Entrepreneurship is the key word today. In yet another fresh and unique effort by the International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM) and Dr. Suborno Bose, the Chairman and Chief Mentor of IIHM, launched SAHAS, a proactive entrepreneurship cell, where students will be encouraged and guided to become entrepreneurs, instead of looking out for jobs in the market.
Combating the prevailing tough times where the job market looks grim, IIHM's fresh new initiative comes as a massive support system for the young students passing out of the hotel school, who can fulfil their dream of starting their own hospitality enterprise start-up with support from SAHAS. The first chapter of SAHAS was inaugurated at IIHM Delhi.
SAHAS is a corpus fund of Rs 1 Crore and students will be encouraged and motivated to start their own enterprise. Students who require capital for their start-ups will be supported through SAHAS. Dr. Bose dedicated 15th June, his Birthday as the 'SAHAS DAY' and allocated this corpus as a return gift to the entire IIHM student community. He himself was a Chartered Accountant and with no experience of family business some 27 years ago he decided to leave his profession and started a hotel management college in Kolkata sending his entire family in disbelief and a debate for his future. No one back then would leave a career as a CA and even blink to think of starting something completely new, after all the hard work of clearing the CA exam. The focus and that passion to make some difference in someone's life kept him going. Opening a business does not need money but a drive to do something of yourself and come out of the comfort.
"We will help any student who needs a seed capital from this fund that will be available from all IIHM campuses. They will also be guided on how to approach a venture capitalist for loans for their start-ups. Gradually this fund amount will increase in future," said Dr. Suborno Bose.
The SAHAS Cell will be available at all 10 IIHM campuses across India with a panel of experts including successful businesspersons in the hospitality sector, respectively from each city. They will be invited to discuss ideas, guide and motivate students of IIHM on entrepreneurship.
"Along with placing students in hotels or retail or healthcare sector as per the changing times we also have to encourage them actively to become entrepreneurs. I have seen many youngsters who want to become entrepreneurs, they want to start something of their own, but somehow or the other they lack proper guidance, funding and some of them even believe that it takes a lot of money to start your own business, which is a myth. It takes a lot of passion, courage and hard work to become an entrepreneur. If someone is very passionate about their idea, they are courageous and are willing to work hard, SAHAS will support them," said Dr. Suborno Bose.
The effort aims to change the mindset of the youth from becoming job-seekers to job creators. IIHM has, in the past, created many entrepreneurs like Yangdup Lama, an alumni of IIHM, who has become a successful mixologist entrepreneur, Sandip Gupta, a successful restaurant entrepreneur in Hong Kong with over 40 restaurants and many more spread across the World. SAHAS aims to take this effort forward and igniting the spark of self-reliance among the youth.
