TATA First Dot - B Plan Workshop

 

 

 

 

Consulting and Entrepreneurship Club of IIM Raipur acted as the host partner for ‘TATA First Dot Powered by NEN’ held on 24 November 2012. The one-day workshop focused on the successful progression of idea into a business model which can evolve into a fruitful venture. It was open to student entrepreneurs and was targeted to be beneficial to those who have already developed an idea. This workshop also served as a precursor to the participants for entry into the Pan-India Competition held by TATA First Dot. The top 30 entrepreneurs from the competition would be mentored by NEN.

The workshop was held by Dr. Radhika Meenakshi Shankar, Founder, Wise Owl Consultancy and Kalpana Sinha, Senior Consultant, NEN. Dr. Shankar guided the participants regarding how to develop their ideas by using different frameworks, business models and writing an effective business plan for successful pitching to the various stakeholders in the project.

Dr. Sanjeev Prashar, Professor, IIM Raipur, said “IIM Raipur with NEN will continuously work towards guiding students in preparing the B-Plans for their start-ups and providing them the necessary mentoring.”

Students from IIM Raipur, IIT BHU, NIT Raipur, Disha College of Management, Future Institute of Engineering Technology, CAHCET, Centre for Modelling and Simulation and DIMAT participated in this event.

Shantanu Bhagwat conducts Business Plan workshop at IIM Raipur

A business plan workshop was conducted on Thursday at IIM Raipur by Mr. Shantanu Bhagwat, a leading venture capitalist and advisor, who is associated with firms like Myntra.com, Elements Akademia, and MilkMantra. Mr Bhagwat had taken similar workshops at institutes like IIM Indore and IIT Bombay. This workshop was organized to promote and instill the spirit of Entrepreneurship across the state. Mr Bhagwat helped participants to conceptualize new ideas and opportunities that are emerging.

The whole concept of the workshop was to explain students about the compilation and presentation of a business plan in an effective mannerso as to attract funding from venture capitalists when starting a business of their own.

It started off with the basic understanding of entrepreneurship andhow to decide on whether can one become an entrepreneur or not.In the words of Tarang Singhal , a student attendee “ Mr. Bhagwat actually helped us figure whether we can become entrepreneurs or not.”

Mr. Bhagwat told that entrepreneurship is not glamorous, most of the startups fail and most of the entrepreneurs are not rich when they start. So he told that the basic requirement of an entrepreneur is the ability to take risks, one should learn the skills of managing risks rather than being averse to it. Rahul Khedkar, a first year student of IIM Raipur, said “Mr Bhagwat helped us in knowing practical problems in entrepreneurship and how to tackle them.”

He explained the importance of understanding the perspectives of the audience of the business plan. The plan should effectively communicate the benefits to the investors because no one is interested in doing charity. A good investor not only brings money but also value to the venture.

He also talked about the constituents of a good business plan.The plan should necessarily have a competitive landscape, industry analysis, risks and the mitigating factors. The plan should tell about the opportunities and the idea in a clear and crisp manner. He demonstrated all these necessities with appropriate examples.

He also suggested that there should be direct quotes and references from various resources and all the facts should be backed by statistics. In the words of Manu Dhunna, another attendee from IIM Raipur, “ A case study was solved during the workshop which helped us in learning from the real life story of an entrepreneur.”

The cases discussed were confidence boosters for the audience as they could actually relate the workshop with their real life experiences. Mr. Naresh Verma , a member of CII Chhattisgarh remarked , “ After attending the workshop I have gained confidence to expand my business.”

Mr. Bhagwat talked about the importance of efforts required to be put in the next 15-20 years by budding entrepreneurs as this will be a crucial phase in the growth story of the nation.Prof. Sanjeev Prashar, Chairman of Placement Committee at IIM Raipur thanked Mr. Bhagwat for conducting the workshop at IIM Raipur campus and in helping participants understand the idea of entrepreneurship so that more jobs can be created in the state and the nation at large.