A Capital Idea

At first, it sounds like another prize money competition with a million-rupee first prize for the best business idea. Actually, the first i2i (Ideas To Implementation) contest sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Cell at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-c) and Fremont, California-based software firm Astral Systems, is much more than that.

Over the years, several promising student initiatives have emanated from IIM-C. Some months ago, groups of enterprising students set up several dotcom firms but these failed to take off. Nitin Gupta, 22, a second year student at IIM-C, had this in mind even as he toyed with the idea of a business plan competition in July this year. As he explained the basics of his idea to eager classmates and juniors, they came together to form what is now called the Entrepreneurship Cell. Explains Gupta: "The idea is not to reward the best business ideas with cash prizes. We aim to provide funding opportunities to as many viable ideas as possible, transforming them into successful running ventures." The competition is open to both individuals and teams, with one rider: at least 50 per cent of the team must comprise students.

The three-stage competition (which has its own website, www.iimcatalyst.com) will monitor the detailed summary of the ideas submitted. Participating teams/individuals would be required to give shape to their concepts. After the first review and shortlisting by an expert panel, qualifying teams get guidance on writing effective business plans through web-based interaction. Shortlisted teams have to submit detailed business plans, outlining development and implementation aspects of their proposals. Only the best and most robust ideas can survive such a rigorous monitoring regimen.

At the final stage, competitors selected on the basis of their detailed business plans would receive effective mentoring from industry experts, venture capitalists and faculty members to refine their ideas and a final presentation of their projects to a panel of judges would follow in January. The winning team gets Rs 10 lakh, the runner-up Rs 6,00,000 and the third prize is Rs 4,00,000. Last date of entry is November 14, and the final awards ceremony in Calcutta in mid-January 2001.

Funding comes from Astral Systems, whose founder Dave Mukherjee is an IIM-c alumnus. The panel of judges will include people like Kiran Nadkarni (Draper International), Sanjay Anandaram (jumpstartup.net), Rupen Roy (Price Waterhouse), Ajit Balakrishnan (Rediff) and Sriram Chander (The Chatterjee Group).

As Amit Singh and Samrat Parasnis, cell executives, explain: "Earlier, dotcom ventures from IIM-c couldn't take off as the people concerned did not have clear revenue models to work with. We've learnt from their experience and tried to plug the gaps, though the cell is handling much more than just dotcom ventures." Similar cells exist at IIM Bangalore and IIT Mumbai but in both places, the cells are run by the institute authorities. It can be argued that the cell would basically do the work that elected governments should address themselves to. But would-be entrepreneur and computer buff Sandip Nandy, 22, feels it can do more. "These are schemes launched by tech-savvy pros who understand our jargon and know our specific needs. They are bound to be streets ahead of non-savvy bureaucrats who would not understand our requirements nor even respond to our queries largely because they do not talk our lingo and do not bother to talk to other experts. Awards or not, I would certainly refer the project that I have been working on to this cell, if only to learn more."

People like Nandy again are not put off by suggestions that business ideas may be hijacked by cash-rich heavies for a pittance and even the award of a few lakhs of rupees would be peanuts as payoff. "But the people on the panel have already made it as big players and are even venture capitalists themselves, so the question of such tactics doesn't arise," says Nandy.

The other attraction of the project, as Gupta explains, is that merit would reign supreme. "The advantage of globalisation is that someone sitting in Rajasthan or Kozhikode can approach us through www.iimcatalyst. com for guidance on any specific project. Much of the assistance can be obtained from the website itself, through chat and discussion sessions. There is no question of charging any fees for this of service yet." For Gupta and his friends, this is a mission. Now, could their enthusiasm spark the next wave of Indian enterprise?