A colloquium on the topic ‘Is it a Problem?’ was held at the Sree Krishna Hall of School of Business, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, on November 25, 2017. The session was handled by Mr. Selva Kumar Varadharajan, is the Executive Layman in Laymen Agro Private Limited, which is aimed at aggregating and accelerating rural income in India. He headed the Mentoring and Placements in DJ Academy of Excellence where he doubled their Profit. He was also the Chief Brand Officer cum founding member of BSBS Business Academy. He also worked as a Finance Faculty in ICFAI, Bangalore.
Mr. Selva Kumar started the proceedings with a question on the number of Aspiring Entrepreneurs. He then moved on to explain the eager students about the Economy of India. How it was, how it is now. He questioned the students on How much percent they think Agriculture, Services and Manufacturing sector accounted for GDP. After a brief survey, Mr. Selva then proceeded to explain that how Agriculture is nowadays accounting for a meagre < 15%, while Service Sector accounted for 59% but only < 10% are into Service sector. He explained how the ancestors of the country were advanced when compared to other civilizations existing at that time, citing examples from Tanjore Big Temple Architecture and how Vasco da Gama actually “discovered” India while it was actually one of the Indian Merchants who escorted Vasco da Gama to India when he was lost. Mr. Selva also spoke about the story how Lord Macaulay from the British Colonial Era, wrote a letter to the Parliament about breaking the India’s then strong education system. He then asked the students if the British really succeeded, giving them time to ponder. He also gave a wakeup call to students citing how the graduates are the most ill-informed people in the nation. “We are always good at Micro things” Mr.Selva quoted and urged the students to get a Macro Picture of anything.
Finally, Mr. Selva proceeded to answer the question he asked at the beginning of the session. He explained that Entrepreneurs are the need of the hour. Explaining about Entrepreneurship, Mr. Selva explained why most of the start-ups failed because they copy and implement models that were successful elsewhere and why their start up succeeded because they identified an Indian Problem and attempted to solve them with Indianess in it. They identified the Rural Urban gap and sought to reduce it. Mr. Selva then explained about his Business model and explained about the 3 key Dimensions – Rural Youth, Farmers and Urban Citizen. With this model, they were successfully able to increase the income of farmers and at the same time provide employment opportunities for the Rural Youth. With their brand Vilfresh they were able to successfully reach Urban Customers with last mile connectivity at the same time at a low cost of Rs. 3 per delivery. Their successful business model fetched them the Sustainable Enterprise Award (#SEA17). Mr. Selva the ended the interactive session by quoting “Successful Organization are built by People” amidst a huge round of applause from the students.
