Hidden Ocean of Europa..

Changing the subject for the time being. Instead of inspiring speeches we bring you today an informative speech on Jupiter’s moon – Europa. It has violent hidden oceans – Such oceanic unrest translates into a higher potential for life.

If you are further interested you can also check out Bill Stone’s quest for Europa.

Private Equity in India…

PGPEX 3rd batch student,XXX, participated in Asia’s biggest PE&VC event in Mumbai few weeks back. His thoughts are etched here..

Private Equity (PE) is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange. Investments in PE most often involve either an investment of capital into an operating company or the acquisition of an operating company.  In 2008, PE firms raised a total of $450 Billlion USD whereas managed total funds worth $2.5 trillion USD.

PE in India is quite recent only couple of years old. However global PE firms are interesting challenges in Indian industry. PE funds are customizing their India strategy keeping in mind the local realities the relatively small size of companies seeking capital, promoters’ reluctance to cede control, and local takeover regulations, among others. Their focus is moving from big-ticket transactions, quite common abroad and frequently running into a few hundred million dollars, to smaller deals and minority stakes.

Such Indianization of global funds in India can be an interesting study and would throw light on the challenges PE firms are facing and the transformation they are going through.

…Came back from TIE-ISB Venture Capital event

Few of the wannabe entrepreneurs of PGPEX 3rd batch participated in the biggest PE( Private Equity) and VC(Venture Capital) gathering in Hyderabad few days back. It was an awesome experience and gave us requisite and “to-the-point” information to start our own ventures. Here is a snapshot….

TiE-ISB Connect, http://www.tie-isbconnect.com the annual networking event for entreprenuers and VC’s got off to a great start today in Hyderabad. Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri K. Rosaiah, inaugurated the 2 day (October 22-23, 2009) at Hotel Marriott, Hyderabad. The theme for this years event is ‘The Crisis will pass…will you?.

TiE-ISB Connect organisers expressed confidence that participants at the end of this year’s 2 day event entrepreneurs will be able to discover the information, advice, support and ideas to take their entrepreneurship to the next level during difficult times. Over 40 Venture Capitalist Firms, 500 entreprenuers converged at the Hotel Marriott to engage in a series of interactive information dialogue at TiE-ISB Connect. This year’s TiE-ISB Connect features Keynote by Asit Pal, Executive Director of Corporation Bank, Kishore Biyani, Managing Director of Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited and the Group Chief Executive Officer of Future Group and Dr. Varaprasad Reddy, Managing Director of Shantha Biotechnics.

The President of TiE, Hyderabad Chapter, Dr. Ramesh Babu in his comments said If there is a way out of the economic downturn, it is the ‘Entreprenuers’ creativity, flexibility and capacity to find solutions. New generation entreprenuers are the true drivers of growth and job creation. Our role is to create the best possible eco-system to foster entrepreneurship and provide our participants an opportunity to expand skills, make valuable contacts, and gather practical ideas for aspiring entreprenuers.

Economic downturns are never desirable, but they are inevitable. Using the right mix of business strategy during tough times is the best way for your venture to survive. The event began today morning with ‘Jumpstart Your Venture’ Workshop where a panel of experts discussed the potential pitfalls and key requisites to enhance success rate of first-time entreprenuers. The workshop was packed and attracted 150 attendees. Thereafter participants visited the ‘Company Showcase’ inaugurated by the Chief Minister.

According to TiE Global, Member Trustees of Board, JA Chowdary, and the Mentor of TiE-ISB Connect said TiE-ISB Over the last 4 years our event has been able to create a favorable Eco system to inspire entrepreneurship. Particularly for start ups as there were no networking opportunity 4 to 5 years back. He said the event has directly or indirectly helped many entreprenuers to either strike partnerships or attract investment in their venture. TiE-ISB Connect also hopes to create a network of angle investors in Hyderabad going forward.

Later in the evening the track on ‘Funding & Operational Challenges during Seed Stage’ was held. The Panel here probed into ‘valuation’, ‘investible business’, ‘differentiation’, ‘defensibility’, ‘non-linearity’, and ‘scalability’ and other details for closing the seed funding. The Panel also dwelled upon potential alternatives to seed fund.

The Event is noted for its ‘Taking India Forward’ panel discussion featuring face-to-face interaction with a diverse set emerging leaders, eminent industrialists and investors. This year the panel discussed the reality of ‘India Poised/ Incredible India’ as opposed to ‘India Paused/ Incredible Problems of India’ and explores the opportunities to leverage the ‘demographic dividend’ for inclusive economic growth.

On day 2 “Catalyzing Inclusive Growth while Solving Real Problems” will be in spotlight at the Next 800 million opportunity track chaired by S. Sivakumar of ITC Agro. The next track during the day will talk about Funding & Operational Challenges during Series A/B (Follow-On) Stage chaired by Ananth Rao of Angel Investor. Critical elements like entry valuations for the investor and potential exit valuations, timelines, products, markets, etc. will be explored extensively by the panel at this session.

The venture community attending the TiE-ISB Connect expressed their interest in broadening the dialogue with entreprenuers. They said investments at all levels of entrepreneurship from seeding early stage companies, to later-stage funding continues to pose significant challenge for Venture Firms and the investing community. Brand new ideas and stories with growth potential will be at the top of their table. TiE-ISB connect has garnered considerable attention from leaders in the venture capital investment world to connect with the entrepreneurs, startups and emerging growth companies that are actively searching for partners and funding. This year the resonance at the event was to send out the message ‘Get Tough and don’t give up During These Challenging Times’.

In the afternoon Rajesh Raju of Peepul Capital chairs ‘Funding & Operational Challenges during Growth Stage’ track. The focus at this track is to explore Exit options and economic landscape. The panel will have a mix of Panel of Private Equity, Investment Bankers and Entrepreneurs will explore growth companies, growth capital, valuations, and operational challenges with accelerating growth.

Later in the evening the ‘VC Connect’ track brings together 6 experienced investors will exchange knowledge on what investors across the board are thinking about their respective investing approaches, what they believe needs to be done to enhance value-creation and what they’re looking for. This session is designed for maximum audience participation. Get your doubts clarified and questions answered about the investing landscape in India today from this incredibly diverse set of top quality investors. The session will be moderated by Sanjay Anandaram, Managing Director JumpStartUp Fund Advisors.

The title sponsor for the event is Corporation Bank. Other sponsors for the event include BSCPL Infrastructure and NSL. Hotel Marriott is the host partner for the event.

Happy Diwali to all of you

Dhoom Dhadaka at PGPEX

Happy Diwali to all of you. After the boisterous Diwali party someone aptly summarized the evening.

“The Diwali party entertained us all …

Gautam you were simply amazing … you have an alternative career for sure …

Vijay Arya … dunno how many instruments this guy knows … last time he was playing the mouth – organ … this time the spanish guitar .. and in between he filled up for lack of the  tabla using ….. guess …  yes the spanish !!!

Srividya earned the unanimous title of “Jhansi ki Rani” for her dare-devilry with the fireworks .. She was ably supported by  Jain … Gaurav Jain !

Major Niren did his bit throughout … once he could be seen uprooting one of the tables which had sunk half-way into mother earth ….

We missed Susanta da’s mouth – organ but that’s reserved for some other day …

Abhishek sang from his heart … and could have won the “Meri Awaz Suno” title …

Praveen alias “Gaaru” laughed more than he could manage to sing !

Manas “the Mint” Mallik and Binand “The Chota Don” sighed away from singing but could be heard humming and suggesting the numbers continuously …

The popular award …  goes  to Tauqueer alias “Bada Don” who stole one of the 1st prizes and kept the night alive by demanding popular numbers like … well .. Some other time !

The better halves didn’t disappoint … Shanka was spotted blushing / hiding?…

Gautam and Arya crooned to Bappi Da’s “Pyar bina chain kahan re” in characteristic nasal style

Somesh ji was spotted humming something into the mike more than once ….

And thanks Gaurav for arranging the show ….

There would be notable others I might have missed out …  but this Diwali would be one we shall remember for long …..

“Helluva”

Entrepreneurs of PGPEX!!!

First Batch Entrepreneurs

The following alumnus of First batch of PGPEX started an education initiative( Optimus College)

Sharad Bhatt :- Sharad is an IIM Calcutta alumnus and brings over 11 years of international work experience stretching across India, USA and UK, to the Optimus founding team.

Shobhit Chauhan :- Shobhit is an alumnus of IIM Calcutta & IIT Kanpur brings over 12 years of international work experience stretching across USA, India and UK, to the Optimus founding team.

Pankaj Agarwal :- Pankaj is an IIM Calcutta alumnus and brings over 11 years of international work experience stretching across India, Singapore, Hong Kong & Gulf countries, to the Optimus founding team.

Second Batch Entrepreneurs

Arvind Kumar and K S Sudhakar have set up Attune Technologies Pvt Ltd in Chennai.They are focusing on the healthcare sector and supporting midsized & small nursing homes with their software.

Arvind Kumar,CEO
MBA from IIM Calcutta; 10 years of experience working with Philips Medical Systems and iSoft R&D Centre in Healthcare IT and Technology Architecture across Asia-Pacific and European Markets.

KSS Sudhakar
MBA from IIM Calcutta; 11 years of experience working with Wipro Technologies in IT Solutions’ delivery across Asia-Pacific, USA and European Markets

Ideas to Implementation…

Few PGPEX colleagues of mine are busy these days writing business plan for “i2i – Ideas to Innovation” as the deadline is nearing. i2i is a business plan contest hosted by the Entrepreneurship cell of IIM-Calcutta. It is a renowned business plan contest which attracts participants from top business schools of the world.

To learn more about this visit http://www.ecelliimcal.in/

List of electives…

Term 4	Term 6
	Competency Mapping and assessment
Financial Statement Analysis	Mergers & Acquisitions
Business Forecasting	Investments
Derivatives	Business Valuation
Consumer Behaviour	Corporate Financial Strategies
Service Marketing	International Finance
Leadership Excellence: Ancient Indian Insights	Bank Management
Managing in Cross Cultural Context	B2B Marketing
Designing Corporate Citizenship Initiatives	Product Management
	Business Intelligence
	Business Integration with Information Technology
	Business Dynamics
	Project Management
	Quantitative Applications in Finance
	Supply Chain Management
	Assessing the Business Environment
	Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation Term 7 Conflict and Negotiations Econometric Tools to Analyse Data for Business Managers Strategic Cost Management Strategic HRM in Services The Economics of Personnel for Managers Customer Relationship Management Global Marketing Strategic Brand Management Business Data Mining Strategic Management of IT Perspectives on Software Business Strategic Operations Management The Environment for International Business Innovation and Technology Policy Managing Strategic Alliances and Joint Ventures

I have a dream…

IIM Calcutta –

Where hundreds come with towering dreams.
To set the path for the world to follow.
Where hundreds come with burning ideas.
To shape the destiny and life of tomorrow.

Where vision takes shape of a proud nation.
Of growth, opportunities and aspirations.
Where leaders are groomed with unmatched skill.
To command respect and execute will.

Where the best enter and excel for sure.
On a tenacious, resolute and focused note.
Where creativity thrives and innovation wins.
Experience proves its potential zing.

With nature working for long through silence.
And humans showing the road to summit.
We know how precious our days have been,
At IIMC, the temple of zenith.

A day in the life of a PGPEXian…

7:45AM: Alarm goes off and I hit the snooze button to negotiate with my conscience, 15 minutes of extra sleep.

8:15 AM: With bleary red eyes I take a long walk to the class, thinking about the ways to withstand the 7 and half hours of grueling lecture.

8:30 AM – 1:30 PM: The day starts with Corporate Finance, moves on to “International Economics” and ends with “Managing World Class Operations”. I got cold-called today during the Finance class and had to appear for a surprise quiz in economics. The threat of cold calls and the unanticipated barrage of quizzes motivate me to work hard and prepare for the unknown. However, the resident dismay and pain on my classmates’ faces proves that I am not the only one who botched up.

1:30 PM – 2:15 PM: A long walk to the mess and back to the class on time before the afternoon session begins.

2:15 PM – 5:30 PM: Two back to back case discussions on Marketing.  In these case discussions, holding on to a viewpoint is a challenge as the professors try to trap us from all directions, thereby prodding us to gain a more holistic understanding. Prof Mishra typically starts cold-calling to ignite the discussion. However intimidating a cold-call is, it ensures full participation and stirs an intellectually stimulating discourse. Three hours of discussion and debate have left me fatigued and mentally exhausted.

5:45 PM – 6:30 PM: An invigorating game of tennis with my classmate prepares me for the long night ahead. Either it is a badminton game with a Professor or a game of basketball with the PGP folks, this time is well spent networking with the residents of the other side of the lakes.

7:00 PM – 8:30 PM: Spent time reading newspapers and met with the “Event Management” team to discuss about the arrangement of the impending “Term end party”.

8:30 PM– 9:00 PM: Half an hour of relaxing dinner, with dinner table gossips.

9:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Every Saturday we have “Consulting Club” meeting. Today we discussed some traditional market entry cases and brain-teasers. Mr. Gupta, one of our batch-mates, gave an exhilarating talk on “BSNL’s launch of 3G plan in India”.

10:00 PM– 1:00 AM: Study with my cohort members to prepare for Monday’s strategy case and presentation. Cohort members from diverse background provide unique perspective to the cases which aids in complete understanding. Imagine a case being unraveled from the perspective of a Nuclear Scientist, defense personnel, shipping captain and an IT professional. It truly adds variety.

1:00 – 1:30 AM: Shots of coffee to keep me awake for another 3 hours.

1:30 – 2:45 AM: Prepare for Monday’s lecture as the spectre of an unanticipated quiz always looms large. I get ready for bed and take some much needed rest to endure another grueling week as a PGPEX student at IIM Calcutta.

If you are wondering whether I survived a year at IIMC, rest assured as I am currently basking in the corporate world. As I look back I realize that the combination of academic excellence and rigour proved the ideal training ground for me to take on the world. Thank you IIMC!