From historian Ramachandra Guha to business leader Mahesh Murthy, from filmmaker Ketan Mehta to start-up stars Anjana Vivek and Rajiv Raghunandan, IIM-B’s Eximius 2015 was a big draw of the arrived and emerging stars.

Strong participation Hosted at IIM-Bangalore, the three-day fest saw over 5,000 participants from management schools across the country debate and participate in a variety of competitions.

In his keynote address, Ramachandra Guha, historian and author of several books, said: “A good start-up needs good leaders who complement each other, just like Nehru and Patel complemented each other.”

“Copy-paste always fails, so be innovative and original,” said Mahesh Murthy, venture capitalist and founder of Pinstorm. A founding partner of Seedfund, Murthy emphasised the need to have a great product so that it would turn every customer into a “brand ambassador”. Founder-Director of VentureBean Consulting Anjana Vivek and well-known consultant Rajiv Raghunandan led workshops on business planning and angel funding. Abhinav and Shreerang, from Oyo Rooms, shared their start-up experiences, stressing the importance of the right work culture and the need for attention to detail.

‘Pragmatic approach’ On the first day, special invitee Mukesh Bansal, Founder, Myntra, advocating a pragmatic approach to business ventures, especially in the nascent stage, said: “Get your team right at every stage of development if you want to scale up.”

His talk was followed by a panel discussion on ‘Taking Initiative’ with the team that made the film Manjhi – The Mountain Man. Director Ketan Mehta along with actors Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte discussed the real-life-like challenges faced by the film’s protagonist Dashrath Manjhi.

Bollywood anecdotes They also narrated anecdotes from their lives to underline how entrepreneurship was not just about web-based start-ups but about setting goals and achieving them despite the odds.

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