People from different walks of life start a business for one of the following reasons:
- They are frustrated with the current boss or employer
- They feel they have not been able to realize their full potential in their career
- They are born entrepreneurs with a persistent itch to change the world
- They get carried away looking at some other success stories and feel they need to get rich quick
- Family traditions and more
Though the intentions are good and everyone starts with an idealistic mindset, invariably everyone gets stuck in the everyday realities and challenges of running a business and in the process; they eventually lose sight of the original objective of starting the business. Obviously, this leaves several tightly controlled, family-owned businesses with very little corporate governance and very little view on how to cash and exit from the business. Also, traditionally, there is a strong sense of ownership, family control and pride associated with running a business – which takes away the much needed crystal clear thinking on strategies, differentiators, exit strategies, globalization and other aspects of the business.
A combination of all of the above leads to either failed businesses or leads to ordinary businesses that just allow a small group of owners and employees to make a living. Very rarely are these businesses scalable or able to reach the real distinction of success.
Though there are abundant Government and non-Government resources, expertise and advisory talent available, there is hardly one place where people can get a crash course and come back time and again for guidance and help to start, grow and scale a business. These services should be offered early on in their life, more so when they are students with higher aspirations, but unfortunately there has not been any such thing until the invention of UniPropitia. Based on the vision, objective and expectations of the individual owners, it’s difficult to provide a “one size fits all” advice, seminars, and handouts. For all you know, there are owners who may want to be in business just to make a living and enjoy the sense of freedom – and there is nothing wrong with that. But if the initial objective, end goals and the route are not consistent, it eventually leads to chaos and failed businesses.
With the transition of millennial generation work force, it is important for developing countries to produce more seasoned entrepreneurs who can create more innovation and jobs – instead of merely serving as super-coders who will eventually become a blue collar workforce in the tech world. Unlike the past, there are really no jobs with steady state from graduation to retirement in most of the industries. Obviously, there are going to be several introspection opportunities for every individual to step back and ask, ‘Is this my calling to change the world?’ The reality is such thoughts cross every Type A individual’s mind every 5 years starting from their mid-20’s. The bigger reality is most of those desires get killed quickly by friends and family as the path is risky, looks like a myth and sounds overwhelming and scary! To top it all, the culture makes sure to tell you that you are not going to be Bill Gates and also quench the appetite for risk right away, by saying that , ”if you can think of this idea, how come Microsoft and IBM have not thought about it, who have all the talent in the world? You will be crushed by the big players very quickly …”
Our modest objective here is to “Demystify the Entrepreneurship Process” and there is money to be made in the process besides making a difference in the community in a small way – without sounding too philanthropic.
The obvious question any one will ask, is “Why you, why not the world-class institutes?” Our modest response is “Yes, they may be offering such programs but it’s only for the elite intellectuals who have made it all the way in the competitive academic and corporate world.” Studies from Harvard show that there is no correlation between standardized test scores, elite colleges and entrepreneurial success. As a matter of fact, these studies indicate that these entrepreneurs literally come out of nowhere – which defies all conventional wisdom! Our objective is to give a shape and form to coach such talent right from the college days to inculcate an “innovative, risk taking, thinking big, thinking global” type of culture and create a radical movement in society!
Sounds good, but how? Our course material has been developed by a group of individuals who have run different flavors of businesses in the U.S, India, Dubai, and Asia Pacific. They have had the experience of dealing with the plethora of business issues starting from partnership conflicts to caste conflicts to global cultural conflicts – coupled with raising the money during the post 9/11 crisis in the US and building tangible intellectual capital – that got the attention of big name players like Cisco and DoCoMo. The team has been involved in mergers, acquisitions and exit strategies, several times in the last half a decade.
So, the knowledge that will be imparted by us is not a mere cocktail of notes from Harvard text books – it is an encyclopedia of real-life wisdom that has been gained over the years, with war wounds and broad shoulders, strewn with real and down-to-earth experiences. It is a preaching that was practiced pretty well. Though there are several such individuals with such experience in the world, we are the ones who are jumping in to formalize the knowledge transfer in a systematic manner, rather than giving incomplete or inadequate advice.
Who will qualify to attend these training programs?
- Graduating students (business and non-business majors) who are full of aspirations. Life is a drawing board without an eraser – if these students can gain this awareness before their graduation, they can carve their career path to build skills accordingly, to pursue their dreams.
- Working professionals who have the itch to pursue entrepreneurship.
- Corporate offices who want to create entrepreneurial thinking within the organization without which their organizations can become dinosaurs.
- Existing entrepreneurs who want to sharpen their thinking.
