Speaking at the Successful Women In Management (SWIM), a one-day programme organised by the Great Lakes Institute of Management in the city, Aga said women should be bold enough to face any situation and also be decisive.

Carnatic exponent Sudha Raghunanthan, shared her secret of success on the same stage.

said that her mantra for success is innovation. “Music gives enough space for innovation. When it comes to singing, you have to innovate with the given limitsAnd any innovation within the boundaries of the space given will surely get you global recognition.

Also try your utmost to hold the audience with the right kind of performance,” she Sudha Raghunathan said and added that it was the support of her family that gave members which made her the needed confidence and the will to fight against all odds.

For Hemu Ramaiah, the founder of Landmark, the first thing an entrepreneur should plan before starting a new venture is to know about the exit route.

SWIM is an initiative by the students of Great Lakes in a bid order to promote the spirit of leadership among the budding women managers of today.

The aim main idea of the event is to celebrate the success of women and highlight the key traits which helped them assume leadership roles in different walks of life.

Others present at the event were Dr. Bala V. Balachander, founder of the Great Lakes Institute of Management, T. N. Seshan, former Chief Election Commissioner, and Mrudula Bharat Ram, proprietor, Sundaram Textiles, were present. Anu Aga also released the SWIM magazine on the occasion.

SWIM 2009 will see the keynote speeches delivered by Anu Aga of Thermax, Carnatic vocalist Sudha Raghunathan, Carnatic vocalist and Landmark founder Hemu Ramaiah. The central theme of SWIM 2009 is ‘Women as Trailblazers: Dreaming, Exploring and Discovering new horizons’.

A panel discussion on ‘Educated, intelligent, energetic and just in her 40’s – Can she still pursue her career dreams?’ will see panellist Pushpa Kandaswamy, Indra Subramanyam, Lalitha Maheshwaran and T. N. Seshan taking the stage.

Vinod Ganesh will host the Inter College and Corporate Quiz: Les Quizarables.

The event will be held on August 12 at Green Park Hotel. For details, contact Ashish Kaul at 9962500351 or Mahesh at 9962500356.

The start-up is led by Sitashwa Srivastava, who works with a leading MNC in Bangalore, with inputs from Shalabh Srivastava (a management consultant in Delhi), Pradeep Sonthalia (working with a private equity firm in Delhi) and Amit Gupta (a techie with an IT firm in Kolkata).

It started during Sitashwa’s Management days at Great Lakes Institute of Management (GLIM). For the elective course in International Entrepreneurship Programme students required to incubate an idea.

“I prepared a business, financial and marketing plan on an online marketplace,” recalls Sitashwa. “One of our guest faculties, Dr Ashok Vasudevan, professor with Harvard University, appreciated my work and gave his inputs on the business plan, triggering my entrepreneurial plans.”

Thus, the seeds for CreAdivity were sown at GLIM. But, soon after college it was a nine-hour schedule at work. In November 2007, Sitashwa’s entrepreneurial plan got the better of him and he was determined to give CreAdivity a shot. Three like-minded friends keen to explore the online ad space joined him.

Today, the platform is running on a pilot basis, with each of the four contributing in areas of their strength after office hours. For example, Amit has been taking care of the technical part of the website, sitting in Kolkata, while Shalabh has been formulating strategies since its genesis.

“We launched the beta version of the website, starting with ad contests in certain college campuses, which saw an initial success. Now, we are planning to expand it in a more professional way,” says Shalabh. CreAdivity now has 40 active creatives (design, freelance or management students with a creative bent of mind).

Small and medium businesses which need advertisement and branding solutions can post their requirements on the site. The creative team responds with branding ideas, campaigns and write-ups. “One major USP for a customer is that he gets to choose from 10 different creative solutions,” says Sitashwa. While any leading ad firm charges around Rs. 2 lakh, the rates at CreAdivity range from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 20,000.

Added to that, CreAdivity will also have case studies on Indian advertisements posted on the site, promising to help students. The team has not met, but the members connect remotely and regularly. In fact, they treat this as an advantage.

“This way, we hope to tap three markets,” says Sitashwa. Once they launch the site on a commercial basis, they plan to quit their well-paying jobs and devote themselves full-time to the start-up. Until then, they are scouting for Seed Funding. Anybody listening?

(If you are an entrepreneur with a successful business model or know one, write to us at firstinnings@goergo.in)

The recruitment season has just got over in the city colleges, and an increasing number of colleges are seeing students opting out of placements to pursue their entrepreneurial ambition.

Jayaram K. Iyer, Professor (Marketing), LIBA is not surprised. “In fact, the number of students pursuing entrepreneurship has only increased over the years,” says Iyer. For instance, nearly 30 per cent of students who graduated from Loyola 25 years ago are running their own firms.

While traditionally it was students who came from business houses who wanted to take the road less travelled, today there’s an increasing number of first-generation entrepreneurs. “Plenty of opportunities, growing economy, environment-friendly industry and funding knowledge are reasons behind the greater urge to start out independently at a younger age,” Iyer says.

While Martina plans to work with a media organisation before starting out independently, there are others who are ready to take the plunge straight out of college. IIT-Madras (Management Studies), probably for the first time, has a student in Sathyanarayanan who has opted out of placement to follow his passion.

Considering that it is the fifth of the Management Programme, the faculty feel more students will be following suit. Anna University, Great Lakes Institute of Management and other management colleges might not have seen student drop out of placements, but faculty say the list of alumni turning entrepreneurs is on the rise.

Thanks to the eco-system created for entrepreneurs in schools, today, there are many taking up the challenge even without prior experience. MS Entrepreneurship programme at IIT-Madras, for example, is a formal degree where six to seven students are taken through a rigorous curriculum.

“The lure of instant money in other jobs and tremendous risk involved in starting on your own discourage many from taking the route, but these forums are where they drop their inhibitions,” says Sanghamithra Bhattacharyya, Assistant Professor, IIT-Madras.

Not everybody agrees that once one gets the entrepreneurial spark one must go ahead. National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), a non-for-profit initiative of the Wadhwani Foundation, which plays an active role by helping launch entrepreneurs through its programmes at different institutions, does not encourage students to take up entrepreneurship immediately after college.

“Ideally one must work for two to three years before starting independently,” says Laura Parkin, Executive Director, NEN. “It takes seven years to build a network.”

Asked why there aren’t many takers for entrepreneurship right after college, Parkin says, “I am not surprised. It’s not lack of interest. Put your self in the shoes of a student – they have never worked part-time and knowledge of possibilities is limited.”