The EDP was inaugurated on 30th May, 2016 by Mrs. J. Mohanasundari, Managing Director, Sharp Electrodes, who introduced the participants to the excitement, realities and challenges in entrepreneurship, and provided highly insightful, prescriptive suggestions for achieving success and sustaining entrepreneurial ventures.
The first module dealt with the opportunities of entrepreneurship and schemes of assistance and support for MSMEs. This was dealt by Mr. V. Srinivasan, Founder, Ideamart Ventures and Technologies; Mr. Gopal Krishnan, Founder & CEO, Visual Marketer; Mr. P.S. Manoj, Dy. Gen. Manager, SIDBI; Mr. Saravana Krishnan, Business Development, NSIC and Mr. M. Palanivel, Deputy Director, Branch MSME Development Institute.
The second module dealt with business opportunity identification & guidance, project selection and its pre-feasibility. The subject matter experts included Prof. Krishna Kumar, HOD – International Business & ED Cell In Charge, PSGCAS; Mr. C.P. Saravanakumar, Co-Founder, CakeBee.in; Mr. V.S. Manoharan, Branch Manager, TIIC; Mr. Pradeep Menon, Chief Officer, Lakshya Labs; Mr. Vasudevan Uppilli, Entrepreneur & Founder, GyanNext & Haritham Technologies; Mr. A.R. Muralidharan, Director, Warrior Management Services & Sanswe Dairy Products and Mr. R. Joe, Soft Skills Trainer. The module ended with a factory visit and rich experience sharing with Mr. P.N. Raghavan, Managing Partner, Amar Metering Pumps.
The third module focused on consolidation of the business idea, based on field work through market survey. This was dealt by Mr. Prashant Goel, CEO & MD, Hulikkal Electro India Pvt. Ltd.; Mr. A.G. Padmanaban, Founder, SPICE Foundation; Mr. R. Sandeep, Executive Director, Vaikunth Group; Mr. Anil Panicker, Head – Corporate Relations and MBA Placement, CIR and Mr. R. Krishnan, Head – ACE. Ms. Sunitha Kumari, Dy. Manager – L&D, CIR reviewed the findings of the market survey and provided her valuable feedback. The group also met senior industrialists who form the Career Counselling and Guidance team of Coimbatore District Small Scale Industries Association (CODISSIA), for a one-to-one interaction. Other external exposures included a visit to Procon Controls and experience sharing with the Managing Partner, Mr. T Ram Prakash, as well as a visit to Directorate of Agri-Business Development, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) for interactions with motivated entrepreneurs, Mr. M.N. Varadarajan, CEO, Madhura Agro Process and Mr. Udhay Gopal, Managing Director, Perfura Technologies. Additionally, there was also a presentation and facility walk-through by Mr. A. V. Gnanasambandam, Business Manager, TNAU.
The fourth module provided significant inputs on developing entrepreneurial competencies (achievement motivation training) by Mr. V.S. Sukumaran, Sr. Associate Faculty, EDI India.
The fifth module focused on preparation of the detailed project report at the end of in-depth understanding of the financial aspects like product costing, working capital assessment, cash flows, profitability and balance sheet, as well as providing technical inputs on production planning, purchase techniques and technological factors. The subject matter experts were Mr. Ram Anand, Relationship Manager – Medium Enterprises, SBI; Mr. V. Devaraj, Auditor, VL Management Services; Mr. V. Raman, Sr. Manager (Retd.), IOB; Mr. G.T. Bharath, CEO, Casting India; Mr. Bharani Elangovan, Head, Business Development, Evershine Dynamic Corporation; Dr. Selvaraju Murugesan, Technology Manager, Forge Accelerator, KCT; Mr. George Thomas, Executive Director and Mr. Christudas, Head – Livelihood Dept., ESAF Microfinance. The participants could also interact with Ms. Hemalatha Annamalai, Founder & MD, Ampere Vehicles and visit her factory at Sulur. The detailed project reports were reviewed by Mr. V. Srinivasan, Founder, Ideamart Ventures and Technologies.
The sixth module provided managerial inputs by Mr. Sivarajah Ramanathan, Founder & President, Nativelead Foundation and CEO, Native Angels Network (NAN); Mr. R.P. Ramanathan, Chief Legal Consultant, Meta Yage IP Strategy Consulting; Mr. Kunal Banthia, Director, Evershine DynaCorp Ltd.; Mr. N. Sridhar, Managing Partner, Innovatus Systems; Mr. Sai Prasath, DATRI Blood Stem Cell Donors Registry; Dr. K. Suresh Kumar, General Manager, PSG – STEP and Mr. M. Sathya Kumar, Chartered Accountant, Senior – GTPS, BSR & Co. (KPMG); apart from the following resource persons of CIR, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham: Wng. Cdr. A. Balachandran, Sr. General Manager – Corporate Relations; Mr. N.R. Mohanan, Sr. General Manager – Career Development; Mr. M. Unnikrishnan, Chief Manager (L&D) and Dr. K.B. Madhu Menon, Chief Manager (L&D). The participants were also taken for an interfacing session with top management personnel of leading institutions at ICTACT Bridge conference, that dwelt on the theme – ‘Igniting Start-up Spirit’.
Prof. C. Parameswaran, Director-CIR, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham delivered the valedictory address and handed over the certificates to the participants of the EDP. Apart from assuring them of continued support, he wished them success in converting their business plans and project reports into real, successful, enterprises that would grow ethically to great heights.
