Talk on Social Entrepreneurship by Mr.Gyanesh Pandey, IIM Kozhikode,[/b]
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The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) played host to Mr. Gyanesh Pandey who addressed the students as a part of the ‘Guest Lecture Series’ and especially addressed the topic of "Social Entreprenourship".This session was organised by the Industry Interaction Cell of IIM Kozhikode, which spearheads the student’s relations with the industry.[/b]
Mr. Pandey, Founder and CEO, of Husk Power Systems, had a highly interactive session with the students of IIM Kozhikode. Mr. Pandey talked about his journey from a cushy, highly paid job in the US (where he had worked for five years) to the inner conflict which compelled him to come back to his hometown in West Champaran district of Bihar. He had a single aim – to uplift the living conditions of the people in his hometown, and being an electrical engineer from IT-BHU, electrification of villages was an intuitive decision. He co-founded Husk Power Systems in 2007, and today, it provides electricity to over 250 villages in Bihar.[/b]
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Mr. Pandey was able to strike a chord with the audience right from the beginning, when he talked about how embarrassed he was of his identity, and how that eventually led to him coming back to India and electrifying villages in Bihar. He busted the twin myths of success and failure for an entrepreneur – he said that all our actions shouldn’t be governed by the success or failure of those actions. The single minded aim of an entrepreneur should be to solve a problem, and concentrate only on finding a solution, as opposed to making pots of money.[/b]
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The session was interactive, and Mr. Pandey kept trying to provoke a response out of students. He also mentioned a life altering event where he was pushed into attending Vippassana sessions by a girlfriend, which eventually led to him making the decision to move back to India. Mr. Pandey put up a number of persuasive arguments in terms of the advantages of becoming an entrepreneur.[/b]
At the end, there was a Q&A session, in which questions ranging from the technical aspects of electricity production to the ethical aspects of bribery and redtapism commonly encountered by entrepreneurs in government offices.The event closed with some words of gratitude and appreciation from the Industry Interaction Cell.[/b]