B-schools want more students to become entrepreneurs this year

With the placements season fast approaching, top B-schools across the country are to ensure they churn out as many entrepreneurs as possible.

They are forming entrepreneurship cells/clubs, collaborating with associations, organising lectures and seminars, besides arranging for consulting projects with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and non governmental organisations (NGOs).

Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), for instance, has planned events to help students realise their “true calling”. The entrepreneurship cell at JBIMS has an online incubation center, which facilitates interaction between students with business ideas and industry stalwarts who can help students with development and implementation of ideas in to a business venture. Any student of JBIMS (past or present) can join the portal as mentee and professors or people from industry alumni can join as mentors to encourage innovative business products.

“This year onwards, we have implemented the placement holiday initiative wherein a student can take a break from the regular placement process and start their own venture. If by any chance they want to come back, they can come back in two years time and sit for the placement process. We also have a tie-up with National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) and premier engineering colleges in Mumbai which will help students with the technical knowledge for their endeavours,” said a member of the E-cell.

Young Indian MBAs, according to a recent survey by an MBA portal, say they are keen on choosing entrepreneurship as a full-time career option this year. Over 200 students across 15 top Indian B-schools had participated in the survey.

Last year, the Indian School of Business (ISB) produced more number of entrepreneurs than ever with about 30 students submitting their ideas to the institute, of which about 50 per cent were shortlised for getting the required support from ISB for blossoming these into business ventures.

To encourage this trend, the Entrepreneurship Club at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), too, recently held its annual entrepreneurship summit ‘Dream Big India 2010’. The event aims at providing a platform to entrepreneurs to launch themselves, and to inspire the remaining bunch to dream big.

And, to mark its 25th year of existence, IIM Lucknow —which produced seven entrepreneurs last year — added a new chapter of entrepreneurial activity on campus with several new initiatives — one of them being Entrepreneurship @ Unitus. The event gives the students an opportunity to work with Unitus for a few months, part-time or full-time based on their interest. The institute’s laboratory on entrepreneurship motivation also had other events lined up like Nirvan, IIM-L’s annual entrepreneurship summit with various competitions and guest sessions to raise the entrepreneurship influence on campus.