IIT Patna following footsteps of IIM

Ever heard of "Get your own coffee late night lectures" !

Sparking off a new trend at Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, the Entrepreneurship Club has started "Get your own coffee" late night lecture series to enhance the entrepreneurial activities in the institute. The lectures are being taken on Entrepreneurship and Innovationby the visiting professors to the institute.

"Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service. It is capable of being presented as a discipline, capable of being learned, capable of being practiced. Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation, the changes and their symptoms that indicate opportunities for successful innovation. And they need to know and to apply the principles of successful innovation."

Following the footsteps of IIMs of learning through late night sessions and inspired by the underlying principles of innovation and need for entrepreneurship, the club has recently organized three late night lectures in the series which witnessed huge participation from the student fraternity. Starting with the nuances of 'Who an Entrepreneur is?', the lectures gradually underscored the traits of a successful entrepreneur. The talks addressed the misconceptions about an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship and the most noteworthy concept that came out of the lecture was that "An entrepreneur is not a risk taker but he is a risk manager."

The lectures were not only limited to simply discussions and facts but went way ahead to one of the inevitable art in the competitive era, Business Plan writing and learning the intricacies of finance and stock market. These sessions were quite interactive and had case study discussions to understand various stages an entrepreneur steps up.

When we used to be children, we loved hearing stories. And listening to stories as a part of curriculum and learning through them is a unique feature of late night lectures. The case studies involved the journey of a college dropout billionaire, Manoj Bhargava and founder of Skanray Technologies, Vishwaprasad Alwa. The stories taught that starting a company is a riveting roller coaster of emotions with tremendous highs and at times, difficult lows, but one thing that always helps is dedication, execution of plans and the way one react to the situation and opportunities.

The new trend on the campus received active assistance from the enthusiastic visiting professors as well as the students across all the years irrespective of the streams they are enrolled in. Fresh from the daily chores and refreshed after the dinner, the series attracted several students on the account of getting their time properly utilized while learning something very new and quite interesting, in the still ambiance, acting as icing on the cake.