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Entrepreneurship:

Entrepreneurship has always been an enigmatic option for graduates of prominent B- schools inIndia.

It is a high risk, high reward career choice

. People who wants something their ownrather than working with any other corporate and also people who have a greater appetite for risk, starts their own venture.If we talk about the B-school graduates’ view on entrepreneurship then we can say that,entrepreneurship is more of a mid-career option rather than one taken at the beginning of career.We know the fact that, most B-school students in India come with very little work experience if we compare with US, so their lack of awareness of opportunities or serious insights into any particular industry or domain limits them from going into entrepreneurship. Other thing that wecan analyze could be the kind of opportunity costs that stare at them when they graduate from B-school. As we know, in any start up, people do not get good return when we compare it with kindof salaries graduates get through the placement process in B-school, the opportunity costs arestacked against entrepreneurship.If we will talk ‘is there are differences between entrepreneurs who join because of negativeinfluences and the entrepreneurs who take up entrepreneurship because they want to do it’. Thenwe can say that through different opinions of entrepreneur who opted out placement process, thatwhole concept of 'Entrepreneurship', 'B-Plans' and 'Risk taking abilities' is highly over-rated.Entrepreneurship is something where they do not think that much; Entrepreneurs do not say thatthey will be taking a calculated gamble for 'n' years, etc., instead say that 'this idea in particular is interesting and let us go for it'. The confidence that they can pull the venture through is whatmakes it possible to do. Entrepreneurs have a plan either and enter into it for many reasons. Itcan be one because there are no other options, because they think it is really a great idea that willclick or probably because you are just bored of their current job. In addition, there is nodifference at all among these different breeds of entrepreneurs. The simple fact that more start-ups will be created is a good thing in itself.

Entrepreneurship and Financial Crisis

When we talk about impact of the current financial crisis on entrepreneurship, then we can saythat Venture capital funding is already scarce in India. With the financial crisis, it will just become tougher, that’s why it is more difficult to leverage your idea in front of venturecapitalists. So it is not like that people are going for entrepreneurship due to financial crisis because they are not getting their desired salary package.

Possibly, it is very well recognized thatone of the ways people get into entrepreneurship is through negative displacement. That is a verylegitimate way of getting into business, but usually such business entities rarely grow intosomething significant. Other things being equal, the real high growth ventures or the mostsuccessful ventures start with a great idea and the passion to act on it. So, if people becomeentrepreneurs because of the rocky job market, it may be a temporary solution but not somethingwhich gives rise to interesting ventures.If we talk about global effect on entrepreneurship due to financial crisis; the upsurge inentrepreneurship comes at what is in many ways the worst possible time. In the first quarter of 2009, venture capital activity plummeted to just $3 billion—a new 12-year low—according to anew report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Assn., raising the possibility that many student ideas might never proceed beyond the business plan stage, says KipHarrell, president of the MBA Career Services Council, an umbrella group for MBA career

services officers: "Students recognize how bad the economy is and how hard getting capital is”.Still graduates form B-school want to go for Entrepreneurship because they feel like when theywill graduate there will be no job in the market for them.

Bernhard Schroeder

, director of theEntrepreneurial Management Center at San Diego State University's College of Business, whosaid membership in the school's entrepreneurship club tripled this year. "This recession isshowing them that they can't trust anyone with their career,"

If we are talking about India, a whole lot of opportunities lie in the conventional areas. In thewestern markets, most of the entrepreneurial opportunities, particularly the high growth ones,come out of new technologies; new knowledge, which is able to generate new products, andservices, which people can graduate to or start using.However, in a country like India, where there are so many problems, there are a whole lot of opportunities hiding in those areas which people don't normally look. If someone were to focuson areas like energy or infrastructure, these may become potential sectors where entrepreneurialenergy can be channelized.In that way, India is in a very advantageous situation because entrepreneurially, there are many problems to be solved here. They are very specific to India, to specific geographies and societieswithin our country, and not necessarily of interest to the global community.Instead, an emerging tribe of MBA- Entrepreneurs is emerging who under go the bestmanagement training at B-schools, and leverage it to pursue their dreams. This year, almost allcampuses, graduates have opted to take the road less travelled i.e., an Entrepreneurship.Interestingly, B-schools are supporting and promoting this trend wholeheartedly.This is year in IIM Ahmedabad,

eleven students opted out

from the placements to turnentrepreneurs. These graduates have plans to get into diverse sectors like logistics, advertising,manufacturing, agro-processing, finance and IT. At IIM Lucknow,

six graduates opted out

placements. IIM-L notes happily.

FMS student Neha Juneja

declined anoffer from the coveted Tata Administrative Services(TAS) to form her own venture called Aisapaisa.com. The venture is an independent platform for Indian retail investors to come together and collaborate. Another student of the

MBA MS courseat FMS Ravi Pokharana too opted out

of the placements. Ravi has taken control of Delhioperations of PT Education, a national level MBA prep firm, with 64 staff members in Delhi.At IIM Indore,

two students opted out from placement process

. Their websitewww.ourownbook.com is an innovative website that provides visitors a chance to participate in acollaborative book writing project, and get recognized as co-authors of the final book published.There are many factors driving these young entrepreneurs: a large appetite for risk, thrill of controlling their own destiny, and the promise of greater success. What’s more, B-schools aregoing out of their way to promote entrepreneurship on their campuses.Many institutes like IIM-A and IIM-B have modified placement rules to offer ‘placementholidays’ where students can try their hand at setting up their own venture and should thingsdon’t work out, can come back to campus for placements within two years of passing out.At XLRI Jamshedpur, eight students set to graduate next month are creating history at the 60-year-old institution by planning to start ventures. Though XLRI alumni have started businessesin the past, this is the first time that fresh graduates are turning to entrepreneurship.In the current trend, graduates from Top B-schools are more opting for Entrepreneurship, asmore and more students forgo placements to give wings to their ideas. At Indian School of