Management institute launches unique entrepreneurship event

Mumbai: Lock, stock and trade, an unique entrepreneurship event with an IPO stock trading game — a mock 'investment banking' conference requiring all invitees to purchase shares, with the goal of building the most valuable portfolio was brought to life on Saturday, August 28 at Mumbai's HotelLeela Kempinski.

The event was hosted jontly by S P Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) and the the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN). Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, founder and CMD of Biocon, captivated the audience with her inspiring keynote address before declaring the game open with a symbolic ringing of the bell.

Other highlights of the event was a panel discussion on 'Idea to IPO' with. Naresh Malhotra, director, Café Coffee Day; Darshan Mehta, president, Arvind Brands Ltd. And Samir Karnik, an entrepreneur in the entertainment industry. The event, Moneypore Chinta Chat, provided a professional investor's analysis of the showcased companies.

During the event, the invited audience of over 500 including students from premiere institutes, entrepreneurs, financiers, professionals and VCs participated with the SPJIMR students in the IPO game. The event which aimed to raise awareness of entrepreneurship among students and potential entrepreneurs, provided the audience an opportunity to learn about business opportunities not generally showcased to the public; hear from leading entrepreneurs and financiers how to grow a company; and match their investment savvy against professionals.

Explaining he concept, Dr M L Srikant, dean, SPJIMR said, "Entrepreneurship certainly means development of new technology but in the context of India it also means use of scarce resources and seeking out opportunities that result in sustainable benefit to the Indian economy and provide employment to youth."

According to Laura Parkin, executive director, Wadhwani Foundation, a non-profit organisation that has initiated and supports NEN, observed, "This is a time of great opportunity for India: if students get excited about entrepreneurship and decide that one day they will start companies, that will create enormous value for the economy. This sort of event — fun, education and innovation — will hopefully inspire future entrepreneurs while exposing them to the many different kinds of businesses possible."

The game was conceptualized and designed by the Wadhwani Foundation and SPJMIR learn how to identify, sell and buy a company's value proposition, helping the participants think through investment issues like, 'what makes a company valuable?', 'how do we decide in which company to invest?', 'did we read the market right?'

At the end of the day, the winner of the event was the 'investor' with highest value portfolios and the winning company the one most 'oversubscribed' and the winning 'analyst' was the one showcasing the winning company.

S.P.Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), among the top ten business schools in India, is a pioneer in extending management education to new sectors, in sync with the institute's guiding tenets of value based growth and influencing management practice and runs the unique 'family managed business program'. SPJIMR is among the group of 11 globally selected, business schools working with the US-based Aspen Institute, on the project to integrate 'social impact management' into the MBA curriculum.

NEN is a network of academic institutions across India performing research and developing and delivering world-class education, skill-building programs, networking activities and company-starting assistance to new, high-growth entrepreneurs.The five founding NEN Partners are:

• Birla Institute of Technology and Science - Pilani
  
• Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay
  
• Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad
  
• Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology - Bangalore
  
• S P Jain Institute of Management and Research - Mumbai

NEN is initiated and supported by Wadhwani Foundation, a not-for-profit organization accelerating entrepreneurship in emerging economies.