Writing this blog in the library of a new B-school currently operating in a modest rented premises and that too being a part of the first batch of the college, i sometimes feel i have reasons to become proud of compared to my friends in other reputed B-schools in the country and abroad.  Our institute has structured entrepreneurship as its backbone and i must confess i have been suffering from heavy bouts of mind shifts recently after 13 months stint in this institute. Although i must admit getting a good job was the main intention of me joining this college i have started developing a huge passion towards entrepreneurship. The lectures, discussions, gyans and project works done here has played a major role in these mind shifts. 

                                     Coming from a family background of government employees, my parents still want to see me working in a big company in a big position. Although my thinking was also in the same lines, this has started to subside recently. I just read a blog written by a batchmate of mine who has already started his venture in organic farming. The words in his writing clearly shows the determination that he has to make his venture a success. There are two of my batchmates who has dropped from the course to persue their dream of starting a business in the food sector. Another batch mate already has his venture running prior to joining the course in the rural sector. I must admit the courage shown by these guys leaves you to sit back and think ‘Is a job with a hefty pay package the only thing in life?’

                                                    Confidently i can say i have changed my thinking towards my career. I spent a good part of the day brain storming about various ideas that could possibly be a viable business. Unfortunatley nothing concrete has come up till now. Inshah Allah,  a day would come when i would be reporting to no one else except myself.

            I was looking for an MBA which is different from conventional one being taught at most B-School’s in the country. That is when I came across IWSB which was in its first year and having entrepreneurship as its core value. The faculty profile, industry interface and peer student profile was very impressive and shaped my decision to join here. Some of the people associated with IWSB are really big names like Prof. Ishwar Dayal who was the Founding Director, IIM Lucknow. I always believed quality of MBA in India is far better than pursuing it abroad. Also I desire to work in India post MBA which was another factor of not considering a foreign MBA. Management education abroad has also recently been very expensive and in most of the cases do not come with a scholarship.

My journey with IWSB till now has really been an eventful one with learning happening from both inside and outside the classroom. IWSB encourages class room interaction by means of case methodology of teaching. This provides a platform to internalize and apply the knowledge learnt in class rooms lectures to live discussions. Unlike other B-Schools IWSB has a course in ‘Man and Society’ which requires students to do book reviews, researches and come up with a thesis on a wide range of topics. Also students are given opportunities to work as research assistants to faculty in assisting them in their research projects which in itself is a huge experience.

Like most of the top notch B-Schools in the country including the IIM’s, case studies used at IWSB are extracted from the ones written by professors at Harvard and Wharton Business Schools. The cases discussed are complex and comprehensive which provides the students an insight of how challenging management would be in the real world. Every now and then we have industrial leaders from both India and abroad visit our campus and conduct lectures, seminars etc. These interactions are really helpful in getting insights of the journey of some eminent personalities who have made a mark at the global level.

One visible strength of IWSB clearly lies in its industry interface and is seen in the nature of companies that have participated in the summer placement process. Inspite of the effect of slowdown on placements in all B-Schools across the country, the students at IWSB have been able to get the kind of profile they intend to work with. One specialty I see in IWSB is the focus to place the students in the fastest growing companies and not only the largest of the companies. I am looking forward to my summer internship with Q-Equip India, a consultancy firm which promises to be a huge learning experience.

What makes the life at IWSB hot and happening is the series of extra curricular activities and events being conducted in the institute which is in line with the common mantra at IWSB – work hard and play hard. I have been actively able to continue my passion for cricket after coming here in the midst of the hectic work schedule. Students here are also engaged in activities which range from dramatics to debating to rock climbing. IWSB follows an open culture and everyone from faculty to students is addressed by their first name. Students are given enough freedom to decide their own development with our world class faculty also providing ample guidance in this regard.

            Although the institute is currently operating out in rented premises, the state of art campus that is coming up promises to be equipped with all the ultra modern facilities. The library is also an integral part of academics having all the books, magazines and journals required for enhancing the subject knowledge of a student. The wi-fi enabled campus and hostel helps the students to get engaged in assignments and projects even after the class hours gets over. Overall I am really happy with my decision to join IWSB and also confident of the fact that I will be able to give back to both the industry and society meaningfully once I pass out from this prestigious institute.

                                          When one day cricket was started in the year 1971 it was accepted worldwide as a change that led to results being produced in a matter of one day. Gradually we saw the overs getting shortened to 50. Then came the 15 over rule having field restrictions and now we have 20 overs of field restrictions in the latest one day format. When 20-20 was introduced into international cricket in 2005, it was not meant to be played very often to an extent of deglamourizing the traditional way of playing cricket. But in the last 4 years the consequence of 20-20 has just been that. Test cricket except for the current ashes are being played in empty stands even at India. People have started to get restless with the 50 over format and there would be harldy anyone who would watch the game without switching between channels. Bowlers who was seen as equals along with batsmen till the 1990′s has almost been converted to an insignificant lot, thanks to the change in rules which ICC brings in every now and then which are always in favor of the batsmen.  The IPL’s, ICL’s and the World 20-20 has added to the woes.

                          What a cricket lover like me, enjoys is watching a batsman playing the ball according to its merit and the bowler taking pride in bouncing off a batsmen although the current set of rules makes someone apprehensive of bowling a bouncer itself. Traditional cricket shots like the cover drive, the cut, pull, leg glance, sweep etc are seen very little these days and some innovative shots has taken the limelight like the one handed slog, reverse sweep, back scoop, the ‘dilshan shot’ and so on. Batsmen gets frustrated if they are not able to score in one ball. There was a time when a good leave outside the offstump was appreciated, but one would not be surprised if someone is soon critisized for making such a ‘mistake’.

                                There is always a great degree of entertainment which the longer version of the game has given to cricket lovers over the years. ICC on this regards should take serious steps that any form of cricket longer than the 20-20 version becomes obselete. What surprises me is however the very little protest made by the players who have played the game for so long. May be the rewards that come with the IPL’s have made people oversee the charm of the game. Giving due respect to the 20-20 format, i would hope for a serious re-thinking of making the game of cricket a fast paced one thus making it loose the grace and pride the game has been carrying for over a century now.

            Thanks to a Macro entrepreneurship project and an amazing faculty in Satya, the platform was set to start making an effort to fix a goal and battle to achieve it by any means. I kept my options open and had a lot of names in mind. One of the names i had in my mind was Onkarji who has been a great example to transformation of a company called Apollo tyres to what it is today. Today the Apollo group boasts of having diversified into the health sector(AHS hospitals) and has a good reputation for their commendable CSR activities.

            I got in touch with the top management of Apollo through my uncle who is the Registar of Companies, Kerala. Thanks to his intervention i was able to initiate a dialogue of getting an appoinment to meet Onkarji. After a couple of fixing up and cancellation of appoinments i finally had a date of March 9th, tuesday between 12:30 – 1:00 pm to meet him. I spent the previous day googling and finding out information about Shri. Onkar S kanwar. I had some 5-6 questions framed which i planned to ask him when we meet. But when i arrived i was told that he has just arrived from a conference and i need to be as brief as possible.

            I along with my batchmate Abhilash entered the big room where we were greeted by the man himself, who politely stood up from his chair shook hands with us and made us seated. Then he said ‘Yes. How can i help you guys’ with a voice which relly sounded that of a succesful man.  I had to spontanepusly decide on shortlisting the 2-3 questions which i need to ask him in the 20 minutes we had. At the end of our meeting Shri. Onkar also politely agreed to contribute some artifacts for the Museum Of Entrepreneur Leadership which our institute Indus World School of Business would be launching at the end of this month. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to Mr. Wahal (Company Secretary, Apollo) and Mr. Pradeep (Head – Secratarial, Apollo) who played a significant role in helping to fix the appoinment. Following are the excerpts from the interview which covered three main areas - his journey as an entrepreneur, main attributes of an entrepreneur and his views on the management education of today.

1) Briefly on his journey of entrepreneurship and story behind the transformation of Apollo to what it is today.

When I came back from the US after my studies I had to start from ground zero. My father was a trader at that time and wanted to get into manufacturing. I was working for a company that was manufacturing equipment for making steel pipes and tubes. That company was very much interested in coming to India. I proposed to them that they should meet my father when they go to India. Americans love to meet marketing people. My father was a self entrepreneur himself and started from almost nothing in hand. He was able to succeed in trading and wanted to graduate to the next level of manufacturing. In the 1960’s India was a regulated economy and everything was controlled in terms of production and distribution. Public sectors and a few private sectors were in the picture at that time. So the government was in the process of issuing licenses. When the American I was talking about visited my father, he was impressed with his leadership and distribution network and wanted to join him. That is how I came and joined my fathers business. Then we acquired the land but did not have license for doing the business. There were a lot of people at that time who would buy licenses and sell licenses while taking the premium for it. That is how we got the license and was also my first experience was implementing a project. Inspite of not being a civil engineer I succeeded in building a factory from nothing to something which became the pride of India. We became the best tube makers in the country. At that time India was importing wheat and green revolution was on. So that is a time when we played a very dominant role in trying to meet this demand of farmers by supplying pipes and tubes. There was also a demand in the oil sector and we had to fulfill that gap. My father was a ambitious man and wanted to do many things. I always believed that even if you have all the people and resources, but unless you have a management bandwidth you will not be able to manage the change. My father was not able to manage the change because when he started the company Apollo tyres, it was also a license brought from another company since we did not have the license in our hand. The factory was started and began to incur losses. Then I came in the scene and said I would like to try my hands on the same and get away from his shadow. I wanted to see my entrepreneurship when we had no money, lousy management and poor products. So there was a combination of factors which I fought including strong unions in Kerala above all. Somehow I had a lot of conviction and confidence and of course god is always with you if you help yourself. They say ‘God helps those who help themselves’. So the first thing I did was to call all the people and asked them to give me a chance to work and see how we can groom this company to a big company not knowing anything about the time it would take. And I asked people who still feel unsettled about the company to leave now. After this a few people left us and quite a lot of them stayed back. I decided to embark upon this journey by going to different colleges in different parts of the country collecting young people and had a good experience in the process. I was looking for people from middle class backgrounds who were willing to look at their parents and say that they wanted to win a job and grow at that job. These people where recruited from places like West Bengal, Kharagpur, Punjab University, Bombay and Tamil Nadu. I picked up around 150 people from various fields and disciplines from management to engineering to accounting. They were put on the jobs and I said ‘Now we as a team need to work and not I’. That was one effort which was made and somehow all of them had the conviction that this guy will be able to deliver inspite of a lot of problems we faced at that time. The rest is all history and we kept on growing the company. In the meantime we decided to get out of Kerala since we had continuous problems as far as this location was concerned. We decided to up a factory in Gujarat which we did in a record time. The kind of confidence and enthusiasm in the team at that time was unbelievable. For the money that was needed we did not go to the institutions but went to the public since we were a listed company. By then company had made enough profits and had enough confidence to grow the business. Whatever money we get by means of depreciation we made sure that we put it back to the company so that we can modernize the equipments. This has been a continuous effort and our zeal has been to grow more and more. Because if you don’t want to grow there is no chance of survival and there is every chance that someone would steal your chair.    

2) His take on what should be the attributes of an entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur is normally a controlled freak. He wants to control everything. But as the business keeps on growing you will find it difficult to do it. You need to have a dream and also a team. You must have a plan that you must be able to walk the talk. Because we can all dream of big things and in the morning we can get up and forget about those dreams. There should be realistic dreams and also a plan which is executable. Also you need to have a committed set of people. I had the set of people who were committed and worked together focusing on developing aspects of how to grow the business. An entrepreneur creates opportunities for people. There would be days when you feel the company would run into losses and the people will run away from you. But you have to induce the confidence as a teacher, as an entrepreneur and has to share the prosperity in the people. You have to treat them as a family. You should be doing the same basic things you would be doing with your children. Normally we have two personalities, when we come to the office we become the bosses and at home you are a father. At office also you have to have a similar treatment. Rewards and appreciation should be given to people who perform and there should be some deterrent if not punishment for those people who does not perform. As an entrepreneur you have to change with time. Lot of entrepreneurs doesn’t change with time and they run into trouble. So the message is that India has a lot of opportunities and you can do wonders if you are really bent upon it. You must have the patience and pursuance throughout.

3) His comment on the management education of today and how it should be changed to meet the current industrial needs.

First of all the basic level of grounding is not done properly. The course curriculum needs to undergo a change since it is mainly comprised of theory. Also in most of the cases, the books that are being used are still the old ones and needs to change with time since this is an electronic age. There should be a more practical method of learning by doing things. In schools in Europe and Singapore like United World College where my grandchildren are studying they are invariably sent to various camps and places to meet poor people, live in tents, help the handicapped and stay in challenging environments. They work with these people and this is a part of their syllabus. They have exchange programmes within the students which most of the colleges here don’t have. We are happy to get into colleges which have become a racquet now. Government should come up with policies keeping minimum standards and people not able to meet them should be faced with some serious deterrents so that such people are not encouraged. But I am sure in pockets there are good B-schools in the country. I would not say everything is bad, but in the process of the country growing very fast people think about ways to earn a quick buck. This has to be regulated. Over regulation or under regulation is bad for the country’s education system. It has to be balanced. A lot is required to be done in the education system. We should have people coming from the industry to come and share their ideas and experiences on different aspects of management. You should also try and apply what you learnt in the books to the real world outside.         

-ARIF HASSAN    

To add salt to my wound, i could not see her for a last time since reaching home from Delhi in time for the cremation was impossible. A person who played a significant role in my upbringing, my grandma holds a special place in my heart. Having stayed with her throughout my life there are a huge lot of things that she has done in making me what i am today. Scoldings i used to get from her, her constant way of motivating me to study well during my school days, waking me up for practise in the morning during the days when cricket was my life, preparing all those dish i liked without me asking her  to make and the pocket money she used to give till the time i started earning..all these and a lot more has made her a very special person.Being a close knit and orthodox muslim family, she along with my parents(who are my world and for whom i am living for) was responsible for inculcating the discipline in me, be it praying 5 times a day, respect for all individuals and to make me understand the importance of family bonding..

I still remember the day when i got the message, i was compeltely expressionless for a while. I did not shed a tear and tried to be normal with my B-school friends although i wasn’t completely able to do that. I still managed to see the day pass by controlling my frustration of not able to go home  and see her for one last time. 20 days has past since then, and things back home has come to normal. But for me you still exists in this world advising me, scolding me, listening to my sorrows and sharing my moments of happiness in the days to come. You still is one of the people that drives me forward to excel in life..Love you lots velluma..Meet you in heaven…

-ARIF HASSAN