Symbiosis Centre for Management and HRD buzzing with activity for the most exciting en-trepreneurship event on campus – the re-gional round of Lock, Stock & Trade 2009. An initiative of the National Entrepreneurship Network and SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, the Lock, Stock & Trade is es-sentially an initiative to provide a platform for student interaction with entrepreneurs. The game involves selected teams working with entrepreneurs for over a month. After under-standing the company’s business and opera-tions, a mock IPO is carried out by the teams. Investors who bid for these companies are the audience, comprising of students and faculty. The winning “investors” are those with the highest value portfolios and the winning com-pany is the one with the highest “market capi-talization”.
The event kicked off with keynote address by Ms Ashwini Deshpande, Founder & Director, Elephant Strategy + Design. She urged the youth to be entrepreneurs and accept what comes their way as a challenge. She also em-phasized that we should balance learning, earning and excitement. From 1989, starting with a team of six, she has come a long way and now has successfully put India on the world map for design. She left students with Mahatma Gandhi’s “Find purpose, means shall follow” setting everyone thinking.
This was followed by Presentations by the five teams who had worked with year’s companies- Knowledge Quest Infotech, Quick Heal Tech-
Lock, Stock & Trade’09 Regional Round held at SIC campus
nologies, Twin Engineers, Silver Bright Insti-tute of Management and Deep Blue Tech-nologies with diverse businesses models across domains such as IT, Consulting, Manufacturing, even as bids for these com-panies were being placed by the audience. It was Dalal Street action played live on cam-pus!
The jury members were Mr Dhananjay Ben-dre, Executive Director & COO, IndiaCo Ven-tures Ltd, Mr Satish Kataria, Vice President, Religare Venture Capital Limited and Mr Vivek Mannige, Founder CEO, Acceltree.
In a nerve wracking bidding sessions, nearly 150 investors put in their “bids” into 5 prom-ising businesses. The team of Jaidip Kumar, Ritesh Vaidya and Guruprasad Navada rep-resenting Twin Engineers Pvt. Ltd. were ad-judged the winners by the jury, and the team of Abhishek Sriram, Dhananjay and Roshan Rebello representing Quick Heal Technologies Pvt. Ltd. emerged as the com-pany with the highest market capitalization.
“This was a great experience for us right from meeting the entrepreneurs to under-standing the business, how they think and analyse. We also had the chance to concen-trate on the financial aspect which is crucial for any enterprise. It was a live case for us where we were supposed to chalk out growth plans. Kudos to Ecell for organizing such a wonderful event!” says Ritesh Vaidya who was working with Mr Pradeep Bal-
wankar- MD of Twin Engineers.
The event would definitely go a long way in stimulating entrepreneurial zest among the students and encourage potential entrepre-neurs to make their dream projects into re-ality.

Excerpts of Interview with Ashwini Deshpande, Founder Director - Elephant Strategy & Design on 19.11.09 (Lock Stock & Trade)
CorpComm: How do you think the events like 'Lock, Stock & Trade' would actually help in promoting the spirit of Entrepreneurship?
Ashwini Deshpande: Basically, seminars like these provide the much needed trigger to young minds - they help the stu-dents figure out the passion in themselves. Events of this nature will help the future managers explore and maybe, eventually materialise the hidden aspirations lying within them.
CorpComm: Despite some of the initiatives, very little has been achieved in terms of awareness and willingness as far as entre-preneurship is concerned in India. What do you think still prevails as the inhibitor?
Ashwini Deshpande: To be successful, one must look at his passion and try to remain committed to his goal with conviction. Also, while coming up with their own business, people must be open to change and risk. There is nothing to lose when one starts his own enterprise at a very young age. There is
definitely no dearth of ideas, there is only a need to change the mindset of people.
CorpComm: How is Elephant Strategy & De-sign contributing towards the development of Entrepreneurship?
Ashwini Deshpande: Elephant Strategy & Design promotes entrepreneurial spirit by encouraging the ideas worth 'marching for-ward' by translating the innovation in them into their designs and other offerings. For instance, the Brand Planet and Elephant Var-sity - two recently initiated sister concerns for the group - focus on Branding, Advertis-ing and Packaging, respectively.