News
Nurturing entrepreneurial spirit to help students do better in life
Our children are not exposed to business concepts like – supply chain, logistics, warehousing, facilities management, people management, marketing, finance – at a learning stage and therefore when they get into the working world, they struggle to understand these concepts.
Prajakat Raut and Poonam Singh Jamwal conducted a lively discussion on Nurturing Future Entrepreneurs. The topic was opened with a simple question – Is entrepreneurship a skill we are born with or can it be nurtured?
“Entrepreneurship is not just about starting up a business, entrepreneurship is about thinking, taking ownership, taking responsibility and doing things in a way that will influence a change. It will make the world a better place. I think entrepreneurship is certainly something that can be nurtured,” averred Prajakt, an entrepreneur himself. Discussing why it is important for children to learn the basics of business development and management in the schools, he said, “Giving children an understanding of how business works at a very broad, holistic level will prepare them better for life. It’s not just about starting a business; even if they were to go into doing a job, someone who knows how business works at a holistic level will definitely have an advantage over someone who’s just going to be learning from there.”
He quoted his own daughter’s example to support his argument. “A lot of times, when young people think of doing a business, and they hit upon an idea, they think ‘Oh I have created a better product’. Let me tell you a story I share with young entrepreneurs. I have a 14-year-old daughter and she makes better pizza than Domino’s. But just because she makes better pizza than Domino’s, will she be able to build a better business than Domino’s? No, because it is not just about the product, it is about the supply chain, logistics, warehousing, facilities management, people management, marketing, finance and so on. And the problem is our children are not exposed to these concepts at a learning stage and therefore when they get into the working world, they struggle to understand these concepts.”
Prajakt suggested that schools have more interesting programs that make children inquisitive about a business that makes them curious, for example, how a café or mall functions. He concluded by saying that entrepreneurial thinking is not just important for starting a business, it could be applied to jobs in other sectors as well and if the children are exposed to the concept of business, they will be able to handle the job assigned better than others.
