Personal Entrepreneurial Competencies

& BioTech Entrepreneurship

K. RajaramanDirector, Entrepreneurship Development Institute

www.editn.in

Entrepreneurship as a Competency set

Entrepreneurship as “the dynamic, interaction between entrepreneurial attitudes, Entrepreneurial abilities, and entrepreneurial aspirations by individuals, which drives the allocation of resources through the creation and operation of new ventures.”

In short, entrepreneurship is a competency set that can be felt, measured and grown!

Is Entrepreneurship for everybody ?

95% will go as managers PECs help you become intrapreneurs – think and

act like the owner of your company PECs help you see, seek and grab the best

opportunities PECs help you take risks ad manage them

5% will become entrepreneurs We will see as to how PECs help business owners

Opportunity Seeking and Initiative

• Does things before being asked by customers or forced by events or competitors

• Acts to extend the business into new areas, products or services

• Seizes unusual opportunities to start a new business, obtain financing, equipment, land work space or assistance

Highlighting the importance of preserving the local varieties, Dr. S. Uma, Principal Scientist of the Crop Improvement Division states the example of the manoranjitham banana. The variety, is native to the Kolli Hills, and is immune to leaf-spot, a disease that takes at least 40 sprays of insecticide to be quelled. “When we went back to get a sample, we realised that it had vanished from cultivation,” says Dr. Uma. “So we developed a tissue culture for that variety with the help of the Department of Biotechnology and are perpetuating it once more among the local farmers in Kolli Hills. Many varieties have been given back to the farmers in this way.”

Opportunities

Look local – think Global Connect with local problems AYUSH validation, certification, new discoveries Restoring biodiversity Rediscover validity of ancient practices Modern branches of BT like Regenerative

Medicine, Biopharma, etc

Risk Taking

• Deliberately calculates risks and evaluates alternatives

• Takes action to reduce risks or control outcomes• Places self in situations involving a challenge or

moderate risk• Support required in Technology landscaping etc.

Risks Taken by Biotech-Entrepreneurs

Research risks IPR risks Financial risks Regulatory risks Market risk Political risks (in

Innovation, Efficiency and Quality

• Finds ways to do things better, faster, or cheaper• Acts to do things that meet or exceed standards of

excellence• Develops or uses procedures to ensure work is

completed on time or that work meets agreed upon standards of quality

Persistence

• Takes action in the face of a significant obstacle• Takes repeated actions or switches to an alternative

strategy to meet a challenge or overcome an obstacle

• Takes personal responsibility for the performance necessary to achieve goals and objectives

• Ability to take into account long gestation period in BT businesses (5 - 10years)

• Accept failures : Learn from them !

Persistence : Thomas Alva Edison

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Customer-centricity

• Makes a personal sacrifice or expends extraordinary effort to complete a job

• Pitches in with workers or in their place to get a job done

• Strives to keep customers satisfied and places long term good will over short term gain

• As far as possible, FOCUS RIGHT FROM BEGINNING OF YOUR RESEARCH ON THE VALUE TO END CUSTOMER

Profit & Wealth Will be Created When Product Delivers

Value to Consumers!

• Technologies do not create big wins unless they become a breakthrough consumer technology.

• Design thinking in mind : empathy for customer and end-user

• Selling stuff to each others moves the money but doesn’t create a vibrant, growing and sustainable industry.

• Only when the technology creates real value for customers (end-users) so that sustainable revenues are generated and wealth is created.

Information Seeking

• Personally seeks information from clients, suppliers or competitors

• Does personal research on how to provide a product or service (internet, journals, papers..)

• Consults experts for business or technical advice

Goal setting/ Targets

• Sets goals and objectives that are personally meaningful and challenging

• Articulates clear and specific long range goals• Sets measurable short term objectives

Systematic Planning and Monitoring

• Plans by breaking large tasks down into time-constrained sub-tasks

• Revises plans in light of feedback on performance or changing circumstances

• Keeps financial records and uses them to make business decisions

People Skills : Persuasion and Networking

• Uses deliberate strategies to influence or persuade others

• Uses key people as agents to accomplish own objectives

• Acts to develop and maintain business contracts• Network with successful biotech CEOs and

entrepreneurs, BT consultants, BT VC/Afs, IP experts, Regulatory authorities regularly

• Can you start a Chennai BT startup weekend network meets @ UIC : UIC can provide space….

People Skills : Persuasion and Networking

• Good scientists are capable of becoming good CEOs.

• For the Scientist: Things vs. People : Need to develop reasonably good people skills

• For the Businessperson: Communication with Scientists

Independence and self-confidence

• Seeks autonomy from the rules or control of others• Sticks with own judgement in the face of opposition

or early lack of success• Expresses confidence in own ability to complete a

difficult task or meet a challenge

The route to doing business

Support students to :• Understand your customer & competitors• Finetune your business model• prepare a business plan;• Study intellectual property and patenting strategy;• Understand raising and managing finance;• Learn commercial and marketing strategies;• Great clarity on regulation and compliance• Network with people and learn from company

case histories (don’t reinvent the wheel).

Read → Ideate → Pitch → Launch

• Get students trained in areas of weakness : Finance, marketing, Negotiation

• Run relevant MOOCs : NEN Learnwise• Supply good reading materials: BioTech

Entrepreneurship by Craig Shimasaki, Frugal Innovation by Radjou , Sharing Economy by Arun Sundararajan, How to win friends & Influence people by Dale Carnegie

• Organise ideation contests with user groups• Organise pitching contests for student ideas at

AF/VCs – will help sharpen business models

Faculty→ GEI : The Indian Ecosystem

Source: Global Entrepreneurship Index 2016

Faculty → Ecosystem Enhancement Process

1)Reinventing education: Top management E&I Vision

2)Throwing open doors: Building partnerships with E&I stakeholders

3)Breaking internal silos: Creating cross functional faculty teams

4)Incentivising E&I: Defining Institutional Entrepreneurship & Innovation policies

5)Walking the Talk: Committing faculty, space, funds, equipment

Faculty → Ecosystem Enhancement Process

1) Building an Alumni network: Survey, Connect & Tap

2)Training the Trainers: Building a breed of entrepreneurial teachers

3)Creating E&I beehives in Campus: Incubators and Accelerators

4)Hiring Top Guns: Attracting PIO Innovators & Scientists as faculty or atleast as advisors

5)Stop re-inventing the wheel: Learn from Best Practices

6)Entrepreneurial University : A Learning Organisation

Faculty → Startup Steps

College E&I Council Intra College E&I FDPs E&I Development Centre (EDC/E-cell) Active Student E&I Club E&I Electives / MOOCs (NEN-EDI program) Strong Industrial R&D program Tech or Business Incubator

College E&ICouncil

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Thank You!

dir@editn.in

http://www.editn.in/References:1. Global Entrepreneurship Monitoring Report 20152. Global Innovation Report 20153. Tamil nadu Vision 2023 Document 4. EDI Strategic Plan 2016-215. EMPRETEC, UNCTAD Entrepreneurship Handbook6. EU Action Plan for Entrepreneurship & Training 20147. MIT SkolTech Report 20148. OECD Report on University Entrepreneurial Ecosystems