The government should provide an ecosystem that is supportive of disruption for it will be a huge sign of success when a small organization disrupts a large organization, said Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission (2004-14).

Speaking the Eximius 2019 - the Entrepreneurship Summit hosted by the students of IIM Bangalore, Dr Ahluwalia said “We need plenty of ecosystems for entrepreneurship and start-ups to flourish.”

Here the finance ecosystem, like funds and venture capitals, must support it as well.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman of Axilor Ventures and Co-Founder of Infosys, reflected on his own journey as an entrepreneur and said, “Entrepreneurship is the activity of setting business or businesses taking on financial risks in the hope of profit. The biggest drivers of transformation are technology and innovation.”

He encouraged students to find a purpose in life and follow the principles of ‘Ikigai’ – the Japanese secret to a long and happy life that has transformed their outlook on life and business.

Delhivery

Sahil Barua, Co-Founder of Delhivery and an alumnus of IIMB, shared the story of how Delhivery, a B2B & C2C logistics service provider company, was born. “The world has changed largely because of the technology around us. Expose yourself to technology. Entrepreneurs should choose problems that are large and meaningful. You must have the ability to take responsibility for the entities that you create. Choose big problems and stick to them. Work with people who care and encourage you to do what you do,” he said.

Era of EPIC

Avnish Sabharwal, MD, Accenture Ventures, shared insights on ‘B2B Deep Tech Start-up’ and explained “This is the era of EPIC (Exponential, Pervasive, Intelligent, Continuous) disruption and Innovation is the only way to survive it. Start-ups are the harbingers of innovation in India. India has emerged a thriving innovation ecosystem powered by start-ups and enablers. B2B tech start-ups are expected to be the next big thing in India, riding on funding and growing innovation interests.”

Vaishnavi Reddy of Brandstory, Ankit Chowdhary of Servify and Manan Chandan of Healthify spoke about the traps that start-ups fall into during their initial years. They emphasised the need for user-centric design and talked about how teams should learn to design as per today’s business scenarios.

Prof B Mahadevan, faculty from the Production and Operations Management area at IIMB, spoke on inspirational leadership. “The Bhagavad Gita is helpful for budding entrepreneurs,” he observed, adding that entrepreneurship was about charting the uncharted path. “The passion to make a difference to the world and the joy of solving unaddressed problems is what should drive entrepreneurs,” he said.

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