From ad-hoc Excel templates to structured planning: Myra School of Business with Upmetrics
Company Overview
Prof. Sanjay Dwivedi is a Chartered Accountant (UK), CISA, and CERT-IFRS professional serving as a Visiting Professor at Myra School of Business. He teaches Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management to PGDM students and entrepreneurship to doctoral research fellows at NSL, Pune.
Beyond academia, Prof. Sanjay is a startup coach, digital transformation consultant specializing in LEAN Six Sigma, and an ecosystem builder, having served as President of ISPAI and council member at the Mysuru Entrepreneurship Forum.
His work spans classroom teaching, startup coaching, intrapreneurship programs for MNCs, and corporate finance training.
Key features used: Business plan builder, AI writing assistant, collaboration & sharing.
The Challenge
Teaching entrepreneurship to graduate students without a structured planning tool meant ad-hoc submissions, inconsistent formats, and disengaged learners who struggled to translate ideas into viable business plans.
Prof. Sanjay follows the Ash Maurya Lean Startup method in his teaching. A methodology that demands structure and iteration. But without the right platform, students submitted plans in scattered Excel templates with no standardized framework.
“Students would submit ad-hoc templates in Excel in a non-systematic manner,” Prof. Sanjay told us.
The impact on engagement was immediate. “Without structure, students flounder and switch off easily,” he explains. “Attention is the most difficult challenge for students to focus.” When planning felt chaotic, students lost momentum, and learning outcomes suffered.
Prof. Sanjay had used LivePlan in various formats since 1998, but costs had become prohibitive, especially when deploying across entire student cohorts and coaching clients. He needed a platform that could deliver comparable depth at a fraction of the price.
The Solution
Upmetrics gave Prof. Sanjay's students a structured, AI-assisted planning environment — replacing scattered Excel templates with guided business plan creation that aligned with his Lean Startup teaching methodology.
Guided, drag-and-drop business plan builder
Upmetrics’ structured format directly addressed Prof. Sanjay’s core problem: inconsistency. The platform’s step-by-step builder gave students a clear framework, replacing blank spreadsheets with logical, guided sections.
“The platform UI/UX is logical and easy to use,” Prof. Sanjay notes. Students could focus on substance — market analysis, revenue models, competitive positioning — rather than wrestling with formatting. The structured approach aligned naturally with the Lean Startup methodology, turning what Prof. Sanjay describes as “unclear methods into structured work.
AI writing assistant
For many of Prof. Sanjay’s students, English is not their first language, creating an additional barrier in articulating business ideas professionally.
Upmetrics’ AI writing assistant bridged that gap. “As English is not the first language of many students, the AI writer tool helps,” Prof. Sanjay explains. Students could draft their thoughts and use the AI assistant to refine language and improve clarity, producing professional-quality sections without losing their original intent.
From classroom to coaching
What sets Prof. Sanjay’s use apart is how Upmetrics extends beyond the classroom. He recommends the platform to startup coaching clients, advising them to “not only draw up business plans but also do the variance analysis with actuals.” This dual use, as both a teaching tool and a live planning platform, reinforces the practical relevance of what students learn.
The Impact
Over three years of using Upmetrics, Prof. Sanjay has seen a clear shift in student output — from ad-hoc, inconsistent submissions to structured, professional-quality business plans delivered on time.
When asked about the changes, Prof. Sanjay pointed to two key improvements: “Clarity and presentation finesse.” Students now produce better-quality plans and submit them consistently, a notable shift from previous years.
Student feedback has been equally positive. “Students love using it as it cuts down on having to design Excel sheets and do proposals,” Prof. Sanjay shared. By removing the friction of formatting, Upmetrics lets students focus on thinking critically about their business models.
When asked whether he’d recommend Upmetrics to other educators, his response was immediate: “Absolutely. I already do that informally.”
Upmetrics for Educators and Business Schools
“Absolutely. I already do that informally,” says Prof. Sanjay Dwivedi when asked if he’d recommend Upmetrics to fellow educators.
Educators and business schools need planning tools that simplify complex concepts while maintaining professional depth. Upmetrics provides exactly that: a structured, AI-assisted platform that bridges the gap between classroom theory and hands-on planning. Explore Upmetrics’ solutions for educators and business schools.
