NITIE Students Learn Secrets of Being Successful First Genaration Entrepreneurs

NITIE Students Learn Secrets of Being Successful First Genaration Entrepreneurs

Ever wondered how to give shape to your entrepreneurial aspirations?

MBA students of NITIE, a Top 10 B-school from Mumbai, got to know this from a First generation Entrepreneur - Mrs. Reeta Gupta, Founder of JumboKing Foods Ltd., the famed chain of VadaPav outlets mushrooming across India.

Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship of NITIE organized a session with Mrs. Reeta Gupta for her to share her thoughts and experiences on Entrepreneurship.

Mrs. Gupta recounted her experiences and the Criticism she had been subjected to when she came up with the idea of foraying into branded vadapav outlets across Mumbai. It was a tough call for Mrs. Gupta to leave a secure and plush job in the corporate world and venture into entrepreneurship. Mrs. gupta shared with students of NITIE her entrepreneurial experience and her first few venture plans like Branded Kaju katli that never took off.

Mrs. Gupta recounted the incident when she and her colleagues were having burgers in Burger King in London. She said its only then that they noticed astounding similarities between a Burger and a vadapav and started thinking of starting branded vadapav outlets that would provide the "man on the move" quick and wholesome food. Mrs. Gupta said they went about differentiating themselves by providing the vadapav with a wrapper wrapped around it and other aspects like making the vadapav in front of the customer, having a separate cash collector and chef, unlike the roadside shops. Mrs. Gupta urged that entrepreneurs should have high levels of belief and conviction in their aspiration.

Role of a Mentor & Networking

"A Good mentor is worth a thousand books," says an adage. Mrs. Gupta also reiterated the importance of a good mentor and stated the need for their guidance in sharing information and critical decision making. Mrs. Gupta also insisted on excellent networking and good business relationship with strategists and key people in the industry like Mrs. Rama Bijapurkar. She also spoke about importance of building good teams as good teams build great businesses.

Mrs. Gupta advocated 3 C's of Entrepreneurship to be successful in a venture. They are Concentration and focus in area of business, Consistency in efforts and performance, Cooperation with best people working with you. Mrs. Gupta said most successful entrepreneurs and Business leaders have had voracious reading habits, and hence, insisted on reading consistently. Mrs. Gupta concluded by saying that the unprecedented economic boom has set the stage for Entrepreneurship to flourish.

Concluded.

Contributed by -
Sriram Vasudevan,
Media Coordinator,
Management Batch of 2008,
National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Bombay.

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