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| Teaching and Guiding Entrepreneurs from an Academic’s Perspective |
Prof Shailendra Vyakarnam, Head - Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, Judge Institute of Management – Cambridge
After completing his PhD at the Cranfield School of Management, Dr Vyakarnam joined the same school as a faculty member. He taught there for ten years before taking up a Chair in Enterprise at the Nottingham Business School, where he is now a visiting professor. From April 2001 to August 2003, Dr Vyakarnam was Teaching Programme Director at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at the Judge Institute of Management, Cambridge University. He now heads the centre.
Dr Vyakarnam drew on his experiences in teaching and guiding entrepreneurs to highlight issues involved in managing the start-up and growth phases of an entrepreneurial venture. In 1990, Dr Vyakarnam set up a company called Transitions to teach and mentor start-up and growth enterprises. This company combined Dr Vyakarnam’s academic interests with the practical 'how-to' for businesses. The company provided him with an opportunity to work with over 400 businesses in workshops, consulting assignments and as a coach, mentor and non-executive director. He drew on the insights gained from these interactions to highlight several key issues that start-ups need to address in order to successfully navigate this highly turbulent phase.
One of the key aspects Dr Vyakarnam stressed on was the importance of social capital. He highlighted the crucial role it plays in ensuring survival and growth of start-ups by citing several examples. Start-ups with excellent social capital have managed to access funds in a timely manner and at times at very reasonable rates. Social capital has helped them obtain crucial raw materials and provided access to customers that have proved vital to the survival of enterprises.
He emphasised the point that businesses can only succeed if they identify opportunities that involve solving real and critical customer problems. A related aspect is whether the needs of the customers are clearly articulated ones. This aspect has an important bearing on the resources required by the start-up enterprise. Start-ups exploiting opportunities where the customer need is not a clearly articulated one, require far more resources to succeed in the market than those exploiting opportunities where customer needs are well defined. Citing several examples, he also drove home the point that planning is as important as execution for a start-up enterprise.
Dr Vyakarnam has found that science based technology companies have a better long-term survival rate and therefore regions would benefit greatly by encouraging science based technology ventures. He was of the view that the Indian School of Business should develop partnerships with the many technology institutions and scientific research centres in India to convert their scientific research into products and services that address customer needs and thereby open up venture and wealth creating opportunities that would benefit the nation. |
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