PRESS RELEASE[/b]
A pill in Entrepreneurship by Dr. Sunil Handa
Workshop on Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation (LEM)
9th – 10th of September, 2010[/b][/b]
If anyone has read the book ‘Stay hungry, Stay foolish’, one would come across a chapter titled ‘The Alchemist’. It is about the success story of Prof. Sunil Handa, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad. According to the book, - “From a hard-nosed businessman to an educational entrepreneur, his is a fascinating journey.”
On 9th and 10th of September, 2010, students of IIM Kozhikode had the unique opportunity to engage in an interaction with Prof. Sunil Handa in his flagship programme ‘Workshop on LEM (Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation)’. The subject ‘LEM’ is the most sought after elective course in IIM Ahmedabad. With his no-nonsense inspirational take on entrepreneurship, interspersed with witty anecdotes, Prof. Handa mesmerized the audience at the IIMK Auditorium. He told that being an entrepreneur requires one to be as firm as a ‘ Shiva linga’ in that whatever type of liquid one pours on it , there as no affect on the ‘ Shiva linga’. Likewise, during one’s entrepreneurial venture, if anyone is faced with any sort of criticism, one should not be undermined and be firm and should just focus on one’s goals.
Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM Kozhikode, said that, ”If at least twenty students out of the batch of first year students could turn up into successful entrepreneurs then the whole purpose of this workshop would be fulfilled.” The Director also revealed that if the students suggested some courses on Entrepreneurship, then the faculty would try to include more of such courses as they are trying to be very flexible in revising the curriculum. Prof. Handa suggested introducing a course with focus on one-to-one sessions and industry visits and meeting with top management of the corresponding industries.
During the course of this visit, Prof. Handa also examined many business-plans that the students had made and was extremely pleased with the level of thought and detailing demonstrated. In one of those sessions, a student told Prof. Handa that he has 20 acres of land and expressed his desire to start a dairy farm, to which Prof. Handa replied, “It is a fantastic idea. I always wanted one of my students to have a dairy with 10,000 cows and buffaloes. If you plan to implement the idea, contact me, I’ll help you with the whole thing. We’ll also start a milk processing factory, use cow dung to produce bio-gas and will make organic compost of the final waste.”
Over the decades, Prof. Handa has turned many students in B - Schools all over India into successful entrepreneurs. Undoubtedly, his ‘Workshop in Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation’ has become immensely popular over the years.
Media Cell,
IIM Kozhikode
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