Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Raipur is planning to come up with two major initiatives — one is an incubation cell for the budding entrepreneurs to provide them a required conducive atmosphere for their growth and secondly a coaching centre for socially and economically under privileged students of the State to guide them for various management entrance exams.
The Director IIM Raipur Prof BS Sahay proposed both the initiative during a guest lecture on social entrepreneurship and leadership held here at IIM on Sunday. At the outset Perses Billimoria, founder CEO of Earthsoul India and Vivek Matthai, consultant and former CMO of TATA Global Beverages ltd gave insights on ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ and ‘leadership’ to the students of IIM Raipur. Billimoria presented his ideas on the inherent giving back attitude present in the Indian society and discussed its importance with the students.
He highlighted two innovative start-ups mentored by him. The first one being ‘Aakar Innovations - low cost sanitary napkins’ and the second one being ‘Thrive Solar’, with the initiative of ‘One Child One light Campaign’ providing small low cost solar lights to students. Citing these examples, he motivated students to take plunge into social entrepreneurship. He cautioned them again many hardships and also about taking calculated risks. He noticed that one must have a strong urge and come up with out of box brilliant innovations. He expressed his concern about the inequality of wealth distribution in our country and urged the students to take up social entrepreneurship to help bridge the gap.
Vivek Matthai having worked with premier brands like Amul, Bisleri, TATA Global Beverages ltd gave the students his ideas on the topic of leadership. He gave a few examples on ITC training ‘entrepreneurs’ to build organisations from within and how TATA’s went ahead with Jaguar. He explained the customer focussed approach on leadership which is developed on teams and process improvement. He also told the students that leadership could be functional, strategic and as a coach.