Start an E-Cell

8/6/2019 Start an E-Cell

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HOW TO STARTAN E-CELL ON YOUR CAMPUS

Launching the entrepreneurship club was like a start-up experience- building ateam, creating awareness, getting others involved and doing things we'd neverthought of.

- Farha Bano, Founder of Pracint, E-Cell at IBAB, Bangalore

What is an Entrepreneurship Cell (E- Cell)?

An entrepreneurship Cell or E- Cell is a group of students who get together to practice andpromote entrepreneurship in their campus communities. They are committed and driven tothinking and acting entrepreneurially and to explore entrepreneurship as a career option and away of life.

How to use this module

This module provides a summary of experiences and best practices drawn from successfulstudent run & led entrepreneurship organizations in India, like IIT Bombay’s E- Cell, IBAB’sPracint , the Center for Entrepreneurial Learning (CEL) at BITS, Pilani, and SP Jain Institute’sEntrecom. Please visit their websites and other resources for concrete examples.

While the ideas and examples outlined here are aimed at providing all the generic informationdeemed necessary to define, design and start an E- Cell on any campus in general, the specific

structure of the campus community must be taken into account to design a Cell that best suitslocal needs.

What does an E- Cell do?

The big idea behind an E- Cell is to foster an environment that enables students to:

- Think creatively

- Learn about innovation and new ideas

- Build knowledge and skills to translate ideas into opportunities

- Apply these skills and training in the programs organized by the E- Cell in the workplace

- Be motivated to start their own companies after graduation or after a few years of gainingindustry experience

Primarily the E- Cell has three distinct functions:

- Organization

- Network

- Experiential learning programs and activities

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THE ORGANIZATION

Depending on the institution, an E- Cell can be set-up in several ways:

1. A collection of motivated students who want to get together informally and organizeevents on campus

2. A student-led Cell, run independently with on-going faculty support.3. An organization or committee (more common in business schools) set up with the help of

faculty and administration and run jointly by the students, faculty and administration.

While all three structures are potentially viable, it is more likely that an organization withinstitutional support will continue successfully even after a particular group of motivated studentsmoves out.

The Mission

Before launching different programs and activities, a set of goals and objectives for the E- Cellmay be defined. This does not mean flowery “mission statements” but rather a set of achievablegoals and tasks necessary to make the objectives a reality, and provide a sense of direction.

An organized group with a well thought-out purpose well will find it easier to get buy-in andsupport from faculty and administration to set up the E- Cell. This will make it easier to usecampus resources and infrastructure, and also enable access to a broader network of peopleoutside the campus community.

The Benefits

It is important to highlight the benefits of joining an entrepreneurial organization on campus inorder to recruit a core team and attract participation in events. These benefits might be self-evident to the founding team, but to motivate others and make it desirable to join, there is a needto highlight incentives like the opportunity to:

1. Become a leader - manage a student organization, illustrate abilities in planning, logistics,marketing, and advertising, create visibility for future employers.

2. Build a network - make contacts with entrepreneurs, professionals and academics whocan help with recommendations, network and start a venture with peers.

3. Initiate innovative activities - invite business leaders to campus, plan new and excitingevents for students to kick-start learning about new industries and different aspects ofbusiness planning.

The Organizational Model

Student-led organizations can be set up in three basic ways:1. Traditional hierarchical model with an elected President, Vice-President, Treasurer and

others.

2. Event-based model with decentralized leadership on an event-by-event basis.

3. Functional model with an overall coordinator who oversees the E- Cell and othermanagers are responsible for particular functions such as events, marketing, publicrelations, and website maintenance, among others.




Though the first two models exist, the functional model has elements that will suit mostinstitutions. This model has been explained in detail below.

The functional model

In this model, each person is responsible for different tasks with a central point of coordination. Itallows for independent decision-making and distributes accountability across the team.

While the list of functional leaders depends on the number of activities and programs initiated bythe E- Cell, certain functions are deemed essential. For instance:

1. Overall coordinator

2. Events manager

3. Marketing manager

4. Media and Public relations manager

5. Web development manager

6. Sponsorship manager*

7. Corporate relations manager*

*E- Cells will always need to raise sponsorship for their events and invite various speakers tocampus. These tasks can be assigned to managers within the basic organization structure oradditional managers can be specifically elected.

(You could take a look at IIT Bombay’s E- Cell website for the organization structure atwww.iitbecell.org)

THE NETWORK

An E- Cell is, most importantly, a group of people organized around the common interest ofentrepreneurship. As a student group, resources are limited and success depends in large parton the Cell’s ability to bring in entrepreneurs, business leaders and professionals as an “extendedcommunity” that shares an interest in seeing the creation of new businesses. Even non-profit andbusiness organizations can provide assistance.

Stakeholders

A typical E- Cell usually engages at three levels with different stakeholders:

1. On-campus- students, faculty, administration, business incubators, other student groups,placement office/cell

2. Off-campus- alumni3. Other resource people- entrepreneurs, business leaders, professionals like lawyers and

accountants, venture development groups, angel investors, venture capital firms, non-profit foundations, faculty from other institutions and organizations such as NEN.




Faculty: The First Link

While students remain the primary focus of the E- Cell activities, faculty involvement is alsoessential to build innovative entrepreneurship programs in an institution. Even as few as one ortwo interested faculty may be enough to get started. From there expand to the administration whowill put you in touch with alumni and other off- campus contacts.

Mentors- Alumni and others

Active recruiting of mentors is key to the E- Cell’s success. These may come in the form of facultymembers (from any discipline), faculty from other institutions, alumni who have startedcompanies, or other business leaders and professionals.

Alumni, and especially alumni entrepreneurs, can inject vigor and vitality to the E- Cell initiativeson campus. They are the readymade link that the institution has to the business and corporateworld outside. Many alumni are looking to give back to their alma mater in ways other than justfunding. With the special sense of loyalty they have to the institution, they are willing to engage as

role models, speakers and team mentors. (See the Programs and Activities section below).

Formalizing the involvement of mentors in the E- Cell by forming a body such as an “AdvisoryBoard” of mentors will enable the E- Cell to bring in other resource people besides alumnimentors. Professionals like lawyers, accountants, angel investors and others may also be co-opted to provide domain expertise.

Mentors can be engaged with the E- Cell in several ways, including (but not limited to)involvement in E- Cell events and activities, providing advice on ideas for new programs,sponsorship for events, and networking and connections with other business leaders andentrepreneurs.

Other resource people

It helps to be open and entrepreneurial in the quest to sniff out and recruit people who can serveas resources for the E- Cell. Campus-initiated new ventures will need the advice of accountants,legal experts, lawyers and other financial support from angel investors, banks, venture capital andother sources of funding. Building this network of professionals and services will make the E- Cellactivities robust and current with industry trends.

Over the years, the E- Cell may expand the scope of their activities beyond students to formallyinclude working professionals and young executives. A broad base of resource people is requiredto establish new and innovative programs to suit the needs of different stakeholders.

Close the loop

Keeping resource people informed of the activities of the E- Cell through emails and regularupdates will develop a sense of community and help them stay involved with and committed tothe E- Cell.




PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES

Experiential learning activities including lectures/talks, workshops, games, events andcompetitions play a very important role to make entrepreneurship education relevant and holistic.These help students to:

Increase their awareness of and interest in entrepreneurship

Develop basic knowledge and skills for entrepreneurial success while they are on campus

Be inspired to consider entrepreneurship as a possible career option

In order to have maximum impact- attract a large number of students to events and create ageneral level of excitement - a range of activities from low to high intensity need to be planned.High-intensity activities like business plan competitions require a certain level of preparedness atthe student level while guest lectures and workshops that deal with idea generation andopportunity evaluation might have broader appeal, are easier to organize and can be tackledfirst.

Outlined below are a representative set of experiential learning activities presented according to

the different stages of the entrepreneurial process - from the basic introduction, idea generation,to business planning and actually starting a company.

‘Introduction to Entrepreneurship’ Activities

General inspiration talks/guest lectures/seminars

Role models are a good way to introduce the concept of entrepreneurship. Students alwaysrelate to “real-life” examples. For instance, today in India the success of Biocon, Infosys, andPantaloon is common knowledge to most students, whether or not they are interested instarting their own companies.

Successful entrepreneurs can be invited to the campus to share their stories. Sharing

experiences about their personal challenges, risks and rewards will give students a good ideaabout the various facets of entrepreneurship, including (but not limited to) the success/failureof a venture.

As mentioned above, alumni, who are usually looking to return to their alma mater for eventssuch as these should also be actively sought.

Seminars to complement entrepreneurship curriculum

As the general awareness in entrepreneurship on campus increases, the talks and lecturescan be structured to enhance the students’ knowledge and understanding of specificconcepts. These lectures would require faculty moderation to ensure proper synthesis of thekey messages.

Inviting entrepreneurs from different industries (e.g. Biotech, Pharma, IT, Retail, Autocomponent manufacturing etc.) would draw attention to new opportunities and challenges indifferent industry spaces.

Market orientation workshop

Before coming up with a business idea, the first step is to understand the market context. Theaim of this workshop would be to show how to identify an opportunity based on gaps in the




market, with a view to exposing students to a needs-based approach, rather than allow forproducts/services to be created in isolation.

People from research labs associated with large companies and multi-nationals can beinvited to showcase examples of how they find and launch new products based on customerand market needs.

Idea evaluation workshop

An idea evaluation workshop would show students how to determine a real businessopportunity. This workshop would showcase, with examples from entrepreneurs’ life, howthey got the idea, why they pursued it and the process they went through to evaluate thebusiness opportunity.

In some cases, to tie the entrepreneur’s presentation with course offerings, a faculty membercan layout the theoretical framework to maximize the key learning.

Business ideas competition

An easy way for students to get started is to enter a business ideas competition. Initiatingthis thinking process competitively would be a great incentive to attract large numbers ofstudents and get them excited about entrepreneurship. Inviting a successful entrepreneurand other panelists for the final event would be an added incentive.

Business Planning Activities

After the inspiration and orientation to entrepreneurship, the programs and activities can becomemore specific to the requirements of planning a business.

General business planning workshop

A workshop that brings out the different aspects of planning a business will orient thestudents to various issues like market viability of a product/service in the context of existingcompetition, how to find customers, identify human, financial and technological resources,build a financial model and draw up an execution plan. It would also touch upon businessplan writing and presentation skills.

Workshops on different aspects of business planning

This can be a series of workshops that will highlight critical aspects of new venture creationlike fundraising, intellectual property issues, legal and accounting practices, recruiting a team,leadership, building a financial model, marketing, understanding the risks etc.

Resource people for all the sessions above can be a combination of faculty, professionalexperts like lawyers, human resource firms, angel investors, bankers, venture capitalists,entrepreneurs and other practitioners.

Depending upon the demand from the students (and other stakeholders like the alumni),some of these topics can be handled more in-depth through more workshops.




Business Plan Competition

After students get inspired and interested towards entrepreneurship through the lectures andworkshops, students could develop a business plan to put their business planning skills totest.

The business plan competition would encourage new ideas to take shape not just on your,but also provide an opportunity to engage with students and faculty from other institutions,community leaders, business professionals and others.

Keeping Track of Participation

Finally, it is critical to keeping track of student involvement and attendance in the E- Cell and itsprograms and activities.

It is ideal to ask attendees to fill out a feedback questionnaire with their contact information anddemographic data for your own research. Having information such as how participants heardabout the event, their interests and other such pertinent data can help plan and determine thesuccess of the E- Cell’s advertising and awareness campaigns. A door prize drawn from the list ofcompleted registrations/ filled-up questionnaires may be announced as an incentive!

At the very least, however, on-the -spot registration, with names and email ids, might be easier tohandle and should be done on at every E- Cell event. For other events and competitions thatrequire business ideas and plans submissions, it may be beneficial to track the progress ofwinners and see how many of these plans turn into real companies in the future.

In closing

NEN may be contacted directly for more specific help and ideas on the day-to-day functioning of

a campus E- Cell. They may be able to provide information on a host of related issues such as -

1. How to use an email introduction2. Examples of activities from U.S. universities3. Article on 14 ways to evaluate a business idea4. Module on how to organize and run a Business Ideas competition5. Module on how to organize and run a Business Plan competition.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

To find out what other E-Cell communities are doing, log on to www.nenonline.org and view thesection on Communities.

You can also contact the NEN Consulting Team in your city or write to [email protected] or [email protected]. All contact information is available on NEN Online.


http://www.nenonline.org/

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Start an E-Cell