Business Incubators

Vikas Kedia, barely 21 years old has already turned his back to $100,000 job. He is in much demand for his very own dot-com company. Four venture capitalists still pursue him. A graduate from IIM – Bangalore, Vikas interestingly doesn’t have his own office space. He has a shop in the Rs.130 million business incubator set up in IIM Bangalore.

A lot of management students study entrepreneurship as elective, but how many of them have managed to translate the ideas into actions. Between talk and the walk, lies the hard reality.

For the ideas to stand up, they need funds, space, guidance, contacts etc. It would be so nice for these business toddlers, if they get the experienced hands in the institute itself, when they embark into the entrepreneurship journey. This is how the idea of business incubators took shape.

The idea is simple. Provide the budding entrepreneurs’ basic infrastructure and wherewithal’s for pursuing their entrepreneurship ventures in the college itself.

The idea is actually not new to India. The first business incubator started in REC, Trichi in 1985. Infact, according to one estimate around 80 such incubators are functioning today.

The first B-school incubator in India came up at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad in 2001 called the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurial Development.

Then the idea of having alliances came up and the National Entrepreneurship Network, also called NEN was born. It was funded again by US-based serial entrepreneur and CEO of software company Symphony Services, Mr. Romesh Wadhwani. It’s a network of technical and management institutes that incubate. Fortunately, IMT Ghaziabad too has an entrepreneurship cell and is a part of the NEN.

Different b-schools have different approaches. For eg. IIM Ahmedabad chooses its projects through business plan competitions.

ISB works a tad differently. It puts the idea directly in front of industry experts and venture capitalists. If the idea gets through, the project is taken up.

Even after all these efforts, entrepreneurship is still not a very popular career goal for the graduates. Things are quite different in the best b-schools in US and elsewhere. Almost half of the first year students in Stanford business school do not return to complete their 2^nd term. The brightest students prefer to take the entrepreneurial way.

The scenario in India is definitely changing. With premier b-schools and technical institutes going an extra mile to support the budding entrepreneurs, we are surely on the way, if not there.

Our very own, IMT Ghaziabad has taken a step ahead by forming an E-Cell. Though the cell is in infancy and success will depend a lot on how seriously the cause is pursued and the resources are pooled in, it has raised hopes for a lot of budding entrepreneurs.

I would like to end by giving you all a food for thought. With the rising fees of b-schools and most of the student going for educational loans to complete their education, how much feasible it is to take the entrepreneurial way where more resources have to be pooled in. Are we ready?