Connecting the young mind with the experienced one for a better growth - TOI - 28/01/2008

Guru-shishya tradition comes alive in 16 cities

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi/Mumbai: In Delhi, Utsav Mittal, a computer engineer, and his brother wanted to know how they could attract customers to their information security business. In Mumbai, Parag Patil, 26, wanted to know how he could modernise the technology he uses to manufacture composite pressure vessels.
The tradition of seeking knowledge and guidance from a guru came alive across 16 cities in India on Republic Day when Mittal, Patil and around 1,000 other aspiring entrepreneurs interacted with 200 experts from various business sectors as part of a countrywide mentorship programme organised by The Times of India in collaboration with PAN IIT, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and the National Entrepreneurship Network.
At the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)- Delhi campus itself, over 100 young entrepreneurs from across the city were mentored by former IITians with an aim to help them make their fledgling businesses grow or develop ideas still on the drawing board.
The event got a headstart with former President of India, A P J Abdul Kalam, delivering a lecture from Hyderabad that was webcast to all venues, including Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kochi, Jaipur, Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Kalam said that all IITians should adopt one village each and help convert ordinary people into top entrepreneurs. PAN IIT should be focused on training rural and semi-urban students to help them develop employable skills. These skills in turn would produce globally marketable products, he said.
Each young entrepreneur was paired with a mentor, who lent an ear to the plans and problems. “Youngsters registered with us online for free while we asked the mentors to send us their details. We then tallied the line of work of both and gave a mentor to each participant,’’ said Geetika Dayal, executive director, TiE Delhi.
In Mumbai, the nation’s commercial mecca, over 75 entrepreneurs, young and old, were mentored through the day at IIT-Powai. Managing director of Triiton, Parag Rele, who played mentor, pointed out that he came across several great ideas. “But currently, they are just ideas. There is no clarity on how to convert them into sustainable widespread businesses. People were not clear about the road from here to there, the effort, the struggle and the money needed to reach that goal.’’
A lot of the mentors, the participants said, “cleared the blocks in their mind’’. Later in the evening, managing director of Tata Steel, B Muthuraman, shared some valuable experience with all of the Mumbai mentors and participants. He spoke of the importance of a vision and of looking at the bigger picture. “The tendency among youngsters is to look at the current problems. If you can’t decide where you want to go, how will you reach there? But in life, a lot of people just trudge along,’’ he said.
A clear vision, he felt, is what has made Tata Steel the company it is today. “We transformed a dead company. It started walking and running and now it is climbing a few mountains,’’ he said. Eventually, he left the audience with four ingredients for a successful business: be adaptable, be one with society, have a decentralised set-up and have financial prudence.

SHARING A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE: B Muthuraman, MD of Tata Steel, interacts with young entrepreneurs on the IIT-Bombay campus

HELPING YOUNG FIRMS GET A FOOTHOLD: Former President A P J Abdul Kalam spoke about the need to develop globally marketable products in a speech that was webcast from Hyderabad to other cities as part of the Entrepreneurship Mentoring Programme on Republic Day on Saturday