EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND AN ENTREPRENEUR

understanding an entrepreneur is an interesting process.

What motivates them to take risk?

Why do they identify the need to do business?

What are the characteristics found in them?

What are the issues faced?

Having these questions in my mind I tried to understand,Amrutha Latha, an women entrepreneur who founded Vijay group of institutions at Nizamabad.in this write up.

Everyone at Vijay group of institutions celebrated the grant for medical college at Nizamabad in early 1990’s.But the celebrations did not last for more than a couple of days because the court cancelled the approval due to the clash between ruling and opposition parties. This did not deter Amrutha Latha, the founder and promoter, from her aim of serving the people of rural area in the field of education. since then she established seven engineering and P.G colleges in the Nizamabad district.

"Entrepreneurship is the process of identifying, developing, and bringing a vision to life. The vision may be an innovative idea, an opportunity, or simply a better way to do something. The end result of this process is the creation of a new venture, formed under conditions of risk and considerable uncertainty."

                                     - The Entrepreneurship Center at Miami University of Ohio

       

It all started back in 1979.she was working as an English teacher in Zilla parishat high school, Armoor , a government school in the rural area. while she was teaching, she noticed that the class rooms were very crowded .She identified that the students were unable to understand what she was teaching due to the huge number of students in the class. She also identified the need for quality in education and English as a medium for instruction in rural areas.

With the above aim she thought of starting a school in Armoor village. She pooled up an initial investment of 3000 rupees through her savings and the rest through her relatives and friends. Being a well-known writer of the region people had faith in her. Huge spending over promotion was not needed. She just had to send people to circulate pamphlets . The word spread. She rented an asbestos house. With an initial strength of 120 students Vijay high school was started at Armoor village.

She also started one more branch at Nizamabad the very next year. Since then the schools grew in its operations. Within 15 years the schools had their own establishment. Initially there were not sufficient local teachers  to teach in English. so teachers from Kerala were called. But the parents were apprehensive regarding the  accent of those teachers. They feared that their children would catch up the same accent. Amrutha had to convince the parents.

  

There were also agitations regarding the charging of high fees. since it was the only private English medium school in the entire district people had no other players to compare the value . Amrutha Latha has good convincing skills. According to one of her employee when she is faced with agitated group of people ,she does not argue with them. She first tries to divert them from the issue and smartly puts her opinions across softly. After a few years many new schools were started in that region.

“Not having competitors at times can be a curse”

                                                                          -Amrutha Latha

Now the parents had some criteria to compare and realise the value proposition and were satisfied with the value delivered by the Vijay high school. In this context Amrutha Latha says that people feel that being a single player in a particular region has so many advantages. but not having competitors can also become a bane at times. Parents cannot understand the value being delivered and perceive the cost to be high as there is other player to compare.

When private schools started coming up in the Nizamabad district with a promising campaign, students started moving out to those newly established schools. The principal of Vijay high school was worried and approached Amrutha with some promotion and prevention plan. But Amrutha did not took up any measures. Instead she strengthened the academic curriculum. by the next year students who left the schools started coming back. Amrutha told not to take those students admissions. The word spread and the parents became cautious of the limited number of seats in the school. since then Vijay high school gets its admissions filled by the end of march every academic year without any promotion campaign.

Mean while in 1995 she started Amrith Kiran , a value based magazine for which she was awarded ‘the best outstanding women entrepreneur’ award in small scare industries from honourable Chief minister Sri Nara Chandra Babu Naidu for the year 1997-98.Amrith Kiran was an ideal magazine with vigour and values. but it had to be closed down. the success of a magazine depends on its printing, editing, advertising and marketing. for a magazine the expenditure is more than the recipients . to balance the payments and receipts, it’s a must for any magazine to depend on advertisements. naturally it becomes a crux of the matter for a new comer to get the advertisements. Also there was a similar issue in the marketing of the magazine .to get advertisements ,the only option left was to grab the essential things by hook or by crook. Amrutha felt that it was  ridiculous and suicidal to print morals by foregoing them in its establishment. this lead to close down of Amrith Kiran.

The Vijay schools were expanding in operations. Amrutha had to include more sections in the schools. But she did not do it until she found out reliable supervisors within the administrative department. She identified dedicated teachers and faculty of the schools and encourage them to partner. She says that once you recognise the right people and motivate them they  themselves take the values forward. She accredits the growth to the collective efforts.

After Vijay high schools she established Vijay rural engineering college in 1997,Srinivasa Reddy institute of technology in 2007, Vijay Institute of Technology & Sciences in 2004, , Vijay College of education for Women in 2007,Vijay College of Engineering for Women in 2009 ,Vijay College of Pharmacy in 2011 and Vijay college for D.Ed for women,2012. There are 10419 students studying in these institutions every year with generating employment of 607 teaching and non teaching staff. She looks forward improve the engineering and other P.G colleges and making them autonomous .she also is aiming at more foreign collaborations in the field of higher education. 

She says that there is nothing like incipient success. its taking ones first step, accompanied by the infinite unflinching steps. Her employees feel that they are able to learn the work and lead it quickly as it is very difficult to satisfy her in terms of work. she expects perfection. 

The characteristics identified in her is the hard work, soft nature, patience ,emotional stability,risk taking and knowledge. She deals with people in a soft manner. she does not argue with people. she gives them instances and examples and somehow manages them to look the situation from her perspective and convince them. This is generally seen when she deals with agitated driver unions, parents and also the share holders. As a promoter for institutions she needs to get investments from people of different nature. people invest with the only motto of profit. but being in education field you can’t just aim for profit. It is really challenging to convince such people. She reads a lot. even at the age of 62 she is pursuing her PhD. Her employees feel that until they learn to see a broader perspective of the work, she offers them a challenging situation to look 10 more steps forward. she has very hard working nature. She emphasizes the importance of hard work and sincerity. She says she can involve in any kind of work continuously for 12 or more hours with dedication, the quality which is not much seen the youth of today.  

Sources :

1.      Based on the interview with Amrutha Latha conducted on 19^th august,2012.

2.      Focus-silver jubilee magazine of Vijay high school,Nizamabad,2005-2006.

3.      http://www.amruthalatha.com/