Mumbai: SPJIMR’s Start Your Business (SYB) and Grow Your Business (GYB), the twin entrepreneurship programmes run by the Centre for Entrepreneurship, have received enthusiastic endorsements from a wide range of alumni who reconnected recently at an alumni meet and awards night.
The meet on the SPJIMR campus was the second such celebration exclusively for the alumni of the SYB and GYB, which together constitute the oldest and longest running entrepreneurship programmes offered by a top-rated school of management.
The meet came just as admissions opened for what will be the 19th batch of the GYB programme scheduled to launch on January 21, 2017. Admissions for the batch, which will take a maximum of 25 participants, are on-going.
The 22nd batch of SYB is scheduled to commence on April 22, 2017. SPJIMR’s SYB is conducted over 10 weekends.
Participants of the programmes over the years gathered for the alumni meet on November 12, 2016. It was the single largest gathering of entrepreneurs on the SPJIMR campus, bringing together over 100 SYB and GYB alumni, and offered opportunities to network, exchange ideas and to honour leaders and learn from their success stories.
Alumni spoke about how they have innovated, scaled up and grown their ventures since the completion of the programme. Apart from the star performers, the meet also honoured faculty members who with their individual competence and knowledge have significantly contributed to the programme content.
Ulhas Phatak, (GYB Batch 11) Chairman and Managing Director of NCS Logistics Pvt Ltd, which is in the business of offering logistics solutions to large corporates and SMEs said, “It was a refreshing experience for someone like me to be around with so many young start-up entrepreneurs and soak in to their enthusiasm. I enjoyed the session. The mix of new and established entrepreneurs added more value to the experience of the alumni meet.”
Prof. Suresh Rao, Chairman of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Head of the GYB and SYB programmes said, “Over five years, the GYB programme has evolved to embrace newer profiles of entrepreneurs and the emerging sectors they operate in. We have also taken up the delivery of programmes targeted at vendors of corporates like Kirloskar Oil & Engines Ltd. and distributors of corporates like Danfoss India. The core of the programme remains constant – management in a nut shell for growth.”
The Incubation Centre is equipped to help participants start, run and grow their business. Members can leverage our external network for not just in the initial stages but also for accelerated growth. He also explained the process of qualifying for the incubation activities.
SPJIMR’s GYB programme is designed to help entrepreneurs differentiate meaningfully from competition to help drive higher sales and profitability. It enables entrepreneurs redefine their customers, reposition the product proposition, redefine the business model, and also cover areas like HR practices, digital marketing and effective financial planning and MIS systems.
The SYB programme is designed to help entrepreneurs generate new business lines, disrupt the traditional business model, successfully pivot the product offering to differentiate and generate higher profits and create a sustainable venture in a challenging sector. The programme covers business innovation, development of a technology platform and adding on of new revenue streams.
