IIM-C students to help out bizwomen

Updated on: Monday, November 23, 2009

Kolkata: Students at the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) will now offer their expertise to women entrepreneurs of the city.

Women, who have already proved their ability in managing a business and running successful business empires, will now be able to extend their business and flourish through brainstorming sessions with these budding managers. These sessions will be extended for over two hours every fortnight.

'A team of students will assist each woman entre preneur. They will discuss business plans, solve supplychain problems and issues related to HR, assist in branding and marketing of their business and also optimising the production level,' said Arjun Khurana, president of CEI.

'Every two weeks, CEI will hold a two-hour session to discuss the businesses and ideas of members of the Young FICCI Ladies Organisation, Kolkata Chapter, on a pro-bono basis. Some of the best brains in the country and the smartest businesswomen in town will meet at the Joka campus to delve into the unique challenges faced by these entrepreneurial ventures. Businesses that feel the need for more detailed working can be then graduated onto a more conventional project, with student teams from CEI working on it,' he explained.

On the first day of the sessions on Saturday, Gunjan Poddar, chairperson of YFLO, discussed her business ideas.

She owns retail tea outlets in Delhi. 'We hope that from this partnership, the young members of our organisation will benefit immensely. The young girls have ideas, but often do not know clearly how to go about implementing it. This business consultancy by the students of IIM-C will benefit them immensely,' Poddar pointed out.

CEI has taken up such projects all over India for a few years now. Some recent businesses to have been a part of this unique initiative are Cottons soft drinks, a popular home-grown soft drink brand of Kolkata, Instant Pest Care, a pest control company based in Bangalore and bookurbooks.com, an online bookstore for course books, started by a student of the institute.

IIM-C students to help out bizwomen

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