Entrepreneurship

In Practice
Dr. Sankalp Pratap

December 2019 - May 2020

IIM Trichy Chennai Campus

Executive Education and Consulting

Entrepreneurship in Practice

Summary

IIM Trichy launches a 6-month certicate course on Entrepreneurship to be conducted on weekends. The
course has been designed by a core team comprising :
a) A learning specialist deeply embedded in Sweden's fabled start-up ecosystem
b) An active entrepreneur well connected in India's start-up ecosystem
c) A practicing academician actively engaged in research on entrepreneurship in India

Introduction

As one hears of along lost batch-mate or a neighbor or a distant cousin launching their own ventures, one
claps on Instagram or retweets on Twitter, and simultaneously wishes for a playbook which could introduce
one to the world of entrepreneurship and start-ups; not as a coffee-book of curated anecdotes but as an
actionable set of inputs.

IIM Trichy introduces a certicate course titled 'Entrepreneurship in Practice', with a unique pedagogy which
drives learning process through participants 'doing' activities inside and outside the classroom thus leading
to real outcomes. This certicate course on Entrepreneurship is in line with the recognition that the business
world is going through a dramatically dynamic phase where old stable structures are crumbling down and
individuals need to be prepared to thrive in a world of uncertainty, innovation and shortening product life
cycles.

This course is an adapted and extended version of the Entrepreneurship course in IIM Trichy, taught by
the same instructors. Since its introduction three years back, the course has been rated highly by the
students. The overwhelmingly positive feedback has inspired the instructors to offer the course to a wider
audience outside the institute, with the same ambitions.

The course will introduce participants to fundamental concepts required to initiate a start-up, and will help
develop essential skills required to translate ideas of interest into market offerings. It will also facilitate
development of business models and business plans which can be pitched at appropriate forums
frequented by investors popularly known as Angels / VCs. We will use appropriate theoretical concepts but
will introduce them to participants by applying them to the practice of entrepreneurship.

Participants will learn how to get an 'Idea' to the market by nding an idea of value and interest, building a
team, launching an MVP (minimum viable product), developing a business plan andlearning how to 'pitch'

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Entrepreneurship in Practice

it, becoming aware of the legal aspects around establishing a new venture and learning how to leverage
the power of the digital eonomy. While introducing various terms and informal lingo used amongst
entrepreneurs, it will also impart knowledge of the theory of what one is doing in practice. While the course
teaches participants the skills to be an entrepreneur, it does not expect each participant to start their own
business immediately, though it does equip them to do so. Indeed, the lessons learnt will help participants act
entrepreneurially in various settings, helping them cope with uncertain and low resource situations, which
are going to be increasingly commonplace in our world. Notwithstanding the above, the course will aim to
sow the seeds of entrepreneurial thinking amongst the uninitiated while brining into motion the
entrepreneurial intentions of those who have already begun dreaming of their own ventures in the near
future.

Prole of Expected Participants

You can travel to / be available at Chennai for classes and assignments. You are busy on
weekdays but can spare time on the weekend.
You are 25 – 40 years of age, currently serving an organization in a full-time role and looking
to prepare yourself to participate in the world of start-ups in the future.
Alternatively, you are 20 – 24 years of age, are about to complete your (post-) graduation
and are looking forward to add certain skills which can broaden your possibilities in the
VUCA world that you were born into.
You believe that all we have is this one life and would like to express yourself in the society
through your skills, knowledge and opinions. You also believe in the process of learning and
self-enhancement to progress to newer orbits of activity.
You are proud of your individuality and at the same time, are comfortable working in in small
teams.
You are inquisitive, tenacious, energetic and ambitious.

Course Structure

Ÿ The program will be held ofine, in-class room for 6 months

Ÿ There will be sessions every alternate weekend, to allow time to the students to complete activities
given after each session. It will be a practice heavy program
Ÿ There will be 12 sessions in total. Each session will have 6 hours of in-class learning, bringing the total
classroom hours to 72
Ÿ Each session of 6 hours will be divided into 4 classes of 1.5 hours each, separated by 15 minute tea-
breaks and a 30-minute meal break (1000 – 1130, 1145 – 1315, 1345 – 1515, 1530 - 1700)
Ÿ One half of the sessions will be theory
based, with industry guests wherever
relevant to share their knowledge on that
topic
Ÿ The other half of the sessions will be activity
based, where the participants will carry out
certain activities (prepare models,
breakouts, role-play etc.) to strengthen
what they learnt in the rst half.
Ÿ The certicate awarded by IIM Trichy after
the completion of the program will be
subject to certain milestones (no. of classes
attended, exercises completed etc.)
Ÿ An online repository and community will be
maintained where students can access
lessons, more reference material, ask and
answer doubts etc.

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Entrepreneurship in Practice

The program has been designed to simulate the journey of launching start-up from idea to
execution. The topics covered in the 12 sessions will be:

Session Topic Learning Objective

- Who can be an entrepreneur?

Understanding the
1 - What is the difference between a start-up and a small business
Entrepreneur
- When is the perfect time to start-up?

Finding and evaluating an - How do I get an idea in the first place ?

2 - How do I know if my idea is worth pursuing?
Idea

- What should be the prole of the ideal team?

3 The founding team
- How should I go about nding founders and forming my team?

- What are the various legal entities in vogue in the start-up world
and what are the pros and cons of each entity
4 Setting up a company
- What are the compliance and legal factors that I should keep in
mind before setting up?

- What is an MVP; what is its utility?

5 Minimum Viable Product - How do I go about identifying the MVP for my idea?
- What should I do if my MVP is successful / unsuccessful

Getting the rst 100 - Who is my ideal customer and where can I nd them?
6
customers - How can I get customers for pay for my product / service?

- What are the metrics I should track to know the health of my

7 Measuring what matters start-up?
- What are the tools / framework I should use to track them?

- Why is 'digital' important for my business?

8 Digital as a resource
- How should I maximize my digital RoI?

- What are the components of an ideal business plan?

9 Business Plan
- What are the do's and don'ts I should be aware of?

- What the various types of investors (angel, seed, VC, PE) and
what is ideal for my business?
10 Fund-raising & term sheets - How much money should I ask for, and how should I set the
valuation for my company?
- How should I analyze the term sheet?

- What the components of a pitch deck?

11 How to pitch? - What is an elevator pitch?
- What are the best practices while pitching to investors?

- Teams formed during the program will pitch their ideas in front
12 Pitch day
of experienced entrepreneurs and angel investors

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Entrepreneurship in Practice

Prole of Core Instructors

Programme Director

Sankalp Pratap serves IIM Trichy as Associate Professor (Strategy). He has ~ 14

years of work experience of which around a decade was spent in the corporate
world. He has served reputed national and international organization in functions
like operations, marketing, strategy, human resources as also management
consulting. He secured his MBA and PhD from IIM Calcutta.

He has published his research work in reputed journals including in the Strategic
Management Journal (an FT 50 journal). He regularly presents his ongoing work in
the reputed EGOs conference.

An author of multiple case studies, he provides consulting services to large and

small organizations on matters of strategic importance.

In the MBA program, he teaches strategy, entrepreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship. His course on
entrepreneurship is particularly popular and is able to channelize the energy of young students towards
functioning ventures.

Other Programme faculty

Nikhil Jha has been an entrepreneur for 9 years, operating in the sports-
tech space. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and worked as a
management consultant at EY before starting up. His ventures SportsWave
and goSporto helped more than 50,000 people get back to playing sports
and were covered by reputed print and TV media outlets such as Forbes
Business, Livemint, Zee Business, NDTV Prime and Zee Business.

He is also a member of CII – Scorecard which is the sports industry arm of CII
and is a regular speaker at CII Sports Industry conferences. He has also
consulted leading sports companies and start-ups around product
development, marketing and technology.

Nikhil is also a guest faculty in the Sports Management program at IIM Rohtak,
where he teaches the 'Technology in Sports' course. He is also a visiting
faculty at IIM Trichy, IIM Calcutta and IMT Ghaziabad where he co-instructs courses on Entrepreneurship.

Anurag Choudhary has worked as the Executive Director for the Nordic
Chapter of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) one of the largest global network of
Tech entrepreneurs and investors. He has developed and organized
educational, mentorship programs and events to support entrepreneurship
and initiated projects to improve equality and diversity in the Startup
Ecosystem of Stockholm for over seven years. An alumnus of Stockholm
University, he specializes in developing strategic platforms for digital
learning and advises early stage Edtech startups in bringing tech and
innovation to the world of education.

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Entrepreneurship in Practice

Certificate
Upon successful completion of the course, each participant will be awarded a Certificate by IIM
Tiruchirappalli

Course Fee
Rs 60,000 (excluding GST) payable in 3 tranches

1st tranche of Rs 20,000– at time of registration,

2nd tranche of Rs 20,000– before the beginning of the course and
3rd tranche of Rs 20,000 – at the end of third month of the course

Programme Venue

IIM Trichy Chennai Campus

Course Duration

Dec 2019 - May 2020

About IIM Tiruchirappalli (IIMT)

The Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli (IIMT) was set up as an autonomous institution in 2011 by
the Government of India in collaboration with Government of Tamil Nadu. IIMT is one of the fastest growing
second generation IIM with multi-faceted contribution in education, research, training, and consulting in
management to government, public sector, private sector and not for prot organizations among others.
The Post Graduate Program in Management for Sponsored Candidates (PGP-SC) is new member of the list of
long duration programs offered by IIMT. The
institute offers two year residential Post Graduate
Program in Management (PGPM), fteen month
Post Graduate Program in Management for
Defence Ofcers (PGPM – DO) and Fellow Program
in Management (FPM) from Tiruchirappalli campus
and Post Graduate Program in Business
Management (PGPBM) from Chennai Campus. In
addition, the institute offers number of customized
and open management development programs,
faculty development programs and hybrid
programs through elearning mode.

IIM Tiruchirappalli is ranked 8th among IIMs by NIRF 2019

ranking released by Government of India. The institute is
constantly striving to achieve excellence though all-
round contributions to the management eld.

For further details:

Executive Education and Consulting,
Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli
Pudukkottai Main Road, Chinna Sooriyur Village, Tiruchirappalli- 620 024, Tamil Nadu
e-mail: eec@iimtrichy.ac.in | Phone: +91-431-2505025 / 5125

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