National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN)

"The economic greatness of a country is fueled by the strength and vitality of its entrepreneurs - Romesh Wadhwani, President & Chairman, Wadhwani Foundation & Chairman, Symphony Technology Group

Overview
The nonprofit National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) was founded by the Wadhwani Foundation in 2003 with a mission to create and support high-growth entrepreneurs, driving job-creation and economic growth. Today, NEN represents Indias largest and most vibrant entrepreneurial community. The backbone of the NEN Community comprises more than 550 member academic institutes with 1200 entrepreneurship faculty and 400 student E Cells; NEN E Clubs, driven by the NEN Alumni and open to the public; and an emerging set of NEN Faculty Chapters. These bodies organize an astonishing breadth and depth of programs across the country, programs that create and support entrepreneurs. In addition, the NEN members support each other individually to realize their entrepreneurial ambitions. NENs members are supported by the NEN Trust. The NEN Trust, through a broad array of programs and services, does the following: creates the community; builds the capacity of the members to run great programs; facilitates community leadership and the interaction of different parts of the NEN Community; creates opportunities and resources for members at the national and international levels; and runs select programs that directly support entrepreneurs. NEN was initiated by the Wadhwani Foundation, and co-founded by IIT Bombay; IIM Ahmedabad; BITS, Pilani; SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai; and the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Bangalore.

Impact
Since its founding in 2003, NEN has accomplished the following: Launched more than 350 entrepreneurs Developed a pipeline of thousands of future entrepreneurs Proved that academic institutes in India can both create and support entrepreneurs Transforming 550+ institutes, helping them build entrepreneurial ecosystems on campuses Created demand for entrepreneurship education at scale, as demonstrated by membership growth: 2003 NEN Member Institutes NEN E Cells NEN Faculty NEN Member Students 5 (Co-founders) 2 ~30 ~200 2011 569 408 1228 70,930

Created Indias largest entrepreneurial online community, with 2,50,000 registered members on www.nenonline.org

To place these accomplishments in context: when NEN started, there were perhaps 30 faculty members in India teaching high-growth entrepreneurship, and only two student clubs on campuses, with approximately 200 student members.

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Context
Government policies, technology innovations, and changes in consumer spending have created enormous opportunities for economic growth in India. And while the private sector has responded, the number of jobs created remains far short of what is required to provide adequate employment for a labour force growing at 10 million people per year. Looking more closely at the role entrepreneurs are playing one sees two limitations: While an increasing number of individuals are choosing to become entrepreneurs, study has shown that the number of high-growth entrepreneurs are under-represented, when compared to developed economies And among the current set of Indias entrepreneurs, many lack the knowledge and skills to start highgrowth companies.

NENs Strategy
NENs community-driven approach forms the basis for a model of driving entrepreneurship that is both effective and scalable. NENs members faculty, student leaders of E Cells, and alumni leaders of E Clubs leverage the support and resources of the NEN Trust to run programs that create and support entrepreneurs. The programs can range from entrepreneur talks, to games and exercises, to full and short courses, mentoring, incubation, and networking events. At any given time, hundreds of entrepreneurship activities are running across the NEN Community. These activities, combined with the community, create and support hundreds of entrepreneurs.

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The Role of the NEN Trust

The NEN Trust runs 5 programs that develop and support the NEN Community and entrepreneurship in India in the following ways: Creates the NEN Community by bringing in institutional members, recruiting faculty, identifying student leaders, helping form the E Cells and E Clubs, and recruiting experts and mentors; Develops the capacity of its members to design, develop and execute high-impact entrepreneurship programs, through an integrated set of support programs; Catalyzes and facilitates community leadership across the network; and coordinates how the different parts of the NEN community interact; Creates national and international opportunities for NEN members; Directly supports individual entrepreneurs through select programs.

More information on the NEN Trust Programs:

Institutional Capacity Building Programs
Over the past 8 years, the NEN Trust has developed an integrated suite of services that weave together to form NENs Institutional Capacity Building Program. This program builds the ability of its member academic institutes to run programs that create and support entrepreneurs. NEN has found that the combination of formal courses, online resources, and on-ground field support, over a period of 3 5 years, is required to help an academic institute develop the capacity to run a mature set of entrepreneurship development programs. The capacitybuilding services are outlined below:

E Leader (student e-cell leader development) Faculty Development

Teaching Materials Resource Bureau (industry connections)

Consulting

NEN member institute

E Week India

Consulting:

NEN Field Team members (the NEN Campus Mentors) meet regularly with the Directors or Principals, Faculty and Student E Leaders on campuses to help institutes design, develop & execute entrepreneurship programs, facilitate and run networking activities and events, and connect them to other NEN resources

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 Faculty Development:

NEN offers a comprehensive set of Faculty Development Courses, ranging from the basics of entrepreneurship education to intense courses, where faculty train to become mentors of entrepreneurs, and work with entrepreneurs as part of the courses. These courses are offered to motivated faculty from member institutes who lead and build high-impact entrepreneurship programs on campus. The courses are designed and delivered by leading international and Indian faculty in entrepreneurship, including from IIT Kanpur, IIM Calcutta, Stanfords STVP, London Business School, Columbia University and NEN internal faculty members Peer-reviewed teaching materials tailored for the South-Asian context, including cases, exercises, videos, courses, how-tos and guides available on CDs and at www.nenonline.org Leadership development workshops, events, and recognition for students heading campus-based entrepreneurship cells Access to a pool of 1000+ entrepreneurs, academicians, investors and professionals, who have volunteered to participate in NEN member institute programs as speakers, judges, and mentors. Program organizers can draw on these experts, and enlist the help of the NEN team in making the right match for their programs

NEN Press:

E Leader Development: Resource Bureau:

Community Building Programs

NEN 360
The NEN 360 Community Portal facilitates connections between all members of the NEN community, and enable access to the growing resources across all the NEN E Cells, Faculty Chapters, and E Clubs. The NEN 360 newsletter shares community highlights across 500 institutes in hard and soft copy, and to more than 2,00,000 NEN registered users in soft copy. NEN Online is the Resource component of NENs online properties, providing information on a range of topics, and facilitating access to incubators and mentors.

NEN E Clubs

Supported by the secretariat at the NEN Trust, the NEN E Clubs provide dynamic networking, skill building and peer support for the growing non-student members of NEN.

Support for New and Future Entrepreneurs

National Mentor Platform NEN Trust matches entrepreneurs to the most appropriate help across the NEN Community. Depending on the entrepreneur, his or her question, stage, industry and location, the help could take any of the following forms: a one-off call or mail with an expert; a workshop; formal 1:1 mentoring session; a short-course; or a 3month-long intensive mentoring engagement.

NENs National Platform

E Week India NEN runs Entrepreneurship Week India, an annual celebration and advocacy campaign to improve the ecosystem for entrepreneurs and engage people in entrepreneurship. E Week is an open platform that brings together most of the associations that support entrepreneurship in India. The majority of the activity, however, is driven by students

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on NEN campuses. In February 2011, E Week India, engaged more than 6,00,000 participants in 5000 events, across 30 Indian cities. More information, along with some great images, can be found at www.eweekindia.org

NEN Trust: Funders and Partners

The NEN Trust is primarily supported by the Wadhwani Foundation, a philanthropic initiative of Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, Chairman of the Symphony Technology Group. The Wadhwani Foundation initiated and co-founded NEN. In addition to the Wadhwani Foundation, NEN is honored to have launched a public-private partnership with the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India, with a specific focus on faculty development. NEN is also proud of its partnerships with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women program and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.

Overview of NEN Trust Team

NEN Members of Board of Advisors Romesh Wadhwani, Chairman, Wadhwani Foundation & Symphony Technology Group Naina Lal Kidwai, CEO, HSBC India Randy Komisar, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers H.K. Mittal, Advisor and Head, NSTEDB, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India Prof. S. Sadagopan, Founder Director, IIIT Bangalore Arun Seth, CEO, British Telecom Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon Limited Kanwaljit Singh, Managing Director, Helion Ventures Prof. Howard H Stevenson, Harvard Business School Ajay Kela, President and CEO, Wadhwani Foundation NEN Faculty Advisors Prof. Amarnath, IIT Bombay, India Ms. Poyni Bhat, SINE, IIT Bombay, India Prof. Rakesh Basant, IIM Ahmedabad, India Prof. Arya Kumar, BITS Pilani, India Prof. Murray Low, Columbia University, USA Prof. John Mullins, London Business School, UK Prof. BV Phani, IIT Kanpur, India Prof. MS Rao, S P Jain Institute of Management and Research, India Prof. Edward Rubesch, Thammasat University, Thailand Prof. Gayatri Saberwal, IBAB, India Prof. Tina Seelig, Stanford University, USA NEN Trust, Senior Executive Team Laura Parkin, Co-Founder and CEO Sunita Singh, Co-Founder and Senior Director

CONTACT US
If you would like to find out more about the National Entrepreneurship Network, please visit www.nenonline.org or email us at info@nenglobal.org.

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