Should We Encourage Failure?

The National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) is a network of academic institutions across India that develops and delivers skill-building programmes and networking activities, besides company-starting assistance, to new, high-growth entrepreneurs. A not-for-profit initiative of the Wadhwani Foundation, it was co-founded by premier academic institutions such as IIT-Bombay, IIM-Ahmedabad, BITS (Pilani), IBAB, Bangalore and SP Jain Institute, Mumbai.
In an exclusive interview to Business Line, Ms Parkin spoke on the activities of NEN and the need to foster the entrepreneurial spirit among students and what she brings to the table.

Excerpts from the interview:

Have you identified any sectors as high-growth? How have you gone about building an ecosystem of entrepreneurs? Do you have any programmes aimed at incubating
entrepreneurial ventures?

With overall nine per cent growth, many sectors are showing tremendous growth — including retail, hospitality, construction, IT and healthcare. All provide excellent opportunities for new entrepreneurs. However, when NEN works with young and future entrepreneurs, we don't point them to specific sectors. Instead, we help them build the skills to evaluate any opportunity, because by the time they may be ready to launch a company, the dynamics may have changed and these same sectors may not be attractive for newcomers.

A supportive ecosystem is extremely important for entrepreneurial success. There are three dimensions to an ecosystem: the people, the regulatory and legal environments and the infrastructure. NEN works along all three dimensions. Through our programmes for academic institutes, we connect young people from all backgrounds with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other professionals. NEN and the Wadhwani Foundation also work to support policy change and improve infrastructure. We recently launched Entrepreneurship Week India to raise awareness and support for improving the ecosystem for entrepreneurship, in which over 200 partners, both academic and corporate, participated.

Several of our member-institutes offer incubation support - some to their own communities and others offer help to anyone. They include SP Jain, IIT-Bombay, IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore, MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology and IBAB.

How healthy is the entrepreneurial community in India? Does India need a unique model to foster entrepreneurship, or are there universal lessons applicable here too?

I find a particular dynamism and energy in the entrepreneurial community in India — a community that now includes young people from outside the traditional business communities. The level of venture capital pouring in from overseas is testimony to the fact that the world has recognised the opportunities in today's India.That said, India does throw up particular barriers for entrepreneurs, including poor infrastructure — a lack of power, roads, transport; an improving-but-still-difficult regulatory environment; and a bureaucracy that takes a particular toll on small, growing companies. These problems need to be addressed if broad-based entrepreneurship is to generate the millions of jobs that India needs every year.

NEN has discovered universal patterns that unleash entrepreneurship in young people. It is critical for young people to interact with entrepreneurs and investors. Academic institutes must offer comprehensive programmes, with innovative, exciting curricula and teaching methods. And on campus, faculty must support student leadership and entrepreneurship clubs running many activities. This combination shows powerful results and is an integral part of our strategy.

How important is the `fear of failure' factor in the growth of entrepreneurial spirit among youth? Is there a need for a culture that is tolerant of failure?

Societies must allow for failure, both socially and legally. Legally, one must enable business closures so that people can easily shift resources to more productive endeavours. And when failure becomes socially acceptable, innovation blossoms as people are willing to risk the unknown. Highly entrepreneurial cultures honour failure as a crucible for learning: in Silicon Valley, there's a belief that people are often more backable once they have failed.

However, that's not to say that even in Silicon Valley people feel comfortable failing. In fact, in one of the entrepreneurship courses taught at Stanford, the professor has her students put together "failure resumes" listing out the big failures in their professional and personal lives, and what they have learned from each. Through this exercise, the students can see that failure is an important stepping stone to success. In India, failure is not tolerated quite so well.
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The Future Of Docement Recording"e- recording"

We are currently experiencing a trend that is shifting our world from a paper-based to an online system of commerce. With every passing year the internet becomes more deeply integrated into our daily lives. We pay our bills online, we rent movies online, even our biggest auction (eBay) is now an online service.

This impact that this trend has had on business is incalculable. In the past, countless hours were spent doing tasks that can now be accomplished with the click of a mouse button. One such service that has recently been optimized with internet compatibility is document recording.

Whenever a legal transaction takes place, proper county filing is required. When you sign a mortgage, deed, land record, property title, etc, the agent or company in charge of realizing that transaction must file the record at the County Recorder’s Office. Until recently, filing these documents meant driving to the county office or mailing them via postal services. But rather than driving and waiting in lines or hassling with postage, a new option is available. eRecording, a new internet solution, allows agents and companies to file these documents from any convenient location that has a scanner and internet access. With eRecording, one can submit files online to be reviewed and filed at the County Recording Office without leaving the office. The need for such costly expenditures as runners and postage is eliminated. Document recording, like many other services in this digital era, can now be done online.
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Nivio enables a user to access the desktop data anywhere at home ,office ,at any pcs

Nivio is a fully functional Windows desktop environment accessible via a web browser through any internet connected device running on any platform (including Linux, MAC and Windows). Nivio enables a user to seamlessly access the desktop data & applications when and where they need it; be it at the office, from home or even on the go. Nivio stands for "hardware liberation". Your files follow you. You don"t need to take around your external media or even burn CD"s. Just log onto Nivio and access your files on any computer at your destination. With Nivio, your data follows you.
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Make Money Online With Diet Advice

A practical solution has been launched in Osaka, where a Tokyo medical equipment maker is working with public health officials to help consumers keep tabs on what they're digesting. How it works? Before lifting their chopsticks, users take a picture of their meal with their cellphone's camera. They send the picture to the system, and nutritionists analyse the meal and its nutritional value, following up with advice on necessary adjustments. Feedback follows within three days.

Users can also get more information online, and upload photos from digital cameras. The system is being trialled with 100 cardiac, diabetes and obesity patients, and is hoped to rein in growing health problems caused by growing waistlines in Japan, especially of men in their 20s and 30s.

A similar commercial service has been available in Canada and the US for a while. Canadian MyFoodPhone also gets users to send in pictures of what they're eating, creating a running nutrition diary. Once a week, a nutritionist advises the client on how they’re doing and what they need to improve.

Uploading to a diary is free, and weekly advice comes at a monthly cost of USD 9.99. While the Japanese system delivers feedback faster than MyFoodPhone, the killer app would be one that comes back with an instant response and tips. Which could be made possible using sophisticated image recognition software, or trained operators who are available 24/7. Given worldwide health issues related to obesity and the near ubiquity of cameraphones, this could be huge.
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Bizztrip

Bizztrip aims to be a no-nonsense travel portal for entrepreneurs who book their own travel. Whether flying first class or low-cost, customers are offered an array of extra services, including visa handling and travel to the airport. Bizztrip is currently evaluating whether it will make motortaxi saviours one of its standard features. Seems like a smart move, though pricing would have to be fairly high to cover the cost of two drivers and the time they spend driving around seeking customers in need. While Virgin Airlines offer Virgin LimoBikes in the UK, and private motorcycle taxis cater to travellers in other countries, the option to be rescued from a car stuck in a traffic jam seems new. One for airlines or limo companies to set up in other countries? Could also be a great service for motorcycle brands to sponsor.

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SantexQ, or the Q as we like to call it, is a web-based tool created to assist businesses in the detail-driven world of time and task management

SantexQ, or the Q as we like to call it, is a web-based tool created to assist businesses in the detail-driven world of time and task management. Designed to enhance team efficiency, the Q keeps the critical information close by: the progress reports, deadlines and time budgets for all of your projects…all available at a glance. Why should you use the Q? One of the things we understand at Santex is that you can get a lot of products out there similar to the Q. But, what are you really getting? We have tried the other applications and we know what it"s like to come up empty-handed. We wanted a no-nonsense product with the features and information we need, when we need it. So, we ended up building our own and are excited about sharing it with you! We think there are many reasons why the Q is a great task management tool, but hey, why don"t you be the judge. Click here, and get started today!
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3LUXE.com is a free service that saves consumers time and frustration when researching products and services online

3LUXE.com is a free service that saves consumers time and frustration when researching products and services online. Instead of inundating consumers with too much information, 3LUXE whittles down the overwhelming amount of data available to identify the three best products (not necessarily the most popular) available in each category. In essence, 3LUXE does the research consumers would do if they had more time. These "Best Of" reviews cover a wide range of categories from appliances to airplanes, from sports products to spa resorts, and trucks to travel.
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