|
Chocolicious - A yummy idea |
|
|
|
|
 The news making headlines nowadays have been primarily based on recessionary effects on the economy, job layoffs, placements at top B schools taking a hit, average salaries down by a third, placement processes lasting months, unplaced students hunting for jobs and repenting their decisions. In such hard times, one ManDevIan from the Class of 2010 has decided to walk the untrodden path.
Chaitanya Jha is a first year student in the PGPM program and he has taken the bold step of starting his own business venture in the field of handmade chocolates. The name of the organization is Chocolicious and the workshop is based in Delhi. There are three other friends with him in this venture whose profiles include a law student, a medical representative and a serial entrepreneur.
Chaitanya says “Management education teaches me that this diverse combination of people would help create the Medici effect. The beginning of the journey has been an exciting one. The basic idea of the business is to provide customized chocolates targeting corporate and events ranging from product launch to marriages. The biggest irony about business school is that it does not teach you business. At a time when B-schools are available at every nook and corner in the country and even the good quality B-schools are providing a hoard of job seekers, each year we have thousands of job seekers with similar skill sets entering the industry. Are B-schools really creating leaders or just corporate citizens? It is high time that we change the trend and there should be more job creators entering the industry. Let business schools also create people who do business.”
He continues “Being in a business school, I have learnt the value of
opportunity cost. As I can see the mistake that most students at
B-school make is that they plan to start up some venture only after
completing their MBA program. At the time of placements, the
opportunity cost of opting out of placements and moving into a venture
is very huge. Thus, I took the step of starting up my own venture in my
first year of MBA itself. The idea is that by the time you get out of a
B-school, one should already have something concrete at hand. The most
important thing I feel is that in my MBA life, I have bought time for
myself, a time of 2 years to experiment and learn while working on my
business ideas.”
Chaitanya feels that the amount of learning he would get by running his
own business venture is much more compared to the learning from a paid
job. While he was working with Hewitt Associates prior to joining MDI,
he felt that there were a lot of restrictions and the process curbed
his creative abilities and original thought. Also the idea of working
with friends excites him. He says “There is a lot of work but with
friends it is like being on an extended holiday where work is fun.” He
concludes by saying that “The biggest satisfaction is that you are
working for yourself and for a person like me who likes to take risks
and explore life, entrepreneurship is a natural choice.”
Chaitanya has already walked the untried path by starting his business
venture while he is studying in the first year itself. We sincerely
hope in these times of recession and layoffs, Chaitanya Jha comes out
as a winner inspiring fellow ManDevIans by running his business venture
successfully.
|
