On August 22nd, the PG Dept. of the College organized a Guest lecture on New Venture Creation for M.Com-Part I students. The main objective of the Guest Lecture was to provide the students with a practical viewpoint about entrepreneurship and Venture capital.
The resource person for the session was Mr. D.S. Prashant, CEO, Forum for Innovation Incubation Research and Entrepreneurship (FIIRE). He began the session by discussing the challenges that job-seekers face, viz. unemployment, underemployment and unsatisfactory employment. He stressed that the product remaining the same, technology becomes the differentiator. Technology has changed the nature of entrepreneurship. E.g. Ola, Airbnb, Swiggy and e-chai. Starting a business is, in a sense, much easier than it was in earlier days, because of the power of technology.
Starting a business involves identifying one’s skills and resources, identifying problems and finding solutions and identifying solutions or ideas that are better, cheaper and faster and validate the ideas on this basis.
Mr. Prashant explained about the Business Model Canvas which is a concise version of the more elaborate Business Plan. A Business Model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers and captures value. The model considers the following nine elements:
- Identify customer segments you are serving
- Create value propositions to satisfy customer needs
- Decide about the channels – value propositions are delivered to customers through communication, distribution and sales channels
- Develop customer relationships – customer relationships are established and maintained
- Revenue streams –results from value proposition successfully offered to customers
- Key resources – the assets required to deliver value propositions
- Key activities – what activities you need to perform well in your business model.
- Key partners – some activities are outsourced and resources are required from outside the business.
- Cost structure – the entrepreneur should always multiply the expected expenses by 2 and divide the expected profits by 2.
An entrepreneur has three choices after starting his business: Persevere, Pivot i.e. change direction, or Quit
Mr. Prashant offered the following tips for startups:
- Ask why not
- Bring data not opinions
- There is nothing called over-communication
- Hire for the company not for a job
- Think money last and users first
- Handle yourself well.
20 M.Com Part-I students attended the session, which ended with the vote of thanks by student, Ms. Priyanka Rawat.
