SRI SRI UNIVERSITY

Without knowing the basics of civil engineering, it would not be possible to construct a bridge; similarly, it’s difficult to be a successful entrepreneur, without knowing the basic techniques of entrepreneurship.

When an aspiring entrepreneur selects an idea to start a venture, more often than not, the idea is selected based on emotion, without doing a proper market and consumer analysis. The entrepreneur likes the idea and perceives that the whole world would accept that idea.

 

Finalisation of an idea is a very systematic and scientific procedure. It is usually recommended that, an entrepreneur come up with at least ten ideas and then follow the following three stage process for short-listing and selection of an idea.

 

The first step is to filter three ideas out of the initial ten, which is called Decision Martrix Analysis (DCA). In the next stage short-listing of three ideas to two is termed as Paired Comparison Analysis (PCA). Then the final stage of short-listing two ideas to a single idea is through a process called 5Q Framework.

 

These stages involve mathematical scheming as well as continuous interaction with prospects/suspects to select the final idea which has to be further optimised to make it suitable for the prevailing market conditions. Once the entrepreneur selects an idea based on mere emotional connect, the chances of failure increase manifold. This is exactly what happens in the Indian Startup Ecosystem.

 

A budding entrepreneur should have an eye to identify the right customers for their product. Another important component is to understand the pains faced by customers and what gain/value they would expect from the product/service in order to develop an appropriate value proposition for the product/service.

 

Initial investment is often required in order to develop a prototype. However, there exists a number of ways in which a minimum viable product (MVP) can be developed inexpensively, as also, at low risk.

 

These are the basic techniques that an entrepreneur should know before venturing on a roller coaster rise of a startup. It’s a myth that entrepreneurship is in blood. This statement is not applicable for first generation entrepreneurs in most cases. Of course, there should be interest or passion to get into entrepreneurship, but one should have some fundamental knowledge on entrepreneurship such as how to generate ideas, how to validate ideas, how to explore your market, how to develop the value proposition fit and how to develop a MVP at minimum cost and risk factor.

 

There should be regular curriculum on entrepreneurship to be introduced at higher education, which will guide the students to start their venture in a right way. This initiative would minimise the chances of failure for startups.

 

Sri Sri University provides an endless support system to the budding/aspiring student entrepreneurs through its MBA-Entrepreneurship programme and incubation support. This is the only University in eastern India, which provides a two year full time MBA-Entrepreneurship programme, approved by AICTE. Alumni of this programme have started ventures in various sectors such as Agriculture, Education, Energy, Skill Development, Tourism, Social, etc and have become successful in their entrepreneurial journey.