PSG management students have a go at entrepreneurship

PSG Institute of Management conducted an entrepreneurship camp recently.

Organised within the campus, just to assess the entrepreneurial capability of the students, the camp, according to Nandagopal, Director, PSGIM, was mooted with the idea of making students think out of the box.

“The ideas the students came up with seemed simple when floated, but the challenge was in executing the same. They further had to reason why they chose to put up a food stall when there are several out there and in what way their idea was unique,” he explained.

“For instance, one group of students put up a “fish food” exclusive restaurant as there is no such exclusive food joint in Coimbatore. Yet another put up a chaat stall contending that there is no chaat corner in the vicinity of this institution; a third group came up with the idea of “only sea food” to name a few. To an outsider, this would have appeared as if each of these were offering food items and there is nothing special about any of this, but the participants had a reason for each of the ideas floated by them.”

“From procuring the inventory to preparing the dish, the students had to plan every step, price the product, while keeping in mind a safe margin as well. Interestingly, a good number of them were able to sell the stuff within the allotted time, and one group reached out to the public,” the Director said

“It was a different experience altogether. While selling within the campus was fun, we felt a little awkward when we had to go out and seek a buyer. We had some reservations initially, but the chocolates were sold within minutes, despite pricing it higher by Rs 5 a piece as compared to the campus rate,” said Lakshmanan R, the group head of Chocoaddict.

Chocoaddict team members – Laxmi Priya S, Praveen Kumar C and Priyanga T however conceded that they had failed to understand the customer requirement. “We only looked at offering these melting chocolates because every one loves them. That's not all, the display and packaging also matters,” Lakshmanan said.

The Kappice (edible ice cream cups) team was luckier. The Chief Executive of onlystaples.com – Rajesh, has evinced interest in marketing the product on his site. The team is awed by the proposition.

Kowsalya R, who single handedly marketed Aaro Carrot Jam/ Halwa prepared with the help of her mother at home, was yet another hit. One can expect to buy the carrot jam online very soon. “Rajesh of onlystaples has asked for the jam to be sold via his site; it was unexpected. I am thrilled about this idea but not ready yet,” she said.

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