Enter IE Business School in Madrid and you cannot help notice that Entrepreneurship is one of THE BIG things here. The "Area 31" dedicated for budding entrepreneurs to work; or the full time elective of "Venture Lab" offered for International MBA students; or the fact that IE has one of the biggest fleet of professors in Entrepreneurship department; Not to mention the Venture Network evenings every week and the grandeur of Venture days that bring together so many VCs, Investors and passionate Entrepreneurs; There are just so many things going around you, constantly drifting you towards the core values of IE - Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Social Responsibility.
And now as my term two here will soon conclude, so will the two-term-long Entrepreneurship Management course. Getting down to actual topic of this post, these past couple of weeks, a corner in my mind has always been occupied by a thought process about Entrepreneurship and the final deliverable we have for the subject.
Add to it, the fact that, back home, on 9th September this week, began the biggest religious festival in my region - The Ganesh Festival, which is largest not only because it spans for ten days, but also because of the number of devotees that subscribe to it.
Being back from holidays not so long ago, another corner of my mind was obviously occupied with thoughts of this festival.
And then it happened. At some moment, some chemicals got mixed up and I stumbled upon this idea of how the entire process of Entrepreneurship is deeply embedded in one of the very basic concepts of Indian Mythology. As I thought more, a new perspective on Indian Mythology or Hindu Scriptures to be accurate, became more and more evident.
Now that I have described the background, let me take you through the discovery that made me write this post at this early hour of the morning.
One of the very basic and very widespread concept in Hinduism, is that there are three supreme deities, that operate this universe. Brahma: the creator, Vishnu: the Caretaker, and Shiva: the Destroyer.
Today, we are going to dig deeper into this concept.
So, we have Brahma, the god of Creation, who is always depicted as holding prayer beads, gold, and a book among other things; and he rides a Swan. The Swan symbolizes grace and discernment, book represents knowledge, gold represents a passion and activity to achieve that passion, and finally the prayer beads represent the physical nature of inputs needed for creation of worldly things.
Furthermore, Brahma is accompanied by Saraswati, the goddess of Knowledge, arts, science and music. She possesses a swan as well, and is seen carrying a book, an Indian musical instrument Veena, a pot of sacred water and a garland of crystals.
Here, the Swan is the wisdom, and it is said to be wise enough to differentiate between milk and water and choose milk; so the wisdom to choose the best possible alternative; book represents command of the goddess over knowledge of the universe and Veena represents her authority over various arts, sciences and music. Pot of water represents the culmination of creativity and the garland of crystals represents the power of meditation and spirituality.
Now, lets get out of the scriptures and look at attributes that the Startup incubators and Seed Accelerators typically need to be successful in their mission. They need people who can pick projects with discernment and help maintain the prestige, the graceful nature of the process; they need to be knowledgeable in the work they are doing; working with startups means not only the entrepreneurs, but also that the team comprising the accelerator needs to be passionate about the projects; they need to constantly keep moving forward and unless the entrepreneur and the accelerator provide physical inputs in terms of money, sweat equity and prototypes, the process cannot really survive. Do I need say, that the modern day Seed accelerators are playing the role of Brahma by fostering Creation of value and as we can see, the successful ones usually possess same attributes as Brahma.
Now, is there any seed accelerator that you know, which doesn't have mentoring as an inherent part of the process? Depending on the needs of the project, this mentoring can be technical, can be of soft skills, can be of financial skills, can be of management skills. The mentors need to be experts themselves, they need to provide the wisdom necessary for Entrepreneurs to make the right choices, they need to foster creativity and they need to be righteous.
Considering this inevitable partnership between the mentors and the accelerators, it is amazing how the ancient Hindu scriptures have partnered Brahma with Saraswati, to portray the same vital association.
Moving on, when the startup is in initial days trying to make its mark in this competitive world, sometimes it may still need support from an incubator firm, or funding from a Venture Capital or may be a Business Angel. Often times, they need just enough to survive and eventually breakeven. Well, while a typical incubator may provide a wide array of services/assistance to this startup firm; and the VC or Business Angel may have varied proposals including management control at many times; what can be the observed qualities that working with start-ups at this stage typically encompass?
These firms need to keep pace of all happenings in the market, they need to be relentless and patient with the start-up; they need compassion and vigour to drive things and take them to next stage; they need to be self-sufficient in terms of resources they make available to the new entrepreneurs, they need to protect the start-up from obvious dangers of the market. Moreover, they need a strong source of wealth either their own or of their partners.
Zooming back on the concept of three gods, we will now take a look at some of the attributes of Vishnu, the god of preservation, the caretaker of the world. Some of the prominent qualities attributed to Vishnu in Hindu Scriptures are his Omniscience i,e, the power to know about all things simultaneously; his power and capacity to make impossible possible; his grandeur, compassion and generosity. He has also reincarnated a few times to save the humans form various demons. He has the Strength to support the lfe forms by his will and without any fatigue. Doesn't it sound similar to what we have been talking about the incubators and VCs before, may be depicted more in cosmic lingo, but the gist of the description applies to incubators and VCs nevertheless.
Vishnu is accompanied by Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, prosperity and fortune. She protects devotees from money related sorrows and miseries and has many manifestations, one per source of worldly wealth. Rings a bell?? Didn't we just mention that VCs and incubators need a strong association and source of wealth?
The more I explored this concept, the more it delighted me with its similarities with modern day entrepreneurial framework.
And to talk about the next stage of any entrepreneurial process, let us take a look first at Shiva, the god of destruction, transformation and rejuvenation. He is said to be a perfect being, free from any behavioral flaws. He holds a trident depicting his mastery over his inner world, his immediate world and the broader overall world. He frees human beings from material existence; his role is of both the destroyer and the benefactor; he is both ascetic and a householder at the same time.
Partner of Shiva is Parvati, the goddess of supreme power. In her normal form, she is worshiped by all as a goddess of power; when furious by any demon menace, she can be aggressive enough to destroy the entire universe.
So, what happens when a start-up is already past a few years into its life-cycle. It is either a success or is still struggling to keep up or is a failure. In either cases, the entrepreneurs need an exit plan, an expansion plan or a transformation plan. Merge the firm, let the firm be acquired, go public on the stock market, so many plans and possibilities. And no matter what the entrepreneur chooses to do, the firm doesn't remain the same again. It transforms itself from its current material form into some other form. There are many consultancy firms and other agencies which help entrepreneurs implement their exit plans. These firms need to be aware of the current situation, the possibilities in short term horizon and predictions about the long term horizon. They need to be involved yet objective in evaluating the future of the firm; they may advise to shut down the firm and let go, but only for the benefit of its stakeholders; these agencies need the qualities and abilities that are some of the attributes of Shiva.
Not to mention, they need to be well connected with the market, market which possesses all the power, to make or break a firm, to punish those who falter and to promote those who perform. Needless to say, when the market decides to punish, no firm gets spared. Sounds like the powers similar to Parvati, isn't it?
I know some of you may agree to what I think, some may argue; I am no expert on Entrepreneurship; but in the end, I cannot stress the point enough, that this little analogy that I could establish between two biggest religions that I now pursue; one based on scriptures of Hinduism, other based on core values of IE, has been the biggest amazement I have had in past few days and I could not help myself from sharing this perspective with my readers.
And now as my term two here will soon conclude, so will the two-term-long Entrepreneurship Management course. Getting down to actual topic of this post, these past couple of weeks, a corner in my mind has always been occupied by a thought process about Entrepreneurship and the final deliverable we have for the subject.
Add to it, the fact that, back home, on 9th September this week, began the biggest religious festival in my region - The Ganesh Festival, which is largest not only because it spans for ten days, but also because of the number of devotees that subscribe to it.
Being back from holidays not so long ago, another corner of my mind was obviously occupied with thoughts of this festival.
And then it happened. At some moment, some chemicals got mixed up and I stumbled upon this idea of how the entire process of Entrepreneurship is deeply embedded in one of the very basic concepts of Indian Mythology. As I thought more, a new perspective on Indian Mythology or Hindu Scriptures to be accurate, became more and more evident.
Now that I have described the background, let me take you through the discovery that made me write this post at this early hour of the morning.
One of the very basic and very widespread concept in Hinduism, is that there are three supreme deities, that operate this universe. Brahma: the creator, Vishnu: the Caretaker, and Shiva: the Destroyer.
Today, we are going to dig deeper into this concept.
So, we have Brahma, the god of Creation, who is always depicted as holding prayer beads, gold, and a book among other things; and he rides a Swan. The Swan symbolizes grace and discernment, book represents knowledge, gold represents a passion and activity to achieve that passion, and finally the prayer beads represent the physical nature of inputs needed for creation of worldly things.
Furthermore, Brahma is accompanied by Saraswati, the goddess of Knowledge, arts, science and music. She possesses a swan as well, and is seen carrying a book, an Indian musical instrument Veena, a pot of sacred water and a garland of crystals.
Here, the Swan is the wisdom, and it is said to be wise enough to differentiate between milk and water and choose milk; so the wisdom to choose the best possible alternative; book represents command of the goddess over knowledge of the universe and Veena represents her authority over various arts, sciences and music. Pot of water represents the culmination of creativity and the garland of crystals represents the power of meditation and spirituality.
Now, lets get out of the scriptures and look at attributes that the Startup incubators and Seed Accelerators typically need to be successful in their mission. They need people who can pick projects with discernment and help maintain the prestige, the graceful nature of the process; they need to be knowledgeable in the work they are doing; working with startups means not only the entrepreneurs, but also that the team comprising the accelerator needs to be passionate about the projects; they need to constantly keep moving forward and unless the entrepreneur and the accelerator provide physical inputs in terms of money, sweat equity and prototypes, the process cannot really survive. Do I need say, that the modern day Seed accelerators are playing the role of Brahma by fostering Creation of value and as we can see, the successful ones usually possess same attributes as Brahma.
Now, is there any seed accelerator that you know, which doesn't have mentoring as an inherent part of the process? Depending on the needs of the project, this mentoring can be technical, can be of soft skills, can be of financial skills, can be of management skills. The mentors need to be experts themselves, they need to provide the wisdom necessary for Entrepreneurs to make the right choices, they need to foster creativity and they need to be righteous.
Considering this inevitable partnership between the mentors and the accelerators, it is amazing how the ancient Hindu scriptures have partnered Brahma with Saraswati, to portray the same vital association.
Moving on, when the startup is in initial days trying to make its mark in this competitive world, sometimes it may still need support from an incubator firm, or funding from a Venture Capital or may be a Business Angel. Often times, they need just enough to survive and eventually breakeven. Well, while a typical incubator may provide a wide array of services/assistance to this startup firm; and the VC or Business Angel may have varied proposals including management control at many times; what can be the observed qualities that working with start-ups at this stage typically encompass?
These firms need to keep pace of all happenings in the market, they need to be relentless and patient with the start-up; they need compassion and vigour to drive things and take them to next stage; they need to be self-sufficient in terms of resources they make available to the new entrepreneurs, they need to protect the start-up from obvious dangers of the market. Moreover, they need a strong source of wealth either their own or of their partners.
Zooming back on the concept of three gods, we will now take a look at some of the attributes of Vishnu, the god of preservation, the caretaker of the world. Some of the prominent qualities attributed to Vishnu in Hindu Scriptures are his Omniscience i,e, the power to know about all things simultaneously; his power and capacity to make impossible possible; his grandeur, compassion and generosity. He has also reincarnated a few times to save the humans form various demons. He has the Strength to support the lfe forms by his will and without any fatigue. Doesn't it sound similar to what we have been talking about the incubators and VCs before, may be depicted more in cosmic lingo, but the gist of the description applies to incubators and VCs nevertheless.
Vishnu is accompanied by Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, prosperity and fortune. She protects devotees from money related sorrows and miseries and has many manifestations, one per source of worldly wealth. Rings a bell?? Didn't we just mention that VCs and incubators need a strong association and source of wealth?
The more I explored this concept, the more it delighted me with its similarities with modern day entrepreneurial framework.
And to talk about the next stage of any entrepreneurial process, let us take a look first at Shiva, the god of destruction, transformation and rejuvenation. He is said to be a perfect being, free from any behavioral flaws. He holds a trident depicting his mastery over his inner world, his immediate world and the broader overall world. He frees human beings from material existence; his role is of both the destroyer and the benefactor; he is both ascetic and a householder at the same time.
Partner of Shiva is Parvati, the goddess of supreme power. In her normal form, she is worshiped by all as a goddess of power; when furious by any demon menace, she can be aggressive enough to destroy the entire universe.
So, what happens when a start-up is already past a few years into its life-cycle. It is either a success or is still struggling to keep up or is a failure. In either cases, the entrepreneurs need an exit plan, an expansion plan or a transformation plan. Merge the firm, let the firm be acquired, go public on the stock market, so many plans and possibilities. And no matter what the entrepreneur chooses to do, the firm doesn't remain the same again. It transforms itself from its current material form into some other form. There are many consultancy firms and other agencies which help entrepreneurs implement their exit plans. These firms need to be aware of the current situation, the possibilities in short term horizon and predictions about the long term horizon. They need to be involved yet objective in evaluating the future of the firm; they may advise to shut down the firm and let go, but only for the benefit of its stakeholders; these agencies need the qualities and abilities that are some of the attributes of Shiva.
Not to mention, they need to be well connected with the market, market which possesses all the power, to make or break a firm, to punish those who falter and to promote those who perform. Needless to say, when the market decides to punish, no firm gets spared. Sounds like the powers similar to Parvati, isn't it?
I know some of you may agree to what I think, some may argue; I am no expert on Entrepreneurship; but in the end, I cannot stress the point enough, that this little analogy that I could establish between two biggest religions that I now pursue; one based on scriptures of Hinduism, other based on core values of IE, has been the biggest amazement I have had in past few days and I could not help myself from sharing this perspective with my readers.
