[DesiGuru]

Originally Posted by Sak-Z

Desi ,
Valid Points.

Cant we make this discussion more lively by ideating on some points. Here are some I could think of right away.
1. Does a proper B School education make an entrepreneur? Again the word 'proper' is subject to debate. Do you believe that the Pygmalion effect can take place on an individual, who dreams of high salaries and a good job when he/she enters a campus and convert him/her to an entrepreneur?

No Bschool can make an entrepreneur out of a non-risk taker. Its a fiercely individualistic and risky science.
The best a 'proper Bschool' can hope to avhiece is to create the right atmosphere for the entrepreneurial student to continue on his individualistic pursuits... So in the right atmosphere... the dormant entrepreneur inside might come out with all guns blazing...

2. Could an MBA education have changed the course of Dhirubhai Ambani or Mittal? BTW LN Mittal seems to have once dreamt of doing MBA and PhD (ref. Yesterday's TOI)

if mittal had done an MBA he probably would be Vice President Tata Steel today... that might be pushing it though... those who are in their hearts entrepreneurial will probably continue no matter what...

3. Does BSchools curb an individual's creativity and drive, through structured curriculum and rigorous grading systems? Are they not creating managers than innovators?

You cant get everything right... Like quantum mechanics... If you try measuring the velocity of an electron u will only get an approx value because the measurement process itself affects the results. A structured curriculum and the grading systems creates a great manager and good CEOs even but might trouble the unconventional among us...


Pls ponder on these lines and add your own.

4. Do the parents play an important role in deciding their children's career choices, especially of those from the 'middle class'?

Absolutely and quite unfortunately this is true. An entrepreneur from the middle class is going to get it big time from his family who will not understand why their smart kid doesnt want to go continue with his 6lakh pa job and bet it all on starting a business.

K

[the thinker]

hey

nice to know someone thinking of entrepreneurship too !!

I feel its all about PASSION and one simple idea which drives u nuts and makes u lose sleep...After that MBA or no MBA does not matter...If I chucked off my placements and have already jumped into starting my own training centre in chandigarh...I knew it was all coz of this passion...

I feel really proud to have taken that jump....and really hope may our community grow!!

[DesiGuru]

i heard they asked this in an interview... there are not many but there are a few famous ones...

Vinod Khosla stanford mba started daisy systems and SUN microsystems. SUN was his idea so we wont give any credit to the other MBA among the founders Scott McNealy.
John Doerr harvard MBA started silicon compilers not a big success
both of the above are today among the world's greatest VCs
i think cisco was started by a couple of stanford mbas...
Warren Buffett is a Columbia MBA (reject from Harvard) started berkshire hathaway, second richest man in the world.

you guys can add more... these are the main ones on my mind.

[casinova]

hi

guys its really interesting to see so many people willing to be an enterprenuer but the fact is its just cant be done only by thoughts oneneed to take na action

lets discuss what could be done what an enterprenuer need to have

what r the oppurtunities

and we need to have knowledge

i would like to know school teaching enter. for a year

this would be better thing

how to get finance

what to do

ready to face opposition from family, friend, g/f society (they feel that we r not that mature enough as if it come by birth)

really how many r intersted to do what

i really believe next era is ours

lets start and sell our product to the world

plz lts be focus it by this way this thread will be more help ful

after reading this if there is interested plz mail me

on darshan10_vayeda@yahoo.co.in

[guy_next_door83]

ahh....research...that seems to be the hot topic of the day....lemme share somethin that i have first hand knowledge of....lets take up one mr. Ranganathan....yes, the MD of Cavin Care ( for the uninitiated , he was the ET entrepreneur of the year)....now , in one of my interactions with him, he told me, that the market research he did bfor introducing the sachets of shampoos in the market, all gave him a categorically negative feedback..that it wud be absolutely futile....but our man..with all the odds stacked against him....with the 25000 rs that he had taken as loan...and started what we today know as the sachet revolution in the country...givin HLL & others a bad run for their money....yes....Entrepreneurship needs madness, but i am afriad there has to be a method to the madness........essentially...one swallow does not summer make.....so ...entrepreneurship..in its purest sense...is about conceiving an idea..and beleive in it.....everything else jus follows...

Cheers
God Speed
Yogesh

[guy_next_door83]

and...bfor i forget...it doesnt really help matters by comparing apples with mangoes....like someone said ..Succesful Entreprenurs are nobler than doctors....well....all i d say is..in our pursuit to promote one idea...lets not push down the other....We dont have to....Entreprenurs are where they are....Doctors are where they are..indeed IIMians are where they are....They are ok..we are okay...lets not make it sound like a case of sour grapes....and....guys....lets give the thread a direction...lets talk about.....how we write a business plan....how do we bridge the distance between language and thought......??


Cheers
God Speed
Yogesh

[DesiGuru]

Originally Posted by guy_next_door83

ahh....research...that seems to be the hot topic of the day....lemme share somethin that i have first hand knowledge of....lets take up one mr. Ranganathan....yes, the MD of Cavin Care ( for the uninitiated , he was the ET entrepreneur of the year)....now , in one of my interactions with him, he told me, that the market research he did bfor introducing the sachets of shampoos in the market, all gave him a categorically negative feedback..that it wud be absolutely futile....but our man..with all the odds stacked against him....with the 25000 rs that he had taken as loan...and started what we today know as the sachet revolution in the country...givin HLL & others a bad run for their money....yes....Entrepreneurship needs madness, but i am afriad there has to be a method to the madness........essentially...one swallow does not summer make.....so ...entrepreneurship..in its purest sense...is about conceiving an idea..and beleive in it.....everything else jus follows...

Cheers
God Speed
Yogesh

The point is very relevant...

To continue the above point...
everything else just follows... for one out of ten... now this statistic is the same in the US or india... the method to the madness is an afterthought, an analysis done post success. But every entrepreneur knows the odds, the successful ones and those that fail... Just like before writing the CAT everyone knows the odds... But more or less the people involved make the most difference... of far less importance in most cases is the idea...

Success anyways according to Bill Gates is only a broader understanding of the world and the right decisions...
The right decisions part is the killer... The talented entrepreneur seems to know how to make the right decisions...
Also the right decisions make a great entrepreneur...

K

[lakshya_FPM_IIMA_2005]

Originally Posted by Sak-Z

I am not debating this point. Just putting across my two cents....
History has shown that people with entrepreneurial spirit and the necessary skill/competence required to run business have made it big. They may have done research and study, but these are non quantifiable. One cannot really say so much of study must go into this and that. Even a person with so called "gut feeling" would have whetted the idea for sometime before plunging headlong. Again some sceptics say that the more you do research the more you become aware of the pitfalls and hence become disenchanted with the idea itself.
Thats why we have salesmen like Ray Kroc or schools dropouts like Gates starting up, than hardnosed MBAs who are quick to see the faults.



I really do not know how a Drucker will help a person in an entrepreneurial mode to clear concepts. He/she may be able to gain some "Global Gyan" but may get entrapped in Models and frameworks which may further curb his/her thought process.

Here, in IIM-A, we have seen many PGPs spurning lucrative offers in favour of starting up on their own. I am fortunate enough to have three dorm seniors, one has started a school, another one has started a packaging firm and the third has ventured into agro exports. They all had the entrepreneurial spirit, which was furthered by the curriculum here such as Lab in Entrepreneurial Motivation and Entrepreneurship and New Venture Planning. Even a few of my friends, in my same batch, have already started chalking out plans for their ventures.

For them the concepts got clearer through interactions with peers, faculty and the predecessors than reading books by any "Mgmt Gurus".

Boss, ur answer said the same thing that I was trying to say....You guys do have a lab in EM and E and NVP...which means that there is a systematic approach towards learning the whole idea...my defence of Drucker or any other "Guru" would continue to remain valid as long as they said that merely having an entrepreneural spirit is not enough, you have to develop an understanding of the principles involved in the entire process, and tried to identify and teach them...IIMA did not tell ur seniors to just go out into the world and conquer it entirely relying upon their "spirit"..It gave them a tool, a skill set, which they are now using to do so..or as u rightly put it..."which was furthered by the curriculum here..." ..but how many IIMAs do we have? How many B-Schools can actually claim to teach the idea the way IIMA is doing it ? Isnt there another alternative to furthering the Entrepreneural spirit, apart from going to IIMA ??? Any answers ??

[DesiGuru]

Actually his books are great... But they are best read once and then well kept aside... Amongst the worlds best Venture Capitalists and the favorite of most entrepreneurs in silicon valley Vinod Khosla, when asked what he thinks of Peter Drucker... said bluntly ''He is a fool" Its funny i wonder why he said it...
I personally think if management gurus are to be given any respect he is among the few who should get it...

The best venture capitalists in silicon valley prefer a 3 page business plan rather than a 60 page business plan filled with heavy funda market analysis and why their product is so outstanding that the world is gonna start lining up outside their offices pretty soon.

They prefer to analyse and dissect to the core, the person carrying the 3 page or even the 60 page business plan...
Intel by the way was a 3 page business plan...

K

[lakshya_FPM_IIMA_2005]

Hi all...In light of the discussion underway here, let us all try to achieve consensus as to what constitutes being an entrepreneur, and what is the entrepreneural spirit ?

Once we define this with certain clarity, we could then go on to decide as to what would be a good business plan, what would it be based on, would it service a specific need and what would be the amount of time we would wait for its results before deciding to continue or abandon the whole idea?

Keep ur comments coming !



In the meanwhile, check this link out -

http://www.europeanevaluation.org/docs/53_perrin.pdf