THE JURY’S TAKE: Committed to promoting skills

With each year, the stature of the awards has gone up. The entrepreneur ecosystem in South India too has become aware of these awards. This is amply indicated by the increase in number of nominations being received.

This year we had a very good quality of nominations from the entrepreneurial community.

I was involved in this year’s award process as the Chairman of the Award committee to select the finalists to be sent to the Jury Committee. It was a very challenging process, in which we evaluated some very good names.

CII-SR is very much committed to promoting the skills of entrepreneurs and will work to inculcate the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst the youth and women in the

coming years.

A challenging task

It was indeed a challenging task to be the Chairman of the Jury Committee for selecting the winners of this edition of the CII Southern Region Emerging Entrepreneurs Award. These awards have become highly valued amongst the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The process of inviting nominations from first generation entrepreneurs saw around 220 nominations coming from entrepreneurs in the southern States. A two-stage filtration, first by the award committee and then by the jury committee was done using a transparent and scientifically robust process designed by BCG and GT – our partners.

The first level of screening was done by the Award Committee chaired by Navas Meeran, Deputy Chairman, CII-SR & Managing Director, Eastern Condiments Pvt Ltd, and other leading entrepreneurs and supporting partners. This committee recommended 17 entrepreneurs from a short-list of 60.

The Jury had to evaluate these entrepreneurs on key parameters such as vision, execution excellence, ability to build an institution, personal leadership, innovativeness in business model, impact on society, sustainability and scalability. After extensive rounds of debate and discussion the jury unanimously selected the winners.

My sincere thanks to all the jury members for their time, commitment and support extended to this exercise.

To showcase the spirit of entrepreneurship in the Southern States, CII-SR Emerging Entrepreneur Awards will continue to celebrate many more emerging entrepreneurs in the years to come.

Torchbearers of social change

Entrepreneurs are the torchbearers of economic and social change. They are rare breeds, who see opportunities where others see challenges. India needs a lot of such brave souls.

According to a recent McKinsey report, an average Indian lacks access to 46 per cent of the basic services of healthcare, education, water, sanitation, energy and housing. Innovation and entrepreneurship, supported by various other factors, are going to be central to the process of universalising access to such basic services.

As a step to foster entrepreneurship, CII-Southern Region instituted the Regional Emerging Entrepreneur Awards with The Hindu Business Line in 2010. It is now in its fourth successful year. The awards are to recognise first-generation entrepreneurs from the southern States, who have succeeded in their ventures so far and have demonstrated clear promise and leadership to lead their companies to be national and global players in the future.

CII-SR is privileged and honoured to felicitate this group of high-calibre entrepreneurs. It was no less wonderful to interact with the other nominations, who are “winners” in every sense of the word. At this point, these young entrepreneurs may be just a glimmer in the dark, but we are confident that these entrepreneurs will be the glow of dawn for the nation.

Conducting the awards process was a satisfying experience. The process has been transparent and thorough this year too, as it has always been, with BCG as the knowledge partner and Grant Thornton as the due diligence partner. YourStory helped in the awardee interviews and online publicity.

This year, road-shows were organised in Madurai, Karur, Coimbatore, Erode, Kochi, Tirupur and Visakhapatnam to encourage entrepreneurial activity in the region. Veteran venture capitalists and investment bankers spoke to over 250 participants in these road-shows on raising capital, one of the essential factors in scaling up businesses. We are committed to continue broadening and deepening our efforts in supporting entrepreneurship.

Let me conclude by congratulating all entrepreneurs for the impact they have made and will continue to have in society.