Talk cum Presentation on “From your Ph.D./ Masters Thesis to a start-up”

A session on ‘From your Ph.D./Master’s thesis to a start-up’ was conducted on April 23, 2021. The speaker for the session was Dr. Anand Deshpande, Founder and CMD, Persistent Systems. Also present were Dr. M.P. Poonia, Vice-Chairman, AICTE , Prof. Rajive Kumar, Member Secretary, AICTE ,Dr. Abhay Jere, Chief Innovation Officer, MoE’s Innovation Cell.

Dr. Anand Deshpande started with his talk with a motivational incident which happened during a discussion.

Citing an example of an elephant , he said that Research and Teaching is only an option after being awarded PhD but he highlighted the skills of entrepreneurship that a research scholar should possess  during his course.

He explained the process of Lean start-up by giving an example of Toyota Production. He also explained how Lean start-up helps. Dr. Deshpande, highlighted the work of Steve blank.

Further in his talk, Dr. Deshpande explained about Minimum Viable Product ( MVP) and the two questions possessed during the processes of experimentation of MVP.

Taking the insights from a book on Business Moel Generation by Alex Osterwalder, Dr. Deshpande highlighted  the value proportion by giving an example of a  restaurant.  Further he explained business proportion citing the example of Airbnb and enlightened about 9 different areas that are required for value proportion.

Clayton Christiansen’s technique “Job to be done” was explained citing an example of Milkshake. In Trango Tower expedition , how the role of team members play a role was explained. He said that mission plays a role to make a business successful.

While talking on Cash generation Dr. Deshpande , shared from a book by Ram Charan and Ashok Korwar , wherein he stressed on the 4 parts that are critical in business . The core idea of business was  given a thrust during discussion. A financial calculation was explained in the presentation. A business matrix was also explained. Dr. Deshpande  presented the chart of cash flow .

Korwar’s eight finance doctrines were also highlighted in the presentation. The concept of sunk cost was also explained .