The Covid-19 scenario has been an opportunity in disguise for many especially for the new entrepreneurs and budding start-ups. Starting a business is one of the main enthusiasm for MBA aspirants. The statistics based on a recent study conducted amongst 1000 MBA aspirants found that 20% (one in five) of them choose MBA as their post-graduation is to start their own enterprise. Entrepreneurship is selected as the fifth most significant content in the MBA program.
Entrepreneurship is always and will be the trending motivation for all the individuals who thrive to be independent especially in the case of MBA graduates. Entrepreneurship opens a great door to the entrepreneurs to grow and prosper amid all the challenges and hurdles on the path. The great entrepreneurs like Nike co-founder Phil Knight, Warren Buffett who is the creator of the world’s fourth-largest public company are all MBA holders with great achievements.
An MBA program will give immense opportunity to explore one’s own talent and gives the capability to convert their ideas into a good opportunity. This degree also makes one realize his limitation and work on getting over it. Now, we can see why one should do an MBA degree and how can one benefit from it on being an entrepreneur.
- B-school provides a hassle-free environment to develop a team: Starting an enterprise is not like a single-man army doing everything himself, it requires a team, their expertise, and constant advice from the industry veterans. B-schools will help the young entrepreneurs to work as a team build a strong relationship so that they can help each other, and the professors can also help them to rectify blackouts in their plan. There are several institutions and universities that facilitate students with real-life experience through student exchange programs.
The top-tier B-school today permits their student to pursue other disciplinary courses based on their interest and this will be a great opportunity for the aspirants to utilize their potentials in a more efficient way. It can boost the advantage of the students in better utilizing the opportunity to explore one’s own competencies.
- Act as an incubator for potential entrepreneurs: Every B-schools over a decade has contributed many entrepreneurs for the country, through their diverse platform to develop the students. The master’s in business administration has been a popular course among the students who wish to be entrepreneurs in the later stages of their life.
The institute provides a great and safe place for their students to bring forward their new ideas and test them without any pressure or the fear of failure. The students are highly appreciated for their ideas and the institutes offer incubation center with full facilities for the student nurture their own dream to be an entrepreneur. Even if, the student’s business idea ends up in a failure, at this stage it can give them insights about the wrong act and develop a new model bugging all the errors and come with a much bigger form.
The faculties and mentors can also guide the students in the right direction with their experiences and advice and even help them to dream even bigger and achieve it. The students even before getting graduated get to experience entrepreneurial activities which help them to know that if the decision to be an entrepreneur is the right decision.
- Act as a ground to learn, run, and develop a company: One of the main reasons an entrepreneur becomes unsuccessful is the lack of necessary ground support at the earlier stage. The entrepreneur has to develop a plan and work on it to develop it into a new start-up that requires different tools that can be acquired from the college.
An entrepreneur must be an allrounder, he/she should know a little bit about everything like general knowledge about what’s happening around, good communication skills, interpersonal skills, leadership, etc. They should know about the accounting activities, marketing of their product/services, and manage the human resource of their organization.
The students while doing their degree learn all basics about financial management, marketing, human resources management, and operations which will help them to manage all the necessary issues that may arise in the future at the workplace.
So, pursuing MBA always has got its benefits to a great extend which will give the graduates a first-hand experience in advance. They will shine brighter in their entrepreneurial role. Now, we can discuss a few tips for MBA graduates who are planning to launch their own business after graduation.
- Be Slow and Steady: once you had got your idea don’t hurry yourself to start immediately, do some homework, and try to start slowly. Ask yourself a few questions and try to find the answer like, who all are the customers? What are the problems they face? The possible solution for their problems and the product/ service you offer. Never try to spend all money on the stage itself to keep steady.
- Identify Potential Customers: In most cases, the entrepreneurs will have the idea and resources, but they may fail to identify their potential customers and their needs and wants. The entrepreneurs in hast develop the product which is no needed before understanding the potential customers. They should interact with the target market by conducting surveys or direct interviews to understand the market pulse. Developing the product without understanding customers will ultimately result in failure. But while doing an MBA the students will get a lot of opportunities and sources to understand the real viability of their project.
- Set Your Vision and Short-Term Goals: Once you had your ideas molded and identified the potential customers the next step will be setting a personal vision and the short-term goals which help to stay focused on what we want to achieve. When you interact with the target group it will help to have an idea about what their needs are and based on this develop a vision for the enterprise which shows the direction. The short-term goals will make the picture clearer by making us dig deep into every detail.
- Ask for Help and Advice: Once you are post-graduate it is natural to feel proud air around. But never think that you can take on the world it is best if you can ask for advice and help from others in the industry or the entrepreneurial community. When there are the right people around you, it will benefit us by getting consistent feedback and mentoring. During the MBA program, the student has to develop a good network of relationship which can benefit in the future. Always try to be in touch with people because they are very important.
- Test your strengths: Doing an MBA program will give an individual insight into his/her strengths and weaknesses. Try to focus on your strengths rather than wasting time to correct the weakness leverage the strengths. Entrepreneurs especially in their initial stage focus on what they are good at and seek help from others if needed in other areas.
ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES AT MIIM
Marian International Institute of Management creates not managers, but true leaders. MIIM is always very welcoming toward the student entrepreneurial ideas. There are a handful of students who have turned into very successful entrepreneurs. The success stories always revolve around the coaching and experience they gained from MIIM. At MIIM, it is compulsory for every student to start a startup as part of their mentoring group. And the startups can utilize the incubation center at the college. Also, the college is organizing talks by famous entrepreneurs in India every week. Some of the famous entrepreneurs who interacted with the students include Lakshmi N Menon, Founder, Pure Living, Mr. N Balasubrahmanian, Rebro Clothing, Kochuseph Chittilapally, Founder – V Guard, etc.
The Entrepreneurial Developmental club (E-Cube) organizes many events to bring out new entrepreneurial talents. The Idukki Impact Idea Challenge was a great platform arranged by the club last year. They organize talk shows and product launches, B Plan Contests, Inauguration and Website Launch Industrial Visits, and programs to honor successful entrepreneurs from nearby locality especially young and women entrepreneurs.
E-cube aims at:
- Developing entrepreneurial orientation among students and finding out future business leaders.
- Giving training and development for those students who have the entrepreneurial passion and helping them start their own ventures in the future.
- Making the activities of EDC reach the local entrepreneurs.
- Starting an exclusive educational program on entrepreneurship in the future.
- Launching a product by the club and selling it outside.
The incubation center with very high technological infrastructure motivates all the students to come forward with their ideas to put it into action. They start their own start-ups from the college with all ground support. With technological support, expert advice, real-life experiences, and consistent feedback from mentors the students can embrace their entrepreneurial talents. The students can utilize all the facilities and can avail of great support from the faculties to pursue their dreams.
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