Entrepreneurship is second nature to Namita Thapar. She is a chartered accountant and the CFO and Executive Board Member of her family’s business, EmcurePharmaceuticals Ltd. She is also the Founder of Incredible Ventures Pvt. Ltd. That would perhaps explain her passion for enterprise and the urge to promote entrepreneurship among the youth.
Namita found the perfect solution in Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA). It is an academy that hones students ages 11-18 into entrepreneurs by equipping them with skills like developing business ideas, writing business plans, conducting market research, pitching their plans to a panel of investors, and launching and running their own real companies and social movements, besides developing a whole host of soft skills along the way.
Through her organisation, Incredible Ventures, she brought the franchise of YEA to India in August 2016 and set it up in Mumbai and Delhi, with 120 children across 30 schools. It boasts of mentors like Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson, Biocon Ltd., Ronnie Screwvala, Founder UTV Group, Rajkumar Hirani, Bollywood Producer and Director, Deep Kalra Founder and CEO, MakeMyTrip, Mukesh Bansal Founder, Myntra, Jayakumar, Bank of Baroda, and Sunil Munjal, Hero Group, among others.
In its third year now, YEA has been set up in six cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, and Chennai.
Speaking to Edge , Namita explains the need for entrepreneurship education and how YEA helps create future business leaders. Excerpts...
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship should become the centrepiece of contemporary education, as it is not only about the ability to start companies, but also to think creatively and ambitiously. Students need to be “innovation-ready” to face the challenges of the complex world they will be a part of in the future. Entrepreneurship education benefits students from all socio-economic backgrounds because it teaches them to think outside the box and nurtures unconventional talents and skills. To have an entrepreneurial mindset is to have the ability to identify and solve problems.
Skill sets
Students develop business ideas which encourages creativity, ideation, and innovation in all spheres of life. Some ideas emanate from their personal experiences. They write business plans and conduct market research that improves their analytical skills. They are also taught to pitch their plans to a panel of investors, boosting confidence and morale. They learn to collaborate by working in teams and interacting with students from various different schools. In fact, at YEA, students launch and run their own real companies and social movements thereby enhancing their risk-taking abilities. But the most important skill that a student learns is to look at failure positively and welcome it as a learning tool.
Ideas for business
Students who are part of the YEA programme come up with ideas inspired by problems in their lives or of those around them. The ideas in 2018 included products — a walking aid for elderly, gas leak detector, fashionable shoes for teens with flat feet, and natural range of beauty products for kids; tech — apps to report bullying, to book sports facilities, and to teach piano/ etiquette/ technology to senior citizens; and social entrepreneurship — collect hotel soaps and recycle, address pollution, speech solution for kids with autism, collect and sell used sports equipment, charity football matches, and recycling batteries.
Social ideas
It is endearing in this cynical world to see the extent of social ideas our students have worked to address. While around 20% of the ideas are social, there are many stories that are a testament to the good work being done by YEA India such as Vijay from Teach for India — his idea was to help underprivileged by getting them used sports and study material; and Bengaluru-based Aditya Gurjar wants to create an online platform that will provide education, doctor connect, besides other facilities to those with diabetes.
This idea stems from his brother’s experience with diabetes. Aditya wants to make his brother proud and help others like him.
Why YEA?
At YEA, the students have the opportunity to turn their passions and talents into a real business, learn from legendary entrepreneurs, go on cool business field trips, write a real business plan, develop a prototype, meet other awesome students from different schools, and network, network, network!
