 "The welcome rise of entrepreneurship")
The world is connected and people are aware of the uncertainties in the world economy, which increases need for innovation and focus on entrepreneurial activity that fosters economic growth. With India churning maximum number of engineers, more people can become entrepreneurs with their education background.
Empowering
In this flat world, fostering entrepreneurs has become one of the prime concerns for the government policy makers. From lifestyle to agriculture to infrastructure, entrepreneurs across the length and breadth of the country have been recognised for their achievement/ contribution. Interestingly, with the rise of information technology (IT), we find more entrepreneurs who do not belong to traditional business communities.
The government realises the significance of entrepreneurship. Nasscom is also engaging with the government and in particular, with the Planning Commission to create an enabling framework for entrepreneurship.
Innovating
Usage of IT in diverse sectors has created many niche markets for software products and services. With rural India almost untouched by IT, there is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs.
Why just IT sectors? There is no dearth of innovators in other fields.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the world output is expected to rise by four per cent in 2013 that will be led by the emerging economies. The two fastest-growing economies will be China (8.1 per cent) and India (5.5 per cent). India will be easier for entrepreneurs to address with a large number of ready consumers.
Risk-taking
History tells us that in chaos ,there is an abundance of entrepreneurial opportunities. Therefore, the tool for policy implementation to promote entrepreneurship should be well thought, rather than focusing solely on microeconomic conditions or access to finance. But these policies alone will not suffice. The community and other stakeholders associated with the enterprise contribute to the success of a venture and play a major role in the encouragement and advocacy of entrepreneurship.
Some of the major factors that have led to the increase in entrepreneurship are independence, market opportunity, family background, new idea, challenge and big dreams. There should be a conscious attempt to strike a synergy between education and innovation; hence, encouraging entrepreneurship.
Determination
The advantage IT provides to entrepreneurs is that the business idea can be implemented with low investment and, in some cases, with no investment at all. Driving the business to profit is the ultimate goal that any entrepreneur wants to achieve. Nurturing your own enterprise to a different level also provides a feeling of being self-sufficient and the pride in running your own establishment.
For many, the risk-taking ability is a hurdle, yet a careful attempt, can pay off very nicely. One of the major encouraging factors is that people can reap the benefits of their efforts and decisions themselves. Reduced interventions in decision making enables entrepreneurs to drive innovation with more nimbleness. The downside, though, could be lack of perspective.
What could help entrepreneurs is to adopt an approach where they not only drive the idea but are also motivators--create jobs, drive more people to achieve something, raise the standard of living and further contribute to the economy by increasing the tax revenue.
People do get frightened with this trend of entrepreneurship, thinking it to be similar to the dotcom bubble. The wave of entrepreneurship is different from the dotcom bubble, as today, we are enabled to take an informed decision. We have greater visibility to global economic conditions and therefore, we are not playing in a blind spot. Above all, the whole dotcom bubble is an example and learning for entrepreneurs, preventing them from repeating history.
Krishnakumar Natarajan
CEO & MD, MindTree
The author is the vice-chairman of Nasscom. Views expressed are his own.