The Envision Cell- Entrepreneurship and Industry Relations Cell of IIM Bodh Gaya successfully conducted the second edition of “Entrepreneurial Talk Series.” The event was held on the 21st of August, 2021, on the occasion of “World Entrepreneurs Day.” Prominent industry leaders shared their impactful thoughts. The speakers for the day were Mr. Sudarshan Motwani, CEO & Founder, BookMyForex; Mr. Manish Kumar, Founder, Farms & Farmers; and Ms. Manisha Sharaf, CRO & Founder, SuperProcure. They enlightened the students with their insightful thoughts and encouraged them to own up to their entrepreneurial ideas.
The event began with Dr. Vinita Sahay, Director, IIM Bodh Gaya, giving a warm and welcoming address to the chief guests, faculty, and students. She emphasized the importance of entrepreneurship and the need to change the institute from being the center of job-seekers to the center of job-creators. The change in Consumer Behaviour is bringing a plethora of opportunities. She shared an example of an IIM Bodh Gaya alumnus who had a blueprint of an idea and acted upon it to leverage the opportunity.
The event started officially with the speech of the first speaker Mr. Sudarshan Motwani. According to him, an entrepreneur is someone who observes his environment and the market and understands what problems need to be solved. He also suggested that one should also assess whether the solution is acceptable and adaptable by the market. He added that a businessman just runs a business, but an entrepreneur brings logic to the business idea. He shared his journey and the ups and downs he faced. He concluded his speech with a message that not all entrepreneurial ideas are successful. Some might fail, but only those who learn from their mistakes will become triumphant.
The second speaker for the day was Mr. Manish Kumar, who shared his experience of starting an organization with an interactive presentation. He emphasized that the process might be lengthy, from finding a suitable partner to an angel investor, but if one has a unique idea, then any startup can succeed. According to him, there is a need for educated and well-informed people in the agriculture domain as there is much potential for future growth in the sector.
Lastly, Ms. Manisha Sharaf shared glimpses of her journey and experience with SuperProcure. It is an organization that provides transportation solutions to its customers. Based on the SaaS platform, SuperProcure enables people to take help from individuals with high technical knowledge to provide the best services to their consumers. In the end, she encouraged the female students by emphasizing the importance of women entrepreneurs. She said that the right time for women to become entrepreneurs is now, as the government policies and environment also favor it.
Such events are encouraging for students to realize their ideas and stand out from the crowd. One such inspiring example is of Arindam Bera, MBA 07, who started the initiative by Bera Industries (OPC) Pvt Ltd very recently in 2018. The industry holds recognition as India’s top 500 startups 2021 by CNBC Awaaz & BSE (SME). His initiative is about handicraft designing and development and employs as many as around fifteen tribal people regularly. There is another such story of an innovative initiative started by Gokulnath R, MBA 06. The industry went by the name of IGNITED MINDS. The PSG TECH alumni created it under the guidance of faculty members from PSG College of Technology Robotics Department, Coimbatore. Through their initiative, they are trying to help a large community of students, educational institutions, and others in the same industry in robotics, artificial learning, and STEM learning.
The logo of the incubation center of the institute was also unveiled in the session. In the end, Dr. Amresh Kumar extended a vote of thanks to all the speakers including the faculty coordinators, Dr. Tamali Chakraborty and Dr. Medha Srivastava.