Choosing SPJ BBA was a life changing decision for me, says Ankit

I chose to take up SP Jains BBA program because of its unique curriculum and course structure that enabled its students to travel to 3 diverse countries and live in some of the world’s major business districts, the idea of learning, working and living around people from such diverse yet acclaimed and successful cities was enticing and encouraging. For a second-generation businessman, the next step is to often expand their families existing business, across products or geographies. By getting the opportunity to expose myself to diverse markets, their policies, culture and stories, I was better equipped to introduce new product lines or expand my existing offerings across borders. The learning’s that can come with travel and interpersonal interactions is unparalleled to any classroom course. Our course was curated with a mix of class room case studies and real world applications and simulations, this structure enabled us to test our classroom understanding to controlled yet real world applications helping us build confidence and get comfortable with the real world setting.

Choosing SPJ BBA was a life changing decision for me and I reflect back upon my learning’s each passing day with new experiences and challenges that come my way

As a 10 year old, when I would visit an ice cream parlor or a kids gaming arena, my mind would involuntarily start calculating the possible revenue of the place instead of enjoying the experience, unlike peers my age, I think I have been interested in starting my own ventures since that early an age.

Coming from a family of businessmen, most of our dinner conversations revolved around business related talks, overhearing these discussions for years helped in creation of a solid base for business practices and dealings and gave me a perspective to look at most things from a macro perspective of inflows and outflows.

My course with SPJ helped sharpen my skills that were taught at home and in School, it gave me access to a large number of individuals who had a similar experience growing up in business families, their perspectives and approach helped me look beyond what I had learnt growing up, furthermore courses from teachers who had consulted/ operated some of the largest businesses in the country shed light on complex business cases and situations that I had never heard of in our small business setting. These experiences coupled with practical internships and part time opportunities gave me the confidence to shape a venture beyond just a thought or a vision. Today, when I get an idea I don’t just discuss it but I have the know how and confidence of executing it. Those years spent in foreign countries dealing with people of different backgrounds and cultures gave me the confidence and skill set of doing business at a local or global scale tomorrow.

I dived into my program without any clear expectation to be hired by a specific company or take up a certain role post completion, the idea was to avail a comprehensive experience that teaches me skills for a life time. As answered in the previous question the course definitely helped me in sharpening my skills and building connections that has been instrumental in my journey of an entrepreneur so far, the skill sets required to start a venture is unique and cannot be taught in a classroom. However, SPJ did a brilliant job of curating an experience where we were exposed to various out of classrooms activities and real life simulations that gave us the confidence and skillsets to approach an independent venture. Being part of a diverse cohort of students representing over 40 nationalities gave us an insight into how individuals conduct business in different parts of the world, this coupled with different international locations and interaction with the locals gave us a true global experience wherein we not only studied business but also studied people with different experiences and backgrounds coming together to build things. This experience couldn’t be possible in any other course available to me in those days. These experiences make me feel I am ready to take up any business venture and scale it across nations because of the confidence and comfort I now hone thanks to my undergraduate experience.

My father started his first venture with very limited resources and grew it to great heights, but as he achieved success, recognition and wealth, he never changed his lifestyle or approach towards life. He always stuck to his roots and decided to take up a bigger purpose of helping those who couldn’t be as fortunate as him, he reminded me that we were granted more than we deserved and it is our responsibility to provide for those in need, I have held these values strongly and have taken multiple initiatives to help the society at large. Some of the initiatives taken by us include first green school built in Sunderbans for over 400 students, 2 storied medical facility built for Bali village in Sunderban that acts as the only primary care facility in the village, A rehabilitation centre for women in Bagula village that has helped up-skill over 100 women and counting, hosted over 10 menstrual hygiene workshops for women in rural Bengal impacting over 2000 women, built 20 libraries in NGOs and government schools across tier 4 towns and villages in West Bengal. I have recently taken up an initiative of building West Bengal’s first Skate park for the locals to pick up a new sport (now included in Olympics) and get access to the growing hip hop culture that can create job opportunities to the underprivileged locals who posses skills but do not have access to infrastructure to refine them.

At blob, we are giving back to the creators and artists by

-Hosting events where they can perform, create and collaborate with others, this platform is free of cost and promotes creators who are talented but do not have the resources to monetize their art

-Allow artists to exhibit their work at our premise free of cost, this allows visitors to get exposed to these artists and sometimes purchase their work.

Blob is a unique community space designed with the Idea of living everyday, a space where one can take up fitness sessions at 3 pm on a Monday, learn their favourite dance forms right before an important meeting on a Thursday, or just chill at the café the entire day on a Friday ( cause why not). We have focused on creating a holistic environment for individuals to enjoy each element of their lives, instead of only working on weekdays. Our offerings range from Co working spaces, dance and fitness studio, sports turf, cafeteria, podcast and play station rooms, each of these facilities can be used to disrupt a normal 9 to 5 routine and make the most of life. We organise community based events and workshops for our members to enjoy their workdays and form a strong interpersonal bond with their peers that make life more holistic and enjoyable.

The pandemic reminded us that we had been hustling to achieve things in life that may be completely meaningless if looked at from a distance and in the process of running each day like a horse with blinders, we miss out on enjoying everyday life and being in the moment, the only moment that is ours.

At Blob, we embrace the disruptions caused by the Pandemic, the irrelevance of location and flexibility of timings have empowered each one of us to redesign the way we want to live each day from here on, and our offerings at Blob facilitate making the most of this freedom.

The vision is to scale facilities like blob across major cities where people live a fast life and are unable to focus on enjoying their everyday, but before that we wish to streamline our processes and curate our services as per the feedback we receive from our visitors.

My experience as an entrepreneur has been a roller coaster ride, this is my third independent venture, with each new venture, I have been able to get better at taking decisions and understanding people who form the core of any business. My first startup was around organising mixtures for strangers around fun and social based topics, it was a popular venture but was very difficult to scale and monetise as it required me to trade my time. My second venture was around short form vernacular video content for social media, which had to be shut during the pandemic, video production and monetisation were key challenges during lockdown. Blob being my third attempt at entrepreneurship makes me feel I am built to build things and no matter how often I may fail, I shall only come back stronger. The thrill of bringing ideas and concepts to reality is unparalleled and I am driven by this.

About the author

Ankit Agarwal is a serial entrepreneur who has been active in the startup ecosystem and has built 3 organizations with the latest venture Blob, A community space that enables workers to redesign their work around activities that they enjoy and want to experience everyday. He is also actively involved in his family business of Cable TV and broadband that caters to over 2.5 million homes. His extroverted nature and desire for new connections and stories have been the inspiration for his ventures, when not working he loves to travel solo and meet new individuals in different parts of the world.

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha