Well-designed programs benefit students, companies and institutes
“I repeat: The bidding will close in two minutes. Thank you!” shouts Issac John, a student from SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR). No, it’s not the BSE or an auction house.
Rather, Issac is emceeing for Lock, Stock and Trade, part of a highly innovative entrepreneurship program, co-designed by the faculty and students of SPJIMR and the National Entrepreneurship Network, NEN.
Lock, Stock and Trade, or LST as it is commonly known, was launched in 2004 by SPJIMR to anchor their new entrepreneurship programs. The unique effort combines a hands-on, semester-long course with an extremely interactive public event.LST packs in a surprisingly wide variety of activities into a compact timeframe. In the process, the program reaches out beyond SPJIMR students, to engage entrepreneurs, investors, family businesses and students from institutes across the region.
When they launched the program, SPJIMR faculty members hoped it would bring entrepreneurship into the lives of MBA students focused only on getting jobs. Professor Suresh Rao, director, Entrepreneurship Development Center, SPJIMR, explains, “We want the students to feel that there is a future in entrepreneurship.”
| NEN: event | |
| i2I 2008: | B Plan competition, with a twist |
| When: | December 14, 2007 (last date to submit executive summary) |
| Where: | IIM Calcutta |
| Who: | Open to everyone under 30: students, working professionals, and new entrepreneurs |
| Event focus Winners of i2I competition (ideas to Implementation) become eligible for up to one crore of funding from Seedfund. | |
| Selection process Form your team – across institutes and/or companies – and submit an executive summary. 40 teams in 4 cities will be shortlisted for semi-finals in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. 10 teams will be selected to present at the Grand Finale on February 1, 2008 in Kolkata. Semi-finalists can access mentors from local & national level expert panels. | |
Co-hosts More info at www.nenonline.org | |
During the course, MBA students are paired with family businesses represented by students in SPJIMR’s Family Managed Business course. The students spend a month working with the entrepreneurs and the businesses, understanding the value propositions, and exploring potential new opportunities for them.
“A student from a non-entrepreneurial background might think that entrepreneurs are a different species in comparison to a corporate executive. For them it’s a great learning experience to see first hand how an entrepreneur operates,” explains Rao.
The students confirm the impact the course has had on their outlooks. “Having analyzed 18 businesses, we now understand how one starts a business, what it takes to grow a business, and then make a proposition to the public while coming out with an IPO,” says Dinesh Divakaran, core team member, LST 2005.
The course culminates in the public event, Lock, Stock and Trade (LST). The original idea for LST was sparked by investment banking conferences in the US, where multiple companies present their value propositions. But LST takes this to the next level, allowing all participants to join the fun.
At the event, the companies the students have worked with during the course present their businesses and offer mock “shares” on which the participants bid. SPJIMR students and faculty have built a trading system that enables the bidding to set the market value of the shares. At the end of each trading session, the system totals the value of participants’ “portfolios”. LST’s winners include the participant with the top value portfolio; the company with the highest market capitalization; and the “banker” representing the top valued companies.
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