Business Excellence Paper

8/3/2019 Business Excellence Paper

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BUSINESS EXCELLENCE THROUGH STRATEGIC

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A STUDY OF ASPIRING MINDS

Prof. Anu Singh Lather

Dean, University School of Management Studies,

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi

[email protected]

Dr. Shilpa Jain

Assistant Professor, University School of Management Studies

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi

[email protected]

Abstract

When an entrepreneur strives to establish a new business enterprise in todays fast paced

business environment, he/ she often remains entangled in the tactical activities needed

just to bring venture to life and keep it alive. In this pursuit they fail to implement

conscious strategic management process required to create competitive advantage overthe rivals. However if the entrepreneurs follow Strategic entrepreneurship (SE) which

involves simultaneous opportunity-seeking and advantage-seeking behaviors, it results in

business excellence and sustained competitive advantage. The present study applies

Lehtonens (1999) model of strategic entrepreneurship to a recruitment company

Aspiring Minds in an attempt to understand how they have gained business excellence

and competitive advantage through strategic entrepreneurship by the right integration of

customer interface, core strategy, strategic resources and value network. The company

was among the top six finalists of NASSCOM awards for Innovative Business Models in

2009 and is spreading its wings pan india at a very fast pace. They are now serving even

to IITs and is in news at many international platforms.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Keywords: Strategic Entrepreneurship, Customer Interface, Value Network, Core

Strategy, Strategic Resources

Introduction

The late American congressman Daniel Moynihan once said, "The great corporations

of this country were not founded by ordinary people. They were founded by people with

extraordinary intelligence, ambition, and aggressiveness." However, these

extraordinary people cannot lead their corporate creations forever. Only those have been

successful who planned and moved strategically. Corporate entrepreneurship strategy or

Strategic Entrepreneurship comes into play when a company needs to go in a new

direction and continue to be successful. To define, strategic entrepreneurship are the

plans and ideas implemented in order to make the company more innovative, creative,

and profitable. If an organization moves with strategic entrepreneurship unique to its

needs and abilities, it will reap the benefits. Positive results of corporate entrepreneurship

strategy include higher profits, outperforming the competition and sustaining a leading

edge in the firm's field. The business will experience other advantages as well. It will

gain a reputation as an innovator, which will then attract focused employees committed to

progress.

The concept of strategic entrepreneurship is rather new to both academics and business

practitioners (Ireland and Webb 2007; Hitt et al. 2002a) yet most academics state that

strategic entrepreneurship helps a firm establish a competitive advantage (Ireland et al.

2003), which Porter (1998) suggests is critical if a firms aim is to achieve superior

performance. Ireland and Webb (2007) mention that this competitive advantage will be a

source of continuous innovation. Strategic entrepreneurship also allows firms to respond

to significant environmental changes by effective positioning (Ireland and Webb 2007).

Most literature on SE has to date focused on arguing a logical theoretical construct,

integrating aspects from the fields of strategic management and entrepreneurship based

on the understanding that both fields are concerned with firm growth and wealth creation

and hence are often mutually supportive (Ireland, Kuratko, and Covin 2003). While the

fields of strategic management and entrepreneurship have developed largely

independently of each other, they both are focused on how firms adapt to environmental


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change and exploit opportunities created by uncertainties and discontinuities in the

creation of wealth (Hitt and Ireland, 2000; Venkataraman and Sarasvathy, 2001). As

such, several scholars have recently called for the integration of strategic and

entrepreneurial thinking (e.g., McGrath and MacMillan, 2000). In fact, Meyer and

Heppard (2000) argue that the two are really inseparable. McGrath and MacMillan

(2000) argue that strategists must exploit an entrepreneurial mindset and, thus, have no

choice but to embrace it to sense opportunities, mobilize resources, and act to exploit

opportunities, especially under highly uncertain conditions. The fields of strategic

management and entrepreneurship are becoming increasingly intertwined, in a reality

where firms need to be able to manage continuous change and maintain flexibility in

order to survive. Hence, the concept of Strategic Entrepreneurship (se) has seen the light

of day, as a highly relevant topic. High failure rates are associated with new firms, with

most survivors only achieving marginal performance (Darby 2002). It would hence be

valuable for a firm to be able to identify performance and competitive advantage

determinants before significant capital is expended in the business activities (Cooper et

al. 1994). Here is where strategic entrepreneurship comes into the picture.

The link to firm-level entrepreneurship and competitive advantage is

straightforward: As environment change, so do competitive

advantages. Given that future competitive advantages are highlyuncertain, it may pay to keep develop and keep several options open.

Internal corporate venturing is a means to such option-creation. When

uncertainty resolves, the firm can then call the option most likely to

lead to an advantage in the relevant environment. In an influential

paper Hitt, Ireland, Camp and Sexton (2001) sought to define,

legitimize and clarify the domain of strategic entrepreneurship. They

argued that in order for firms to achieve sustained competitive

advantage, they need to strategically leverage entrepreneurial wealth

creation. Thus, firms strategic intent must be to continuously discover

and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities, in order to continuously

create competitive advantages that lead to maximum wealth creation

(Hitt et al., 2002: 2). In this broad definition, strategic entrepreneurship


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transcends hierarchical levels, applies to both small and large firms,

and established firms as well as new ventures (Agarwal, Audretsch &

Sarkar, 2010). Thus, strategic entrepreneurship is taken up with how

firms strategic intent can facilitate continuously leveraging of

entrepreneurial opportunities for advantage seeking purposes (Ireland,

Hitt & Sirmon, 2003; Ireland et al., 2001).

The Historical Roots of Strategic Entrepreneurship

As mentioned by Hughes et al (2010) in their work on origin, core elements and research

directions that while the fields of entrepreneurship and strategy have developed

independently over the last three decades, several important developments have recently

taken place which point towards a marriage of both perspectives. For example, studies in

the area of strategic management, in particular, have gradually uncovered the relationship

between strategic management and entrepreneurship: Mintzberg (1973) introduced the

notion of entrepreneurial strategy making; Pinchot (1985) examined intrapreneurship;

Covin and Slevin (1989) presented the concept of an entrepreneurial strategic posture

within organizations; Lumpkin and Dess (1996) extended this concept introducing the

entrepreneurial orientation construct, which they identify as the tendency of organizations

to engage in innovative, risk-accepting and proactive strategies; Ireland et al. (2001)

extend and broaden this concept to integrate strategic management as a context forentrepreneurial actions; and Foss et al. (2008) highlight the concept of subjectivism in

order to reconcile entrepreneurship theory with strategic management and the resource-

based view (RBV).

As described by Hughes et al (2010), in defining entrepreneurship, Shane and

Venkataraman (2000, p. 218) emphasize that it is a nexus that involves entrepreneurial

individuals seizing and exploiting lucrative opportunities: the field involves the study of

sources of opportunities; the processes of discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of

opportunities; and the set of individuals who discover, evaluate, and exploit them. In the

initial stages of venture creation and launch, entrepreneurs often have to do more with

less and use what abilities and resources they have at their disposal with a minimum of

capital and a maximum of ingenuity and improvisation (Harrison et al., 2004; Miner et

al., 2001). Established mid-to-large firms however face very different conditions.


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Although their resource base is evidently greater, their entrepreneurial capacity for

innovativeness and risk-taking are constrained by structures, systems and processes set-

up over time to formalize their operations towards achieving efficiency and effectiveness

(Mintzberg, 1979). Still, established and larger sized firms do have considerably greater

knowledge and competence at creating, shaping and deploying competitive advantages

but nevertheless, there exists an entrepreneurial imperative for firms to innovate and

adapt rapidly to change or face obsolescence and failure (Hitt et al., 2001; Merrifield,

1993).

Strategy is often likened to a process of planning that places emphasis on improved

decision making brought about by managing resources within a framework of structures,

systems and processes (Huges et al, 2010). Strategy is considered a primary advantage

that differentiates entrepreneurial firms and creates organizational excellence (Darling et

al., 2007). It provides the context within which firms can exploit identified opportunities,

that is, through their current strategic platform and through structured, well-planned

actions, thereby aiding firms to specialize and gain competitive advantage.

Entrepreneurial firms risk focusing excessively on opportunity recognition and risk-

taking activities; lacking a balanced strategic focus can then undermine the benefits and

value their entrepreneurial initiatives might generate. As such, they become incapable of

gaining the advantages that their propensity towards entrepreneurial behaviour has to

offer. Still, the excessive formalization of firm organizing activity that strategy entails,

can create conditions that restrict rapid adaptation to change and tolerance of frame-

breaking ideas (DeSimone et al., 1995), which in turn might prevent the firm from

capturing the benefits that its entrepreneurial behaviour could create. Balancing

entrepreneurship and strategic management then can help firms avoid the Strategic

entrepreneurship trap of excessive risk-taking activities while preventing inertia caused

by iteratively adding to present advantages.

Further Hughes et al (2010) discusses that the strategic management theory, epitomized

by the RBV, emphasizes the creation of a unique resource position for the firm to create

advantages that allow it to compete effectively into the long term (Barney, 1991;

Wernerfelt, 1984). However, this perspective does not adequately explain long-term

success when firms face volatile and environmental conditions. Indeed, advantage is at


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best temporary such that a firm must continuously explore new opportunities over and

above merely exploiting its resource advantages over other firms (Leonard-Barton, 1992).

It is this very weakness that explains why small firms and new entrants can out maneuver

larger market incumbents.

Owing to their emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurial out maneuvering,

entrepreneurial ventures regardless of size are characterized by high degrees of

uncertainty and so their managers must simultaneously maximize their ability to

recognize and pursue new business opportunities while minimizing the strategic risk

related to venture development by improving the formation, management and leverage of

temporary competitive advantages (Ireland et al., 2001). This problem can be viewed as

one of creating and sustaining SE.

Building Blocks of Strategic Entrepreneurship

The founding works of SE, as well as recent bibliometric research, show that SE

crystallizes the mutual support and interdependence that exists between entrepreneurship

and strategic management (Hitt et al., 2002). The emergence of SE has its roots in the

field of economics (Knight, 1921; Schumpeter, 1942) and later in the field of

management. Several studies have uncovered the relationship between strategic

management and entrepreneurship. Covin and Slevin (1989), following Millers (1983)

conception of an entrepreneurial firm, define strategic posture as a firms competitive

orientation on a spectrum from conservative to entrepreneurial. Lumpkin and Dess (1996)

subsequently developed the construct of entrepreneurial orientation. Ireland et al. (2001)

viewed strategic management as a context for entrepreneurial actions. Meyer and

Heppard (2000) discussed the notion of entrepreneurial strategy. Barringer and Bluedorn

(1999) examine the relationship between entrepreneurship intensity and five specific

strategic management practices and conclude that scanning intensity, planning flexibility,

locus of planning and strategic controls positively influence entrepreneurial intensity.

Therefore, the relationship between strategic management and entrepreneurial activity

has emerged in an interrelated way over many years but has only now been crystallized

into a construct of practice.

Penrose (1959) contributed the RBV of the firm, focusing on resource heterogeneity as

the primary source of competitive advantage. Although it is a dominant framework in


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strategic management, entrepreneurship scholars use it to analyze the resource

characteristics, resource combinations and dynamic capabilities that drive entrepreneurial

acts (Foss et al., 2008).

From the above discussion, SE can be defined as a process that facilitates firm efforts to

identify opportunities with the highest potential to lead to value creation, through the

entrepreneurial component and then to exploit them through measured strategic actions,

based on their resource base. The entrepreneurial aspect contributes to the ability of

identifying opportunities and to the willingness of firms to pursue new opportunities,

whilst the strategic perspective enables them to isolate and exploit those opportunities

most likely to lead to sustainable competitive advantage and subsequent means by which

to form advantage (Hitt et al., 2001).

TABLE 1: Key Contributions to Strategic Entrepreneurship (Source:Nicolai J. Foss and

Jacob Lyngsie, 2011)

Contribution Dependent

var.

Independent

var.

Level of

analysis

Key argument Key Findings

Covin and

Slevin, 1989

Firm

performance

Organizational

structure,environmental

hostility,

entrepreneurial

strategic

posture

Firmlevel Contingency

perspective, whereoptimal firm

practices and

organizational

design is dependent

on the competitive

environment.

An organic organizational

structure and anentrepreneurial

strategic posture have

a positive effect on firm

performance in high

hostility competitive

environment.

Dess,

Lumpkin &

Covin, 1997

Firm

performance

Entrepreneuria

l

strategy

making,

strategy and

environmental

conditions

Firm level The match between

an firm strategy and

varying

environmental

conditions affects

firms entrepreneurial

strategy making.

Entrepreneurial strategy

making has a stronger

positive effect on firm

performance w

combined with both an

appropriate firm strategy

and environmental

condition.


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Barringer &

Bluedorn,

1999

Corporate

entrepreneursh

ip

(EO)

Scanning

intensity,

Planning

flexibility,

Planninghorizon, Locus

of planning

Firm level Empirical test of the

relationship between

firms entrepreneurial

intensity and strategic

managementpractices

Scanning intensity, planning

flexibility and locus of

planning all positively

affect firms entrepreneurial

intensity. However,Planning horizon does not

affect entrepreneurial

intensity.

Ireland et

al., 2003

Wealth

creation

Entrepreneuria

l

mindset,

culture,

leadership,

resource

management,

creativity and

innovation

Firm and

Individual

level

Firms pursuing either

an opportunity or

advantage seeking

strategy are unlikely

to be able to achieve

sustained competitive

advantage. Hence,

firms must be both

opportunity and

advantage seeking.

Strategic leverage of

entrepreneurial

opportunities requires

firms to be pro-entrepreneurial in all

dimensions.

The authors constructs

a SE model defining

four key dimensions

and delineating directs

and indirect effect

between these and

wealth creation

Ketchen,

Ireland &

Snow, 2007

Wealth

creation

Collaboration

&

innovation

Firm level Large and small firms

differ on terms of

operational

effectiveness. Large

firms are more skilled

at establishing

competitive

advantages. On the

other hand, small

firms have stronger

opportunityseeking

skills.

Building on network,

learning, resource based,

and real option theories the

authors argue that

collaboration between small

and large firms may enable

integration of advantage

and opportunityseeking

abilities across firm

boundaries.


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Kuratko and

Audretsch,

2009

n.a. n.a. Firm and

Individual

level

Essentially the

authors recapitulate

the dominant logics

of integrating

strategic managementwith

entrepreneurship.

The authors points to

numerous avenues for

future enhancement

and development of

strategicentrepreneurship at

the intersection of

strategic management

and entrepreneurship

research.

Monsen &

Boss, 2009

Job stress &

employee

retention

Risktaking,

innovativeness

&

proactiveness

Individual

level

Empirical

examination of

the intrafirm effect

of strategic

entrepreneurship on

employees

Strategic

entrepreneurship

negatively affects role

ambiguity and

employees intention

to quit. Also employees

and managers react

differently to strategic

entrepreneurship.

Hitt &

Ireland,

2009

Competition

capability &

strategic

repositioning

Environmental

conditions,

individual

entrepreneurial

cognitions &

organizational

architecture

Multi

level

Construction of a

detailed model

placing firms

entrepreneurial

strategic vision at the

interlink of the

reciprocal effects of

environmental

conditions,

entrepreneurial

cognition and

organizational

architecture.

Firstly, purposes a model of

interlinkages between

environment,

entrepreneurial cognitions

and organizational

architecture. Second, points

to numerous avenues for

future empirical research.

Anderson,

Covin &

Slevin, 2009

Strategic

learning

capability

Entrepreneuria

l

orientation,

structural

organicity,

market

Firm level EO positively affects

firms strategic

learning capability.

Also this relationship

is mediated by

structure, market

Finds a positive,

relationship between

entrepreneurial behavior

and generation of strategic

knowledge and strategic

change. Also that this


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responsiveness

and strategy

formation

mode

responsiveness and

strategy formation

mode.

relationship is fully

mediated by structural

organicity, market

responsiveness, and strategy

formation mode.Ahuja &

Lampert,

2001

Breakthrough

inventions

Novel

technologies,

emerging

technologies,

pioneering

technologies

Firm level The familiarity,

maturity and

propinquity traps

inhibit established

firms in developing

breakthrough

inventions.

Firms may overcome

the negative effect of

the familiarity,

maturity and

propinquity traps by

enacting

entrepreneurial

strategies focused on

novel, emerging or

pioneering

technologies.

Srategic Entrepreneurship and Financial Benefits

The association between the entrepreneurship and financial or economic benefit is widely

accepted in the litreature (Ireland et al., 2001; Schumpter, 1934). There is a clear

association between entrepreneurship and surplus or profit. The strategic

entrepreneurship activity suggests the potential of benefits to be more recurring rather

than one-off or scatterd profits (Venkataraman & Sarasvathy, 2001). However not all

research concludes that entrepreneurial process leads to financial benefits (Dess,

Lumpkin, & Covin, 1997; Verreynne & Meyer, 2007). Mintzberg (1991) and

Venkataraman and Sarasvathy (2001) highlight the importance of ongoing task of

managing activities such as entrepreneurial ventures to realise and sustain successful

performance and financial reward. It is also argued that while the financial benefits of

strategic entrepreneurship may be a reflection of degree and frequency (Morris & Sexton,

1996), these forces alone are unlikely to determine the associated financial implications

and ultimate financial outcomes. Rather, once strategic entrepreneurship is established or

created, it must be managed effectively within the organization, and within the context of

an external environment which contunues to change.


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A study was conduted by Luke et al (2010) on 12 of the 17 state-owned enterprises

operating in New Zealand in 2006. They identified the strategic entrepreneurship

activities taken up by these firms and clearly exhibited the elements of innovation,

opportunity identification and growth directly leveraged from the firms core skills and

resources. The examination of the strategic entrepreneurial activities after one year

revealed that these activities has progressed, grown and in some cases resulted in

additional (spin-off) projects. Also almost eighty percent strategic entrepreneurial

activities realized financial gains by the mid of the year, more importantly indicated

towards recurring and additional returns from strategic entrepreneurial activities.

Rationale of the Present Study

Strategic Entrepreneurship is a relatively new concept which has been explored

theoretically but sereiously lack evidences of application and empirical investigations.

The present study is an attempt to elaborate on this concept of strategic entrepreneurship

thorough Lehtonens Model of Strategic Entrepreneurship on a recruitment services

providing organization Aspirng Minds. This organization has gained competitive

advanatge over competitors and is expanding exponentially through strategic

entrepreneurial practices.

Methodology

The study will explain the Lehtonens Model along with with its applicative analysis on

the organization under consideration.

A Brief About Aspiring Minds

Birth of an idea:

While pursuing electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, Varun Aggarwal

read disturbing statistics (2003 NASSCOM-KPMG report) about India: Even though

350,000 engineers graduated annually from more than 300 universities and 15,600

colleges, only 25 percent were considered employable. A massive shortfall of technical

personnel was expected by 2012. The report blamed poor training, but he remained

skeptical.


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Whereas, everyone was talking about unemployability and training as the issue, his mind

was working on how to solve the problem of making the right talent meet opportunity.

This led to the germination of an ingenious, satisfying the needful and simple idea of

conducting a SAT/GRE like assessment exam. Varun and his brother Himanshu , an IIT

graduate, left their mouth watering packages to build their company Aspiring minds

which now has a wide pool of customers ranging from students to companies.

Brief Description

Aspiring Minds is a pioneer in the space of Scientific Assessments, Talent Benchmarking

and scalable acquisition of talent. Their state of the art assessment tools have been used

across industry verticals to help recruit the right people, develop profile-wise

employability benchmarks and assess workforce health. Aspiring Minds intelligent

adaptive assessments span across Language, Cognitive skills, Domain knowledge and

Personality. A strong in-house research and development team with alumni from IITs and

MIT form the development back bone of thier patent pending assessment tools.

While their recruitment solutions help eliminate biases and subjectivity in hiring

decisions, their talent benchmarking efforts have helped unravel key skills required for

success in particular roles and our innovative sourcing has helped large corporate recruit

1000s efficiently.

Graduating students can take Aspiring Minds flagship test AMCAT (Aspiring Minds

Computer Adaptive Test ), to present a picture of their abilities and skills to interested

companies. Students would also get feedback and a reality-check on their abilities and

job-preparedness on the basis this assessment. Aspiring Minds has proved itself as highly

valuable to the corporate by providing just the right kind of talent to them based on

scientific and objective judgment. A large database of students assessed across the nation

is now being used by companies to identify and pick the talent from literally anywhere

and at any time. Companies can directly hire from this database or use Aspiring Minds

assessment services independent of the pool. Aspiring Minds has aptitude, skill and

personality tests, which are all computer-based and completely automated. They also

work with companies to setup hiring benchmarks through correlating test scores to

internal company performance criteria. Personality assessment has been particularly

useful with regard to hiring sales, retail and customer relationship profile.


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Aspiring Minds team goes college-to-college to conduct the test in the computer lab of

the college to bring job opportunities to the door step of the student. In just over three

years, more than 130,000 students from more than 550 colleges have taken the AMCAT.

And test data have yielded some important findings. More than 70 percent of qualified

candidates for IT jobs graduate from institutions many employers ignore.

Aspiring Minds has augmented scientific assessment with an innovative large-scale

sourcing model analogous to a GRE-for-job concept. AMCAT - their flagship product

is Indias Largest Employability Test. Tens of thousands of candidates secure their dream

jobs every year through AMCAT. Their dedicated management from IITs and IIMs, more

than 110 full-time employees, and a pan-India operational presence has helped leading

corporations across industry verticals improve their recruitment process efficiency and

the quality of talent being acquired. Today more than 60 companies including the

hotshots such as Microsoft and HCL and elite institutes like the IITs and NITs resort to

their tests. Perhaps a great way of aiding people with diverse backgrounds is that

different courses have different tests (different AMCATS) and companies look at

different combination of these scores. Aspiring Minds products and solutions have been

adopted by leading corporate including HCL, Genpact, iGate, Patni, Mphasis, Ericsson,

Sapient, John Deere, Tavant, Tally, among others.

Analyzing Strategic Entrepreneurship at Aspiring Minds using Lehtonens Model

The Lehtonens Model emphasize how the business excellence can be achieved through

strategic entrepreneurship. The model elaborates that the first thing required to focus is

on unpacking the business concept. This can be done through four major components:

1. Core Strategy

2. Strategic Resources

3. Value Network

4. Cutomer Interface


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1. CORE STRATEGYexplains the essence of how the firm chooses to compete.

The major elements of Core Strategy are:

1.1 The Business Mission: what the business concept is designed to accomplish or

deliver.

Aspiring Minds vision is to bring credible and genuine assessment to various aspects of

education, training and employment. Aspiring Minds strives to help institutions and

companies from choosing the right individual rather than the best individual.


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Aspiring minds came with the concept that when a fresh candidate moves to the business

world. At the end of the day his success is not governed by his academic achievement but

by his comprehensive aptitude and attitude. They offered a platform to students where

despite their average scores in academics, they can still look forward to get good jobs

through taking their employability test AMCAT which is developed in consultation of the

industry experts as to what do they require in a candidate.

1.2 Product / Market Scope: where the firm competes (which customers, which

geographies, what product segments) and where, by implication it does not compete.

When most of the recruitment companies were focusing on providing placements to

management postgraduates, Aspiring Minds targeted the IT postgraduates. They spread

their wings beyond single state in the entire north India and tapped all the colleges

teaching MCA big or small. They did not initially go in to employing MBAs for what

we analyze as two reasons. One that testing MBAs requires more legwork in terms of

different specialization. Two, it is equally a cumbersome job to tap the organizations to

get them placed according to specialization.

1.3 Basis for Differentiation: how the firm competes differently from its competitors.


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Aspiring Minds under the strategic leadership of its founders Mr. Himanshu Agarwal

(educated form IIT Delhi) and Mr. Varun Agarwal (educated from MIT USA) chose

MCA placement as its core area and secondly they developed a recruitment test

developed with the help of the industry expert, accepted by industry. The test results

include a comprehensive report on the strengths and weakness of the candidate in

different skills area and also how they can enhance their strengths and improve on their

weakness. The major benefit to the students is that they can improve their score after

three months to enhance their employability, which leads to increased chances of being

short listed by organizations.

Aspiring Minds has aptitude, skill and personality tests, which are all computer-based and

completely automated. They also work with companies to setup hiring benchmarks

through correlating test scores to internal company performance criteria. Personality

assessment has been particularly useful with regard to hiring sales, retail and customer

relationship profile.

Aspiring Minds team goes college-to-college to conduct the test in the computer lab of

the college to bring job opportunities to the door step of the student. In just over three

years, more than 130,000 students from more than 550 colleges have taken the AMCAT.

And test data have yielded some important findings. More than 70 percent of qualified

candidates for IT jobs graduate from institutions many employers ignore. Aspiring Minds

has proved itself as highly valuable to the corporate by providing just the right kind of

talent to them based on scientific and objective judgment. A large database of students

assessed across the nation is now being used by companies to identify and pick the talent

from literally anywhere and at any time. Companies can directly hire from this database

or use Aspiring Minds assessment services independent of the pool.

2. STRATEGIC RESOURCES: The unique firm-specific resources:

2.1 Core Competencies: The skills and unique capabilities of the firm that are

valuable to customers and transferable to new opportunities.

The core competency of Aspiring Minds is its highly competitive test based on industry

requirement, comprehensive reports with suggestions for improvement and most

importantly a hope of getting good placement to those students who possess good


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knowledge but lacks on academic scores. Moreover this concept also places the students

from colleges of different repute on a single platform to prove their worth. This was a

concept which was entirely unique as a recruitment solutions organization. This served as

a unique selling point for the organization and gained them huge clientele from

academics and industry both.

The services provided by Aspiring Minds are their core competencies. Some of them are

mentioned below

Adaptive Assessment Technology

Aspiring Minds proprietary assessment platform provides high-end statistical assessment

based on the Item Response Theory (IRT). IRT is a global standard used for construction

of high-stake tests such as university admission exams, medical and accountancy

certifications, etc.

Aspiring Minds platforms brings for the first time in India, Computer Adaptive Tests

with dynamic content providing accurate skill measurement. All our assessments are

powered by our robust Adaptive Testing engine which does a multi-dimensional

assessment of the candidate abilities using advanced statistical and AI algorithms. The

assessment platform is capable of automated content (phase in and out of questions) and

test delivery management ensuring complete end-to-end integration of assessments and

content. The test reliability and precision, its content validity, leak-proof and guess check

algorithms ensure that assessments are comparable and precise.

Aptitude and Skill Assessment: Computer Adaptive Testing

Aspiring Minds is the first to introduce Computer Adaptive Testing for employability in

India.

Scientifically constructed modules provide high value for recruitment, promotion

and diagnosis purposes

Modules range from Aptitude, Skill/Knowledge and Personality Testing

The Assessment engine works on large statistically rated question bank

Proprietary algorithms for leak-control, automatic guess correction and correction

for prior question knowledge maintain integrity


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All candidates see a different question set

The modules have high test validity correlated with on-job performance and high

interview-convert rates

Aspiring Minds has a bouquet of assessment products relevant to variety of roles in an

organization. A subset of modules may be chosen depending on the candidate/employee

profile being accessed. Some of the Computer Adaptive Modules include English and

Comprehension, Logical Ability, Quantitative Skills (Non-Technical), Quantitative Skills

(Technical), Financial Services, Computer Programming Principles and Algorithms,

Computer Literacy, Electronics and Semiconductor, and IT Infrastructure (BETA) etc.

AMPI: Aspiring Minds Personality Inventory

Aspiring Minds Personality Inventory (AMPI) is the first statistically validated

personality inventory designed for personality analysis of Indians for providing inputs for

selection in corporates. AMPI is based on the five-factor model, which is by far the only

scientifically validated and reliable personality model for job selection.

A 15 minute inventory, AMPI is probably the quickest way to get feedback on a job

applicant with regard to his/her suitability for a job. A detailed instantaneous report

generated for the candidate gives the hiring manager a quick objective map of the

personality of the candidate.

AMPI items have gone through extensive statistical validation to discern the items that

load on different trait scales. Entire statistical exercise is based on sampling of items on

more than 13000 entrylevel jobapplicants. AMPI is the only instrument which has been


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validated with multiple sales and hospitality sector corporates in India. Certain traits of

AMPI show strong correlation with job performance in these sectors and can help

improve workforce performance by 25% to 40%. AMPI is currently available in English,

Hindi and Telugu.

Tailored Assessment Modules

Aspiring Minds in-house assessment and content team help realizing assessment needs

with custom-made modules. Aspiring Minds scalable assessment engine and deep

insight into statistical assessments helps build assessment tools with standardization,

reliability and validity and conforming to international standards.

Delivery and Scale

Credible assessment combined with superior delivery options makes assessment reach the

nooks and corners of your business. Aspiring Minds offers a complete spectrum of

delivery options like Online Delivery over the Internet, Offline (non-Internet) Delivery,

Campus / Event Delivery Services, and Client Server Delivery.

Recruitment Solutions

Aspiring Minds One Click National Sourcing is powered by AMCAT.

AMCAT Indias Largest Employability Assessment is conducted across the country. In

this exercise 1000s of candidates in Engineering, MBA and other Graduate schools are

assessed on a battery of computer based assessments. This assessed pool of candidates is

than shared with corporate clients to help them hire pan India is a very scalable and cost

effective manner. Campus Assessments Solutions from Aspiring Minds are endtoend

engagements where our scientific assessments are used to help select high quality

candidates on campus across the country. Aspiring Minds Assessments can be deployed

for walkin assessments to ensure a quality consistent process and reduce possibilities of

bad hires. These assessments are delivered over the Internet at your office or anywhere

across the country. Talent Benchmarking helps you know your Right.


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Campus Assessment & Recruitment

Aspiring Minds Assessment Team is capable of providing Assessment Solutions on

campus for any specific corporate needs. The team ensures smooth delivery of computer

based assessment in the most hostile environments while automated result generation,

and shortlisting tools ensure accurate and speedy selection. Aspiring Minds Account

Managers work closely with corporates to map their needs to various assessment

parameters and help pick the right set of people to interview. Companies have seen their

interview to hire convert rates shoot up dramatically (two to six fold increase) on using

AMCAT as a shortlisting criteria. Aspiring Minds has detailed knowledge of campuses,

courses and their talent quality to be able to plan campus hiring with precision. Aspiring

Minds can also dramatically increase reach to current campus program by augmenting it

with the preassessed pools created using AMCAT. This will add filtered and shortlisted

candidates to be interviewed in tandem with the campus recruitment drives conducted.

This can multiply campus reach tenfold without any increase in costs.

Talent Map/ Skill Gap Analysis

It is done through a completely objective set of tools including assessments, 360 degree

feedback, performance data and mathematical models. Talent Maps power lies in being

able to control the quality of intake by hiring candidates similar to the top-performers at

your organization in a scalable, objective and consistent matter.

Promotion Related Feedback

Aspiring Minds AMPro gives an objective measure of the candidates cognitive skills

and personality to the decisionmaker. AMPro also builds in parameters for specific

skills that are needed for a role and makes recommendations on the basis of the same.


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AMPro aims to add value to the promotion process and add to the inputs the decision

makers already have. The objectivity of the new inputs make them consistent pan

organization across geographies. Finally AMPro combines all the data together that of the

target achievement, manager feedback and objective skill and personality of the candidate

to provide an wholesome picture for the decision maker. Using such comprehensive

analysis, the chances of wrong promotions are eliminated to nil.

Educational Institution Entrance Exam

Educational Institutions across the world look to choose the students they would like to

take through their system. Getting the right student into the institution today is as critical

as provide the right education. A mismatched set of students are unable to cope up with

professional standards, leading to deficiencies in the Institutions academic performance

and collapse in reputation. Aspiring Minds Performance Analytics helps improving

candidate intake year after year and by correctly predicting performance of each

incoming candidate. Aspiring Minds Educational Institution Solution combines the

Aspiring Minds Assessment Framework (AMAF), the Aspiring Minds Assessment

Delivery Application (AMADA) with academic filtering criteria developed over time and

partner delivery solutions to provide a complete solution to automate Entrance

Examinations.

2.2 Strategic Assets: The rare and valuable things that the firm owns, including e.g.

brands and customer data.

Aspiring Minds within a short span of time have gained the institutional clientele

amongst others like IITs and recruitment services to entire IGNOU University. This is a

fete difficult to achieve yet, they have. Amongst the industry clients they have big names

in IT industry like HCL, Genpact, iGate, Patni, Mphasis, Ericsson, Sapient, John Deere,

Tavant, Tally, among others who are using their test results to short list candidates from

different colleges.

2.3 Core Processes:Methodologies and Routines used in the firm.

Aspiring Minds follow a painstaking strategy of first testing the product on the ground,

learning from the experience and then designing a product sturdy in all scenarios. Only


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when sure about the products potential do they go into marketing it in a sustainable way.

They were very averse to over-exposure of their products too early in the cycle. Their

marketing strategy has always been to first make people understand products core value

proposition, get endorsements from thought leaders and then create a mass appeal

through activities such as sponsoring HR seminars, events, organizing placement

seminars, etc.

Aspiring Minds R&D team comprises two sets of people. The first set works on the

assessment technology, in the statistics and analytics division of the company that

consists of engineering and statistics experts. This division is led by Varun Aggarwal.

The second set works on the product delivery technology. This team comprises of

engineers who ensure smooth and efficient delivery of assessment products across the

remotest corners of the country. Over 35 per cent of the total spending is on R&D.

There is social value in finding a job for someone who doesnt have one; it brings

stability to the person, his family and eventually to society. Aspiring Minds is the change

agent in giving that value. Focusing on these ideals the young entrepreneurs braved the

recession and Aspiring Minds emerged stronger and unscathed.

3. CUSTOMER INTERFACE

3.1 Fulfillment & Support: How the firm actually goes to market, how it actually

reaches its customers which channels it uses, what kind of customer support it

offers and what level of service it provides.

Aspiring Minds moved very strategically in the market by differentiating in their services

through providing individual focus on each and every test taker. This gave a sense of

satisfaction to the institutions and students also that whatever amount they are paying for

AMCAT is worth every penny. On the other side it built trust of organizations in them

that they will get good candidates with insight in their skills, strengths and weaknesses.

Moreover they provide updates on all their activities to their clients and engage in the

activities of knowledge and value enhancement. They conduct researches and bring down

the snapshots of various researches, which could be of interest to both academicians and

industry.


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3.2 Information & Insight: The information content of the customer interface (all the

knowledge that is collected from and utilized on behalf of customers) and the ability of

a company to extract insights from this information.

Aspiring Minds has rightfully utilized the information they have gathered from their

customers and by applying their insight they have identified a major concern of the

academic institutions of getting the right set of students. A mismatched set of students are

unable to cope up with professional standards, leading to deficiencies in the Institutions

academic performance and collapse in reputation. The unspoken truth is that most

institutions do not follow a scientific process of assessment at intake. Aspiring Minds

came up with another tool to provide solution to this issue in the form of Assessment for

Education. Aspiring Minds Performance Analytics helps improving candidate intake

year after year and by correctly predicting performance of each incoming candidate.

3.3 Relationship Dynamics: The nature of the interaction between the producer and

the customer, including both emotional and transactional elements.

The company is always welcome with the ideas and the top management is so down to

earth that they can be approached anytime.

3.4 Pricing Structure: What the company charges for.

The company charges only four hundred rupees per candidate for all gamuts of their

services individually, however for entire campus process, it is even less than this. Even

they at times conduct it for free to have a look and feel of their product in order to build

new clients.

4. VALUE NETWORK: Complements and amplifies the firms own resources

The bouquet of services provided by the organization in itself complements and amplifies

their resources. They started with providing recruitment solutions for IT professionals.

Gradually started services for MBAs too, now they have expanded themselves beyond

all boundaries to provide recruitment solutions even for the simple graduates and post

graduates too. This is an idea, which no other recruitment services providing organization

has ever thought of offering. The organization has even moved a step further by offering


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training gap analysis, promotion analysis, personality analysis, and most importantly

education capability assessment.

4.1 Suppliers: typically reside up the value chain from the producer. Companies can

off-load non-core activities to suppliers.

Aspiring Minds do not have any suppliers so far as their services are concerned.

However, they seek advice for the development of their programs from the eminent

professors of the stature from Harvard, MIT Sloan and IITs. Also they work in close

tandem with the requirement of the industry.

4.2 Partners: typically supply critical complements to a final product or solution.

The company can borrow the assets and competencies of its partners and link them

with its own.

Aspiring Minds partners with its own clients to provide best of the solutions.

4.3Coalitions:like-minded competitors joined together.

So far they have no coalitions.

The four core components are linked together by three bridge components

1. Configuration: Intermediates between a companys core strategy and strategic

resources. It is the unique way in which competencies, assets and processes are

combined and interrelated in support of particular strategy

Aspiring Minds have a fine blend of their core strategy and strategic resources. They

have in-house research and development for their products which they prepare in

consultancy of the industry specific to their requirements. All their products are based on

intensive research and are highly result oriented directly inline with their core strategy of

providing customer centric value added services.

2. Customer Benefits: Intermediates between the core strategy and the customer

interface. The bundle of benefits that is actually being offered to the customer

The core strategy of Aspiring Minds is weaved around providing best of the talent to the

industry and skill matched profile to candidates. The company has two set of clients. One

is a fresh job aspirant, who is provided with comprehensive report of his skills along with

SWOT analysis, with the suggestions on how to improve oneself and prepare better for

the industry. Also the candidate has the chance to improve his scores, and is made

available to the industry. The biggest benefit to the candidate is that he stands on a


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platform where his knowledge matters, rather than his academic scores. Another client on

the other hand is the industry. The organization provides them a large pool of candidates

to choose from, specific to their requirements and also the candidates rated on their eal

potential apart form their academic potential.

3. Company Boundaries:Intermediates between a companys strategic resources and

its value network. The decisions that have been made about what the firm does and

what it contracts out to the value network

Aspiring Minds provide the assessment of the candidates on various parameters through

their efficient tools developed out of the rigorous research. They help the organizations to

shortlist the candidates but categorically do not recruit candidates for the industry. They

differ on this aspect from their competitors who provide chosen candidates to the

industry. This strategic decision has helped them to sustain, since they are not liable to

the failure of a candidate later on (by any chance) because the final hiring decision is

taken by the hiring organization itself. However their competitors provides finally

selected candidates to the organization where they can be held responsible for the wrong

selection explicitly or the hiring organization may develop poor view of the hiring

capabilities of the service providers implicitly, which in turn leads to the loss of business

in a year or two.

Finally there are four factors to consider in determining the wealth potential (how

the business concept will generate new wealth) of any business concept:

1 . The extent to which the business concept is an EFFICIENT way of delivering

customer benefits: The business concept of Aspiring Minds is very efficient well proved

by the fact that more and more companies are taking their services. Even IITs are getting

their students assessed by them and most recently IGNOU has also tied up with them for

the placement activities of their students.

2. The extent to which the business concept is UNIQUE: The business concept of

Aspiring Minds is completely unique, one of its kind. The company was even amongst

the top six finalist of the NASSCOM Awards for Innovative Business Model.

3. The degree of FIT among the elements of the business concept (all the elements

must work together for the same end goal). All the elements of the business concept


26/34

works in tandem as the products are designed contingent to the customer needs and are

well acclaimed by the clients.

4. The extent to which the business concept exploits PROFIT BOOSTERS that have

the potential to generate above-average returns: The business concept here have huge

potential to exploit profit boosters as after establishing themselves for recruitment

assessment, the company has moved forward to provide services like promotion

capability assessment and education capability assessment to the educational institutions

to find best and right students to groom. This again is a unique concept which will go

long way in earning profits for the organization. Moreover their idea of providing

placement services even to the candidates doing simple graduation and post graduation

courses will also generate great returns.

4.1 Increasing returns: denotes a fly-wheel effect that tends to perpetuate early

success, leaving those who are behind, falling farther behind. To benefit from

increasing returns a business concept must harness one of three underlying forces:

network effects (the value of a network increases as the number of e.g. members in the

network grows), positive feedback effects (using market feedback), learning effects

(learning faster than the rivals do). The company has seen success within the first two

years of its inception and have left their competitors far behind, as they have been able to

tap the clients in the most reputed institutions like IITs. By serving to the institutions of

the stature of IIT and being the placement solutions provider to the worlds largest Open

University IGNOU, it can be said that the company is going leaps and bounds. They have

also achieved the stature of being the only Indian company in Business Weeks list of

Most Intriguing Startups globally.

4.2 Competitor lock-out: Through pre-emption (being first), choke point (e.g. a patent

or a prime location) controller customer lock-in (e.g. through long-term supply

contracts). Aspiring Minds is the first in its kind of services, patented their products and

have practically no competitor to them.

4.3Strategic economies: come from building scale advantages (getting bigger), having

a business concept with a sharp focus or using economies of scope (sharing things

brands, facilities, best practice and so on across business units and countries). The

company has tremendous growth potential and is growing exponentially. What started up


27/34

as a small business unit providing placement services to the institution in Delhi and

around is now operating at pan India level.

4.4 Strategic Flexibility: comes from portfolio breadth (having a broad offering of

products, businesses etc.), operating agility (the companys ability to refocus its

operations) and lower breakeven (a business concept with a low breakeven point is

more flexible, both financially and strategically, than the one with a higher breakeven

point). The company has expanded their portfolio by adding products like assessment

services to simple graduates, personality testing based on local norms, promotion

assessment test, education assessment test, talent mapping, skill gap analysis to name a

few.

Some Achievements of Aspiring Minds

One of the top six finalists in NASSCOM Awards for Innovative Business

Models.

Recruitment services provider to worlds largest university IGNOU

Only Indian company in Business Weeks list of Most Intriguing Startups

globally.

Praised for offering concrete demonstration of value of assessments in leveling

the playing field of talent at World Economic Forum 2011 meetings held in China

around 'Creating 21st century workforce' a number of prominent political, business

and education leaders provided their views and also on 'How can today's education

system meet tomorrow's need?'. The people of the stature of Bill Clinton (42nd

President of America) and Prime Minister of Kenya were part of the meeting.

They are cited by the first daily French financial newspaper Les Echos.

The researches conducted by them are cited at many platforms like CNBC,

Business Standard, Financial Express, Economic Times etc.

One of the UK's leading business magazines Outsource features the view ofHimanshu Aggarwal, Director Aspiring Minds.

The Business Enterprises magazine in its cover story on employability and

campus, features Aspiring Minds.

Business Standard echoes the Aspiring Minds' study on employability


28/34

'Transition' tests like AMCAT help grads glide into world of work: Economics

Times

Aspiring Minds founders Himanshu and Varun Aggarwal got nominated for

Business world Brightest Young Entrepreneurs. It is now among top 15 Indian

companies which are 2-5 years old.

Conclusion

To sustain and excel in present day business world, it is not only entrepreneurship or

strategy alone will work. Strategic Entrepreneurship is the call of the day to achieve

business excellence. There have been much written about strategic entrepreneurship as a

concept and one or two models are also developed. However, the practical evidences of

strategic entrepreneurship are missing in the literature and also the Lehtonens Model is

also not emphasized which provides a comprehensive framework of strategic

entrepreneurship. In the present study this model is applied to an organization Aspiring

Minds to understand how the organization has achieved business excellence through

strategic entrepreneurship. The Aspiring Minds has tremendous wealth potential because

they have a business idea which is unique, very efficient, with high degree of fit and

profit boosters. This can be analyzed from the fact that the company was one of the

finalists for NASSCOM Awards for Innovative Business Models. Their achievement toprovide recruitment solutions to the worlds largest university IGNOU. Praised at World

Economic Forum 2011 meetings held in China. The people of the stature of Bill Clinton

(42nd President of America) and Prime Minister of Kenya were part of the meeting. They

are cited by the first daily French financial newspaper Les Echos. They started with

four employees in 2008 and today they are more than 130. The business has grown from

lacs to somewhere around 30-35 crores. The researches conducted by them are cited at

many platforms like CNBC, Business Standard, Financial Express, Economic Times etc.

This is just a beginning for the organization. They have came up with the employability

tests for MBAs, graduates and with the innovative products like assessment for

education to help institutions to find right people to teach and groom. Last but not the

least Aspiring Minds founders Himanshu and Varun Aggarwal got nominated for

Businessworld Brightest Young Entrepreneurs. It is now among top 15 Indian


29/34

companies which are 2-5 years old. Businessworld says that Aspiring Minds's business

idea now in its infancy can take the world by storm tomorrow.

(http://www.aspiringminds.in/news.html)


30/34

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