More than Buzz: Need To Contextualize Trends In Entrepreneurship
India has been the center of attention in terms of growth in entrepreneurship. The latest Economic Survey 2020 pointed out that India ranks third in entrepreneurship with the dramatic increase in the number of firm creation since 2014. From 70,000 new firms created in the year 2014 had risen to about 1,24,000 new firms in 2018 – a growth of about 80 per cent, as stated the data shared by the World Bank.
With such a large number of firms being set up across diverse sectors on a regular basis, but naturally, a multitude of new trends are expected to come up in the near future. But there could be a flip side to it too. Some of the so-called 'new trends' may be short-lived or could just be buzzwords cropping up in various discussions.
Aanchal Arora, Founder and Director, 1702 Digital, speaking on the challenges of understanding the trends says, “Most of the people will talk about trends based on the buzzwords that are easily accessible on Google searches. There is a need to contextualize the trends as for every sector the trends are different.”
Jaya Vaidhyanathan, CEO, BCT Digital, spoke on one of the most common buzzwords ‘Sustainability’. “It is a trend to talk about sustainability but that is not the context in which sustainability is understood – it means different things. Sustainability from a corporate sense means if you are not there then how is that legacy going to transform, is that still going to be a corporate going to invent more and more new things. So, for corporate, it means innovation culture,” she said.
What are the possible trends in entrepreneurship that are more than just buzzwords?
Gauri Sarin, Founder, Bhumijaa said: "One of the key trends happening globally is ‘regenerative agriculture’. There are trends which are against and force to re-look how we do mass agriculture, industrial agriculture, and chemical-based agriculture,” Sarin said. Bhumijaa says it is on a journey towards creating a healthy food movement. It has designed Bhumijaa Agripreneurship Program to train Farmers. It connects them to 'agripreneurs' and consumers.
Sarin quoted Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Candidate currently campaigning to become the Presidential nominee, who recently said that the word ‘organic’ is going to be the buzz word for the next decade for sure, if not for more. She said, “There would be movement from modern medicine to ancient, plant-based medicine and therapy.”
For Guneeta Singh Bhalla, Founder of The 1947 Partition Archive, a non-profit oral history organization in Berkeley and registered trust in Delhi, there is a push towards gender equality, having worked with people from multiple cultures. "Our biases ultimately show up in our companies and hence it is necessary to work towards eradicating them," she said sharing her lessons learned as a successful entrepreneur.
Mithi Kalra, Founder and Chief Design Officer, Label Mithi Kalra speaking from her experience of working in the fashion industry said: "It is necessary to cater to the needs of the clients as well as for the employees working in the company. Earlier a product could work under the one-rule-fits-all formula, which has changed." She said it was also worth taking note that the employees working have a life outside their work hours. "This should be taken into consideration,” said Kalra.
Taking the conversation further, Divya Gupta, Co-Founder, Momzjoy stated that entrepreneurship is for a larger purpose. Speaking about her company, which makes maternity clothes, she said, “My aim is to make pregnant women feel happy when they wear clothes. When customers are happy, the money will eventually follow,” Gupta said.
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