November 30th saw the launch of “Campus Companies” in an event organized by the E-cell Committee of Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida. The session was held in the presence of two of our illustrious alumni from the batch of 2013-15, both incidentally worked at Asian Paints. Mr. Vivek Mishra was designated as Marketing and Sales Officer and Mr. Ankit Choudhary as DSO. Together they began Quakart.com and were invited to share their experience with the students. The discussion panel included Prof. Anurag Singh, Prof. Poonam Sharma, Dr. Ritika Gugnani and Prof. Vinita Srivastava, and it led to interesting learning for all of us.

Four groups made presentations and shared their ideas about how they would become entrepreneurs. Ashish Dave set the ball rolling with a presentation on his company AD Jewellers describing how he would target women customers and work on building revenues. Talking about the family business, he made an interesting point when he said, “Product honesty and solving the queries of the customers are the only ways to gain their satisfaction and loyalty.”

Atisha and Gunjita then presented their company idea, Zeal and Pomp. It aimed to be a one-stop party shop for items and accessories one needs for birthdays, friendship day, Valentine’s Day, college events and other special occasions. They talked about key resources, pricing policy and affordable budgets to make every event on the campus memorable. Their Facebook marketing strategy to gain popularity hit the right notes with us.

The third group shed light on their new business company Torque, which deals in apparels, stationeries and flowers. Their focus was on creating a value proposition for their products. They also described their future plans, which were clear and made a lot of sense. The audience participation at the end of every presentation posed questions for the groups and added to the engagement. The groups were tested on their ideas, which led to lively discussions.

The session ended with the alumni sharing their experiences about starting a business and the challenges one is likely to face. They talked about their own business QuaKart, which is a new and improved drinking water delivery system. The company came into being with the need for pure drinking water and the journey has been a rollercoaster ride for them. They left us with an important thought that nothing can replace hard work and dedication. Maybe a direct quote can go here?

We went back after the eventful day having gained valuable insights about entrepreneurship. We now await the results of the presentations; though all the groups made their mark with well-presented ideas.

Student Contributor: Paulomi De

12th of December 2015, Jaipuria Noida became the hub of all attention amongst the four other campuses and the other B-Schools nearby as it hosted the 5th JAMC- its signature event. Graced by the presence of CEO’s, IIT grads and IIM grads alike the event was a buzzing scene amongst the corporate sector as well.

Ms. Supriya Massey started the event for the day with a quote from Walt Disney and welcomed the guests one by one on the dice whilst giving their brief introduction. The Vice Chairman of Jaipuria Institute of Management, Shri Shreevats Jaipuria offered a floral welcome to our chief guest Mr. Arvind Thakur. The Director of JIM Noida, Dr. Rajiv R. Thakur presented a bouquet to Mr. Pranay Gupta. This was followed by the ceremonious lighting of the lamp, after which Ms. Massey briefly unfolded what’s in store with the session and briefly talking about the theme of the conference: “Entrepreneurship Rising- Inspire. Innovate. Ignite.”

First to speak from our highly qualified panel of speakers was Mr. Pranay Gupta. An alumnus of IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad, Mr. Gupta shared with the audience an overview of the conference. He began by giving a brief introduction of himself and his new venture Springboard.com and how they target new entrepreneurs and provide them with all the support and services they need right from capital to manpower to technical and legal support. The formal part of his speech began on a rather humorous note where he ended up comparing the ideal entrepreneur to the ideal husband! Then he compared the two infamous pioneers who came before the Wright brothers and drew the conclusion that risk taking is a must but it should be calculated and analyzed as far as possible and that we should not deter from taking risks. He further went on to stress that how dreaming is important and we should keep our dreams as high as possible. He concluded with a phrase, ‘’dream to find the vision within yourself and from there on get inspired, take risk and then ignite.’’

Ms. Neeru Sharma was invited to the podium next by our conference coordinator to speak and give us a brief insight into her successful journey so far. Ms. Neeru started by giving us an insight into her and Pranay’s friendship and went on to narrate a story from her life ten years ago, how that journey has been till this point of time. Firstly she asked us in the student audience to know the impact that we are going to have and give in whichever institution or organization that we are going to join. Gave a piece of advice to the future entrepreneurs sitting in the crowd; that if we haven’t succeeded, we haven’t failed. She stressed on the major point that money, fame and recognition are just the added perks and that these should not be the prime reasons for becoming an entrepreneur. She then started with her story of how from being an Amazon employee she became the joint CEO at Infibeam.com. She shared with us as to how she has always been inspired by her husband and how despite having a rather successful professional life in the U. S. she always had the quest to know how things were actually done in the field. She then stressed on another important point which often seems to get neglected here in India due to so much of the attention being focused on the E-Commerce segment, which is the logistics and supply management in India. She shared with us a part of the dialogue which she had with the Director of Logistics Operations wherein he said that, “the .com part of e-commerce is solved but not the www which are the wagons, wheels and warehouses.” To conclude she said, “You’re only as strong as your team is and nothing will work unless you work.”

Next up, it was the turn for our chief guest to share his thoughts with the panel and the audience on the theme of the conference. Ms. Supriya gave a brief description of his profile to the audience. Mr. Arvind Thakur, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, he received a silver medal for ranking first in his department. He joined BHEL before joining NIIT Technologies in the mid to late 1980’s. Much to the surprise of everyone as soon as he got up on the podium, he greeted every one with a Hi-Five, and explained to us that the customer is the king. Everything that we as Entrepreneurs, Professionals or Businessman do, we do and will be doing it always keeping in mind the needs, wants and desires of the customer. He asked us that when it comes to the professional life we should challenge the status quo and question everything. He then went on to highlight how technology is advancing and disrupting every predetermined plan and method. He then stressed that how we can turn every disruption into an opportunity. We should make a difference by generating ideas and taking ownership of the things that we do. Lastly before concluding he highlighted the importance of innovation which in today’s competitive world gets overlooked upon very easily. Firstly the organizations should change their culture wherein the employees are allowed to make mistakes.

This brought us to end of the inaugural session. It was now time for the institution to present the guests with mementos. Shreevats Jaipuria presented Mr. Arvind Thakur with a memento, Dr. Rajiv R Thakur presented one to Ms. Neeru and Dr. Deepak presented Mr. Pranay with the memento. This was followed by the formal vote of thanks from our Dean of Academics, Dr. Deepak Singh. Starting with the quote, “Shoot for the Stars and the sky will be yours one day.” He thanked our esteemed panelists, the organizing committee, the sponsors, the media partners, the student coordinators and all the support staff and audience. The session was a huge success and it gathered a lot of attention from all the other respected guests.