Entrepreneurship (E-Cell): Skills and Career Dreams

• E-cells help develop skills and shape career dreams
• E-cells transform individuals into leaders and entrepreneurs
• Shashank, the founder of Practo, is a success story to be inspired by

Entrepreneurship Cell (E-Cell) Defined:

• An E-Cell is a student-run club that:
  • Practices and promotes entrepreneurship
  • Explores entrepreneurship as a career

What E-Cells Do

• E-cells provide space and opportunities for students to develop:
  • Leadership skills
  • Innovation and new ideas
  • Creative and critical thinking
  • Opportunity evaluation
  • Business planning
  • Team building and resource raising

Leadership Skills

• Communication: Effective communication conveys ideas, expectations, and feedback, and leaders should be adept at speaking and listening to ensure everyone understands roles and responsibilities.
• Decision-making: Leaders make timely, well-informed decisions while weighing factors and outcomes, which helps in creating effective frameworks.
• Strategic Thinking: A clear vision and strategy formulation are essential, achieved through trend analysis and future forecasting.
• Conflict Resolution: Constructive conflict management within teams requires negotiation, mediation, and problem-solving for productivity.
• Delegation: Effective leaders delegate tasks, which leverages team strengths and provides growth.

Innovation and Generation of Ideas

• Creativity Techniques: Idea generation is stimulated through brainstorming and mind mapping.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Collaboration to bring perspectives and expertise leads to innovative solutions.
• Experimentation and Risk-Taking: A culture of experimentation is cultivated, accepting failure in the development of calculated risks.
• Continuous Learning: Staying updated on trends happens through workshops and training programs.

Creative and Critical Thinking

• Divergent Thinking: Thinking outside of the box and exploring multiple perspectives. Problem-Solving Skills: Frameworks to solve complex problems systematically are provided.
• Analytical Skills: Critical analysis to separate fact from opinion and identify assumptions.
• Feedback Culture: Giving and receiving constructive feedback for refining ideas.

Opportunity Evaluation

• Market Research: Emerging trends, customer needs, market gaps are identified by conducting Market Research.
• SWOT Analysis: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are evaluated for each potential opportunity.
• Cost-Benefit Analysis: The potential risks, rewards, resources, and the competitive landscape are assessed.

Business Planning

• Strategic Planning: A vision and mission with specific goals guide business decision-making.
• Financial Planning: Forecasts, budgets, and projections ensure financial health and sustainability.
• Operational Planning: Streamlined operations are defined through processes and systems.
• Risk Management: Identify risks to the business.

Team Building and Raising Resources

• Recruitment and Talent: Recruit diverse individuals aligned with company values, provide training, professional development to enhance capabilities.
• Networking and Partnerships: Build relationships with investors, partners, and stakeholders who can provide resources, expertise, and support.
• Motivation & Engagement: Work environment fosters value, motivation, engagement, alongside recognition, autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
• Resource Allocation: Effectively allocate financial, human, and technology resources by prioritizing investments aligning with business.

Why Join E-Cells?

• There are Networking and Skill Development Opportunities
• Incubation & Funding Support and Startup Support & Competitions are available
• Collaborations & Internships with industry leaders, startups, and research labs

Entrepreneurship Initiatives

• Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (UR-CIE) enhances the capacity of staff and students to manage innovation projects and increases the utilization of research outputs that address socio-economic development needs.
• Grid Innovation and Incubation Hub (GIIH): Hosted by the African Centre of Excellence in Energy for Sustainable Development
• HATANA Innovation Bootcamp guides participants on the basics of innovation and entrepreneurship, supported by the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, where selected teams compete for prototyping grant to develop innovative ideas.

Shashank’s Story

• Shashank displayed curiosity and problem-solving.
• Shashank was interested in creating innovative solutions for society's issues.
• E-Cell was a turning point for Shashank.
• Developed a mobile application, aimed at improving education access for underprivileged children.
• Startup evolved into a thriving social enterprise, reaching across the country
• Shashank serves as a role model and inspiration.

Shashank’s Practo

• Shashank is co-founder of Practo which connects millions of patients with doctors and healthcare providers.
• Practo simplifies healthcare access through technology.
• It started in India, by building a database of doctors, clinics, and hospitals.
• Practo evolved to offer appointment bookings, online consultations, telemedicine, and electronic health records.
• Practo serves millions and partners with thousands of healthcare providers.

Generation of Ideas

• A successful business idea solves a problem
• There are approached to identify business opportunities
• Observing trends like PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) can provide insight
• Renewable energy, Digital Infrastructure, Agricultural Technology, Tourism are examples of identifying trends

Forming a Team

• Entrepreneurship is a long journey which a team will prevent from becoming lonely
• Each member plays a particular with a CEO and CFO
• Each member should create an elevator pitch explaining why the deserve to be CEO.

How It Works

• You can sign up to be a CEO
• Fill up the document to create an elevator pitch
• You get 60 seconds to talk about skills, entrepreneurial style, a team
• If you are not making an elevator pitch, you can write down which CEO you'd like to work with for up to five people.

Feasibility Analysis

• Feasibility Analysis is the process of finding whether a business idea is viable and possible.
• It comes before the development of a business plan.
• A business idea deemed unworkable should be dropped.

Product / Service Feasibility

• Assesses the appeal of a product and service.
• Firms should be confident that product or service is what customers want and has an adequate market.
• One success factor is delivering a superior product or service
• Product success is decided early on.

Benefits of a Feasibility Analysis

• Getting product right the first time.
• Obvious faults can be avoided.
• Efficient usage of capital and time.

Testing and Statements

• Gauge interest through surveys.
• Gauge interest through feedback and buying habits.
• Concept tests involves showing a preliminary description of ideas to prospective customers.
• Customer's perspective is key to gauging success rate.

Contents of a Concept Test

• Detailed description of product.
• The target market.
• How to market product.

Industry and Market Feasibility

• Assess the appeal of the market.
• Consider industry attractiveness and market timeliness.

Industry Attractiveness

• Industries vary in growth rate.
• An industry is more receptive to innovation when it is growing.
• There is no guarantee that size = Success.

Organizational Feasibility

• Determine if there is expertise.
• Consider resource efficiency.

Financial Feasibility

• Important issues to consider are start-up cash, financial performance, and attractiveness.
• Show where the money will from, especially for a load, and have a solid plan in place.

Business Plans

• Plans should be 25-35 pages long.
• Describe what business wants to accomplish.
• Should be a detailed account of how goals will convert to a reality.
• Dual purpose document of inside the firm and outside.

Global Legends and Local Heroes

• There are ordinary people who have their own success stories to be inspired by.
• Travis Kalanick - Uber
• Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook
• Danae Ringelmann - initiated Indiegogo
• Kelvin Marcharia sunrise tracking
• Julian Rotich - Ushahidi from Kenya

Talking to Entreprenuers

• Why did you start a business?
• Why don’t you take up a normal job instead?
• Who helped to shape your idea?
• What is special about your business?

Types of Entrepreneurial Styles

• Entrepreneurial style refers to transforming or providing shape that can lead to a successful organization.
• There are six unique styles of entrepreneurship.
  • Managers work on a start-up venture first and may get stuck in administrative work.
  • Survivalists focus on sustaining daily needs through small ventures. -Calculators focus making money and profits form their ideas. -Opportunistic entrepreneurship is about making an entry where is comparatively safe. -Innovators are the most formidable entrepreneurs as they can withstand different styles -Revolutionaries focus on worldwide changes.

Advantages of Entrepreneurship

• Learning to identify opportunities and see possibilities.
• Deciding your own income rather than being restricted.
• Schedule and flexibility of work days.
• Live in the moment.
• Enjoy the work you do,

Qualities of an Entreprenuers

1- Curiosity 2- Experimentation 3- Adaptability 4- Decisiveness 5- Team building 6- Risk tolerance 7- Comfortable with failure 8- Persistence 9- Innovation 10- Long term focus

Business Communication

• Effective communication is important in a business
• There is internal and external communication
• Personality, body language, and posture all influence communication

Types of Business Communication

• Internal communication: happens inside an organization
  • Upward: From Employees to Management
  • Downward: From Management to Employees
  • Horizontal/Literal: People with the same rank communicate to one another
• External Communication: happens people outside an organization like customers and venders

Benefits of Communications in a Business

• Requirements clearly stated
• Team is efficient
• Secures and increases funding
• Feedback builds and builds strong relationships for the long term.
• Allows quick changes.
• Shares challenges
• Improves service.
• Increases morality and motives.

Barriers to Communication

• Miscommunication due to no clarity.
• Poor listening skills
• Technical issues
• Data is misrepresented
• The listner is not familiar with the language or not stated
• Incomplete thought.

How to Counter These Barriers

• Eye contact when speaking.
• Actively listen,
• Let others speak to express thoughts and ideas.
• Do not interrupt.
• Always make sure to understand.
• Show patience and use all previous tips previously given.

Ways that Entrepreneurs Communicate

• Visionaries inspiring other
• Confident to take risks.
• Flexible when speaking with any stakeholder
• Show transparency
• Stay strategic to keep business goals met.
• Are continuous Learners and try to improve in life.