Teaching Entrepreneurship in Schools – Webinar

Should entrepreneurship be taught in schools?

  • Entrepreneurship should indeed be taught in schools because we need to catch them young. The children are at their creative best between the ages of 9 to 18. Hence, we need to provide them the right tools and mentorship to help them flourish by ideating and execution.
  • If we look at the world, most of the European countries have already introduced enterprise education into the school curriculum. We can start teaching entrepreneurship in schools from as early as grade 1 because life skills are very crucial and it takes years to acquire life skills.
  • The enterprise education will help students develop skills like personal finance, decision making, creative thinking, and many more. We need to produce a curriculum that helps the students learn crucial life skills in a play-way method.
  • The term ‘Teaching Entrepreneurship in Schools’ refers to helping the children develop the mindset and values of an entrepreneur at an early stage in their life. In terms of operating parameters, we need to have stories for school kids so that they can easily relate to entrepreneurship.

The Way Forward

  • We need to mass scale the enterprise education so there has to be a program for the teachers to do the pedagogical skills training and for the students to understand, imbibe, and then take it forward.
  • We need to train teachers on a mass scale and use ICT as a tool to reach out to all the teachers so that they realise the importance of enterprise education. And to create an impact we need to massify this.
  • If startups partner with schools, it will be a win-win situation for both startups and the schools because the startups which have been built on a creative idea need to go back to the school to keep their creative juices on. Hence, the schools also need to create an environment that is more than welcoming to the startup world.
  • The school principals should reach out to all the startups to adopt the schools. So that they provide the required motivation and life lessons to the students. We need to create a totally different society by changing the mindset of the students and the parents with respect to entrepreneurship.

The Challenge

  • If we look at our glorious past, we have been the knowledge hub for the entire world. Therefore, if we start believing in ourselves then producing entrepreneurs won’t be a difficult task for us. We need to reach the remotest areas of our country and arm the gurus with the requisite knowledge.
  • To put together a program of entrepreneurship and to deliver it you require some skills. We need a structure that can be taught and imbibed by our teachers then only we can say that our teachers are prepared to teach entrepreneurship.
  • To teach learning by doing in our classrooms firstly we need to reduce the curriculum load and we can call out skills that are overlapping. Also, there is a need for master trainers to impart those skills, and developing new lesson plans will be extremely helpful.
  • For a subject like entrepreneurship, the answer lies in technology. Each person’s experience with entrepreneurship is different hence we need to create an ecosystem to scale the learning.

The Way Forward

  • We need to mass scale the enterprise education so there has to be a program for the teachers to do the pedagogical skills training and for the students to understand, imbibe, and then take it forward.
  • We need to train teachers on a mass scale and use ICT as a tool to reach out to all the teachers so that they realise the importance of enterprise education. And to create an impact we need to massify this.
  • If startups partner with schools, it will be a win-win situation for both startups and the schools because the startups which have been built on a creative idea need to go back to the school to keep their creative juices on. Hence, the schools also need to create an environment that is more than welcoming to the startup world.
  • The school principals should reach out to all the startups to adopt the schools. So that they provide the required motivation and life lessons to the students. We need to create a totally different society by changing the mindset of the students and the parents with respect to entrepreneurship.

Bringing Entrepreneurship Education in School Children

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Bringing Entrepreneurship Education in School Children

A great day for The Entrepreneurship School (TES) as our 8-week long School Entrepreneurship Program with Amanora School, Pune came to its completion. The enthusiastic participation of the exceptionally talented and bright students of Amanora School helped us in making this program successful.

School Entrepreneurship Program (SEP) is a first of its kind program, orchestrated by Mr. Sanjeeva Shivesh and Mr. Masroor Lodi of TES. The program concluded with a business pitch by 8th Grade students of Amanora School. Some of the remarkable business ideas included:
• An innovative and affordable Pacemaker
• AnnaDaan- A Food Donation Platform
• Reverse Microwave- A Super Chiller
• EV Car- Battery Car Share and Charging Scheme
• iPaint- A Color Therapy Program
• Book Exchange- A Platform for School Children
• ShaukKeLiye- An Online Hobby Portal

TES would like to thank Amanora School for taking the first step to bring entrepreneurship education in School Children.
Speaking at the completion of SEP, Mr. Masroor Lodi complimented Class 8th student of Amarora School for presenting business plan of some bold and crazy ideas, even as students managed to ho,d their forth with tough grilling by the panellists.
We would like to thank Amanora School for providing this opportunity to TES and helping us induce entrepreneurship skills in the rising generation of India.

India Economic Outlook

30th Nov 2020 : Sanjeeva Shivesh

The latest GDP numbers are a pleasant surprise. The uptick is sharp for a period (July to September) when Covid was also rising sharply in India. This validates that “Unlock 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0” has paid handsomely. That means, more than Covid, it was the ‘hard lockdown’ in India that battered the economy severely in Q1. 


Though, the question remains – are we really out of the negative cycle? In the festive season, retail e-commerce performed exceedingly well, automotive production was high but dealer sales not so buoyant, fuel consumption rose and GST collections showed healthy recovery. As winter settles, there are headwinds. Loan moratorium is over and farmers unrest looms large over the impending Rabi season, we look at the Indian economic scenario for the CY2021.

Nine Major Trends

Following key trends shall impact the economy in the CY2021.

1. India seems to have flattened-the-curve. But, possibility of second wave remains, if it isn’t already there. Considering how India has learnt to live with Covid19, the overall economic impact should be in 3% to 5% range, in the event of a second wave.
2. Job losses and wage correction will continue to affect incomes. As per estimates, there are more than 1 crore people have been without job for more than 6 months. Further, about 1.5 to 2 crore daily wage earners have had wage reset of average 20% in last 6 months. That means it impacts at least 5 crore people. Consumption to remain affected.
3. Average ticket size of spending to remain suppressed. Price corrections, discounts and buyback offers shall be the new norm.
4. Discretionary spending to remain down. Services sector most affected. Travel, Tourism, Restaurants, Entertainment, Fashion, Beauty and Salons down.
5. Tax collections are down. It is expected to remain down in CY21 also. That means, gross fixed capital formation shall be affected due to reduction in government spending, even as fiscal deficit and government borrowings rise. There is possibility of rise in interest rates, which poses a risk for the economy. 
6. Foreign capital is looking positive for India. Anti-China sentiments would help. That should bring long term investments next fiscal.
7. Big get bigger. MSMEs, Startups and other companies, with less cash cushion, high debt levels and low margin will continue to struggle. 
8. Real estate economy has huge inventory. Expect corrections, first in commercial real estate and also in housing segment.
9. Digital disruption will continue. Health, Safety and Data spend is looking up. 


GDP Outlook for FY20-21

Economic headwinds remain. The impact of loan repayments in absence of moratorium could hit consumption. Weakness in capital formation shall impact growth in the next 4 quarters. We expect Dec-20 quarter growth to report at about 1% growth over Dec-19. That happening, Mar-21 could report about 2% growth over Q4-20 and the FY20-21 should close overall about 7% below FY19-20

Collaboration with Coventry University, UK

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Collaboration with Coventry University, UK

 

The Entrepreneurship School has joined hands with Coventry University, UK and launched an international program titled “Leadership and Management of Communications, Culture and Change”.

Our Program equips students who are in full time work and willing to study part time, with the levers they require for implementing organizational strategy in a multi-cultural business environment.

Program Outcomes: –

  1. To critically evaluate seminal and contemporary theories of international culture with a specific focus on leadership and management issues.
  2. To apply theories and models of international culture to an organization/industry of choice focusing on the key areas, which affect relationships between teams from different countries.
  3. Evaluate the credibility and rigor of published research on international culture and assess its relevance to modern organizations and industries.

The TES-Coventry University Leadership Program gives each student the opportunity to pair up with another international student from Europe in order to build an international perspective on business culture. The Program allows the students to interact with one another and exchange ideas, thus encouraging successful cross-cultural interaction.

The New Platform Model : Google Play Store Style

The New Platform Model : Google Play Store Style
– Sanjeeva Shivesh

“Remember… don’t be evil, If you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!”
– A line of Google’s Code of Conduct (2000 -2018)

Google is one of the most successful business of recent times. It has runs multiple businesses under a single brand. One of the most successful such business verticals is Play Store, which made $17.3 billion revenue in the first half of 2020 and is growing at 21% annually.

Play Store is basically a platform business models, where three parties Customers, Sellers and Platform converge. Much like a transport station or a mall. Ditto for Facebook, Uber, Swiggy and Appstore.

The mall lures both shopkeepers and customers.

Without shopkeepers there are no customers and mall remains empty. So attracting shopkeepers is important.

So, you bring the sellers, who in turn light up and decorate the shop, set up their MIS, CRM and Accounting System.

Now imagine, there is a mall which is well patronised. The big crowd leads to queuing up of sellers. That’s good business. Buyers, Sellers and Platform are all happy.

However, platforms need to provide best experience to its customers. So it puts governance mechanisms – a list of dos and don’ts. Good faith stuff starts becoming norms and part of essential compliance.

So, more customers visit. Slowly, the power shifts. The powerful starts to flex its muscles – imposes new rules. For example, instead of standard rent, you will pay a share of revenue. That’s an accepted business practise. So, shopkeepers adhere.

The mall continues to grow bigger and bigger. It becomes the biggest mall chain in the country. Then the mall starts pushing new rules..

For example, it tells the shopkeepers, “Hey, you haven’t been sharing your revenue correctly with me.”

The small business owner says… “but, I am paying you as per audited statement”

The mall then says, “Audit? Everyone knows your auditors can’t be trusted. They can sign on anything. Look, if you have to do business here, you need to install this billing system. Do this by 31st June 2021, else we switch off your supplies.” reguli remi ponturi pariuricasino.

That’s Google’s new billing policy on Play Store .

 

The law as it stands

The Competition Act (2002) dwells on the terms “dominance” and “abuse of dominance”. A dominant position is defined in terms of a position of strength enjoyed by an enterprise in the relevant market in India, which enables it to operate independently of the competitive forces prevailing in the relevant market; or affect its competitors or consumers or the relevant market in its favour.

While, dominance per se is not bad, its abuse is. According to the essential facility doctrine denial of fair use an essential infrastructure created by dominant enterprise can be interpreted as abuse of dominance. Section 4(2) of the Competition Act stipulates, directly or indirectly imposing unfair or discriminatory condition in purchase or sale of goods or service or denying market access in any manner as abuse of dominant position.

In this light, it is pertinent to ask if the stance of Google to make its billing software mandatory for all business, is fair or unfair?

Let us understand why would a business not use Google’s billing system. It is well known that any information that relates to affairs of business, its properties, assets, trading practices, Goods/Services, trade secrets, Intellectual Property, know-how, personnel, customers and suppliers etc are all commercially sensitive information, hence confidential and proprietary to a business. A cursory perusal of any bill in detail persual should make it clear that by arm twisting small businesses to reveal such information, even if it is encrypted and only machine readable, transfers such confidential information and tilts the competitiveness scale in favour of Google. It is a breach of corporate veil, which hitherto even governments have so far avoided.

The action of Google is per se perverse, exclusionary, threatening small business of its legitimate rights on a platform with common access and seeks to violate business confidentiality. Therefore, Competition Commission should take suo-moto cognisance to stop violation of unfair and discriminatory trade.

Since the time we have known, we admired the company for its famous tagline “Don’t be evil”, which in its own words meant “..everything we do in connection with our work at Google will be, and should be, measured against the highest possible standards of ethical business conduct.

In the last the last few years, the motto “don’t be evil” has been dropped and replaced with “do the right thing”. But is Google doing the right thing?

 

Sanjeeva Shivesh runs The Entrepreneurship School where he incubates and mentors startups.

End of the Runway: Is Covid19 a watershed moment for startups?

We can ignore reality but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality”
– Ayn Rand

My attention was drawn to a news item which said that India Nivesh, a newly established discretionary portfolio management service & brokerage outfit to shut shop. To my mind this is just the first of the many such similar reports that are going to come in. The reason is very simple. These are unprecedented times and not many outfits would have modelled this risk. With a global lockdown in place & hardly any operations running, the lack of sales & difficulty of accessing credit would make a lot of businesses unsustainable.

This is despite the fact that financial services industry is highly volatile and is prone to frequent outbreak of crisis like situations. In India we have gone through at least 3 of them in the last dozen years, i.e., one every four years. As Michele Wulcker in her book Gray Rhinos says, “humans are prone to be optimistic and it is this bias that makes them to ignore the risk despite it showing up in the face”.

Currently in my review of business & financial models of start ups I find the same mistakes being committed. Most of these are mere excel extrapolations based on a certain growth rate built around normal operations. Very little recognition is given to the fact that the real world is far removed from the Excel sheets and can’t be modelled on the basis of a linear growth rate. The fact that there are several ways in which disruption can strike one’s business is not woven into the model.