Ripples on the brain

I think this is an excellent initiative from IIMA. All other business schools must follow this example if they really want to encourage budding entrepreneurs in every batch.

“The institute will introduce, for the first time, sops like placement holidays for students who want to give entrepreneurship a try. This means, students can try their hand at their own ventures, and if they feel the need, they can sit for placements next year or the year after that,” says IIM placement co-ordinator PK Sinha.

At ISB, batch after batch, we find that interests and compulsions become two different things during the course of the year and just before placements. From term 1 to term 6, students pursue their interests, work on business plans for their dream ventures, either for competitions or for courses like the PAEV (Planning An Entrepreneurial Venture) and express interest in working for non-conventional streams like NGO’s. As the placement week approaches, everything else is relegated to the bottom and the need for a good job with an above ISB-average pay packet becomes paramount. The in-campus competition, the seven-figure education loan (and the associated five-figure monthly cash outflow) and the media glare puts students in such pressure that most of them cannot withstand even a week after Day Zero without a job.

In this context and in a society that still doesn’t appreciate that urge to be an entrepreneur, it is great if your institution doesn’t pay a lip service alone to encouraging entrepreneurship, but really stands behind you. I am sure for a person graduating from IIMA, getting back to employment is not a problem at any point of time in his career. It is, thus, the symbolism of this gesture, encouragement exactly at the point he needs, that is appreciable.

This reminds me of my interactions with a school batchmate. Back in 2001, when I graduated from my engineering college and landed on what then seemed like a plum job ( “campus placement” ), I met him during our school’s annual alumni meet. “CEO of a start up”, his business card informed me. While wishing him all the best, I was secretly smug: “What a loser, couldn’t get himself placed in an MNC like I did!”. Fast forward to 2006, I met him again on the same occasion. His firm was doing very well. This time, though, I had so much respect for him. I enquired about his business, funding and what keeps him going and all that. Not because he was successful, but because my MBA had made me realize what an effort it takes to pursue your dreams. Add to it the fact that he had done it when he was just two decades old.