If you can imagine, the unimagined,
If can change, the unchanged,
If you can explore, the unexplored,
If you believe you can, YOU
CAN...
“If you have an idea, just don’t sit, make it happen ” – Mr Santhosh
As young and budding entrepreneurs, it is obligatory to have some basic
idea of how to market our products and check the logistics related with our
business model. With a motive to
instill within the young minds of VIT, the fundamental know-how about
‘Entrepreneurship’, Professor Vijayaragawan SP organised a Seminar on 2nd February, 2013 on the topic 'Design
for Entrepreneurs'. Mr. Santhosh, who is one of the leading young entrepreneurs
of Chennai, was invited as the guest speaker for the E-Cell Event. He presented
his notions on Business Design and framework. Unlike others, he was a MBA
alumnus from IIT Kharagpur and had refined knowledge, profound experience in
business marketing and modelling. He runs an online educational toy library
named Bambaram (www.bambaram.in) and also has a Facebook based peer-to-peer community
for buying/selling/donating pre-owned products named- Mooremarket (www.themooremarket.in).
“How many of you desire to be
entrepreneurs?” asked Mr Santhosh, with great reverberation in his voice. Some
raised their hands with firmness; few out of curiosity and few with a motive to
comply with the dictum of speaker’s words. But all of us had one thing in
common and that is the urge to learn more and more about entrepreneurial
know-how. Mr. Santhosh gave an insight to all the requisites pertaining to
the concept of Entrepreneurship. He commenced his talk with a brief flashback
of his entrepreneurial journey, starting from IIT Khargapur ventures to the
presently undertaken endeavours -Bambaram and MooreMarket. He was associated
with enterprises like www.webvastra.com and Ondocs-online document management system.
According to Mr Santhosh one needs to follow his passion to bring things into
realism. He talked about his venture -Bambaram and told how he tackled the
demands of the customers on matters related with design, delivery and service
with aptness and dexterity. According to him ‘Customisation’ of one’s products
according to the market needs, is one of the mandatory postulates of business
framework. He asked all of us to write at least ten such things that we want to
change and relate it with a long term business model. Also, he made us
understand that a venture may or may not be huge but what should have longevity
is its feasibility.
He highlighted some key points related with
an entrepreneurial enterprise:
1. Design a Framework
According to Mr Santhosh, having an idea in hand is not enough.
The more important thing is its framing to reach its coveted goal.
2. Identify the gaps
He highlighted that most of the start-ups face problems related to
the dearth of resources, may it be money, time or efforts. He asked us to
investigate some of the gaps that may become an impediment in our venture and
come out with a valid solution to cater the same.
3. Be specific about
the needs of the users
According to him needs may be categorised into two- Direct needs,
which are inherently visible to the venture undertaker and secondly, latent or
indirect needs which are hidden but at the same time require utmost attention.
4. In order
to market one’s product we need match up with the frequency of the user and
define our user actions
Every endeavour involves a quid pro quo, wherein the venture
undertaker must get returns and this can be possible only when marketing
strategy is made in accordance with the need of the users.
‘When people celebrate V -Week, we as entrepreneurs at E-Cell
celebrate E-Week with love’
-Happy E-Week to all E-Cell members
Akshay Thakur
E-Cell Leader at VIT University, Chennai
