stressed that for implementing any business ,get real ,do the reality checks from time to time just to check the sustainability and the feasibility of your idea.

He shared the lessons which he has learnt from his failed venture. One was that Trust building is important while other is Tangible pricing .He defined entrepreneurship as “ State of being an Entrepreneur”. He said “A team is required to bear the risk and the most important, an entrepreneur should be ready to bear of volatility of any kind in his path.”

At the end he concluded saying “ Dive but make sure that water is deep enough”