IIM Indore Workshop on Entrepreneurship Business Ideas andOpportunity Evaluation Workshop 2009

IIM Indore in association with NEN (National Entrepreneurship Network) and iBranch.in organized a day-long workshop on "Business Ideas and Opportunity Evaluation" on Sunday, 25th October 2009 at IIM Indore. The workshop, which was conducted by Prof. Vasanti Venugopal, saw participation from over a 100 students across Indore.

Prof. Vasanti Venugopal from the Department of Commerce & Management at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore has over 24 years of teaching experience across various areas such asEntrepreneurship, Services Marketing and Cost & Mgmt Accounting. Currently the mentor of MCC's E-cell, "Initium", she has been a driving force for startups such as "Creative - line Solutions Co Ltd." and "Myriad Co. Ltd.". She has co-chaired the Women Entrepreneur Committee, FKCCI in the year 2006. "Prof. Venugopal's pedagogy for the workshop was truly extraordinary", quotes Harshil Adesara from IIM Indore.

On the occasion, IIM Indore's Director, N. Ravichandran, laid emphasis on the need for entrepreneurs of tomorrow to be visionary and to act as social change agents, making meaningful contributions to the society and environment. According to him, the opportunities are not same across the board due to various forms of inequalities existing in the country and hence when theopportunity arises, we must show compassion and social relevance while implementing our ideas.

The workshop started off with a group activity on idea generation using newspaper articles as an aid. Through this activity and a subsequent presentation, Prof. Venugopal expressed the importance of the flow of new ideas and various avenues available to assist us with the same. Through certain videos, she also highlighted the need to keep in mind the "bigger picture" and also how it may be wise to get away from the problem when you face a complete block. She also mentioned that very few (3%) ideas are novel and are not necessary to launch a successful venture.

During the post-lunch session, each student in his/her respective group was asked to take up one entrepreneurial idea and present it to his/her peers. Each group was finally asked to finalize one idea and present it to the entire audience. Mr. Raghvendra Pandey, Founder and CEO of iBranch.in, also provided valuable inputs on various practical aspects which creep in while starting an enterprise.

The final leg of the workshop concentrated on opportunity evaluation by understanding the macro and micro factors which need to be studied for both the market and the industry. Prof Venugopal explained the significance of networking and building a strong team for any enterprise. She showed how an entrepreneur could use "Mullins 7 Domain Framework" to assess attractive opportunities.