The entrepreneurial mindset craves action. Action helps test hypotheses and so provides a means for market intelligence regardless of the outcome. This mindset is focused on determining a ‘proof of concept’ via active iterations and pivots. A person with an entrepreneurial mindset starts actions with available means, before the perfect opportunity has fully emerged.
Entrepreneurial thinking is
not constrained by the realities of the moment. As HBS professor Howard
Stevenson explains: “Entrepreneurs pursue
opportunities without regard to resources currently controlled.” Entrepreneurs
don’t need all the resources in place before pursuing an opportunity – just the
important ones.
At Woxsen, we believe that
an entrepreneurial mindset also benefits a large organization. Organizations increasingly
favor people with an entrepreneurial mindset. ‘Intrapreneurship’, as it is called
is “a corporate management style that integrates risk-taking and innovation
approaches, that are more traditionally thought of as being the province of entrepreneurship.”
The Woxsen
Trade Tower is a concept that is unique to Woxsen among Indian B-schools. The
Trade Tower – Woxsen’s business incubator, an integral part of the curriculum, is
the physical embodiment of Woxsen’s most distinctive and transformative aims:
for its students to make a difference, by not seeking employment, but by
establishing enterprises that will create value, wealth, employment and impact the
economies, and the environment where we all live. The incubator is designed to
support Woxsen’s students and graduates through the process of developing
enterprises of their own. The Trade Tower provides space, mentor support, intellectual
and research resources and most importantly, access to funding – once stipulated
qualifying criteria have been met.
The
Trade Tower trains the students to think incessantly- they are expected to be
curious, opportunistic, and optimistic. They train their minds to problem-solve
every issue that crosses their path. Every person they meet is a potential
resource, in every problem they encounter – they seek a solution and in every
change – they look for new opportunity.
Woxsen trains students to
not let others and external factors determine the value of outcomes. They are
encouraged to direct their destiny, to work for their achievements, to delay
gratification, and to plan with an eye for long-term benefits. Woxsen empowers the
incubatees to have a desire to make a difference and to make the world a better
place. As Richard Branson says: “Above all, you want to create something
you are proud of … I can honestly say that I have never gone into any business
purely to make money … I’ve had to create companies that I believe in 100%”.
-Shrikumar Sangiah, CEO, Woxsen School of Business