ISB launches two initiatives to promote student entrepreneurs

Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB) has launched two new initiatives in an effort to encourage entrepreneurship among students. ISB’s Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED) has launched the Entrepreneurs Development Initiative (EDI) and Planning an Entrepreneurial Venture (PaEV) to incubate and promote entrepreneurial ventures by students.

EDI helps ISB graduates, having business ideas and the right attitude, with financial support, mentoring and business resources to create and sustain their own successful business.

“We will mentor and offer financial support to selected teams whose ventures will be incubated at ISB. They will then be given assistance in development and review of their business plan. Also, they will have access to WCED and ISB resources and funding units and community professionals with needed expertise. EDI is meant for people for serious entrepreneurship after graduation,” said Krishna Tanuku, Executive Director, WCED.

However, PaEV is different as it is a part of the curriculum of the ISB’s Post Graduate Programme in Management. PaEV is a two year elective or a credit course and it offers guidance on setting up your own entrepreneurial venture. “PaEV helps students identify an entrepreneurial opportunity and prepare a business plan besides familiarising them with the process and practice of entrepreneurship and new venture creation. It equips them with conceptual frameworks for evaluating techno-commercial attractiveness for investment and launching a new venture,” added Tanuku. In the 2008 batch, almost 200 people opted for PaEV.

In fact, PaEV students can end up in EDI because the venture they explored as part of the management course can be taken up after graduation as a full time venture. Though PaEV has been there for some time, EDI was started with the 2009 batch of April and eight ventures are being incubated at the ISB because of that. Moreover, ISB plans to extend the EDI to its alumnus since 2002 besides opening it to non ISB graduates from next year.

“These efforts are a part of our business incubation labs and in the next 3-4 years, we will launch programmes for students in tier 2 and 3 cities. Another initiative in the pipeline is that of encouraging entrepreneurs to take up entrepreneurship education as their ventures so that they can train the trainers,” added Tanuku.

By middle of next year, ISB also intends to collaborate with industry clusters of small and medium enterprises by working with Special Economic Zones for virtual incubation. Virtual incubation would mean giving them leadership lessons that go beyond the regular classroom teaching.