'Need for better interaction between corporates, universities'

The increased interaction between universities and educational institutions, businesses and government would bring in fresh ideas into corporates and trigger them on a path of rapid growth, said Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group.

Birla was addressing the sixth convocation of Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI), held here on Saturday.

"The activities of large corporates like ours, and small firms are becoming increasingly complementary. Large, multinational firms are good at commercialising and internationalising innovations, while the smaller firms are often better at creating innovations. By working together, they add value to what each already has," Birla said.

He added that one of the key strategic actions for an entrepreneur is to figure out how best his or her business can latch on to the chain of the larger players, whether global or domestic. "This may be one of the better starting points for beginners," he said.

Birla, however, felt that entrepreneurial attitude still meets too many roadblocks in India. "Our societal norms accord primacy to attributes such as a stable and steady career path, reduction in levels of uncertainty and an aversion to failure," said Birla.

To begin with, there is a need to re-orient the system of education, which Birla felt might be acting as a brake on the entrepreneurial impulse.

"The educational process is biased towards finding correct answers rather than examining a range of possibilities and experimentation," he said.

In the same vein, Kumar Mangalam Birla said that our institutions must interact more with each other.

"Today, the boundaries between the university, business and government is sharply demarcated. There is hardly any flow of ideas or talent between these. Potentially good ideas therefore stagnate for want of an airing," he said.

Commenting on the need for large corporates to make space for new ideas, Birla said that large corporates need to encourage the spirit of experimentation.

"Even the largest organisations in India need to experience and imbibe the refreshing breeze of entrepreneurship. Without this, they run the risk of becoming rigid. And this has happened to the largest of companies the world over," he said.