First batch of students in XLRI’s certificate programme give it the thumbs-up.
When Manish Mohan quit his job to start his own venture, after having worked for about 20 years in companies like Barclays, Wipro, Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro, he realised there was much that he didn’t know about managing a business, such as creating a business plan, maintaining a balance sheet, managing production, mobilising finance or scaling up a venture.
That prompted him to enroll for a course in entrepreneurship first. Today, Mohan is on the threshold of starting his own company in Pune, focused on providing business intelligence to IT firms.
Like Mohan, Dhruv Goyal is on the verge of setting up a venture which would be a platform providing data to the steel industry.
He too felt the need for a specialised course, which would help in not only providing theoretical knowledge but also facilitating interaction with existing and budding entrepreneurs.
Mohan and Goyal are among 50 budding entrepreneurs who are about to get certificates in entrepreneurship management after completion of their six-month programme from Xavier’s Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur.
According to Prof Prabal Sen, chairperson of XLRI’s entrepreneurship centre, this is the first batch of students in the course and has people from varied streams, including pharmacy, microbiology, marine zoology, pharmacy and law.
And if the students are to be believed, even a degree such as MBA is often not enough to gather the skills needed for successfully launching a venture.
“It’s always better to get a learning platform where you can brush up on subjects in which you are weak, enhance your skills and know your core competencies before actually venturing out because entrepreneurship, though exciting, involves an element of risk,” says Kunal Shukla, who has worked with companies like Genpact and Adani Group and is about to start his own firm for providing renewable energy to both corporates in Mumbai and to people in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand.
The students also point out that while short-term workshops and conferences on entrepreneurship help, a fully guided course goes a long way in upping the confidence quotient.
“When you see 49 other people like you as heavily inclined to venturing out on their own, you feel much stronger and more confident. We had chartered accountants, lawyers who were part of the programme, and this networking helps in the long run,” says Mohan.
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