On the Road

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Adithya Rao

It was the night of the 31st of December when we were driving on the road from Meikudipatti, a small hamlet near Thanjavur towards to Trichy on the state highway. It’s a narrow 2 lane road with a reasonable amount of traffic going both ways throughout the night. Our driver had to make a sharp turn to avoid a stack of grain by the side of the road, covered by a sheet of tarpaulin and sticks. When you pass through Indian country sides this is a regular sight during harvest season. What we saw that night however was unprecedented – a family of 4 sleeping along with their harvest.
Considering how it takes about 3 days to separate grains of rice from the harvested plant, this family of four was sleeping on a state highway, risking life and limb for about 12 days in a year. We were startled, perplexed and sad to see what they had to put themselves through to put food on the plate.
To understand better, we needed a better understanding of the mechanics and economics of agriculture in the area.
So, we met Mr. Jagan Nath – A rice farmer who grows rice along with his family and chooses to process the rice from his fields along with his family on the very same state highway. He harvests about 10 bags of about 60 kg each from his marginal holding of 1 acre (about 4047 sq m or 43560 sq ft), employing only his family members to do the cultivation and harvesting.

He explained that the process of extracting the rice from the plant begins with harvesting the plant from the fields and bringing it to the roads near the village. Threshing is done by pounding the straw against a small rock. The ladies help by bunching the straw in handy batches. Because some of the grains remain in the straw and it requires considerable effort to remove,  they spend time on the busy highway first spreading out the hay all across the breadth of the highway. The wheels of passing vehicles thresh the straw as they go by. While doing so, not only do the farmers expose themselves to the risk of passing vehicles, they also risk a flash shower (A common phenomenon during the retreating monsoons) that may reduce the grain quality and possibly spoil the grain quicker than expected.
The grains are then winnowed and sold to the local rice mill. The farmer exchanges about 60 kg of rough rice (with husk) for 50 kg of polished rice for his consumption only. The entire exercise yields less than a ton of rice per acre and lasts up to three days with the involvement of about six labourers. He pointed out that apart from the apparent problems with the entire process, theft is common with the grains lying on the road and sleeping here for three days was inevitable if he had to ensure food on the plate until the next harvest.
Rice harvesters should be a boon in this situation; they are able to harvest vast patches of land with relative ease. Completing the entire cycle listed above in a matter of hours and gives much better yields than the manual process. So, why the resistance?
1. Size of farms: Most farmers like Mr. Jagan Nath have very small land holdings, sometimes so small that a large harvesting machine can’t even move inside the field.
2. Labor: Most of the labor that works in these farms is the family themselves. If they don’t work here, they have nothing else to do. Also, considering the size of these farms, the revenue generated is probably not sufficient to pay for outside labor anyway.
3. Resistance to change: There is a massive risk from experimenting with the small amounts of rice these farmers get; any fluctuations can spell doom to these families.
These challenges throw up a large and demanding market for young innovators to create solutions that cater to the needs of the small and marginal farmer to help him spend his nights in his home rather than on the road, anxious for food and life.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Business at the Base of the Pyramid – My First Experience with Indian Emerging Markets

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Ankit Tulysan
There has been a lot of buzz over the past couple of years about emerging markets in developing countries with India being a favorite destination. With the gradual realization of the need to leverage market forces to alleviate poverty and the theme of social entrepreneurship as an effective cure to some of the world’s ailments, I received an opportunity to experience this wave of change through a new fellowship program – The Piramal Fellowship for Sustainable Business.

Already bitten by the insect of change, it took me no time to decide to leave my original path, as a Chemical Engineer working at Thermax (one of the most respected corporations of India), and board this train to begin a journey of change.

On Dec 1st 2011, I joined Sarvajal which operates a rural franchising model to provide accessible and affordable (30 Paisa/Litre), pure drinking water to all. Operating 125 franchises in four states, and serving 70,000 customers, Sarvajal was gearing up to multiply the numbers and I wanted to serve as a direct catalyst to the fuelling reaction.

During my first field visits, I went to see one of our franchisees in a village called “Choti Pacheri,”  about 20 km from the Copper Khetri mines, and joined  Praveen one of our FRM (Franchisee Relationship Management) executives for a door to door campaign to spread the word about our “Customer Referral Scheme” – a new initiative for increasing customers.

I was taken aback when I saw, at one of the households, a woman using the traditional chullah (stove with no ventilation).  She is a loyal Sarvajal customer, paying six rupees every day for a bottle of water. A thousand thoughts ran through my mind. Though I have not kept track, I am sure that out of nearly 20 families I interacted with by the end of that day, almost half of them were using the same chullahs. Although many of the villagers were wearing no “chappals” (sandals), they had decent mobile phones and were buying Sarvajal water.

During one of our sales workshops organized exclusively to train our Franchisee Building Team, we split up and went into talukas/villages of the Tonk district of Rajasthan. The geography was completely new to us and each team had the target to create at least two franchises in their respective regions by end of the workshop in five days.

A typical Sarvajal franchisee is relatively well off compared to other people in his community as he has to have borewell, space for keeping our machine and he has to make certain financial commitments before he starts earning a profit.

We soon learned that however rich a person may be, he will still takes his own time to believe in you, your sales pitch, and then buy into the concept. Although there were no perfect conversions, there were some interesting observations that emerged out of the sales workshop:

• Customers who have a high capital/resource stake requirement should come to you rather than you going to them. Earning their trust is neither easy nor economical.

• One man I encountered told me “brother, in this market you find both good and bad people. I know you are doing good but unfortunately, I can’t trust you. This was an eye opener for all of us working with an organization trying to do good work.  Since they have been cheated before, it’s a simple “Once Bitten Twice Shy” theory which applies.

• For a new business, a good way to deal with this trust problem, especially in new geographies, is to create strong relationships. Cold calling is an effective tool only if you spend a considerable amount of time showing the value proposition and giving right amount of settling time. It’s important to remember not to wait for too long to follow-up or else the new relationship may sour.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

From Cyber City to Reality…

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Avantika Dhingra
Have you ever felt that you’re running away from your ‘true calling?’  Questioned the path that you’re on and wondered if this is really what you set out to do? Found yourself running after time, suddenly realizing that you don’t have the luxury to sit back and wait? Well, these were some of the questions that went through my mind when I took the big leap and shifted to a social enterprise, from a fantastically well-cushioned corporate job!

Gurgaon is said to have it all, often described as the ‘millennium city’ …  The high rise buildings, state of the art architecture with snazzy glasswork, some 26 malls, seven golf courses, women in their best foot wear, businessmen looking as though they have come right out of ‘men in black’ and basically, the works!

Everybody has their own little space in these mammoth glass chambers. I had my tiny space in a building called ‘Cyber City’ and yes, it is as fancy as it sounds! One NYTimes article called it “a futuristic commercial hub housing many of the world’s most respected corporations.”  That was me…a tiny dot in the 2 lac something working population in Gurgaon and the so called respected corporations!

I worked for a Danish company, with a work force of close to 17000 people and around 325 offices in 125 countries; global in every sense of the word. Had the privilege of understanding the inner workings of a multi national, the values they set for themselves, the vision and goals that they strive to achieve and the very fabric that defines who they are.
Lets take a breather here and let me take you to the other side of town.

Lado Sarai, also referred to as the Lado Sadai ‘village,’ is situated behind a multi storied fashion accessories mall. My office doesn’t really have a landmark of its own, so we borrow it from our neighbor, Punjab National Bank, which everyone seems to be very familiar with in the neighborhood.

I work for an Indian organization, with a core team of 5 individuals including the CEO, it’s a start up in every sense of the word!

I’ve been here for about three weeks now and it’s been, for lack of better words, different! It’s the small things that take a while to get used to. I remember calling a friend back in my old office and overhearing chatter and realizing how much I miss ‘noise’ in the office. I miss not seeing people around me. I miss not having a food court or a half decent restaurant around my office offering options beyond home food. I miss the little gossip sessions at our lunch table in the cafeteria. I miss celebrating festivals, birthdays, and milestones… I miss celebrations!

But here’s what I don’t miss. I don’t miss the feeling of nothingness when I come back home everyday. I don’t miss the constant questioning (although that is something I highly recommend). I don’t miss counting the number of days to my birthday thinking how another year has passed, and I definitely don’t miss New Years Eve where I sat down to make those resolutions … yet again!

This is as ‘real’ as it gets for me.  I work with an enterprise that works to create a market for rural based craftsmen and artisans thereby generating livelihood for them. One can debate the ‘social’ aspect for hours together but I believe in the cause we’re working for, and for once, I believe that the work I do will make a difference. I was having a little chat with my CEO the other day, who is an IIM graduate, worked with two multinationals and has now chosen this unconventional path. I asked her what motivates her to come to work everyday and she said one word that pretty much summed it up for me… ‘PRIDE.’

Well, seeing a container with a seven-pointed blue star, in the wee hours of the night, still puts a smile on my face. I am nostalgic about the four years I gave to my previous organization and I hope to never look back on a day with regret. As of now though, I wish to experience the same sense of pride and feel comforted in the shadow of ‘the tree.’

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Fighting for Food Justice from an Office?

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Sumita Mitra
All of us have unique reasons for choosing this fellowship. Some of us came from structured corporate jobs and felt like something was missing. Others felt like it was was time for a change. I didn’t come from either of these backgrounds; in fact quite the opposite. For the last year I was living in a small Rajasthani village teaching theater and music for social change. I had spent my year molding myself into the village life, learning how to solve problems with minimal resources and living as simply as possible.

While the transition to a more structured work environment seems pretty normal for people my age, I had worried with how different it would feel. In the village my days weren’t so structured, I barely used my computer, and I could spend hours talking to farmers about their lives. Now I spend a fair amount of time in front of my computer, outline my tasks for the day, and a develope a different sort of relationship with the farmers we work with. And while all these things are different, I’m learning that it’s not necessarily bad.

Many of my closest friends were surprised. I had greatly cherished my experience in the field, and I occasionally, all right, often express my desire to go back to the village and get milk fresh from the buffalo. As I thought about this, and the number of things that were difficult to adjust to in the city, I concluded that while I had perhaps compromised on time spent wandering the fields of India, I hadn’t compromised on my values or my passions.

In my ideal world, I see a space where farmers earn what they deserve, where they aren’t in debt from buying GM (genetically modified) seeds or synthetic chemical inputs. I see their families being healthier since they won’t have pesticides on their clothes, or under their fingernails. The farm is a hotspot of biodiversity, and technology is not to force nature to produce more but help nature produce better. But mostly, I see justice for the small farmer, for he or she is one that we rely most on and respect the least.

But it hasn’t been simple transitioning, or understanding my new role. On a trip to a village in Haryana, I thought about the changing dynamics in my interactions with the farmers. I thought of how it felt like I was creating business partnerships, because I wasn’t there long enough to create what I thought was a real relationship. However, on the ride home I realized it wasn’t so important that we became friends, but that the farmer trusted me- and that was a real relationship. He had to know I would do everything I could to ensure the successful sale of his organic produce and that I carefully understood his needs.

We have a lot of agency in how we choose to live, what we choose to do with our skills. I have a degree in econ and an obsession with food justice, and while those things might not mean much in the world it means I can still use my hands to add value to someone else’s life. And maybe I am far away from the farmers I serve, but that doesn’t mean I have to live with less intensity, integrity, or willingness to learn.

I suppose one thing about the village was that I could immediately see the fruits of my interactions, and I would go to bed after a day of seeing smiles on faces or being called “Didi” (older sister). Being far away makes that difficult. But I’m wondering if it’s not so much  where I am, but who I am being and what I do that is the most important. The memory of the the farmers from my previous village drives me. It is their stories I hold close as I write this blogpost, call paper bag suppliers, or finalize warehouse operations. The lessons I learned from my previous year, being fearless, trying new things, forcing myself out of my comfort zone has made the transition to sitting behind a computer easier. And when I am in the field, I will continue to want to hold babies, let the women tease me about my unmarried status, and not be afraid to get my hands in some cow dung.

I suppose the biggest thing for me right now is to constantly remind myself of the why behind it all. When I look at the big picture, and the end goal being poverty eradication it makes things much much simpler. Even transitioning from khadi kurtas to business suits, or from avoiding runaway buffalos to avoiding crazy rickshaw drivers. And spending hours under open sky to hours in an office. But in a sense it hasn’t been some cataclysmic event as I thought it would be. Maybe I’m not at the grassroots as often anymore, but I’m only slightly higher up the blade. Somewhere in the middle where I can keep learning, fighting for rights, and using business to create my vision for a better world.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

My first day in the field.

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Joyce Jauer
I hit the ground running my first week at SMV Wheels. Amid doing the usual getting settled errands like buying bed sheets and registering with the FRRO, I selected our company ISP, updated our social media, and started building a balanced scorecard.


But yesterday was the first opportunity I had to go with one of our field officers on his collection route. We started the day with our mechanic’s workshop. I saw the workers assembling a traditional rickshaw: the detailed painting and designs on the carriage, the bolts that connect it to the chassis, and the gears that make the machine move. It was great to see the how our rickshaws are put together so that I understand how they work and what maintenance needs to be done. Having just had my bike tuned up at home, I could follow along with the braking system and construction. I was surprised to learn that it only takes 4 hours for a rickshaw to be fully assembled. I was also surprised (and at the same time, not at all surprised) to see the workshop to be in what I consider to be a disarray: some of the work was being done on a median in the middle of the road and the tools were scattered about the walls and floor. And somehow the work is done masterfully. Amazing.

Then we went on the collection route. A few weeks back we started to allow a designee to pay on behalf of our client so we travel around to their homes and someone like a wife or father provides the installment. It was great to see where our clients live and meet their families. Most of them are delighted to have a new visitor and were happy to meet me. A few wanted me to come in and see their homes. Of course there is an exception to every rule. One client’s wife was angry that we wouldn’t fix a rickshaw part that was well past its warranty; one of the staff who has since been dismissed had promised things that he couldn’t and told them our company would take care of replacing parts that the drivers should maintain themselves. This reminded me how important it is to communicate our business model and company policies effectively to our clients as well as the need to hire human resources who are honest and in the business for the right reasons. Part of my job here is perfecting our systems so that we’re ready to scale—note to self: ensure clear policies and conduct ethics case interview for new hires.

Our collections process is designed to ensure accurate reporting as well as help the client keep track of his progress. The client gives the field officer a wad of cash, which the latter then counts and makes sure is the correct amount according to that day’s collection route list. Then the field officer writes out a receipt with the expected amount, the paid amount, and the client’s name which the client (or designee) then signs. The original stays with the client, and a carbon copy stays in the receipt book. Then the field officer makes an entry on a blue installment card that shows each payment so that the client can track their progress. By the end of the day, I was accepting the cash and making the receipts myself!

On our way home in the Varanasi traffic (which is out of control, by the way) we were going very slow as a jam was clearing and I saw something that made me so thankful that I’m at SMV Wheels. There was an altercation between a rickshaw driver and a car driver. I’m not sure what caused it, but it seemed like the rickshaw driver had run into the car while trying to make a right turn across traffic. There was no visible damage to the car, but the car driver had gotten out of his vehicle and was both verbally and physically assaulting the rickshaw driver. The image is burned into my memory.

Rickshaw drivers are one of the more marginalized members of society here. They earn about Rs.250 a day. They work long days of physical labor and suffer abuse from fleet owners if they don’t own their vehicle, from police officers if they don’t have the proper licenses, and even from patrons. In the community, there is a high incidence of communicable diseases like TB and malaria as well as a high incidence of HIV/AIDS; they suffer from malnutrition, tobacco addiction, and alcoholism. Perhaps this rickshaw driver was at fault, but he was half the size of the car driver, who looked like he had had a few too many doses of protein powder and muscle milk, was wearing designer western clothes, and had drove his own vehicle. The power imbalance was striking.

One of the things that attracted me to the company was the vision to not only increase the livelihoods of these folks but also give them dignity as well. Just like anyone, I can imagine how asset ownership could provide as sense of pride, but now I get to see it. Our clients are so happy to have their *own* vehicle that they can take home with them at the end of the day and decorate as they like. Usually, they return the rickshaw to a fleet owner and pay a daily rental fee that cuts into their earnings. SMV’s clients pay a little bit more than what the daily rental fee would be with a fleet owner but with the ability to have their own asset at the end of their 54 weekly installments. I’ve had our clients stop me in the street to say hello and show me their rickshaw. I can’t wait to see delivery day—our workshop partner says they are so excited. Sometimes they bring their whole family or bring treats or go to temple straight after to give thanks. Something to look forward to!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Changing the world, one young entrepreneur at a time.

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Bhavna Toor

One out of every 2 Indians today is under the age of 25. Most agree that this is a good thing. Some express concern over whether the country will be able to create enough opportunities for the 200 million+ young men and women that will be graduating from college over the next 10 – 15 years. But, very few acknowledge the power of the youth to create their own opportunities. The youth, after-all, does not just consist of passive actors waiting for the society to absorb them or to hand them opportunities on a platter. They are powerful change-agents in their own right with the ability to shape and reshape the world around them according to their hopes and dreams, and their vision of a world that they would like to live in and lead in.

The biggest drivers of progress in any society are entrepreneurship and innovation. Over the past year, as I have been traveling the length and breadth of the country, interacting with the youth, I am finding more and more young people infused with an entrepreneurial spirit. What is especially beautiful and awe-inspiring is that they are using their entrepreneurial drive and moral imagination to come up with powerful solutions for a whole host of social problems.

Look at Sandeep Mehto, for instance. He saw that in the district that he belongs to – Hoshandabad, in Madhya Pradesh, 90% of the people live below the poverty line, the literacy rate is as low 40%, and of the handful that do complete their schooling, most drop out and never go to college. Grateful that he was the first person in his family to go beyond primary school; in fact, he went on to get a masters degree in social enterprise from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, he formed a vision to see to it that every child has the opportunity to access higher education, if that is what he or she desires. He started a venture called Bharat Calling, through which he is working in the tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh to train, support and mentor students to pursue higher education. If that means he has to travel 300 kilometers to accompany a student that needs to take an entrance exam, and sleep on the railway platform while he waits, so be it. That’s the level of his commitment. Just over a year into operation, he has already helped over 50 students, a majority of whom are girls, from the poorest parts of Madhya Pradesh, go to some of the top universities in India.

The great thing about the current young generation in India is that they grew up in an India that was already well on its way to making economic progress. Their vision for India, therefore, is remarkably different from the generations prior because they are not constrained by India’s past. They have no memory of it! Where others see failures, they see new possibilities. Where others feel resignation, they feel hope. Where others are trapped in old beliefs and systems, they are willing to try something new. Where others see differences, they see oneness. They don’t accept the inequalities that they see around them as a given. The model of development that they embrace is one of inclusive growth, where no one gets left behind.

India is home to the world’s largest population of street children, estimated at well over 11 million. India is also home to over 20 million orphans, that’s almost half of all children under 12 years old. These children need love and attention just as much as any child would, but most would be happy if someone were to just call them by their name. At the same time, there is a significant population of the elderly in the country that, after having retired, does not feel as useful in society anymore. Shyamali Rathore had a brilliant idea. How about you bring the two groups together, and have them engage in a simple activity – planting a tree, which is then named after the child. This is what we call a win-win-win situation. The child feels special, the elderly feel significant again, and the environment benefits. It’s a simple idea, perhaps so simple it could only come from a young heart. But then again, there always is great power in simplicity.

In fact, it’s all the more reason to empower young people to run with their ideas because when you’re young you naturally dream big, you are more willing to take risks, to try something new, and to embrace change. Armed with endless energy, enthusiasm and optimism, you find it in you to make things happen. And, once you set a precedent for taking charge when you’re young, you create a strong foundation upon which to lead for the rest of your life, because the conviction and confidence that you have the power to change the world never leaves you, and you draw upon it again and again and again.

What would you expect an engineering graduate from IIT, which is widely believed to be one of the most highly acclaimed universities in India, indeed in the world, to do? A) Get a lucrative job at a large multinational company – in banking or IT, B) Get a high ranking position with the government, or how about, C) Set aside all options to go work, live, eat and sleep among farmers in one of the most poorest states in the country. I am sure you would agree that C is the most unlikely choice, but C is exactly the choice that two brave young men made.

Meet Shashank Kumar- an IIT Delhi Graduate and Manish Kumar– an IIT Kharagpur graduate. The two became friends while preparing for the IIT entrance exams. Both harbored an overwhelming desire to do something meaningful for a long time, and when the time came, they joined hands to form an organization to help improve the productivity of small and marginal farmers in Bihar. They knew absolutely nothing about agriculture, but that didn’t stop them. They put together a board of agricultural experts from around the country to help them. At first the villagers laughed at them. They thought these kids must not have anything better to do with their life; that is why they have come back to the village, but no one was laughing when using the tools and methods they recommended the farmers started experiencing a 4-fold increase in productivity and profitability. Today, they are working in 8 districts and 25 villages in Bihar with up to 1000 farmers, helping them with everything from better production techniques to marketing their produce.

These are just 3 examples. There are 100s of Manishs, Shashanks, Shyamali’s and Sandeep’s in the making all over the country. What they all share is a burning passion to make a difference. What they all need to succeed is the support of parents that will encourage alternative career paths, teachers that will nurture their creativity and give them the relevant tools to remake the world, mentors that will guide them, friends that will join hand with them and a society that will make space for them as change-agents and leaders. The young population of India is indeed the greatest wealth it has. If we can give them wings, there really is no problem too great, and no force too large that a young heart on a mission cannot conquer.

So, if you have a young heart that is telling you that you too can change the world in your own unique way, please raise your hand, speak up, stand up, step forward, and take action. The world needs you to.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Leadership lessons from the Ground

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Nowfal Khadar

It’s been quite an intense and challenging journey over the last one year. Looking back at half time, I realize that I’ve learnt three important leadership lessons amidst the intense challenges.

The first lesson is to lead by example even when it isn’t quite possible literally! Allow me to explain.
From simple duties to complex tasks, I’ve always believed that leaders ought to lead by example. That one must set the benchmark by performances worthy of emulation. You know, like the captain of a cricket team – if you want your teammates to catch hold of difficult catches, then set an example by taking any difficult ones that come your way. And so it is at the work place, isn’t it? When a supervisor proves that the task assigned is something she can not just perform, but also perform better, one is left with no choice but to strive to meet her expectations and accord her due respect.

But what about when you lead a team where you can’t perform the tasks better than your team members? In the course of my fellowship, I was presented with one such instance – to improve the productivity of associates at Source for Change (SFC), the rural BPO where I’m currently based at, even though I could not even remotely match the number of forms processed by them. Heck, I could not even type as fast as the associates did. Yet, along with my colleague Shrot, we had to somehow (SOMEHOW!) convince them that they ought to improve! As we struggled, events outside of work presented a perfect analogy to my situation.

In my earlier post, I had mentioned how Shrot and I teach school kids basketball. As we continued to coach, it dawned upon me that leadership need not always be like that of the captain of a cricket team; it could also be like that of a basketball coach or a football manager. While the coach might ask you run 20 rounds and do 25 push ups, he may not even be able to manage half of that! Yet he leads by developing a strategic vision, by effectively communicating this vision to the team and by directing and guiding the team to achieve that vision. Needless to say, in areas where he can clearly lead by example, he does so such as being on time, work ethic and so on.

Lesson two is about learning to let go – when, and importantly what to let go! It is more a management lesson than a leadership lesson. However, it is an important one, not only for myself but also for the countless people who consider themselves ‘involved’ or ‘detail-oriented’ or the like.

When I gave the sales guy a detailed script to use while making/attending a sales call, I thought I was training him. In fact, even when I would hijack his calls, I still thought I was showing him how it’s done. When I instructed the intern to come to the sales fair with change in the following denominations – Rs. 100 (20 nos.), Rs. 50 (25 nos.), Rs. 10 (100 nos.) and so on till Re. 1, I thought I was paying attention to detail. But, in time I realized that none of those thoughts were right. In management lingo, they call this micro-management and if you are an entrepreneur, in startup parlance, they call it Founder’s syndrome (or Founderitis). Fortunately for me, I quickly recognized that people perform best when empowered; when given the liberty to experiment and the freedom to learn, both from their experiments and from their mistakes. I grasped that, simultaneously, managers should always be available on the sidelines for them to reach out for advice. And as people develop and nurture their own abilities and skills, they will grow from being subordinates of a manager to followers of a leader.

The third lesson is about feeling satisfied upon seeing a protégé become better than yourself at your own game. Easier said than done, I know. And even more difficult, when you’re still in the game and your protégé has gone a step above you.

My example goes back to the basketball court. When we started our coaching sessions, most of the kids could hardly dribble, let alone compete with two adults. After just over a month, I now see a 16-year-old dribble past me disdainfully, collect rebounds over me, block my shots, and match all my moves. Clearly, in a few days from now, he will outdo me hands down. Having had a small hand in his triumph, I feel proud. I realize that there always comes a time when the protégé becomes better than the mentor, and when that time comes, the mentor feels elated.

The question is will I feel the same when it happens at the workplace? I sincerely hope so!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Life in rural India

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Nowfal Khadar


Image courtesy Images of Rajasthan

Disclaimer: Pardon any errors in spelling, grammar or vocab. I intend to blog more often from now on and so my posts will come battling dreary eyes and midnight slumbers after a long day at work and at the playground!

In the latter half of July, I moved from Delhi to Bagar, a small village in rural Rajasthan (about 200 kms away from Jaipur) for the second leg of my fellowship. This is an update on life here in the village.

Bagar, is a village of about 10,000 people and is the ancestral home of the Piramal family. It also houses their haveli, which has now converted into a Neemrana heritage hotel. I am based out of the Grassroots Development Laboratory, which was established by Indicorps and the Piramal Foundation in 2006 to seek creative ideas and solutions to some of India’s most pressing developmental challenges. The objective was to use Bagar as a rural laboratory to test scalable ideas in social development and scale them on a national level. Souce for Change, the rural BPO that I work with, grew out of one such idea.

Bagar is extremely conservative, particularly with respect to women’s development. Female infanticide is rampant, and as a result, Bagar has a shocking sex ratio of 921 girls per 1000 boys. Most women are forced to wear the purdah and are financially dependent on their husbands or fathers. In such an environment, Source for Change (which till recently was an all-women BPO), by working towards creating opportunities for these women to learn, grow, achieve financial and social freedom, is a welcome change. My role at SFC is to streamline its training and develop Human Resource management processes in order to ultimately improve the productivity and quality of our Associates.

To be frank, I was skeptical about moving to a village in the middle of nowhere, with only the most basic amenities. I wasn’t convinced even after visiting to get a firsthand glimpse into the place in the first week of July. However, I recognized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I had never lived in an Indian village before (except for the brief 1-month stays every 2-3 years at my grandparents place in Kerala) and this was my one-shot at gaining an insight into life of the ‘next billion’.

Much to my surprise, life in the village has been very pleasant and enjoyable. Work has been really satisfying and interactions with people in the community very gratifying. At the work end, we’ve already developed and implemented leave policies, attendance regulations, rewards and recognition programs, re-training assessment, and are now working towards a strategic plan on ramping up to 200 seats (currently 85).

Outside of work, every day around an hour prior to sunset, my colleague Shrot & I work with Shekhawatji, the physical education teacher of the Piramal Boys School, to teach basketball to the school kids and to help form the school’s basketball team. Basketball is a sport which requires a lot of quick thinking, discipline and teamwork. These also happen to be the skills that the village kids (and some of our entry level trainees) seem to lack the most. The kids have been training and practicing for over a month now and will be participating in the upcoming district championship. Bar one, none of the kids have ever played basket ball before let alone participate in a championship. Irrespective of the championship result, we hope that the kids will apply the leadership and team work skills picked up in the court in real life situations.

I have to confess that it is still early days and things may not always be as rosy. In fact, even now life isn’t that easy. There’s a huge change in the lifestyle that one may be used to such as TVs and internet, washing machines, your own bathroom and so on at home and malls, multiplexes, fast food etc outside home. It can get extremely hot and humid, there are no ACs and frequent power cuts (about 3-5 hours everyday) mean that even fans may not give any respite. The sheer dearth of connectivity with Delhi (only local buses that take 8-10hrs to cover 200 kms ply on this route) is another point of distress and the availability of only pure vegetarian food can be unnerving for a compulsive meat eater like me. No washing machine means that you have to start getting used to washing your clothes by hand. Almost every new person you meet will ask you your caste and won’t talk to you until they are convinced you do not belong to the lower castes. It’s almost impossible to convince them that you do not have a caste!

Yet, there are advantages to any situation. While I may have driven a car for over 6 years, the feeling of owning a cycle, adding a headlight and exploring the bylanes transported me back in time to my childhood. Meat may be unavailable, but that means one can experiment with various authentic Shekhawati cuisine that one cannot get anywhere else (not even in Jaipur!) in the country.

In a nutshell, there’s been an unexpected feeling of satisfaction despite the challenges.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Reflection

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Abhishek Hegde

Social enterprises embody unique set of characteristics which require them to bring together everything we consider good in the society, constantly building invisible bridges to connect people, resources and dreams, and at all times have immense belief in their abilities to affect change.

My last one year with the Piramal fellowship has been a journey of self discovery inspired by the will to contemplate learning from conventional wisdom, to see my work as part of Digital Green where I have been seconded as a Piramal fellow impact lives of more than 2,00,000 people has gone a long way to silence the skeptic in me who constantly questions the sustainability of such heroic pursuits. In my role as program manager-strategy and operations at Digital Green, I endeavour to bring to life ideas which support the sustainability of small and marginal farmers in rural India through innovative financial models and, information and communication technologies.

The joy of seeing tears drop down on the cheeks of poor Indian farmers as they set sight on to their green fields with a sense of pride and renewed hope has been a life changing experience for me, the challenges in bringing to life such transformation requires us to nurture change both internal and external to the organization, constantly questioning the status-quo to device solutions which redefine risk, resource utilization and accountability.

Today, more than ever before, there is a need to develop sustainable market based solutions to address some of the most pressing problems of society; the established players in the social sector as well as the novices dabbling with ideas for social change are fighting to reinvent themselves to impact lives of millions of people in developing countries like India. This paradigm shift provides for a unique opportunity to immerse oneself in a journey which is both fulfilling and impactful.

Piramal fellowship, with its commitment to building a cadre of leaders who define change has been instrumental in introducing me to social entrepreneurship through various one on one session with leading social entrepreneurs, mentorships, conferences and workshops, equipping me with the necessary tools to bring to life the transformations I envision.

Posted in About, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Looking for competition in all the wrong places

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Aden Van Noppen

“What’s the competition?” This is always one of the first questions a start-up enterprise asks itself. To answer it, we tend to search for those who are similar to us. We ask, “Who are the existing players?” The formal players who are providing a similar good or service come to mind. And if we can’t identify any, we throw a party and declare, “We’re a first-mover! A true innovator! No one is doing what we are doing!”

But perhaps we are looking in all the wrong places. In a country like India, where over half of the economy is informal, competition may take on a very different form. The existing market is often dominated by a vibrant and informal system. This is a system that can be far more difficult to understand and compete against than the typical “competition” we read about in business school courses. And unfortunately, it is a market we often overlook, as if we are entering into a vacuum.

Consider low-income housing, the sector in which I work. At micro Home Solutions (mHS), we are working to positively influence the self-construction market in urban India. India, like most of the developing world, is a rapidly urbanizing country. As cities mushroom in size, a massive housing shortage has developed. It is estimated that urban India has a housing shortage of 24.7 million units, and over 90% of this demand comes from the low-income segment. Much of this supply shortage will be met by households building vertically, increasing the space available for their growing families through the construction of additional floors.

As a result, mHS conceptualized Design Home Solutions (DHS), a product that bundles home improvement loans for low income families with customized technical and design assistance in order to ensure that they build safer, well ventilated, higher quality structures.

While conceptualizing DHS, we went about this question of competition in the traditional way. “Who is providing access to finance and technical expertise to low income families with a home-improvement need?” When we examined the market for other social enterprises, NGOs, government or private sector players, it looked as if we were alone. We were entering a fresh market, treading brand new ground! Or so it seemed.

However, when we showed up in the communities and began working with clients, we quickly learned that the competition is vast. It is a dynamic informal system that lives and breathes on social ties and trust. And it turns out this is much harder to compete against than the typical private player. Understanding how to meaningfully influence self-construction practices has meant becoming intimately familiar with this informal system and in many ways, working within it instead of against it.

A similar dynamic exists in many other sectors. One of the reasons micro-insurance has struggled so much, for example, is because of this very same issue. Most low-income families have vast familial safety nets that have served as an informal, and often quite effective, form of insurance for generations. Yet micro-insurance companies typically assume that they are entering into a vacuum, that the poor have no safety net to rely upon and therefore the need for insurance should be clear to them. At the risk of exaggeration, there are elements that remind me of declaring that Columbus discovered an uninhabited land. It ignores the existing situation altogether.

This is not to say that those of us who are formal, outside actors should not try to influence and improve the informal status quo. In the case of DHS, the existing system often forces families to borrow from moneylenders at exorbitant rates and build structurally unsound homes that are hazardous and poor quality. The more formal product we offer comes with social benefits that are not available in the existing system. But, as we have learned the hard way, when an enterprise attempts to enter a market, it is essential that we understand the nature of the competition in all its shapes and sizes, even those that aren’t specified in our b-school textbooks.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment