This book, coming from “center for innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship” of IIMA, is the story of 25 IIMA graduates who chose the “rough road of entrepreneurship” over the relatively less-risky more-comfortable route of being part of a well-established company. The author Rashmi Bansal (herself IIMA) has actually met and interviewed each entrepreneur featured, so the stories are very much first hand information.
Each entrepreneur’s story forms a separate chapter of the book, and each chapter ends with the entrepreneur’s concise one-page “Advice to young entrepreneur”.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. The writing style is very informal and engaging, and makes a smooth read. The companies featured are across sectors – jobs website, hotel, online travel, pharma, mining equipment, educational software, investment bank, online trading, retail chain, infrastructure consultancy, sugar, enterprise software, school, charity portal etc etc. Iam happy to gain a little bit of domain knowledge in these verticals. Besides, many of the companies – naukri.com, subhiksha, india infoline, mphasis, makemytrip.com, shri renuka sugars, mastek, edelweiss etc – are ones i’ve heard before either as a customer or from the business channels. Its interesting to know a bit about what went into making these companies from scratch. Lots of drive, talent, risk-taking, energy and dedication go into building these companies !
Almost all stories are of classical entrepreneur (build companies with mainly a for-profit motivation), but few of them (GiveIndia.org, eklavya school, basix micro-fianance etc) have a social entrepreneurship angle to them, which added to the diversity of the book.
Overall, a good read and many people – not just entrepreneur types – should find this book interesting. When we are talking about stories of 25 talented people who built their own organizations from scratch, there’s bound to be lots of useful information, ideas and advice. In fact, the title of the book itself is a pithy advice from a world-class entrepreneur Steve Jobs (in his 2005 Stanford commencement address).
The funding for this book project is done by “Wadhwani Foundation”. Thanks to them .. and a little plug:
“The Wadhwani Foundation funds not-for-profit efforts that inspire, educate and support new entrepreneur’s and create environments where they can succeed. Its mission is to help individuals achieve their full potential, regardless of their background.
Launched in 2000, the Wadhwani Foundation is founded by Dr.Romesh Wadhwani, an IT entrepreneur in silicon valley, california.
Wadhwani Foundation believes entrepreneurship is a powerful tool for individuals to realize their potential. Entrepreneurship is more than starting a business; it is a way of thinking, and a critical driver of growth in any economy. Entrepreneurs bring to the market new products and services , and device better and more efficient ways to operate.
In doing so, they create valuable productive new jobs. Successful entrepreneurs create wealth for themselves, their families, their communities, and their societies.
For more, log in to www.wadhwani-foundation.org
Related websites:
www.ciieindia.org ; Center for innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship, at IIMA.
www.nenonline.org : National Entrepreneurship Network.
