Professor Gulbash Duggal Brings A Fresh Perspective On How Entrepreneurship & Intent Go Hand In Hand

• BySheetal Sidhu     |    August 28, 2021

Prof Gulbash Duggal comes with over 26 years of experience both as an entrepreneur as well as a design academician. Her focus is on mentoring the start-ups in the design industry from identifying challenges and opportunities to building the right intent.

Prof. Gulbash Duggal and Startup Story had a very enlightening, engaging and quite a light-hearted conversation about Start-ups and their mind-sets. The tête-à-tête took us through her journey starting as any other regular student to being a design professional she is today, coming a long way since then.

She graduated in Interior Design following her passion for creativity, which led her to take-up on some really great design projects as a freelancer. Prof. Duggal then forayed into taking up guest lectures in various design schools which intrigued her on the pedagogy to be incorporated in training the new breed of design entrepreneurs. This also became the point of initiation of her Doctoral Research in Designing Design Education and Challenges in Entrepreneurship.

As a Dean at International College of Fashion, she is profoundly interested in fashion and Design Entrepreneurship to help her students to not just be designers but also to know the business of it…..”Creating Good Designs make you a Good Designer…..selling your Designs make you a Successful Designer!” says Prof. Gulbash; With that mind-set she has helped her students look at the business aspect in design education as well.

Juggling Between Roles and Responsibilities

“I am extremely self-motivated”, Prof. Gulbash Duggal, Dean, the International College of Fashion said when asked about how she handles different roles and responsibilities. Elaborating the same she said that if she finds herself facing a roadblock, she gets doubly energised to take the tasks through. She added that she enjoys working and she dosen’t mind the long hours and late nights, thus answering the question by Startup story what excites her rather than stopping her to reach the unfathomable.

As for making decisions in her life, Professor Duggal replied that in her initial days she would take things spontaneously and went with the flow, but in the present with all her experiences she likes to plan (….plan-A, plan B…..C..D…E….) and chart out what she wants to do and is looking out to do next! Adding on she also said that planning helps, at least mark your goal on your business GPS; further she said that while interacting with her students and discussing on the subject of entrepreneurship, it becomes utterly necessary to give yourself a definite plan. As in business, one needs to have a set path and an ultimate goal, just like on Google maps the road mapped out helps one reach their desired destination. And if there are diversions that would call for spontaneity and brining your back-up plans into action.

What Is In Store For The Future

Professor Duggal shared with Startup Story that she is now actively taking on more consulting assignments for mentoring start-ups in the design industry. Prof. Duggal also enjoys learning and so she takes up various courses in various topics of interest and strives to learn more and accumulate knowledge. “Collecting certificates is my hobby”…she laughs. Writing a book on Design Entrepreneurship is her current project that she is working on.

The Advice Professor Gulbash Duggal Shares As A Mentor

When asked about what was the key advice that she shared with her students and others while mentoring them, Professor Duggal replied, that the aspirants must never depend on being spoonfed at every step…..be creative and be bold; jump into the pool if you want to learn to swim. Get out there pull up your sleeves and get hands on experience. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes!, she believes that without experimentation learning doesn’t happen. Adding on she said, “You’ll be blessed for life if your first boss is a task master”; they will ensure your success in the future.

Sharing her own experience she said that she had a very difficult boss in the beginning of her career and in order to prove herself, she would challenge herself more that helped her learn, improvise and improve a great deal. I learned never to give-up on a task, she added.

Her First Encounter With The Start-up World

Walking us down memory lane and sharing her experience about the same, she said that they have been teaching fashion entrepreneurship at ICF as it is quite important for the students to not just be creative but also to understand the business aspects of the industry and the market. She further told us that they started off to help their student start their own ventures while in college, which led her deeper into the world of start-up’s as she guides her students every step of the way.

The Journey Of Growth

Professor Duggal said that despite having dealt in different fields she feels that they are all closely knit together and inter related.  She usually cites an example to her students, that to bake a fluffy delicious cake one needs the right ingredients the right proportions; you misjudge the measures the cake will fall flat…similarly, the business of design is not about just one thing (i.e. design) it is a proper blend a number of things including being able to make connections, marketing, planning, e-commerce and launching a successful business.

Thoughts About Startup Story

What intrigued Prof Gulbash Duggal the most about Startup Story was “willingness to guide people” interacting with a mixed blend of the young generation. She loves the core idea of sharing stories that acts as a basis for others to learn as well as helps built a network.

A Message For The Readers

“Go ahead and take that plunge, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, you might and will fall… get up and start again…just the way you learnt how to walk as a toddler. Don’t worry about what people say just be focussed and keep going.” Professor Gulbash Duggal.

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