NCERT Textbook - Entrepreneurial Opportunities | Entrepreneurship Class 12 - Commerce PDF Download

 Page 1


 1 
UNIT –1: ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITY 
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” 
– Peter Drucker 
Learning Objectives 
The learner would be able to: 
? Understand the concept and elements of business 
opportunity 
? Understand the factors involved in sensing opportunities 
? Understand the concept of environment scanning 
? Enlist the various factors affecting business environment 
? Understand the meaning of idea fields 
? Enlist the various sources of idea fields 
? Understand the technique of transformation of ideas 
into opportunities 
? Understand what is trend spotting 
? Elaborate on the creative and innovative processes 
Case Study-I  
Bull in a China Shop 
La Opala is India?s only opal glassware maker and ready to 
take on global competition.  
In the 19
th
 century, it was common to import good china 
crockery in return for opium exports from Calcutta. However, 
bone china crockery never really caught on, because it used 
cow bone ash. Even today, food is served on glass plates at 
traditional weddings for this reason. 
The porcelain and glass tableware market in India has always been strong. However, after independence 
and under foreign exchange restrictions, crockery imports tapered off and the market was filled with 
small manufacturers with products of suspect quality. 
A small glass kiln, Radha Glass, at Madhupur in Bihar, has been making tea shop glasses, jars that are 
found in the neighbourhood grocery shop, and hurricane- lamp shades for decades. The eldest son of the 
family, Sushil Jhunjhunwala, inherited his father?s business in the mid-1980s. Jhunjhunwala realised 
that nothing big could had happen, if he stuck to traditional glass products and was persuaded to look 
around. He got an idea when, in late 1980s, during a trip to South Korea, he came across an opaque 
white glass called „Opal?. Impressed by its look, he decided to manufacture it with the use of imported 
machinery – and La Opala was born in 1988. 
La Opala 
Content 
? Sensing 
Entrepreneurial 
opportunities 
? Environment scanning 
? Problem identification 
? Spotting trends 
? Creativity and 
Innovation 
? Selecting the right 
opportunity 
Page 2


 1 
UNIT –1: ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITY 
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” 
– Peter Drucker 
Learning Objectives 
The learner would be able to: 
? Understand the concept and elements of business 
opportunity 
? Understand the factors involved in sensing opportunities 
? Understand the concept of environment scanning 
? Enlist the various factors affecting business environment 
? Understand the meaning of idea fields 
? Enlist the various sources of idea fields 
? Understand the technique of transformation of ideas 
into opportunities 
? Understand what is trend spotting 
? Elaborate on the creative and innovative processes 
Case Study-I  
Bull in a China Shop 
La Opala is India?s only opal glassware maker and ready to 
take on global competition.  
In the 19
th
 century, it was common to import good china 
crockery in return for opium exports from Calcutta. However, 
bone china crockery never really caught on, because it used 
cow bone ash. Even today, food is served on glass plates at 
traditional weddings for this reason. 
The porcelain and glass tableware market in India has always been strong. However, after independence 
and under foreign exchange restrictions, crockery imports tapered off and the market was filled with 
small manufacturers with products of suspect quality. 
A small glass kiln, Radha Glass, at Madhupur in Bihar, has been making tea shop glasses, jars that are 
found in the neighbourhood grocery shop, and hurricane- lamp shades for decades. The eldest son of the 
family, Sushil Jhunjhunwala, inherited his father?s business in the mid-1980s. Jhunjhunwala realised 
that nothing big could had happen, if he stuck to traditional glass products and was persuaded to look 
around. He got an idea when, in late 1980s, during a trip to South Korea, he came across an opaque 
white glass called „Opal?. Impressed by its look, he decided to manufacture it with the use of imported 
machinery – and La Opala was born in 1988. 
La Opala 
Content 
? Sensing 
Entrepreneurial 
opportunities 
? Environment scanning 
? Problem identification 
? Spotting trends 
? Creativity and 
Innovation 
? Selecting the right 
opportunity 
 2 
Jhunjhunwala?s timing was almost perfect because liberalisation and the Indian middle-class affluence 
began to bloom after 1991, and every middle-class home was gifted one or two La Opala sets at a 
wedding. “The idea was to bring out an elegant product, Indianise it and make it readily available at an 
affordable price. Also, the attractive oven – proof designs were a welcome change from the heavy 
porcelain and china tableware that dominated the Indian market at that time” recalls Jhunjhunwala.  
In 1996, Jhunjhunwala started a handmade lead-crystal glassware unit in collaboration with Doosan of 
South Korea. It was a well-placed investment because labour rates in the main crystal manufacturing 
countries were high and also because the Indian middle classes were developing a penchant for good 
glasses. Solitaire, hand-made, lead-crystal glassware making has now matured with 1,100 tpa 
production and annual sales at ` 18 crore. There are about 150 skilled workers who hand-carve crystal at 
the Madhupur plant. 
In 2007, Jhunjhunwala started a second plant in Sitarganj near Haldwani in Uttrakhand, attracted by 
the hill-state tax regime and its proximity to Delhi?s fancy market. Now, the plant capacity has just been 
doubled to 8000 tpa at an investment of ` 22 crore. La Opala, a silent performer, has reported sales of  
` 157.66 crore and a PAT of ` 22.8 crore for the year ended March 2013- an increase of 34% in revenue 
from ` 117.5 crore sales, with PAT of ` 12.6 crore, in the previous year. La Opala is the only opal 
glassware manufacturer in India and holds 40% of the ` 400 crore estimated opal glassware market, in 
competition with global brands like Corelle of Corning, US and Luminarc of France. 
Courtesy: Business India magazine, May 27 to June 9, 2013 issue 
 
Peter F. Drucker defined entrepreneur as one who always searches for an opportunity. The 
basic test of a successful entrepreneur is the identification of business opportunity in the 
environment and initiating steps to produce and sell goods and services to make the best use of 
that opportunity. 
 
What is a business opportunity? 
There are a lot of opportunities in the world of business, which everyone might not be able to 
spot. An entrepreneur should be able to spot it. Business opportunity can be described as an 
economic idea which can be implemented to create a business enterprise and earn profits. 
Before selecting an opportunity, the entrepreneur has to ensure two things-  
? There is a good market for the product he is going to produce 
? The rate of return on the investment is attractive to be accepted by him 
Page 3


 1 
UNIT –1: ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITY 
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” 
– Peter Drucker 
Learning Objectives 
The learner would be able to: 
? Understand the concept and elements of business 
opportunity 
? Understand the factors involved in sensing opportunities 
? Understand the concept of environment scanning 
? Enlist the various factors affecting business environment 
? Understand the meaning of idea fields 
? Enlist the various sources of idea fields 
? Understand the technique of transformation of ideas 
into opportunities 
? Understand what is trend spotting 
? Elaborate on the creative and innovative processes 
Case Study-I  
Bull in a China Shop 
La Opala is India?s only opal glassware maker and ready to 
take on global competition.  
In the 19
th
 century, it was common to import good china 
crockery in return for opium exports from Calcutta. However, 
bone china crockery never really caught on, because it used 
cow bone ash. Even today, food is served on glass plates at 
traditional weddings for this reason. 
The porcelain and glass tableware market in India has always been strong. However, after independence 
and under foreign exchange restrictions, crockery imports tapered off and the market was filled with 
small manufacturers with products of suspect quality. 
A small glass kiln, Radha Glass, at Madhupur in Bihar, has been making tea shop glasses, jars that are 
found in the neighbourhood grocery shop, and hurricane- lamp shades for decades. The eldest son of the 
family, Sushil Jhunjhunwala, inherited his father?s business in the mid-1980s. Jhunjhunwala realised 
that nothing big could had happen, if he stuck to traditional glass products and was persuaded to look 
around. He got an idea when, in late 1980s, during a trip to South Korea, he came across an opaque 
white glass called „Opal?. Impressed by its look, he decided to manufacture it with the use of imported 
machinery – and La Opala was born in 1988. 
La Opala 
Content 
? Sensing 
Entrepreneurial 
opportunities 
? Environment scanning 
? Problem identification 
? Spotting trends 
? Creativity and 
Innovation 
? Selecting the right 
opportunity 
 2 
Jhunjhunwala?s timing was almost perfect because liberalisation and the Indian middle-class affluence 
began to bloom after 1991, and every middle-class home was gifted one or two La Opala sets at a 
wedding. “The idea was to bring out an elegant product, Indianise it and make it readily available at an 
affordable price. Also, the attractive oven – proof designs were a welcome change from the heavy 
porcelain and china tableware that dominated the Indian market at that time” recalls Jhunjhunwala.  
In 1996, Jhunjhunwala started a handmade lead-crystal glassware unit in collaboration with Doosan of 
South Korea. It was a well-placed investment because labour rates in the main crystal manufacturing 
countries were high and also because the Indian middle classes were developing a penchant for good 
glasses. Solitaire, hand-made, lead-crystal glassware making has now matured with 1,100 tpa 
production and annual sales at ` 18 crore. There are about 150 skilled workers who hand-carve crystal at 
the Madhupur plant. 
In 2007, Jhunjhunwala started a second plant in Sitarganj near Haldwani in Uttrakhand, attracted by 
the hill-state tax regime and its proximity to Delhi?s fancy market. Now, the plant capacity has just been 
doubled to 8000 tpa at an investment of ` 22 crore. La Opala, a silent performer, has reported sales of  
` 157.66 crore and a PAT of ` 22.8 crore for the year ended March 2013- an increase of 34% in revenue 
from ` 117.5 crore sales, with PAT of ` 12.6 crore, in the previous year. La Opala is the only opal 
glassware manufacturer in India and holds 40% of the ` 400 crore estimated opal glassware market, in 
competition with global brands like Corelle of Corning, US and Luminarc of France. 
Courtesy: Business India magazine, May 27 to June 9, 2013 issue 
 
Peter F. Drucker defined entrepreneur as one who always searches for an opportunity. The 
basic test of a successful entrepreneur is the identification of business opportunity in the 
environment and initiating steps to produce and sell goods and services to make the best use of 
that opportunity. 
 
What is a business opportunity? 
There are a lot of opportunities in the world of business, which everyone might not be able to 
spot. An entrepreneur should be able to spot it. Business opportunity can be described as an 
economic idea which can be implemented to create a business enterprise and earn profits. 
Before selecting an opportunity, the entrepreneur has to ensure two things-  
? There is a good market for the product he is going to produce 
? The rate of return on the investment is attractive to be accepted by him 
 3 
Only when the entrepreneur is able to fulfil these two criteria, he/she can be successful. Quite 
often, a question arises - Can all ideas be converted into opportunities? Mostly entrepreneurs 
conceive an idea and start their business without even analysing the market which often leads to 
satisfying their own ego, and the result is that they launch a product that has very few customers.  
Elements of a business opportunity 
A business opportunity may be described as an attractive economic idea which could be 
implemented to create a business, earn profits and ensure further growth. A business 
opportunity has five elements which are as follows: 
? Assured market scope 
? An attractive and acceptable rate of return on investment 
? Practicability of the idea 
? Competence of the entrepreneur to encash it 
? Potential of future growth 
Case Study-II 
Meals-on-Wheels 
How many of you have travelled long distance in Indian trains? Wouldn?t it be great to order food of 
your choice online while booking your train ticket so that it can be delivered at your seat in the train? 
That?s exactly the service TravelKhana offers to train travellers. 
The Idea 
Travel is a passion for the founders of TravelKhana and there is considerable work done in the Indian 
internet space in this sector. However, they felt, once a passenger buys a ticket, there is very little that 
technology has to offer in terms of the passenger?s needs being fulfilled for food, local transport and local 
lodging. This is an even bigger problem for the train passengers and there is a huge gap between demand 
and supply. Being someone who has suffered several times while travelling, Pushpinder came up with 
this idea of capitalizing on this opportunity. 
TravelKhana is a marketplace that connects passengers with several restaurants on the Indian rail 
network. It offers a variety of choices to a railway passenger so that the passengers can order food as per 
their liking and at their price point while they are travelling. Travelkhana.com is a Service for 
transforming the experience of the railway passenger. TravelKhana aims to solve a “food-on-the-move” 
issue by making available fresh, tasteful food to Indian Railways? commuters. Travel in India 
inefficiency and their mission is to remove those inefficiencies through operational excellence. 
The Founder  
Pushpinder Singh, CEO & Chief Architect of TravelKhana has a Masters degree in Computer Science 
from BITS-Pilani and a B.Tech from IT-BHU. He has over 15 years of software and technology industry 
experience, particularly focused around the product industry, besides having played the role of CTO in 2 
of his earlier successful ventures. 
Page 4


 1 
UNIT –1: ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITY 
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” 
– Peter Drucker 
Learning Objectives 
The learner would be able to: 
? Understand the concept and elements of business 
opportunity 
? Understand the factors involved in sensing opportunities 
? Understand the concept of environment scanning 
? Enlist the various factors affecting business environment 
? Understand the meaning of idea fields 
? Enlist the various sources of idea fields 
? Understand the technique of transformation of ideas 
into opportunities 
? Understand what is trend spotting 
? Elaborate on the creative and innovative processes 
Case Study-I  
Bull in a China Shop 
La Opala is India?s only opal glassware maker and ready to 
take on global competition.  
In the 19
th
 century, it was common to import good china 
crockery in return for opium exports from Calcutta. However, 
bone china crockery never really caught on, because it used 
cow bone ash. Even today, food is served on glass plates at 
traditional weddings for this reason. 
The porcelain and glass tableware market in India has always been strong. However, after independence 
and under foreign exchange restrictions, crockery imports tapered off and the market was filled with 
small manufacturers with products of suspect quality. 
A small glass kiln, Radha Glass, at Madhupur in Bihar, has been making tea shop glasses, jars that are 
found in the neighbourhood grocery shop, and hurricane- lamp shades for decades. The eldest son of the 
family, Sushil Jhunjhunwala, inherited his father?s business in the mid-1980s. Jhunjhunwala realised 
that nothing big could had happen, if he stuck to traditional glass products and was persuaded to look 
around. He got an idea when, in late 1980s, during a trip to South Korea, he came across an opaque 
white glass called „Opal?. Impressed by its look, he decided to manufacture it with the use of imported 
machinery – and La Opala was born in 1988. 
La Opala 
Content 
? Sensing 
Entrepreneurial 
opportunities 
? Environment scanning 
? Problem identification 
? Spotting trends 
? Creativity and 
Innovation 
? Selecting the right 
opportunity 
 2 
Jhunjhunwala?s timing was almost perfect because liberalisation and the Indian middle-class affluence 
began to bloom after 1991, and every middle-class home was gifted one or two La Opala sets at a 
wedding. “The idea was to bring out an elegant product, Indianise it and make it readily available at an 
affordable price. Also, the attractive oven – proof designs were a welcome change from the heavy 
porcelain and china tableware that dominated the Indian market at that time” recalls Jhunjhunwala.  
In 1996, Jhunjhunwala started a handmade lead-crystal glassware unit in collaboration with Doosan of 
South Korea. It was a well-placed investment because labour rates in the main crystal manufacturing 
countries were high and also because the Indian middle classes were developing a penchant for good 
glasses. Solitaire, hand-made, lead-crystal glassware making has now matured with 1,100 tpa 
production and annual sales at ` 18 crore. There are about 150 skilled workers who hand-carve crystal at 
the Madhupur plant. 
In 2007, Jhunjhunwala started a second plant in Sitarganj near Haldwani in Uttrakhand, attracted by 
the hill-state tax regime and its proximity to Delhi?s fancy market. Now, the plant capacity has just been 
doubled to 8000 tpa at an investment of ` 22 crore. La Opala, a silent performer, has reported sales of  
` 157.66 crore and a PAT of ` 22.8 crore for the year ended March 2013- an increase of 34% in revenue 
from ` 117.5 crore sales, with PAT of ` 12.6 crore, in the previous year. La Opala is the only opal 
glassware manufacturer in India and holds 40% of the ` 400 crore estimated opal glassware market, in 
competition with global brands like Corelle of Corning, US and Luminarc of France. 
Courtesy: Business India magazine, May 27 to June 9, 2013 issue 
 
Peter F. Drucker defined entrepreneur as one who always searches for an opportunity. The 
basic test of a successful entrepreneur is the identification of business opportunity in the 
environment and initiating steps to produce and sell goods and services to make the best use of 
that opportunity. 
 
What is a business opportunity? 
There are a lot of opportunities in the world of business, which everyone might not be able to 
spot. An entrepreneur should be able to spot it. Business opportunity can be described as an 
economic idea which can be implemented to create a business enterprise and earn profits. 
Before selecting an opportunity, the entrepreneur has to ensure two things-  
? There is a good market for the product he is going to produce 
? The rate of return on the investment is attractive to be accepted by him 
 3 
Only when the entrepreneur is able to fulfil these two criteria, he/she can be successful. Quite 
often, a question arises - Can all ideas be converted into opportunities? Mostly entrepreneurs 
conceive an idea and start their business without even analysing the market which often leads to 
satisfying their own ego, and the result is that they launch a product that has very few customers.  
Elements of a business opportunity 
A business opportunity may be described as an attractive economic idea which could be 
implemented to create a business, earn profits and ensure further growth. A business 
opportunity has five elements which are as follows: 
? Assured market scope 
? An attractive and acceptable rate of return on investment 
? Practicability of the idea 
? Competence of the entrepreneur to encash it 
? Potential of future growth 
Case Study-II 
Meals-on-Wheels 
How many of you have travelled long distance in Indian trains? Wouldn?t it be great to order food of 
your choice online while booking your train ticket so that it can be delivered at your seat in the train? 
That?s exactly the service TravelKhana offers to train travellers. 
The Idea 
Travel is a passion for the founders of TravelKhana and there is considerable work done in the Indian 
internet space in this sector. However, they felt, once a passenger buys a ticket, there is very little that 
technology has to offer in terms of the passenger?s needs being fulfilled for food, local transport and local 
lodging. This is an even bigger problem for the train passengers and there is a huge gap between demand 
and supply. Being someone who has suffered several times while travelling, Pushpinder came up with 
this idea of capitalizing on this opportunity. 
TravelKhana is a marketplace that connects passengers with several restaurants on the Indian rail 
network. It offers a variety of choices to a railway passenger so that the passengers can order food as per 
their liking and at their price point while they are travelling. Travelkhana.com is a Service for 
transforming the experience of the railway passenger. TravelKhana aims to solve a “food-on-the-move” 
issue by making available fresh, tasteful food to Indian Railways? commuters. Travel in India 
inefficiency and their mission is to remove those inefficiencies through operational excellence. 
The Founder  
Pushpinder Singh, CEO & Chief Architect of TravelKhana has a Masters degree in Computer Science 
from BITS-Pilani and a B.Tech from IT-BHU. He has over 15 years of software and technology industry 
experience, particularly focused around the product industry, besides having played the role of CTO in 2 
of his earlier successful ventures. 
 4 
Pushpinder was most recently the V.P Technology and acting CTO for INCA 
Informatics. He has, in the past, provided sustenance, continuity and providing 
thrust to an existing world leading product (Quark Xpress). Creation & 
contribution has been a hallmark of his career and he has been instrumental in 
creating and taking to market multiple products of repute at Quark, ARI Labs and 
Aplion Networks. 
Start-up and Growth 
We all know that Indian Railway is one of the biggest networks in the world. It?s been a backbone of 
Indian transport for more than 50 years and will always be. There are new trains launched after every 
budget, along with new or extended train routes. 8 billion people travel in India by train annually and of 
them 10% are premium users. 
The TravelKhana automated platform, tracks trains in real time across India and ensures that fresh food 
is delivered to the passenger as per their choice in real time. It also helps vendors and restaurants in 
terms of effective and efficient fulfilment. Additionally, it completes an entire fulfilment cycle right from 
the point of ordering to delivery, customer feedback and reconciliation. 
TravelKhana currently operates by offering a call center interface as well as a web interface to 
passengers. The web version is currently in beta and still undergoing changes. These interfaces will be 
followed with a Mobile App and an SMS versions. TravelKhana will take your order with a minimum of 
one hour of lead time before the train arrival at a particular station. 
The company tied up with travel agents who sell railway tickets. Travelkhana.com provides them free 
paper to print their tickets in return for advertisement space on the back of the ticket. What better way to 
reach out to your target audience! Travelkhana.com also offers each agent a login ID to the 
travelkhana.com website in case passengers want to book their meals while booking their tickets. 
TravelKhana currently operates in 30 cities and is rapidly expanding across the railway network. Now, 
they are looking at adding several cities across the Indian map and increasing the market size. They also 
plan to focus on acquiring the Internet customer using a focused marketing campaign and to work along 
with vendors such that a delightful customer experience can be provided to the customers each time with 
reliable deliveries and excellent quality of products each time an order is placed. This will require 
efficient logistics as well managing that the quality of food is consistent with each delivery. TravelKhana 
has tie-ups with about 200 vendors across 50 railway stations in the north and west and has plans to 
expand to other regions by pulling in venture capital. Once the rail business stabilises, Singh also 
intends to extend the convenience to bus passengers. 
Funding 
The founders have invested ` 20 lakhs (approximately) so far in addition to the accrued revenues from 
services. The promoters have further committed ` 30 Lakhs to the venture. They are also looking for 
raising an angel round now and are at various stages of discussions with potential investors. 
 
Pushpinder Singh 
Page 5


 1 
UNIT –1: ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITY 
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” 
– Peter Drucker 
Learning Objectives 
The learner would be able to: 
? Understand the concept and elements of business 
opportunity 
? Understand the factors involved in sensing opportunities 
? Understand the concept of environment scanning 
? Enlist the various factors affecting business environment 
? Understand the meaning of idea fields 
? Enlist the various sources of idea fields 
? Understand the technique of transformation of ideas 
into opportunities 
? Understand what is trend spotting 
? Elaborate on the creative and innovative processes 
Case Study-I  
Bull in a China Shop 
La Opala is India?s only opal glassware maker and ready to 
take on global competition.  
In the 19
th
 century, it was common to import good china 
crockery in return for opium exports from Calcutta. However, 
bone china crockery never really caught on, because it used 
cow bone ash. Even today, food is served on glass plates at 
traditional weddings for this reason. 
The porcelain and glass tableware market in India has always been strong. However, after independence 
and under foreign exchange restrictions, crockery imports tapered off and the market was filled with 
small manufacturers with products of suspect quality. 
A small glass kiln, Radha Glass, at Madhupur in Bihar, has been making tea shop glasses, jars that are 
found in the neighbourhood grocery shop, and hurricane- lamp shades for decades. The eldest son of the 
family, Sushil Jhunjhunwala, inherited his father?s business in the mid-1980s. Jhunjhunwala realised 
that nothing big could had happen, if he stuck to traditional glass products and was persuaded to look 
around. He got an idea when, in late 1980s, during a trip to South Korea, he came across an opaque 
white glass called „Opal?. Impressed by its look, he decided to manufacture it with the use of imported 
machinery – and La Opala was born in 1988. 
La Opala 
Content 
? Sensing 
Entrepreneurial 
opportunities 
? Environment scanning 
? Problem identification 
? Spotting trends 
? Creativity and 
Innovation 
? Selecting the right 
opportunity 
 2 
Jhunjhunwala?s timing was almost perfect because liberalisation and the Indian middle-class affluence 
began to bloom after 1991, and every middle-class home was gifted one or two La Opala sets at a 
wedding. “The idea was to bring out an elegant product, Indianise it and make it readily available at an 
affordable price. Also, the attractive oven – proof designs were a welcome change from the heavy 
porcelain and china tableware that dominated the Indian market at that time” recalls Jhunjhunwala.  
In 1996, Jhunjhunwala started a handmade lead-crystal glassware unit in collaboration with Doosan of 
South Korea. It was a well-placed investment because labour rates in the main crystal manufacturing 
countries were high and also because the Indian middle classes were developing a penchant for good 
glasses. Solitaire, hand-made, lead-crystal glassware making has now matured with 1,100 tpa 
production and annual sales at ` 18 crore. There are about 150 skilled workers who hand-carve crystal at 
the Madhupur plant. 
In 2007, Jhunjhunwala started a second plant in Sitarganj near Haldwani in Uttrakhand, attracted by 
the hill-state tax regime and its proximity to Delhi?s fancy market. Now, the plant capacity has just been 
doubled to 8000 tpa at an investment of ` 22 crore. La Opala, a silent performer, has reported sales of  
` 157.66 crore and a PAT of ` 22.8 crore for the year ended March 2013- an increase of 34% in revenue 
from ` 117.5 crore sales, with PAT of ` 12.6 crore, in the previous year. La Opala is the only opal 
glassware manufacturer in India and holds 40% of the ` 400 crore estimated opal glassware market, in 
competition with global brands like Corelle of Corning, US and Luminarc of France. 
Courtesy: Business India magazine, May 27 to June 9, 2013 issue 
 
Peter F. Drucker defined entrepreneur as one who always searches for an opportunity. The 
basic test of a successful entrepreneur is the identification of business opportunity in the 
environment and initiating steps to produce and sell goods and services to make the best use of 
that opportunity. 
 
What is a business opportunity? 
There are a lot of opportunities in the world of business, which everyone might not be able to 
spot. An entrepreneur should be able to spot it. Business opportunity can be described as an 
economic idea which can be implemented to create a business enterprise and earn profits. 
Before selecting an opportunity, the entrepreneur has to ensure two things-  
? There is a good market for the product he is going to produce 
? The rate of return on the investment is attractive to be accepted by him 
 3 
Only when the entrepreneur is able to fulfil these two criteria, he/she can be successful. Quite 
often, a question arises - Can all ideas be converted into opportunities? Mostly entrepreneurs 
conceive an idea and start their business without even analysing the market which often leads to 
satisfying their own ego, and the result is that they launch a product that has very few customers.  
Elements of a business opportunity 
A business opportunity may be described as an attractive economic idea which could be 
implemented to create a business, earn profits and ensure further growth. A business 
opportunity has five elements which are as follows: 
? Assured market scope 
? An attractive and acceptable rate of return on investment 
? Practicability of the idea 
? Competence of the entrepreneur to encash it 
? Potential of future growth 
Case Study-II 
Meals-on-Wheels 
How many of you have travelled long distance in Indian trains? Wouldn?t it be great to order food of 
your choice online while booking your train ticket so that it can be delivered at your seat in the train? 
That?s exactly the service TravelKhana offers to train travellers. 
The Idea 
Travel is a passion for the founders of TravelKhana and there is considerable work done in the Indian 
internet space in this sector. However, they felt, once a passenger buys a ticket, there is very little that 
technology has to offer in terms of the passenger?s needs being fulfilled for food, local transport and local 
lodging. This is an even bigger problem for the train passengers and there is a huge gap between demand 
and supply. Being someone who has suffered several times while travelling, Pushpinder came up with 
this idea of capitalizing on this opportunity. 
TravelKhana is a marketplace that connects passengers with several restaurants on the Indian rail 
network. It offers a variety of choices to a railway passenger so that the passengers can order food as per 
their liking and at their price point while they are travelling. Travelkhana.com is a Service for 
transforming the experience of the railway passenger. TravelKhana aims to solve a “food-on-the-move” 
issue by making available fresh, tasteful food to Indian Railways? commuters. Travel in India 
inefficiency and their mission is to remove those inefficiencies through operational excellence. 
The Founder  
Pushpinder Singh, CEO & Chief Architect of TravelKhana has a Masters degree in Computer Science 
from BITS-Pilani and a B.Tech from IT-BHU. He has over 15 years of software and technology industry 
experience, particularly focused around the product industry, besides having played the role of CTO in 2 
of his earlier successful ventures. 
 4 
Pushpinder was most recently the V.P Technology and acting CTO for INCA 
Informatics. He has, in the past, provided sustenance, continuity and providing 
thrust to an existing world leading product (Quark Xpress). Creation & 
contribution has been a hallmark of his career and he has been instrumental in 
creating and taking to market multiple products of repute at Quark, ARI Labs and 
Aplion Networks. 
Start-up and Growth 
We all know that Indian Railway is one of the biggest networks in the world. It?s been a backbone of 
Indian transport for more than 50 years and will always be. There are new trains launched after every 
budget, along with new or extended train routes. 8 billion people travel in India by train annually and of 
them 10% are premium users. 
The TravelKhana automated platform, tracks trains in real time across India and ensures that fresh food 
is delivered to the passenger as per their choice in real time. It also helps vendors and restaurants in 
terms of effective and efficient fulfilment. Additionally, it completes an entire fulfilment cycle right from 
the point of ordering to delivery, customer feedback and reconciliation. 
TravelKhana currently operates by offering a call center interface as well as a web interface to 
passengers. The web version is currently in beta and still undergoing changes. These interfaces will be 
followed with a Mobile App and an SMS versions. TravelKhana will take your order with a minimum of 
one hour of lead time before the train arrival at a particular station. 
The company tied up with travel agents who sell railway tickets. Travelkhana.com provides them free 
paper to print their tickets in return for advertisement space on the back of the ticket. What better way to 
reach out to your target audience! Travelkhana.com also offers each agent a login ID to the 
travelkhana.com website in case passengers want to book their meals while booking their tickets. 
TravelKhana currently operates in 30 cities and is rapidly expanding across the railway network. Now, 
they are looking at adding several cities across the Indian map and increasing the market size. They also 
plan to focus on acquiring the Internet customer using a focused marketing campaign and to work along 
with vendors such that a delightful customer experience can be provided to the customers each time with 
reliable deliveries and excellent quality of products each time an order is placed. This will require 
efficient logistics as well managing that the quality of food is consistent with each delivery. TravelKhana 
has tie-ups with about 200 vendors across 50 railway stations in the north and west and has plans to 
expand to other regions by pulling in venture capital. Once the rail business stabilises, Singh also 
intends to extend the convenience to bus passengers. 
Funding 
The founders have invested ` 20 lakhs (approximately) so far in addition to the accrued revenues from 
services. The promoters have further committed ` 30 Lakhs to the venture. They are also looking for 
raising an angel round now and are at various stages of discussions with potential investors. 
 
Pushpinder Singh 
 5 
Challenges 
While starting up, they faced several challenges such as focused customer acquisition, training the 
vendors with the process, operations and logistics management and resistance from existing and 
established players. While the aspects related to logistics management are aided by the platform 
technology, TravelKhana continues to work on others. 
 
Exploring opportunities in the environment 
A prospective entrepreneur has to find an opportunity which would be suitable for him/her in 
terms of customers to be served and profits expected. An opportunity may be derived from the 
needs and problems of the society.  
 
Enterprise Process Diagram 
This diagram shows the following stages:  
i) Opportunity spotting by analysing the needs and problems that exist in the environment 
ii) Evaluating the ideas received from different sources to find a creative solution 
iii) Identifying a product or service through innovation 
iv) Setting up a project and nurturing it to success  
Sensing entrepreneurial opportunities is thus a process of converting an idea into an 
opportunity and then into an enterprise. We can see clearly that the first stage is to spot the 
needs by looking into the needs and problems that exist. For example, in the second case study 
on TravelKhana, we can clearly see that the entrepreneur struck on the idea of starting the 
venture when he faced problems himself, while travelling. It is then he saw the opportunity that 
people are ready to pay money for good quality food while travelling.  
Perceiving and sensing opportunities 
The entrepreneurs perceive opportunities, synthesize the available information and analyse 
emerging patterns that escape the attention of other people. They are people with vision, 
capable of persuading others such as customers, partners, employees and suppliers to see the 
opportunity, share and support it.  
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Problems         
  
Needs 
Opportunity 
Spotting 
Creativity 
and Ideas 
Innovation 
and 
product 
Project 
Business