University Entrepreneurship Course: Interview Report and Analysis

This report presents an analysis of an entrepreneur's journey based on an interview transcript. The report is structured into three key sections: Context of the Entrepreneur, Opportunity, and Resources. The first section provides an overview of the entrepreneur's background, motivations, and various ventures, highlighting traits like motivation, vision, and risk-taking. The Opportunity section applies the Timmons Model of Entrepreneurship, examining how the entrepreneur identified and capitalized on various business opportunities, including the bookstore, business schools, and film production. The Resources section explores how the entrepreneur utilized available resources, including personal savings, venture capital, and strategic partnerships, to launch and sustain their ventures. The analysis emphasizes the importance of passion, adaptability, and continuous market assessment in achieving entrepreneurial success.

Entrepreneurship
Assignment on Entrepreneurship
Interview Date
Student Name
Student ID
University Name

Entrepreneurship
Table of content
Overview of the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial journey.....................3
Opportunity - Timmons Model of Entrepreneurship.......................................4
Resources for Entrepreneurship.........................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................7
Appendix...............................................................................................................8

Entrepreneurship
Overview of the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial journey
The entrepreneur referred in the interview is one of the finest and passionate entrepreneurs.
There have been ample amount of instances where he has demonstrated his fine sense of
judgment and leadership skills. There were multiple entrepreneurial traits observed during the
interview. The first is Motivation. As he quoted in the interview, he was motivated even if he
had to experience failure in his movies. He used to learn from mistakes and work with enhanced
passion. He was a true Visionary. He used to research on the trends and start his ventures with a
dream to succeed. He was very passionate about his interests and hence he succeeded in opening
a book store, making movies and teaching at business schools (N.A, 2019). He quoted in the
interview that in order to start a business, you need to be very passionate; if you do a business
without passion only to earn money then it will never work. He saw star wars movie and decided
to create movies, this was the level of dreams he use to see. He is one of the greatest risk takers;
he changed lot of ventures, kept on following his dreams without any objective to earn tons of
money. He is very focused on his dreams and his work; he never did anything for the sake of
earning money. He is a self starter and he, along with his colleagues started multiple ventures
like book store. He is a result oriented and dedicated person as he mentions that whatever he did
was 110%, else he did not get into the work (Anon., 2019).
The interview indicates that during his long tenure of 30+ years, he was part of multiple
entrepreneurial ventures. The different types of entrepreneurial ventures were: He initially
opened a book store taking inspiration from a Sydney based book store with café called borders,
he also helped in setting up two business schools in India and Australia. He also established 2
startups including a leading media company. He got the company picture house listed in
London stock exchange and Indian stock exchange. He also got into creating movies. He
decided to venture into movies business by taking his childhood inspiration from the movie star
wars (researchers.adelaide.edu.au, 2019). He was into creating Indian movies and India-
Australian movies; also got rights for a French movie. He has been a consultant and director in
many organizations and lecturer in renowned academic institutions in Australia. He has a blend
of international experience with sports, book stores, theatre, films and teaching. He has taken up
roles from being a researcher to a mentor to a consultant and executive director. Not only this, he

Entrepreneurship
has been into writing journals and authoring books as well with his latest being Indian Film
Industry’s Entrepreneurial Journey published in August 2019 (CP, 2018).
As described in the interview, moving from part time cashier and sales manager to becoming a
researcher, author, movie maker and entrepreneur, he learned a lot of things in this journey.
During his journey of becoming an entrepreneur there were multiple failures and he kept on
learning from mistakes and improved every time (MacRae, 2019). He never gave up and lived
his dreams; inspires everybody that passion is everything and business need not be always started
for the sake of earning money. His learnings were around motivation, passion and risk
taking leadership skills (Bortz, 2019).
Opportunity - Timmons Model of Entrepreneurship
There have been multiple opportunities that have been discussed in the interview. From
opportunity perspective we would consider three concepts namely: analyzing the opportunity,
the context of opportunity and mapping the opportunity to competitive landscape. We have
judged his business sense along with his action, and we would relate this with the theoretical
concepts of Timmons model of entrepreneurship. As per the views of “Wiliam Bygrve and
Andrew Zachrakis”, people have several misconceptions with respect to opportunity in starting a
new venture. It has been said that one has to have an innovative idea for starting up new business
but is not a fact. Rather Bygrve & Zachrakis says that a person should be intelligent enough to
recognize an opportunity and develop the business spinning around the acknowledged chance.
Furthermore, during the interview, we observed that the entrepreneur also believes that one
should precisely execute the idea so that business can gain more popularity. Here, he started his
book store with café in India about 15 year ago, because he felt that India does not have a book
store with coffee cafeteria facility, and he thought that people might appreciate this idea.
Gradually, he started two business schools, one in India and one in Australia so that he can teach
students about the concept of entrepreneurs (Kamineni, 2002).
He was getting unto every opportunity that was coming across. It has been observed that an
intelligent entrepreneur utilizes his time and passion effectively, and hence he used his passion of
opening a book store and sold off in the year 2010 when he recognized that it does not make

Entrepreneurship
much difference in people’s life, they have started reading books online. He was a kind of person
who believed in giving 110% in every opportunity he absorbed. Moreover, he told throughout
the interview that he used to analyze the external environment and assess suitable time for
launching the business in order to run the business successfully. This belief reflected in his career
while he purchased Picture House Company (Ge, et al., 2016). He was excited to start production
house when he was 7 years old and watched start wars. Following his passion was more
important for him than making money. The picture house was not profit-making company, but he
and his friends analyzed the opportunity and targeted Indian audience. It was easy to capture the
Indian production house with low financial resources. Hence, he read almost 100 plus scripts, out
of which he selected 14 movie scripts. His success ratio was 40% against 20% of other
companies (Entrepreneur, 2019).
The reason is that he was constantly mapping the opportunity to competitive landscape.
Throughout his interview, he told that he used to have three or four members who are reporting
to him and they use to talk on a daily basis; just to get an idea of what other teams are doing and
attend Producers Council's meeting to know about the competitors’ moves. He led a team who
use to review the market trends and predict as to what people would like, etc. He use to do
research on the market trends and take risks accordingly; but with a passion to succeed in any
venture he takes up. He believed in continuous review in his mind (Zeng, et al., 2011).
Resources for Entrepreneurship
It is a known fact that in order to start a new venture, an entrepreneur needs to identify the
business opportunity and generate ideas. But that is not enough. He needs to have adequate
resources and use entrepreneurial skills for requirement management. Resources are an important
aspect in Timmons model of entrepreneurship. It was quoted in the interview that the
entrepreneur had limited resources initially. He did not have a course taken on entrepreneurship
when he first started his business. He worked at multiple places like a book store and cements
company initially and used the earned amount to open his own book store. Gradually he opened
two business schools and a startup with the help of venture investors (Yadav, 2015).
As quoted in the interview, he started getting help from investors in form of venture capital for
his startup. He did not have resources to own a studio or do films like Hollywood and hence he

Entrepreneurship
decided to be content and do an Indian-Australian movie. He mostly used his personal savings
money for his business and when he exited book store business in 2010, he didn’t lose or gain
money; it was almost a breakeven. He took help from his friends and they took over picture
house and listed in Indian and London stock exchange; this helped to ‘Go by the Conserve
Your Equity (CYE) principle’. In his entrepreneurial ventures, he followed the principle to
‘Minimize ownership & control’.
Now we would assess how he has utilized his resources. However, there are several types of
resources which we would require to operate the business in the market such as funds, land,
labor, technologies etc. the collected fund was invested to start the business. Now with respect to
labor, he was only running the book store initially, then he started two business schools with his
childhood friends. Somehow, he sold both of the business. He has a vision to make business
successful and possess risk taking capabilities, hence he purchased picture house. As per
Timmons framework it is imperative to have effective team joining the business to succeed in the
market. He employed 200 people in his picture house company for lean season and 300 people
for peak season. By putting 110% effort, he produced more than 14 movies till now. He did not
own land for shooting hence he takes studio on rent and shoot the several scenes based on
speculated time. He had used latest technology in producing movies and printing books to make
it more effective and innovative. Hence, as a successful entrepreneur he has used all his available
resources in the most effective and efficient manner. He maintained a team for market research
in order to ensure that he has an essence of what is acceptable to the market and the things that
are trending.

Entrepreneurship
References
Anon., 2019. Entrepreneurial Process. Australia: The university of Adelaide.
Bortz, D., 2019. 9 traits of successful entrepreneurs you should develop. [Online]
Available at: https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/entrepreneur-traits
[Accessed 31 August 2019].
CP, S., 2018. 10 Must Have Traits of a Successful Entrepreneur. [Online]
Available at: https://medium.com/swlh/10-must-have-traits-of-a-successful-entrepreneur-
d46519452b0e
[Accessed 31 August 2019].
Entrepreneur, 2019. Entrepreneurial study [Interview] (August 2019).
Ge, B., Sun, Y., Chen, Y. & Gao, Y., 2016. Opportunity exploitation and resource exploitation.
26(2), pp. 498-528.
Kamineni, R., 2002. Who is an Entrepreneur? A Review. Small enterprise research, 10(1).
MacRae, A., 2019. 10 Common Traits of the Most Successful Entrepreneurs. [Online]
Available at: https://startupnation.com/start-your-business/successful-entrepreneurs-traits/
[Accessed 31 August 2019].
N.A, 2019. Entrepreneurial Apprenticeship. Australia: The university of Adelaide.
researchers.adelaide.edu.au, 2019. RAJEEV KAMINENI. [Online]
Available at: https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/rajeev.kamineni#career
[Accessed 31 August 2019].
The university of Adeliade, 2019. Entrepreneurial Minds. Australia: The university of Adeliade.
Yadav, M. P., 2015. Model of Entrepreneurial Success: A Review and Research Agenda.
JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ACADEMIC RESEARCH (JAAR), 2(1), pp. 40-60.
Zeng, F., Bu, X. & Su, L., 2011. Study on entrepreneurial process model for SIFE student team
based on Timmons model. Journal of Chinese Entrepreneurship, 3(3), pp. 204-214.

Entrepreneurship
Appendix
The Transcript
Speaker 1: (00:00)
All right. Thank you for today, for the time. So, uh, start with, um, we did a few research about
your career path back then, straight up with you, some interesting timeline, I suppose since 1990
and nine to 1984, one camps, the San Miniature and it book in a company called Walden book
link. And it was back then that do you think to be an entrepreneur during that time or when do
you think of when i started working in the bookstore? I always wanted to work in a bookstore
that I had a dream of owning my own bookstore. Okay. So that was the, I was coming in my
Undergrad at that time, if I'm not mistaken, it was, uh, 89, 92 92 or 94. So yeah, I've just
completed my undergrad bachelor's and I was working there part time and then worked a full
time role and needed at that time were to leave.
Speaker 1: (00:55)
I decided I had to be an entrepreneur. Okay. And I thought one of my businesses has to be
bookstore. But even before that, I always wanted to be in movies. So, and then at the age of
seven i have watched star wars. My Dad took me to star wars and I fell in love with it and
somehow I thought I have to get into the movie business. So it took me only 30 years after that.
Oh, what a days in? Yeah, at the age show for most of 37 38. That's when I bought into movies.
That's cool because I also searched education time because you were working as a, uh, who is
that? You did a bachelor of art in India first and then you goes to master others. So I did a
masters in linguistic, English. Patricia then did an MBA and mim and a Phd.
Speaker 1: (01:43)
Yeah. And so that's attract, but it's so like how do, oh, what a reason you think to study business
after you did a bachelor of art? Because Oh, the master of arts and Bachelor of arts and then a
master of arts in English literature because I loved English language. But then to get into
business, I needed to have an MBA, but not, I mean I feel I needed to because I thought if could
do me good exposure to start my own business if we are having an MBA. That's why I did an
MBA track. And then because my bookstore interest came only because I did an arts degree

Entrepreneurship
because I used to read a lot of books and h to love bookstores. So that's how I did it. And then
the business experience, I wanted it, I wanted to business exposure. So that's why I did the MBA.
Speaker 1: (02:31)
So that was the pathway which I took and then moved at all in different directions. So back in
that days when you started your own bookstore kit, you consider yourself as an entrepreneur or I
didn't think of myself as in such big terms as offhand or no, because I think I told you that when i
was teaching when I was doing my MBA entrepreneurship was not to be tucked up. In fact, I
didn't even have a course on entrepreneurship. [inaudible] became a fashionable only later. So
those days I thought that I've had started my own business. I will be on entrepreneur, but sort of
on a smaller scale. Yes, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. So, which one is your first startup? Um,
as a company. And how did you realize that it is a opportunities to do that? Sorry. Yeah, so after
working in there, then I was in the cement industry also.
Speaker 1: (03:24)
I worked for some time, then I came here. Australia was here for past 23 years. So you know,
Australia also bought, I was looking at is trying to do something on my own. Uh, and uh, that's
when I looked at a bookstore called borders in Sydney, which has a coffee shop. And um, so
that's the module which I want you to pay. So about 15 years ago, that's when I launched my own
store business. And then I was into consulting also, which was also again, my own business that
way. Uh, so and also I was, uh, I started, uh, two business schools. So like in private business
school and private business school. So with investors it was a startup venture. So they wanted to
have a business school like, uh, something like Kaplan and all over here. So it's where you
students can do their bachelor's and master's and MBA.
Speaker 1: (04:18)
And so I was part of that startup for two years. I helped them set up two business schools. . That
was the business school was in India. Yeah. Okay. And when you started your bookstore in
Sydney, so you had any resources, like who was the associates you cut up? from personal
savings and backbone of course from sending shit back to him. Where's the card for you? Like
very hard. Yes. It was really hard because I wanted to duplicate the same model. I want to have

Entrepreneurship
one in India also. Okay. So multiple options. And uh, by that time itself, bookstores as a business
model, I think was becoming smaller and smaller. People stopped buying books and uh, uh,
people were not interested in books. I mean, even if they were interested, they were reading it on
kindle or online. And also the market for books was coming down.
Speaker 1: (05:10)
So what made you motivated that time? That I should be running the bookstore as a, because I
love bookstores cause that's what, that was my first job. As I told you in 88 89, my first job in
my life was in a bookstore. So I fell in love with the bookstore and I wanted to start a bookstore.
Okay. So, but luckily when I sold off the bookstore, 2010, I exited to bookstore business. I didn't
lose too much fun, but I didn't make too much money also, but they didn't lose too much money.
But some ways that you know about this, a little bit about bookstore, [inaudible] bookstore in the
cities, it's given democracy [inaudible] reason why they still survive until now. The box is a
really large company and they're trying to reinvent, they're not in very good profits and, but
they're still surviving because they have a lot of, uh, probably they don't have too much
competition.
Speaker 1: (06:00)
Oh, posting. And then they're trying to reinvent themselves continuously by having their two
locations only in the heart of the city and all. And it's run like corporate centers. Now, the
franchises, they don't have any fractures. No, they are all struggling with the franchise. So they
run it like corporate business and they're getting funding and they're doing it yet. Not very
successful, but they're doing okay because I've asked like they're only bookstore. I feel like they
still elected. Yes. So after [inaudible] a soldier or bookstore, what did you do next? Oh, I was a
head of a program, head of international business program and the University of Western
Sydney. And then, uh, no, I bought into actually movie financing and pals consulting in 2008. So
I was advising the production company about what movies to finance and what movies to
produce and then, uh, yeah, that was from 2008 onwards apart from, uh, so I was main role, but I
was not actively into production, actively into production.
Speaker 1: (07:02)

Entrepreneurship
God only in 2009, 10. So for about eight years after that, how did you get the chance to
[inaudible] for three of us friends startup, we started to startup and all three of us, uh, studied in
Australia. And so we were childhood friends. Those two friends are from Australia. They went to
us and they started their own IT company or their, I always stayed back in Australia. I didn't
move from here. So all three of us invested in stock at the company. So was that the company
called picture house? Many. That was a company which was acquired and uh, which year it was,
it stopped functioning. Someone else started it with that name, but it stopped running. So we
invested money and took over the company and listed it in London Stock Exchange and India
Stock Exchange. So [inaudible] is listed and that, that's the one which started making movies.
Speaker 1: (07:55)
So [inaudible] start make movies in India. It was because the reason, yes. Yeah. Because two
reasons. Our student market was too small and Australian market, I didn't have, I did not have
that Petrofac grip. Whereas Indian market, I knew it really well and it was larger market, uh, for,
for less than investment. You can make a movie for larger audiences, whereas in Australia it's
store does not. So that's why we went to be thought that to be in Indian cinema is far more
interesting as we went up there. And was it like an Indian movie back then or was it something
different like operationally? Oh No. Um, all our movies are Indian movies, but some of the
movies we acquired rights from. We, we even made one movie we bought right from a French
company called [inaudible]. [inaudible] is probably one of the largest fringe companies. We
bought a movie from them for intangibles and we remade it into Intel languages.
Speaker 1: (08:50)
So yeah, 70 movies of that type. But what made you choose this type of like why put you places
you might have had other opportunities and you still decided to do like a B, like producing
movies. But yeah, so my, my passion was always moving. Okay. So here that it has to be books
or movies and both of them as I did that, it's out of my system because, uh, and my belief is that
if you want to start a business, if you don't have a passion for it, you won't succeed. Uh, the
passion is only thing which will keep you going for long hours, even when we're not making
money when we are. So, uh, that's the reason why we got into that industry. So I used to be so
passionate. Even now today, if you asked me what book I'm reading, it'll be about a movie. So

Entrepreneurship
what book are you reading right now? Right now I'm reading a book called the John Wayne. The
American history of John Wayne.
Speaker 1: (09:46)
Movies are the only things we try, which keeps me motivated right now because I have other
interests. But when you start a business and when you're investing your hard earned money into
the business, you have to have passion about it because just for the sake of making money, if I
get into it, I lose interest really fast because I might make money or I might not make money, but
I won't have interest in the business. But it has been, I had a passion, I can control what I'm doing
and they enjoy water. And we did you convince your friends to come and work with you or they
have the same interests? All three of us had the same interests. So all three had the same
interests. Absolutely, yes. In fact, among the three of us, one day it was not that interesting, but
he's an engineer and he likes liked the process of moving and he was not passionate about
moving to office for crazy or movies. But this day was interested in all the process of moving
like an engineer. So he wants to join.
Speaker 1: (10:41)
It just looks easy like the, when we see any move it just looks very easy. But how hard was it for
you to do everything? Like it's extremely hard. So that's what we three also used to divide our
roads. Okay. I never used to interfere with the financing or funding part that my one friend used
to do it. He used to get all the findings, organized stories, the farms and a lot the budget and all
uh, the selection of a story and script. All three of us used to do it. Then after that we used to
divide the work. So funding, one guy used to look after the production, actual framing and
shooting. That other guy used to look after. I used to look after the complete branding and selling
the movie to get money back. So the business development and also the marketing and branding.
Speaker 1: (11:25)
I used to look after one guy was doing all these three, it would be a lot of struggling because it's
new for us. We had to learn on the job. So we took us one or two movies to get the hang of it, to
develop contacts and relationships and also have distributors and everyone, first movie, they all
thought we are new guys. So they tried to take us for the ride, but we survived that. That was my