The spirit of entrepreneurship

HYDERABAD: The Chinmaya Vidyalaya, in a novel attempt to inculcate a sense of business management into their students, conducted 6 Sigma - the entrepreneur’s fest 2011 on August 9 and 11, organised and managed by the 11th and 12th students of the commerce stream. Said M Varalakshmi, principal of the school, “The students came up with the idea and were enthusiastic about it. It was agreed to since the fest would give children a hands-on experience about running an enterprise. Besides, they are doing it for a good cause as proceeds from the fest will be donated to Sri Vidya’s Centre.” Sri Vidya’s Centre is a school for special children, mostly mentally handicapped children, located in East Marredpally. The proceeds are being forwarded to the centre through the student social service community, the Orange Leaf. 6Sigma - the entrepreneur’s fest was conducted in typical management style with the usual activities like the hunt for best manager, mad ads and best commercial, competitions for advertising, SWOT test (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and also an open market. The market included Fungama, Funky fun firm, Facemash, which were game stalls, Prospero entertainment, a CD stall, Prediction - a horoscope stall and EEE - eco friendly emporium that was selling an assortment of hand made paper bags, folders, book marks and wall hangings. The air around the market was pretty energised as organisers dressed in semi formals sent out their marketing teams among the crowd to cash in on the excitement. Children from lower classes queued up in front of the game stalls as school let out. Most stalls reported in a profit. The fest which took about half a month in the making, was organised by a committee of about 15 students who set up the stalls, decided the budgeting and so on. Said Prarthna Sham, one of the committee members, “We gave stall owners a ceiling amount of `2000 for investing into their stalls. We’ve also asked them to donate 50 per cent of their investment capital towards the proceeds for Sri Vidya’s Centre.”