From Job Seekers To Job Givers

"The latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study, conducted by the Entrepreneurship Institute of India, shows that there has been an increase in Total Entrepreneurship Activities (TEA) from 9.7 per cent in 2017-18 to 14.4 per cent in 2021-22 across the nation"

"We must provide spaces for our youth to try their hand at entrepreneurship while in college. By providing such spaces, the young will develop an entrepreneurial mindset, a valuable faculty that will assist them throughout their career"

Entrepreneurship is fundamentally about problem-solving. Entrepreneurs have started ventures that have significantly changed how we communicate, live, move, and access healthcare, among other things. Some of these ventures have survived and grown to become large corporations, while others have failed. For instance, it is said that there were 3,000 automobile companies in the early 1900s in the USA, many of which were in people’s garages. However, this number quickly reduced to only a few a couple of decades later as most of these ventures failed. The world we live in, with the higher quality of life that we experience compared to the nobility of the past, is all due to entrepreneurs’ efforts over the last hundred odd years. India was a bit different – for many decades entrepreneurship was stifled due to the license raj, and only those with connections could obtain licenses to start their ventures. However, this changed due to liberalisation.

Two waves of entrepreneurship

Since India liberalised, there have been two waves of entrepreneurship. The first was in the 90s and early 2000s, which built on the cost-arbitrage of talent as the underlying business model. The second wave of entrepreneurship, starting in 2007, was more akin to the larger accepted construct of entrepreneurship across the world. However, many companies still copy successful business models from China and the West that focus on valuation, not unit economics. With the funding winter, only those with superior business models will survive. However, there has been a silver lining in the growth of unicorns – these entrepreneurs have become popular subjects in the media.

Entrepreneurship as a career option

Thanks to these stories and narratives across regional languages, entrepreneurship as a career option in India is becoming more popular, particularly among certain schools and at a particular stage of life. The change has been rapid. Many years ago, when the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) surveyed along with IIMB, it was found that India had a high rate of necessity-based entrepreneurship compared to opportunity-based entrepreneurship. That is, people would start ventures in India because of a lack of employment avenues. However, many opportunity-based ventures have been created in the last two decades. The latest GEM study, conducted by the Entrepreneurship Institute of India, shows that there has been an increase in Total Entrepreneurship Activities (TEA) from 9.7 per cent in 2017-18 to 14.4 per cent in 2021-22 across the nation. In addition, the study finds that over 80 per cent of those interviewed feel that there is an excellent opportunity to start a business in their area and that they have the necessary skills and knowledge to do so. However, the reason for not starting is often the fear of failure.

Perhaps it is time that we perceive failure differently – as an essential part of entrepreneurship, just as falling is part of learning to walk or cycle. While it is popularly believed that 90 per cent of startups fail, it can be rephrased as 90 per cent of the first ventures fail, and the failure rate reduces as we take more shots at entrepreneurship.

The “Rs 250 Venture”

Many years ago, I conducted an experiment in my course called the “Rs 250 venture.” The students were given an amount of Rs 250 to run a venture for an hour and a half and submit a report. The report had to contain their plan, what happened while running the experiment, and what they would do if they reran it. Students did simple things like running Maggie stalls at night in the hostel, selling roses, or selling pani puri. However, occasionally, there were exciting occurrences that brought out creativity. For example, one group of students realised that they has run out of mashed potatoes for their pani puri, so they bought soft drinks and sold cola puri or maaza puris instead. Earlier we had a salon on campus, one student signed in as a beautician for a few hours in the evening and took a 10 per cent cut of the daily earnings – she did not have to invest Rs 250 either. The reflective notes submitted were full of insights that would have improved their ventures.

Developing an entrepreneurial mindset

We must provide spaces for our youth to try their hand at entrepreneurship while in college. By providing such spaces, the young will develop an entrepreneurial mindset, a valuable faculty that will assist them throughout their career. Most people believe that we need access to resources to start ventures, but that is not true. One definition of entrepreneurship that I like is that of Professor Stevenson, who defined it as, “Entrepreneurship is the process by which individuals pursue opportunities without regard to the resources they currently control”. Professor Saras in her effectuation methods states that starting ventures with “who you are, what you know, and whom you know” is the “bird in hand” principle. In addition, it is important to inform students that unicorns are not the sole objective of entrepreneurship. In natural ecosystems, there are large and tiny animals, all living symbiotically. Similarly, in entrepreneurial ecosystems, we need a similar spectrum of ventures. To make this happen, we need entrepreneurship courses and incubators across colleges in the country. We need new courses that leverage technology to make entrepreneurship and management education

affordable and accessible to anyone from any part of the country. Only by converting our youth from job seekers to job givers can we make India a $5 trillion economy.