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“Icy glaciers feel the heat, new ideas roll out.”
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Foreword
This book of cases was written by Pooja Rai during a summer internship at
the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in 2013.
The sixth book in this series, her internship project was to develop easyto-read cases that documented the start-up experiences of the alumni of
the Management Program for Women Entrepreneurs (MPWE) held
annually at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore since 2004.
Previous books in this series are all available in print/e-book at pothi.com:
2009. Inspiring Women to Start Innovative Enterprises by Sria Majumdar
2010. A Tryst with Women Entrepreneurs by Sharika S. Nair
2011. Zeitgeists: New Age Women Entrepreneurs by Irene Mary Varughese
2012. Biz-Inked by Alisha Arora and Divya Nandwana
2013. Business Buzz: A Rendezvous with Women Entrepreneurs by Sonali Jain
The MPWE has been a catalyst for start-ups by its alumni over the years.
As seen in these evocative cases, many alumni have been versatile in
exploiting opportunities or have converted their skills into viable social
and business enterprises that have made a positive impact on people
while providing immense personal satisfaction to the entrepreneurs.
While many joined the program as aspiring entrepreneurs, others reset
and expanded on their existing enterprises or created new ones.
We believe that these cases would inspire many more women to join the
program and create innovative social as well as business enterprises.
Special thanks to Nidhi Verma (also in the book) for her fine copy editing.
Program Directors MPWE
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Cases
1. Rediscover reading (Nidhi Verma)
p. 1
2. Be the change you want to see (Deepa Vivekanandan)
p. 7
3. Astropreneur (Shakuntala Patel)
p.13
4. For the dream (Aishwarya Velusamy)
p.20
5. Striving for light (Rama Devi)
p.24
6. Creating designs (Janani Balachander)
p.31
7. Winner all the way (Bharati Jajoo)
p.35
8. For a worthy cause (Rumi Sikdar)
p.45
9. Straight from the heart (Twinkle Kapdi)
p.51
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Author’s Note
“A woman is the builder and moulder of a nation’s destiny. Though
delicate and soft as a lily, she has a heart far stronger and bolder than a
man. She is the supreme inspiration for a man’s onward march”- Rabindra
Nath Tagore
It is easy to follow the majority; the difficult thing is to stand out in a
crowd. To take a journey which has no fixed destination, a journey which
will always be a struggle- on the path of entrepreneurship. For me, it was
a life changing experience to meet these nine wonderful ladies. I am sure
once you have read the book, just like me, you will be inspired and
confident enough to take your first step towards entrepreneurship.
These entrepreneurs never gave the excuse of being a woman, rather
each of them found a way to balance family and work. They may not be
the famous billionaires but these are people just like you and me who
started with exactly what we have.
I thank the following people without whom I would have never been able
to complete this book.
Prof. Ganesh N. Prabhu for giving me the opportunity to meet these
wonderful entrepreneurs and write their stories and for all the guidance
throughout. All the entrepreneurs who shared their journeys of trial and
success. You are the most amazing people I have ever met.
Divyansh for proofreading and constantly telling me how jealous he is
making me realise that it is a wonderful opportunity to write this book.
My parents for their support and for regularly taking updates on the
progress of the book. My brother Pranav and my darling sister Shweta for
motivating me.
Vishesh for the wonderful cover design.
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Rediscover reading
NIDHI VERMA: MPWE 2009
Nidhi runs an online book rental service named BookMeABook in Delhi
that provides door to door delivery and pickup service, much to the delight
of avid readers and customers. With people moving to iPads and Kindles
instead of spending money on buying new books, this service has brought
back the good old habit of reading with a book in hand. It’s a first of its
kind concept wherein one does not need to worry about library fines or
renewal hassles. Born in Patna and brought up in Delhi, Nidhi had never
imagined that she would swim through eddies and whirlpools of an
enterprise and make an indelible mark on the society.
The journey so far
Nidhi’s father is a Police Officer and was posted in Patna when she was
born. For the first seven years of her life she lived in the North-Eastern
part of the country. The family then shifted base to Bhutan for three years
and finally moved to Delhi when Nidhi was promoted to class six. She did
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her graduation and post-graduation in English Honours from Delhi
University and became an Assistant Professor there. Marriage in 2001 led
her to Bangalore where she taught for a year at the Jyoti Niwas College. It
was a pretty ordinary life, with a stable career and a supporting husband.
But life is unpredictable.
She had to take a break from teaching when her first child was born.
When she went to college, she felt guilty for not being with her daughter
and when she was home, she felt miserable at having missed a day at
college. She decided to leave her teaching job as she felt that she was not
able to do complete justice to either. Her employment stopped, but it was
barely the end of her career. Like the saying goes, when one door closes,
it only opens a vista of opportunities.
She decided to start something of her own because that would give her
more flexibility in terms of time. Her husband came up with the idea of a
corporate library, with which they could provide corporate reading
solutions to offices. She started ‘FablesOnTables’ in partnership with a
friend in Bangalore. It turned out to be a brilliant idea because they could
directly contact the Human Resource personnel of the company, and they
were catering to the requirements of the corporate rather than
individuals.
“We were naive and did not have a managerial background. Though the
concept was great but it was the time of huge recession in Bangalore.
Companies were not ready to spend money on their employees. We
struggled for a year and then we decided to quit. Now since we had closed
this, we had a lot of books and we didn’t know what to do with them.”
Simplicity in reading
Giving up was never an option for Nidhi. She decided to start the same
service in Delhi but it was no different here. Recession had hit everyone.
So she changed her model from a corporate library to an individual
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membership model. The reason she chose Delhi was because her motherin-law already had two bookshops in Delhi – one in Connaught Place and
another in Karol Bagh. Both the shops are in Central Delhi and have a huge
market. Moreover it acted as a cushion for the company because they
already had contacts with the publishers and suppliers.
Although BookMeABook is a start-up, it stems from an offline bookstore
and a lending library owned by her mother-in-law in Shankar Market,
Connaught Place, Delhi. As there was a fall in the number of members in
the shop, the initial idea was to put the existing library online. But finally
she decided to have a totally distinct unit because till then all records
were kept on paper, in fat registers. There was no record of books in the
shop like barcodes, etc., making it extremely difficult to trace any book.
Nidhi decided to have a totally separate catalogue of books for her online
library so that she could trace where a particular book is and how long has
it been with a user. But the real challenge was that when she started the
library operations in Delhi, she was still living in Bangalore. The idea came
up in 2005 and BookMeABook was launched in October, 2007.
She hired a web designer to develop the website, but since her husband
was a software engineer, he put in a lot of ideas and it took around one
and a half years to complete the website. The website became an instant
hit with its launch. They had struck gold.
BookMeABook.com was the first online library in Delhi, and within 3 years
from their commencing operations, eight to nine similar companies
suddenly mushroomed on the same model. Nidhi recounts:
“These new companies became so competitive that they went to the
extent of coming to our Shankar Market shop and querying one or other of
the employees about how we do the business. I came to know about this
when one other company started using the same courier service as we
were using. Now when I look back I think it was immature of me to get
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furious at such silly things. But when you have nourished your start-up like
your own baby, I think such things definitely affect you.”
Ram Gopal Sharma and Son is their regular supplier. It is ensured that new
titles are frequently added to the catalogue. Book suggestions are also
taken from the readers. They have readers of all age brackets. People with
busy schedules, who are pressed for time to visit a library form the
majority of the clientele. Since there is a monthly subscription fee, the
reader can keep books as long as they like, and there is no late fee. Books
are picked up when the next set of books are delivered for the member.
Obstacles and opportunities
In the beginning they also had a child-reader plan and a Riverdale reader
for Archie comics, but there were only three takers in five years. Currently
the company is making profits only on two models while one is incurring
losses, but it has to be kept operational as it gets more customers.
Reading patterns have changed over the years. We can hardly blame the
children, with the kind of academic pressure and distractions they have.
Nobody sits with a book when they can go ‘swipe over swipe’ on an iPad.
As a result most of the online libraries have shut down in Delhi.
On a personal front, Nidhi’s daughters are six and ten years old and she
wants to spend time with them. She has worked out everything in a way
that she faces no problem in balancing family and work. In the beginning
there were indeed problems when she was managing everything by
herself. She had to call up people asking for payments, but now she has a
manager and two librarians to take care of all such work.
Her story is one of resilience and perseverance. Nobody knows that the
venture belongs to a woman. People don’t care. Even the website does
not mention the name of the founder. Instead of focussing on the
individual she preferred to highlight the reputation of their Shankar
Market bookshop.
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Future
Nidhi is not looking at expansion plans and she has her reasons. Firstly,
because she will have to hire people for expansion and trust them. It is
not easy to find the right people. The easiest way of expansion would be
through a franchise model and she believes that these minor franchises
will never be as successful and efficient as the present one. She does not
want to dilute the brand. “As soon as I move out and extend my services to
other cities, the quality is going to be affected.”
She says that she might sound impassionate, lazy and it may sound
uncompetitive in terms of business but she is comfortable this way.
Maintaining the current model takes a lot of energy and time and
therefore, she is resistant to expansion right now. The strength of
BookMeABook is its quality of service, and if there is any chance of
degradation in terms of quality by expanding it to other cities, then
definitely it is a wise decision not to expand. There is a similar company
which provides services outside NCR also but it is the user’s responsibility
to send back the book through courier and there lies the hidden cost and
thus, dilution of the brand.
Nidhi’s business model is pretty straightforward- getting good business
through maximum customer satisfaction.
“Once I got a call from a customer saying that he got the books but they
were dusty inside. The key of every business is the satisfaction of the
customers and if we are not able to deliver what they want, it’s a failure
for us.”
“I think BookMeABook has a good future, Kindle and iPads
notwithstanding. With the inflow of so many good books being written
lately, people have started reading again. Of course, reading has declined
over the last few years, but I am sure that services like ours will go a long
way in encouraging people to read. The prohibitive prices of books these
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days are often talked about, but reasonable library services like ours can
be an easy solution for people who like to read.”
Worry only about which books you want to read!
Message
In any business, especially one that you start from scratch, it’s not easy.
It’s a long struggle, so do not give up easily. Any business needs time and
attention to take shape and flourish. At least give yourself three to five
years to develop before you decide whether you are doing well or not.
You need patience, grit, and a lot of hard work to make your business
successful. And all this will come naturally if you are really passionate
about what you are doing. So make sure that you're doing it because you
love the work, and not for earning you a livelihood—because any job can
give you that!
Starting a business is the easy part. Sustaining it is the real challenge. So
never let your enthusiasm go, and keep working!
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Be the change you want to see
DEEPA VIVEKANANDAN: MPWE 2010
Best all-rounder at school, recipient of the merit scholarship to Carnegie
Mellon University and a TEDx speaker, Deepa has always been an
achiever. For those who dream of secure jobs after getting such a good
education, this is a tale of what it means to break free of customary
shackles, going after what you aspire for and accomplishing what you
believe in.
Sowing the seeds
Deepa completed her engineering from Visvesvaraya Technology
University in 2006 and did her Masters in Software Engineering at the
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Institute of Software Research International which is a part of the School
of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, USA in 2008. The course
gave her an understanding of the problems in the software industry and
how a scientific approach can improve the success rate of software
projects.
She was also involved in Social Innovation while she was there. She
worked with Pittsburgh Family Focus Inc. in 2007, playing the role of a
technology consultant to the non-profit organization. This consulting
experience helped her to apply software engineering to improve the
functioning of a social enterprise involved in serving orphaned children in
Pittsburgh.
After this exposure to social ventures and her desire to do something for
her motherland, she decided to move to India to work with a partner in
establishing ‘Shree Niketan Matriculation School’ in June 2008 in
Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu. Her partner had been working on this for about a
year before she joined. The first set of students and a few teachers were
already there. Opening a school is capital intensive but the funding was
taken care of by the partner’s family. Once the wheels were oiled, the
road ahead became a bit easier to traverse.
This was her first entrepreneurial experience, so everything came across
as a challenge in the beginning. Though the town was not a very remote
place, it was not exactly an ideal suburb either; thus it turned out to be
difficult at times to find good teachers. “I was twenty-four then and it was
a great experience. Forty five year-old mothers used to come to me and
ask what is right for their child when I was not even a parent myself. And
since these people had high expectations from us, we had to develop and
live up to them. We saw the whole suburb grow around the school. With
more and more students enrolling in the school, new buildings, shops and
commercial activities developed around it.”
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Most of the people who wanted to give good education to their children
had to move out of the suburb to Chennai before this school came up.
Shree Niketan very soon gained the reputation of being better than the
schools in the city and people stopped seeing lack of good educational
institutions as a reason to migrate. People were happy because the school
had brought the whole family together to where they belonged. “One of
the greatest moments of my life was when one of the parents mentioned
that they were returning to their hometown from the city to provide good
education to their children”, claims a beaming Deepa.
Shree Niketan School provides education to around 2000 children in
Tiruvallur. These children are primarily first generation learners. The very
first batch that appeared for class 10th got 100% first class results. It was a
great achievement for them. When she started, she had thought that she
would spend time with kids, teach them something herself but when
there’s staff to manage and the ebbs and flow of a new venture, there
isn’t much time for all that. Most of the time went in solving problems and
managing things. With time things became more structured. ”Starting a
school is definitely not a daytime job; you have to work 24x7 for it.”
The biggest problem that they were facing at school was spoken English,
as is the scenario in most of rural India. Teachers do not speak correct
English and thus, students pick up wrong English which leads to lack of
confidence in them. This was a problem that Deepa started seeking a
solution for. Since it was not a problem of only one school, they had to
find a scalable solution. Being from a technical background, she found
technology as a way to address that problem.
The school continued to function, but she moved to Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) Madras in July 2010 because she wanted to take up her
next idea. She wanted to find the solution to the major problem that the
education sector of the country was facing, spoken English, by leveraging
technology. She wanted mobile phones as an interface to address
language issues amongst the suburban people. During her project work
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under Prof. Hema A. Murthy at IIT Madras, she worked towards finding
the most feasible and scalable way to correct common mistakes in English
language, and she came up with a prototype for the same that allows for
auto-correction of simple sentences in the language.
Of struggles, failures and determination
She met Shrikrishna Shrin at a start-up event in IIT Madras and he also
wanted to do something in the education space. In January 2012, she co founded (Un)classroom Learning Pvt. Ltd. with him and a third partner,
Souvik Roy. This start-up was incubated by the Rural Technology and
Business Incubator, IIT Madras. The vision of the company was to make
youth more employable through imparting technical and language skills.
Initially, they started teaching computer programming online and decided
to take the issue of English language learning later. It attempted to teach
programming through a browser based interface. The major problem
(Un)classroom learning faced was that a lot of students in India want to
learn something only if they can see a job at the end of the effort.
“I felt a little disconnected from the company because my passion was
teaching and taking the issues of language communication. Although
initially we decided the focus would be on both but language development
could not be addressed because we were facing a lot of challenges in
addressing programming skills alone. We had a discussion and the
company was not ready to address both the problems. That was a lesson
learnt. I do not blame anyone because the dynamics of a start-up is such
that things change very rapidly. In the long run it definitely looks like a
wise decision. I quit at a time when I did not know what the future of the
company was. We could have done really well or we could have lost. If you
think something is not aligned to your passion, then it’s best to quit
because sooner or later it is going to affect you and your productivity. The
company died a natural death one year from then.”
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Post that she started working on her own and tried to scale the language
mentoring tool. “I saw several obstacles when trying to scale a technology
solution all alone. It was important for me to understand technology and
scale better to go forward.” Thereafter, she decided to join Google as a
Product Quality Strategist in Hyderabad – starting her first corporate job.
At every point of her life she had a reason for what she did. She decided
to move back from US to address the challenges of education in India; this
helped her understand the bigger challenges in rural India. Her choice in
moving to a corporate world was to learn to scale solutions, particularly
technology solutions. She doesn’t have any aversion towards a corporate
career because there are certain advantages that the corporate world
offers including taking solutions to masses very quickly. Ultimately you
have to look at the best way to solve problems in society.
The journey ahead
Learning is an on-going process at Google. As of now, she sees herself
coming back and doing something in education because that is her
passion and the urge to do something in the sector will always be there.
She is not sure if she will do it as a part of her organisation or on her own.
“You need to have the passion, understand the problem and solve it. And
for solving the problem you need to acquire the right skill sets. Choose
what is right for you; it may be a venture or a job. It should be something
that makes you happy”, she asserts.
“For an entrepreneur, the wind is never in the right direction. It becomes
even harder when you have a family to take care of. In entrepreneurship,
you don’t have to prove yourself to others and be the number one. You
should do it for yourself; do something that makes you happy and at a
pace that works right for you.”
“When I started the school there was so much work attending to the odds
and ends! At times, there was no outcome even after days of hard work.
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Sometimes I thought, maybe taking a job would have been better but I am
happy I continued with patience and perseverance. Today when I look
back, everything makes sense. It is important to keep making mistakes,
learning from those mistakes and keep trying something that you like to
do and eventually you understand yourself.”
Message
You cannot expect society to come up to you and tell you that you can do
it. Make a lot of good connections. It’s okay to fail fast, learn and move on.
Finding your passion is most important, how to make a contribution comes
second. For me passion has always been about leaving a positive dent in
society and that is why education came as a very natural choice.
I do not claim to be a super successful entrepreneur but I have learnt that
if you try to please everyone around, maybe you will lose yourself and your
ambition. Women always tend to keep others’ priority above them. You
can make others happy only when you are happy. You should hold on to
what you are doing.
I find it very disturbing when I see that women have to “seek permission”
in India to do what they love. Freedom to pursue our goals is our right; a
common misconception is that this comes at the cost of relationships. We
need more examples of women who can stand up for themselves yet take
loved ones along. Perhaps, you are going to be one of them.
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Astropreneur
SHAKUNTALA PATEL: MPWE 2008
Born to an entrepreneur mother in South Gujarat, Shakuntala always had
the urge to start something of her own. The valuable experience that she
gained by assisting her fashion designer mother and by working as a
business partner with her mother-in-law helped her to learn a lot about
the nitty-gritty of business. Though she had a childhood dream of
becoming an astronomer, destiny had something else in store for her. The
Management Program for Women Entrepreneurs at IIMB gave her the
right direction in her career. With a passion to empower, enhance and
enrich people’s life, she started her own company ‘Proactive Image
Branding’ in Mumbai in 2011. Her vision is to work for underprivileged
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tribal girls, educate them and provide them with the skills required to live
a more dignified life.
The guiding light
Shakuntala had been brought up in Mumbai. At a time when nobody knew
what entrepreneurship was, her mother became a fashion designer and
an entrepreneur. Shakuntala started assisting her mother from the very
beginning of her life during her after school hours and her vacations. Her
father was working with Western Railways in Mumbai; he was also
working as a freelance photographer and as a fine artist. Her two younger
brothers were also entrepreneurs in the fields of courier service and
automobile lubricants. She learnt a lot from her family and the
opportunities that she got in her life.
A postgraduate in M. C. A – Master of Computer Application and graduate
degree of B. Sc. in Physics and Electronic Instrumentation from Mumbai
University. Her dream of becoming an astronomer couldn’t be fulfilled but
she did an advanced study in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Indian
Planetary Society, Mumbai. She did her training in NELCO – Tata Group of
Companies during her post-graduation. She was married to an IRS (Indian
Revenue Services) officer and he had a transferable job. Due to her family
responsibilities, husband’s frequent transfers and job demands she
couldn’t start her career for a long time. At that time she wanted to start a
business in the field of computer software. With that aim she took
training in database management and Oracle 8i. But as time flowed she
realised that a business related to computer software was not something
she really wanted to do.
So she became business partner with her mother-in-law in retail business
of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. which is situated at National Highway No: 8
in Gujarat. She also started helping her husband who took voluntary
retirement three years back and started his own Training and Consulting
Business in the field of income-tax, international tax and transfer pricing.
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She has travelled and stayed in many parts of the world including Nepal,
Singapore and California where she had wonderful experiences of varied
cultures and lifestyles of different people.
It is the journey that matters
Shakuntala took professional training from Image Consulting Business
Institute, Mumbai; where she was trained under the curriculum of
Conselle Institute of Image Management, U.S.A. headed by Judith
Rasband, a Certified Image Master (CIM) with the Association of Image
Consultants International.
Her profession involves art and science of psychology, impression and
perception management, verbal and non-verbal communication skills,
self-presentation skills, soft skills, fashion and etiquette. With time she
has acquired a natural ability and comfort in the field of Image
Management due to her management education, people skills and
experience as a business woman. As an artist, designer and photographer
she has knowledge and experience of colour theory and therapy. Her
experience of working with her mother in the field of garment tailoring,
design, embroidery and retail sale has given her immense knowledge of
fashion and fabric.
She wanted to start her company in Mumbai so she waited till her family
had moved to Mumbai. When that happened she launched it in 2011.She
started the company alone and it is still in the beginning phase. Her clients
include students, business executives, entrepreneurs, actors, models,
brides-to-be or groom-to-be and anyone looking to create an impact. The
concept of image consulting was new to India. So it needed a lot of
marketing through media. Because of marketing, people have now
become aware about image management and its importance in personal,
professional and social life.
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“Initially, it was bit difficult to get clients because in India people are not
ready to spend money on skill and self-development. They don’t mind
spending a lot of money on getting graduation and post-graduation
degrees from educational institutes and believe that degree carries more
value in their personal profile than themselves. They are not proactive and
do not know much about the importance of image management and its
impact on their life as well as career.”
The government has taken initiative by starting NSDC- National Skill
Development Corporation for vocational skill training in PPP (public
private partnership) mode and people are realising its importance slowly.
At present she takes these training programmes both onsite and online
because it is cheap and convenient for her clients. The company is still in
the initial struggling phase and has a long way to go.
With Proactive Image Branding, her mission is to give people confidence
which comes with an understanding of self-image, public image, personal
branding, behaviour, attitude, values, ethics and soft skill. It is the Art and
Science of the elements of Impression as well as Perception Management
like Visual appearance, Verbal and Non-verbal Communication, Business
and Dining Etiquette, Grooming, Soft Skills, Body Language, Weight
Management, Stress Management, Business Ethics, Wardrobe
Management, Personal Shopping and Clothing Cluster for specific
occasion for personal, professional and social situations – to dress with
substance and style.
Women and society
At present she prefers one on one consultancy and she is preparing her
programs to expand into corporate solutions, seminars and workshops.
This is her reason for choosing a flexible path as an entrepreneur.
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“When my kids are at home in winter and summer vacations I give more
time to them. I have the other eight months to work. I cannot neglect my
family because of work”
Comparing with the times of her mother she says,” Definitely, people’s
attitude towards a woman has changed but even now there are a few
situational challenges which a woman has to face. Parents are more
supportive and broad minded. People take you seriously and they are no
more gender biased. Though we have more freedom we as a woman are
built differently physically and mentally (a woman’s body is differently
designed and brain is differently wired than a man’s body and brain). We
have got our unique traits, emotional strength, mind power and
multitasking abilities; so we should not compare ourselves with men but
should complement them and work with them as a team both in personal
and professional life”
She was lucky to be born in a family where there was no restriction for
girls and she always got support of her family and freedom to take her
own decisions. She also takes inspiration from her mother-in-law who
started a Indian Oil Corporation gas station at the National Highway 8 in
Gujarat at the age of sixty and is still running it successfully even at the
age of 72.
“The MPWE course helped me when my career had no definite direction.
There was a lot to learn from other women in the course. They all were
very supportive and it was a wonderful experience. I also got excellent
networking platform and alumni support from IIMB. When someone
knows that I was student of IIMB, people’s perspective of looking at me
changes immediately; it is magical.”
Future
Right now her service is available in Mumbai but as this will go online she
will expand services to other parts of the country. Her service is
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customised as per the client’s requirements; she provides consulting
service through phone, Skype and other online medium. Business persons,
entrepreneurs, and corporate executives need this service because their
image in the market makes the customer believe in them and buy their
product and services. Good public image impacts bottom line of the
companies, helps them retain employees and customers, and enables
companies to charge premium on their products and services. Executives
with positive public image can get higher salaries and promotions. With
good self-image students can get better job placements and homemakers
can make great enhancement to themselves and to people around
her/him.
While she works very hard for her venture, Shakuntala also finds time for
her hobbies like fine arts, photography, rifle shooting, golf and cooking.
“I believe in living with human values, ethics, a lean lifestyle and spiritual
thought. I volunteered with ‘The Art of Living’ foundation and realised that
yoga and meditation are the tools for discipline of the mind and body.”
Message
Always remember that our own health is more important than anything
else in our life. With sound body, mind and soul, nothing is impossible and
you can conquer the world.
I have learnt this from my mother who used to work very hard and never
got time for herself. When she turned 40 and started getting health
problems, she realised the importance of good health. When she was at
the peak of her career, she got cancer. It was a very tough time for her and
she couldn’t survive for long after that.
I say this again that though the society is no more gender biased, it is still
challenging - but not impossible - for a woman to start her own venture.
To do that, you need to accentuate your strengths and counter your
weaknesses. Women should work in a team to bring out the best in them.
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Although a woman is the silent solver of all equations of life, she too
requires guidance, counselling and direction. So do not hesitate to seek
help. Evolve, realise and explore your full potential through self-awareness
and introspection.
I believe in the adage: “To succeed, be willing to change. Though
continuity of the old gives us roots, Change gives us branches, letting us
stretch, grow and reach new heights”.
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For the dream
AISHWARYA VELUSAMY: MPWE 2011
Most of us remain confused about what we want to do in our lives even
after our graduation but Aishwarya was different. She had her long career
plan ready when she was in school itself. But when does life go as we
plan? Her dreams almost shattered but she did not lose courage and found
another way to follow her passion. She helped her family business regain
its license by sorting out product quality issues. She also started a venture
‘Make It Crafty’, a handmade fashion jewellery business based on her
hobby. Doing all this, she kept working on her dream venture of soilless
agriculture, failed in a few trials but she is determined and the day is not
far when she will achieve her dream.
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A positive approach
Aishwarya was doing B.Sc. in Biotechnology when she got interested in
Plant tissue culture and started researching and developing new varieties
of flower. On graduating in 2007, she wanted to pursue her masters and
then later on get into research work. After getting some experience under
her belt in the field, she wanted to start her own venture in hydroponics.
It was all planned out when she failed to secure admission in one of the
top colleges. This was the breaking point in her career.
She did P.G Diploma in Bioinformatics from Bharathiar University and
decided that if she wanted to start something of her own, this was the
time to start reorienting her career towards that. During her third year,
she did a small project for which she had done intense research. The main
idea of Hydroponics did not come then, but she had a working model
based on the same technology.
She was a science freak and could live in a laboratory for more than ten
years. Her idea was to grow agricultural plants anywhere because water
resources are getting depleted. So, with the limited resources and land,
she wanted to increase the productivity. She wanted to do it in cities on
rooftops.
Now that her career plan collapsed, she had to rethink everything. She
decided to do MBA to learn how a business is handled before starting one
so she started preparing for the competitive exams but she was weak in
Maths. In MAT, she got 670 and 738 in her first and second attempts
respectively with a four month preparation. Then in 2008 she went for
CAT and got a call from Bharathidasan Institute of Management in
Tiruchirapalli but she didn’t go for it. “I got very good mentors at IMS
Learning Resources – Coimbatore, who changed my attitude towards
maths and made me believe that I can do well in maths.”
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Her brother owned a Packaged Drinking Water manufacturing facility in
Chennai located in a very remote place. Unfortunately, due to lack of
water quality standardization practices in place, the business lost it license
for quality during the yearly review inspection by the ISI. Everything the
family owned was at stake and she had the technical background to solve
the problem. It was November 2008 and after thinking a lot she took the
decision to go to Chennai and solve the problem first instead of doing
MBA.
She sorted out the problem in two months and standardized the water
quality. She did it all alone and now she had to sustain what she did. A
chemical and biological laboratory was recreated and she trained the two
people whom they hired. By October 2009, they had their license back
and she had a very good and practical experience here.
She quit her part time job as a consultant in 2010 and joined MPWE at IIM
Bangalore.
Make it crafty
“My venture was 2 months old when I joined MPWE. It was started based
on my hobby (arts and crafts), to gain first-hand experience on owning and
managing a start-up. “Make It Crafty” is still active as a lifestyle venture.”
She was good at designing and her cousin was good at making them. She
bought raw material worth Rs.5000 and started it as a proprietor in
January 2011. They started selling them to relatives and friends first and
she saved all the profit for her pilot plant. Make It Crafty is a lifestyle
venture and she wants it to remain that way.
She took a small space in her brother’s factory for her pilot project but
Chennai is very hot and it was not an ideal place for it. Plants didn’t come
nicely and the trial failed. Her project was not progressing very fast but
she was moving forward and she never lost hope.
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In the meanwhile, her father retired that year and the family owned
business just started to break-even. But as they were mentally and
financially exhausted, they leased out the family business and moved to
Coimbatore which is their home town. By Jan 2012, she had collected
some money and had approached Tamil Nadu Agricultural University
(TNAU) for some guidance on her pilot. She was about to start her trial
garden on her rooftop when she got a call from IIM Trichy. She realized
that hydroponics is a very long term project and needs time and money.
In IIM Trichy, she has learnt to manage a lot of things together. She has
gained the confidence to work independently. She is now a part of the ECell team at IIM Trichy and hoping to set up a trial garden soon.
Message
With time I realized that you cannot control everything and there is no
fixed path to achieve something. You have to make the best use of the
opportunities you get at every stage of life. People will say different things
but what is important is what you believe in and what you think is the
right way.
In 2007, when I failed to do M.Sc., my parents were worried and they were
not able to understand what kind of a career I was pursuing. Although
they were not happy whole heartedly, they believed in me. It was a
challenge to do something that I was not good at.
If you make an effort to make your parents understand, they will. You have
to be sincere, persistent and not give up. Choices and priorities may
change with time but you have to take a mature approach balancing
personal life and work.
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Striving for Light
RAMA DEVI: MPWE 2012
From being brought up in Khammam where girls are rarely sent to school
to becoming a certified International Coach Federation executive coach, a
software developer and an entrepreneur mentored by global Master
Certified Coaches across USA, Canada and Australia, Rama Devi’s story is
that of pure inspiration.
She inherited this urge to venture off the beaten track from her family. Her
grandfather brought about a revolution by starting the ‘Andhra Balika
Pathshala’ at a time when people did not allow their girl child to move out
of the house; her father started the Khammam Eye Bank; and now this
daughter has carried the legacy forward and made her family proud.
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As a professional with a passion to help people and organisations reach
their highest potential, she deploys the ‘systems perspective’ to broaden
their thinking. As a Reiki grandmaster she helps people relax from their
stressful situations by using the healing power of meditation, as they learn
to heed their sub-consciousness and listen to its inner voice.
Rama Devi currently heads the International Coach Federation Indian
Chapter as the Vice President‐Education.
Silver lining
Rama Devi’s story is a lesson in not just her own struggle but also the
social context of a time gone by. Despite coming from a family that broke
conventions for the greater good, she faced many obstacles right from her
childhood. Even the choice to study mathematics was opposed by peo ple
who believed that a girl was meant only to do household chores. As the
topper of the class she insisted on doing engineering, but her family did
not allow her to stay out of station in a hostel because she was a girl. She
had to be accompanied by someone whenever she travelled.
What she did not have in terms of freedom, she more than made up for
with her sheer determination. Refusing to be bogged down, she
commuted to her university daily by travelling a hundred kilometres by
train every single day. After the initial quarter of the academic year when
all this became increasingly difficult, the family finally allowed her to live
in a hostel.
In 1991 she moved to Hyderabad after her M. Sc. in Physics.
Finding the path
Her husband was working in HP Vista and a new era of computers was
beginning. Everything from billing to ticketing got computerised. When
the dot com boom happened, she got so passionate to learn about
computers that she completed a two-year U.S. based course in computer
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science in just five months with high grades, qualifying as a Microsoft
solution developer. All this at a time when computers were so rare that
only the head of her college had one, safely kept in an air conditioned
room. One had to take permission to have a quick look at it for ten
minutes.
She got into software development and from physics she moved on to
computers. Soon she had to shift to the US with her husband who got an
opportunity at Stanford, and that was where her career started when she
got some assignments as a web developer. With time, her husband moved
into management consulting, and they moved back to Bangalore. Her
husband joined one of the world NYSE listed management consulting and
training company, which is the world largest company with a presence in
147 countries.
“My story and my husband’s story are interlinked. My husband became
the south Asian director of the company. I got into training, coaching and
how these human values are affecting, researching what is the true north.
The triad of skill, motivation and purpose should be aligned. If what you
are moving towards and what you are aiming at are 180 degrees opposite
to each other then you will never reach the destination. We release the
highest potential in humans and organisations using the science and art of
Executive Coaching. During this course of my journey I was certified as the
first woman coach in India by ICF- the International Coach Federation.”
The book on 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey says ‘be
proactive’, ‘begin with the end’, ‘put first things first’, ‘win-win concepts’,
and ‘be understood to understand’. She became the first certified coach
of an Australian company named ‘Results Coaching’, followed by a
Canadian and a US firm. “When it comes to the Indian context vis-à-vis
these foreign countries, it becomes a little more difficult because here you
cannot teach for just one day and leave. You have to keep a track of how
they (the students) are doing. You have to observe and follow, and then
only you can teach. In India you have to be a coach every minute, every
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second. Coaching is a way of life and once it becomes a part of day to day
life, you experience the bliss and ease on every aspect of life.”
She is also certified in the field of Neuro-Leadership coaching models. The
phrase was coined by Dr. David Rock, and she explains what it means with
a very good example:
"We all have a belief system. From the age of three to seven the brain
develops. Let’s take an example. If someone tells you that the colour of the
orange juice is red, will you believe? Of course not, and because there is
already something in our mind which tells us, “this is orange and it has to
match with what is said”. If one walks through a particular path in a park,
it becomes a road over a period of months. Our mind is also like that. The
transmitters are connected to each other and every time the same thing
occurs, one pathway is formed. The more you travel through that road, it
becomes clearer and the other area remains green. Similarly, if you go on
doing the same work many times, the neural pathway will be formed. If
you believe in your vision every day, three times a day, you get a pathway
which will become a highway with time. Everything is not a proven path;
we have to make our own path. Our belief makes the neural pathway.”
Love your work
“It is a divine profession. I am evolving spiritually and I am very lucky to
have a very good mentor. I have learnt that if you are calm inside, only
then can you make the other person calm. One has to go deep inside and
find consciousness and voice. Once the purpose is discovered, the person
will put all his energy and reach the destination with ease.”
“‘To believe is everything.’ First find what you are and then find what is it
that you want to do. Suppose we have to reach the Amul shop from CCD.
There were two ways to reach there, one is through the main road, and
the other is through the library corridor. We chose the latter so we could
reach with ease in the shade. We know the destination, we know where to
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go and there are many ways to reach there. As a coach, we help them (the
students) to see all the roads and they themselves choose which path to
take. They will make their own strategy, because if it is someone else’s
strategy, after two steps they will find it very hard to follow. Thus, they
design their own path.”
Rama Devi started her own company in 2009. Things went smoothly for a
while in the beginning as people worked together in harmony. But with
time she realised that people do not always deliver on what they promise.
They do not complete the work they agree to do. All that turned out to be
a learning process. In Management Program for Women Entrepreneurs
she learnt to legally scrutinise any venture before joining it. She got to
know how everything should be documented; from profit sharing to the
proper formation of the company. For someone with a technical
educational background like engineering, all this obviously felt like wading
into uncharted waters.
The work-life balance
As a woman there are many challenges to be faced: managing the family,
the extended family, husband, children and the work. “In the crucial years
in my daughter’s life when she was ten to twelve years old, I had to leave
my job for three years. I stayed with her and worked from home. As her
father had to travel five days a week, we needed a balance. I had to be
home when she came from school and to take her to tuitions. In those
three years I got the opportunity and completed my Associate Certified
Coach credential. Make lemonade when you get the lemons. Now that she
has grown up and that phase is over, I have all the time for myself. She
comes home for only two months a year and now I can focus on my
career.”
As an entrepreneur she says, “We have to see the bigger picture and
believe in the idea. A successful entrepreneur is not about how much
money you make. It is if you can balance everything. Once your child’s
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stability phase is over, you still have twenty to twenty-five years of
career”.
She again quotes Dr. Covey, “Begin with the end in mind”. “Imagine your
eightieth birthday. What do you want on that day – money, bungalow, car
or your family? In the sunset years of life you should not regret your
decisions. Once we prove ourselves on a small but significant step,
resources and people come to us naturally.”
The road ahead
Rama Devi and her husband are working towards a global consultancy and
it’s still a work in progress. She is using her interest and passion in web
development in this business also. “Earlier the publishing of research and
product was done on paper, now I am bringing it online. Also, to reach the
larger number of people we need a web based portal.”
The inspiration behind joining MPWE was also to bring a change in the
lives of women in general. She coached a lady who was very good at
design, colours and fabrics. She had the ambition to go to the
international market. Even though her designs were getting appreciated
she was sceptical about managing family and business simultaneously.
Rama made her believe in herself and today she is successfully running
her business in US and Dubai. She gets massive orders. Sometime later her
husband also joined and today, together they are running the business
successfully. Now they plan to foray into event management as well.
For Rama Devi, life is full of miracles and there is still a lot to achieve.
There are two ways to live a life; one as if nothing is a miracle and other as
if everything is. She quotes Einstein as she gets to her spiritual side: “I
believe in the power of yoga and consciousness. My inner voice imbued
within me a spiritual strength. I believe that there is some guiding force.
Meditation can change your life. Daily if you give just ten minutes to
retrospection either in the morning or just before sleeping, a new energy
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will come to you. You should be grateful for all the things you have and see
what you have learnt from the day. Everyone has their own set of values
but the universal values are higher than that. Live life simply. If your heart
says something and you are doing something else, it won’t help you in the
long run and you will achieve nothing.”
In countries like the US, the cost of coaches is prohibitively high, and they
charge by the hour; which cannot be afforded by the common people. At
present even in India only chief executives are getting the help of coaches.
Rama Devi plans to change the game so that even a common man can
afford it. It is her firm belief that the country is blessed with many a great
mind, and all they need is a little help.
Message
“Dream big, believe in it and work for it. Nobody can stop you from
achieving your dream.”
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Creating Designs
JANANI BALACHANDER: MPWE2012
An Italian restaurant of her choice, the red-streaked hair and beautifully
done nail art; I knew I was in for a pleasant surprise as soon as I entered
the diner and saw her. Janani is an architect and has practised interior
design in the US, has launched her own iPhone application ‘iGotOverIt’
which is live in the app store, and is presently working as a user interface
designer at Infosys, Bangalore. Not only this, this Hyderabad girl does
excellent Tanjore painting and is planning to have an exhibition of her own
by the year-end. One meeting with this talented lady with an impeccable
personality is all it takes to agree that she has a long way to go.
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The fire within
After graduating in architecture from a college in Chennai, she moved to
Hyderabad and joined an interior design firm. She later started working as
an architect in the US, but had to return back to India due to family
commitments. On moving back, she started working as a corporate
interior designer, and was soon designing office spaces as huge as 400,000
sq. ft. It fascinated her in the beginning, but soon she realised that there
was not much creativity in it.
She was unsure of what she would do, but she was not happy with what
she was doing, so she left the job. “I quit my regular job because I had to
travel sixty kilometres daily for the work. These sixty kilometres would
have been nothing if I was doing something I was passionate about. But
when you are working for someone else, you don’t have that enthusiasm.”
Janani soon heard about the MPWE course offered at IIM-Bangalore. She
was offered a scholarship at the course, and that was one of the good
things to have happened to her ever since. She says “The six weeks at IIM
with these 36 amazing women of high energy and having different ideas
was the best thing that happened to me. If you are thinking twice about
not starting, that energy will rub on to you. If you need any kind of help,
these girls are always ready to help you.”
Still achieving! Still pursuing!
Janani was never happy with the mundane stuff. She realised she wanted
to start something on her own, and the only strength she possessed was
her bizarre ideas. Here’s a little something to put things in perspective:
First she planned to start a business of eco-friendly cotton bags to replace
plastic bags. Then she got an idea to make an iPhone app which helps
users to get over their guilt. She didn’t know if it would work, she had
never done coding before; but she took the step undaunted, and figured
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out ways and means to successfully develop and launch the app. The app
did better than she expected it to.
The app is called ‘iGotOverIt’, and it deploys a series of visual animations
to help users get over their guilt. They can write down their guilt, go
through a series of affirmations, and then choose one out of the four
options to either flush the paper with water, burn it with fire, shred it or
shake and destroy it. With the success of the app, she got a job at Infosys
as a user interface designer.
Janani shares her birthday with none other than Steve Jobs and is a great
fan of his, so it was even more exciting to have done something with the
Apple to make her mark. As an architect, ending up at Infosys was even
more thrilling. She works as an interface designer, and the job
requirements range from simple graphic designs to having an insight into
user psychology, a subject she had always been interested in. Away from
the ‘mundane’ that she disliked, she loves her new job and is presently
designing an experience centre with Infosys. It’s all about design and
creativity.
“Not all entrepreneurs end up making a billion dollars, but at the end of
the day, entrepreneurship gives you a thrill that no other job does. For me,
it opened up so many avenues from which I could choose whatever I
wanted to do. Entrepreneurship can help you understand your strengths
and weaknesses and make you a better person. It could open up new
possibilities and avenues in ways that you have never imagined before.”
It’s just the beginning
She is still part of the network that she formed at IIMB, and she recently
designed a website for a classmate’s new venture.
Understanding the consumers is crucial, because only then can you
provide them with a product that they will ‘want’ to use. Her interest in
Psychology has helped her significantly in this. “I am a big fan of Steve
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Jobs and I truly believe what he said in his Stanford speech about
connecting the dots. I learnt in Architecture to understand the customers
and create designs which appeal to the end user.”
She still has the entrepreneurship bug in her. Though she is satisfied with
the work she is doing, she still has the desire to start something of her
own. “Every morning I go back to office, I ping my husband and say we
have to start our own venture and it should happen very quickly”.
Janani’s story is an illustration of how once you’ve been bit by the
creativity bug, it’s hard to let go. She dabbled at wedding set design and
painting while living in the US. She has also recently developed a love for
Tanjore painting. Tanjore painting is done with gold and semi-precious
stones and requires a lot of patience and skill, and she is putting all of it to
effective use by working on the New York skyline and the Statue of Liberty
in Tanjore style. She plans to conduct an exhibition themed on New York
very soon.
Message
Every single person has to be an entrepreneur. It brings out the best in you
and improves you as a person. Just love what you do, be it work or hobby.
Women need to gird up their loins and move out to make their place in the
society. You don’t have to be a crackerjack to start a venture.
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Winner all the way
BHARATI JAJOO: MPWE 2009
Bharati has worked with Amazon, Ericsson, Google, Facebook and many
more such multinational giants in the past 9 years. But ask about her
achievements and she replies modestly, “It just happened with time.”
Bharati Jajoo co-founded ErgoWorks Inc., which is the pioneer amongst
Bangalore's innovative and new age onsite health care services. Bharati is
an Occupational Therapist and Certified Ergonomic Assessment Specialist.
She has developed and implemented ergonomic programs of various levels
at many corporate offices, hospitals and in the industry as wellmanufacturing and assembly lines to name a few. She writes and presents
papers at various forums dealing with work-life balance issues, injury
prevention, health awareness creation, and back safety. She has presented
scientific papers at national and international conferences and has
received advanced training in various therapeutic techniques for
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treatment of neurological as well as musculoskeletal disorders. Bharati is a
member of American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) and a
licensed Occupational Therapist from the state of California.
Work is worship
Bharati received the Punjabrao Deshmukh Memorial Gold medal in her
B.Sc. in Occupational Therapy from the Government Medical College,
Nagpur. She completed her master’s degree from LTMG Hospital, Sion,
Mumbai in 1991. She worked in Mumbai for some time, and then she got
a job in O'Connor Hospital in San Jose, California. After a year she got
married to Pramod Jajoo in 1993.
When she left India she was just a clinical therapist, but after working in
the US she started encountering astounding number of similar injuries;
this got her interested to find out the reason for such injuries and why so
many people needed the therapy. Fortunately, at that time people in the
US were becoming aware of the health problems associated with the
workplace. Ergonomics was slowly evolving. This was the time when the
Silicon Valley started to boom.
”In US, if you are at the workplace, your employer is responsible for your
health. So your employer has to make sure that they give you everything
they can to keep you healthy and productive. That’s when the push
towards ergonomics happened.”
In her company, there were regular annual reviews at work, and short
term and long term goals were set up. This process was very helpful in
thinking ahead and to find your interest. “I used to get very excited if
something interesting and different used to come up like an innovative
presentation, meeting people or getting involved in a particular team.”
Among the 40-50 therapists in office she was the one who became
interested in Ergonomics. She took the initiative to develop this program
and the environment of the hospital helped her. Her manager was very
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supportive, helping her figure out how she wanted to go ahead with the
project. Her work was always recognized and she received awards and
recognition for her contribution in conceptualization and development of
various health care initiatives.
She says that if she had to look back and connect the dots, she realizes
that at heart she was never happy with the routine and mundane work
life. She was an entrepreneur at her workplace, something that we now
call an intrapreneur.
Bharati and her family moved to India in 2003. Her husband is a software
engineer and they had a few friends in Bangalore. A stroke of luck
occurred when they came to a place where there was growth in her field.
The working environment was quite dissimilar from what she was used to;
here people worked for six days a week instead of five. One reason why
they moved to India was for a better work-life balance, which could not
happen if she joined a job at the hospital. After 2-3 months she decided to
start something of her own. She came across a newspaper article about
‘Techie’s Health’ which made her realize that there is scope for
Ergonomics in India as well. People were beginning to realize that
prevention is better than cure.
The struggles
Bharti started meeting people to discuss things and find out if there was
any scope in India. A few months passed and nothing much had
happened. Then she met Dr B.R. Chaitanya who was doing something
similar to her work. They had multiple discussions before they decided to
work together. They came to a conclusion that there was a need but it
was not well defined. It might or might not grow but they both decided to
go ahead and take the risk. “For the first two years, I had no clue how to
start or run a business. I had never been an entrepreneur. In a job, you
have well-defined work for the allotted time. Here, neither do you have
clients nor do you know how to execute the work. We had a lot of
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discussions, talks, and brainstorming sessions to figure out how things
work locally. I had no idea how much you charge and what people pay
attention to. It was a challenging task.”
“In the initial days we had to approach many people, knock on many
doors, meet one person through another and face many rejections. Even
though so much effort resulted in no output, we motivated ourselves and
kept on working.” For two years Bharati had only one project that she
worked on. It was a project for a new company in which she worked
closely with architects for ergonomically correct office design.
Then slowly people started to wake up to the need of ergonomically
compatible workstations. The constraints in position and posture affect
human being which causes a lot of discomfort and pain, sometimes
resulting in very serious injuries.
The partnership between Bharati and Dr. Chaitanya was successful
because he was a physician and he was already working in a similar field.
While he knew the local ecosystem, she was good at innovative and
applicable solutions. Both had their own strengths. “Everything had to be
decided, from the name of the company to how to execute the operations.
Although there was a lot of work, for the first two years there wasn’t much
to do in operations. In those two years we realized that as an
entrepreneur, you have to take care of everything from billing to
satisfaction of the customers and it is not easy because at the end of the
day you have to make it work anyhow.”
Though there were a lot of disappointments in the first two years it never
occurred to her to go back to her high-paying job. Luckily, she was not in a
position where she had to work for a living. So, if this didn’t work, she
could start something else but definitely not a regular job.
Being an employee is easier in many ways - you can say goodbye to work
at 4 o'clock but in your own company the work goes on whether you are
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at home or office. On the other hand, doing something on your own gives
you flexibility in terms of time and place which brings out the best in you.
The rise
Slowly they started getting clients through word of mouth in their third
year.
When asked about the success they have achieved now, she replies with a
shine in her eyes and a smile, “Yeah, sometimes even I wonder ‘how did
that happen’?” Her first client was Amazon. Her friend’s friend at office
had a serious health problem and they found that there were many more
people suffering from a similar problem. She provided the solution and
this became the first big break in her career. Earlier she had projects with
architects but that wasn’t continuous work. After Amazon, the work
improved. She had on site visits once a week; she could do her own
assessment and give solutions. There was a continuity which helped to
build a platform where people could see some changes. They realized that
productivity could be increased twofold if one has ergonomically correct
workstations and awareness about one’s own body and self-help
techniques for discomfort.
The roommate of a friend she was working with had a similar issue. And
this is how she started working for Google. Google was small in India at
the time, with around one hundred employees. This was another
achievement in her career.
“We got good projects and clients but work was still not coming
continuously. There had to be something more so that more people see
benefit , hence we came up with many training programs to raise
awareness. It was time we approached people and made them realize that
prevention is better than approaching a doctor and dealing with the
problem later.”
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In 2003, ErgoWorks was one of the first companies to offer this kind of
service. People were not very welcoming when they were approached. It
was a struggle to move forward, to convince people to understand your
point of view. Hence, nobody expected that the company or even the
industry would have this kind of success. She narrates one of the incidents
she has not forgotten till date.
She met the Human Resource manager of one of the big companies and
he responded by saying, “What are you saying? What kind of service is
this? In India we do not have this kind of problem, here people are all
‘hatta-katta’, they work in the fields, and these are all western problems.”
They thought a person could not have back-pain from working on a
computer. It was the kind of regressive mindset you cannot change.
“They thought these were all made up issues and only Americans had
these problems. We got so demotivated by such a response and such
people. More or less, we got similar responses from other companies as
well. Even today, it takes years to get a client especially because our
emphasis is on the right ingredients of program instead of superficial
management.”
“Developing a sustainable health care program requires so many different
pieces of the puzzle that needs to fit in, right from your idea to someone
buying that idea and having the whole ecosystem in place to make it work.
I have done similar work in US but back then it was much simpler because I
knew the problem I was dealing with. I used to go, do my report, give them
away and I had nothing to worry after that but here I have to make
everything happen from making people aware about issues to resolution
and effective implementation.”
Here, just giving a suggestion to the employee doesn’t give the end result.
You need to talk to a lot of people, the HR manager, employees, the
director, and convince all of them that this is really important. Every step
till the end process need to be simple and operationally easy for the client
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so we make it convenient to manage the entire process and not just
consultations. And if a single thing goes wrong, you lose the effectiveness
of the program.
“Unfortunately it is a very tedious process. It’s not like you have a fever,
you take a pill and you are fine. First, the employee has to understand and
change their behaviour. When they are convinced, infrastructure is difficult
to change. It is very expensive to change the infrastructure and people
always look at rupee and dollar first, so cost becomes the most vital thing,
and we need to give cost effective solutions and work with all team
members involved”
Hope
The growth in the industry and the improved skill-set are changes that
happened with time that have helped the company. In recent times
people, especially the multi-nationals, have become more aware and look
for such services. So, big companies are ready to look at it as a way to
create an office space which is employee friendly. They understand that
employees are their asset and their health is of prime importance.
“For a long time I didn’t even realize that I was an entrepreneur. I did not
know the language of business. I learnt it slowly. The course of MPWE in
2009 at IIM Bangalore helped me put a few things in the right place. It
gave me the right terminology. In the beginning I didn’t even know how to
look at the balance sheet. I knew very basic accounting. These are a few
things that we do not learn in our education in medical schools. In business
there are so many different things that you need to know and learn.
MPWE gave me the right lingo. In small businesses you get caught up with
operations; everyday there is a new challenge and you try to overcome
that challenge so you don’t have time to focus on growth and the next big
thing that you want to do. I have dreams but I am in a stage where I get
caught up with the operations all the time.”
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The company is slowly growing and has expanded to other cities like Delhi,
Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai. It’s similar to a Chinese bamboo whose
roots are growing and someday will give rise to a massive tree.
Future
She works closely with architects on design projects. Most of the people
she works with are from the Indian Institutes of Technology and other
tier-one universities. She says that working with smart people is a great
thing; you have to be able to convince them and many a times you get a
chance to learn from them.
“I have worked with clients across the globe from Europe and America. I
have also worked with some of the best architects in Europe. It is very
satisfying to work at a global level.”
“It is not easy to scale up a small business. We do not have a HR manager
or an accounting team. To bring this transition we have to look at the
market conditions, scalability and the new vision that will come with it. I
have a handful of clients and I want to serve them the best. It takes a lot of
energy to keep delivering our consistent quality to them. Healthcare is not
like retail or fashion where there will be lot of buying. To make it big in
healthcare you require a lot of time and an immense amount of energy.”
“After the MPWE course I planned to scale up and make it big but
somehow it hasn’t reached that level. Every day I get caught up with new
challenges in the operations and there is no one else who can grow your
business for you.”
Family
“I am not saying that I am doing a lot for my children. I am not there when
they come home. In some corner of my heart I yearn to spend more time
with them but everything needs to be balanced and you need to find your
happiness. Occupational therapy and ergonomics is a different field and it
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can influence many people’s lives. Though we have broadened our horizon
and expanded to stress management and diet control, I am not running a
rat race. I know this business can grow but I also want to be around my
children.”
“Right now, I do travel once in a while to the site locations as otherwise
business just walks away. I have to be involved with the team. Even now
when I travel, I feel my home is missing me. There are people who are able
to balance both and scale up their ventures.”
This field seems to have huge potential. People are slowly realizing the
importance and there will be growth in the future but this can never
become a rat race like other industries. When it comes to profit or a
quality oriented business, Bharati says she will always concentrate on
quality and not cost advantage. The aim is to provide the best advice,
solutions and best service to the clients.
The skill set in India is very raw and it requires a lot of energy to train
them and have them see and work according to your vision and
imagination.
The turnover of the company is in the range of a crore and it is good but
not great. Money was never the big intention to start. But as one grows,
our success gets counted by turnover, profit and margin. There is no end
to ambition.” If I grow my team and put all the energy I’ve got, the
company will grow. But life has so many dimensions; you cannot just look
at one and overlook another. Having my own company gives me flexibility,
a place for my creativity and imagination and a thrill of making things
happen.”
“I can’t just sell my products as a sales person. I will see if my client has a
better alternative and I will always give him/her the right suggestion. I am
not a true salesperson; I provide advice and solutions to people. It is hard
for me to go to people and ask them to pay the bill, although one learns to
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do that too as time goes, Sometimes It takes years to get the payment, not
a great thing in a business environment.”
She is satisfied with where she started and where she is today. Even today
her concern is whether she is helping the clients and not how much
money she is making. At heart she will always remain a health
professional first and then a business person. “I have seen so much pain,
injuries and suffering that I am working at the prevention level. But it is
human nature that many clients do not look at their problems unless they
start to suffer.”
Message
Our education system is such that people may not find their passion right
away. One should get started, try a few things and gradually they will
know what they like. MPWE is a fabulous six week course for working
people and you learn things which may take years to learn otherwise.
MPWE is potent capsule one can consume to get started or grow one’s
ambitions. One of the best investments of time and money I have done for
myself.
Women are nurturers by nature; Women should make this their strength.
Women naturally work in a team, can help everyone in the team and grow
together as a team. Sometimes when money becomes your priority, the
passion may get take back seat.
You should be satisfied with what you do. A successful entrepreneur is not
just the one who makes millions but who is also satisfied with what he or
she does and maintains a balance between work and home.
Women can do well if they have support. But if you do not get the support,
you should see this as just another obstacle and seek to develop support
you need in what you want to do. “Like they say every challenge is an
opportunity to improve and do things better!”
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For a worthy cause
RUMI SIKDAR: MPWE 2009
Rumi comes with the strong background and experience of having worked
for both the corporate as well as the development sector for sixteen years,
and has done it all- from raising funds to hitting the road and getting large
projects implemented.
C. K. Prahalad’s metaphorical ‘fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’
became a reality when Rumi started Ants Consulting & Services Pvt. Ltd.,
with an aim to create a society where every individual has access to
equitable, profitable and sustainable livelihood. She also runs SAFAL (Skills
Academy for Appropriate Livelihoods), an NGO which works in the domain
of skill and livelihood training for youth from low income groups.
In a scenario where promoting livelihood for the underprivileged youth
from low income groups was a domain strictly restricted to NGOs and a
few half-baked and scattered government programs, Ants was one of the
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first organizations to undertake it as a “for-profit” venture and
demonstrate that a viable business model could actually exist.
Social entrepreneurship
The first urge to be an entrepreneur came when she was doing her postgraduation in Sericulture. She was keen to set up her own silk reeling unit,
but needed a large amount of seed capital for that. But she eventually did
set up a reeling unit for the company she was working with, and running
one of her own remained a dream for some more time. She dedicated the
next two decades of her professional life honing her skills in various
business functions like marketing, finance, operations and human
resources across many corporates and ‘not-for-profit’ organizations.
In 2003 she joined Dr. Reddy’s Foundation (a not-for-profit organization)
as the head of resource mobilization and got an exposure to the skill
requirements of school drop-outs. It was during one of those boring flight
delays at the Bangalore airport when she picked up the book ‘Fortune at
the bottom of the Pyramid’ by C. K. Prahalad. This rekindled her long
subdued spirit of entrepreneurship and gave her the idea to set up a
business model which can provide livelihoods to the marginalized
members of the society by gaining market-driven skills. The model aimed
at making a social impact and profit at the same time. She roped in Rajesh
Rathod – a corporate ‘misfit’ who was running a boutique placement firm.
As this was a unique concept, it was written off by most experts even
before the firm was registered. The immediate challenge was on three
fronts – funds, people and customers. She recounts:
“Nobody was willing to fund the venture and the nearest revenue was
eight months away. There was no way to manage initial investment,
working capital and growth. In 2005, trespassers were given offer letters
by IT/ITES companies with a fancy salary. Because of this, getting good
manpower for the company was a challenge. Why would anyone join an
organization without any brand equity?”
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But the team did believe that ‘for every big problem there will be a
cottage industry solution’ and pretty soon they were riding the waves.
To address the funding issue, they raised credit card limits. They worked
with part time employees in the initial days as it was difficult to get good
manpower, which mainly consisted of house-wives who could work for
around four hours. To her joy, they turned out to be better than many full
time workers.
The revenue model was devised into three parts – Training, Placement
and Consulting. Hence the following three business units evolved –
training of youth from low income group, providing them placements and
consulting in the area of livelihood as a strategic business.
In the first six months, recruitment gave them good fund flow to manage
their working capital and expand their consulting activities. After
conducting a state-wide skill demand-supply gap report in Karnataka,
Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, they were ready to launch their training
programs. By the end of the eighth year they were operating fifteen
training centres across three states and had trained around 55000 youth.
“It is not as rosy as it seems. For every success story there are enough latenights, heartburns and personal sacrifice. It is very difficult to set up the
business and run it successfully. It has been built over the years and today
we have a presence in almost every part of the country.”
Wings and roots
The name ANTS in itself is reminiscent of an inspiring work culture. It
depicts the working culture of ants. They work as a team and survive
through any calamity; work more than their capability and simply don’t
give up!
The challenges of skill training in India are numerous and varied –
infrastructure (power, internet, accessible roads, etc.), low purchasing
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power, negative attitude towards vocational training (most Indians aspire
for white-collar jobs), populist government schemes and low priority (read
low investments and higher profits) by the industries towards skill
development – they often prefer hiring skilled manpower than incur the
costs of training existing ones.
To counter these challenges and more, it was essential for the team to
innovate. Only the one who has the ability to understand the livelihood
requirement at micro-level, and back it up with skill based training can
survive in this industry.
Their biggest challenge even now is finance. Money always remains a
hurdle. As the organization grows, it needs even more funds to manage
manpower and infrastructure. On one hand there isn’t a regular cash
inflow in this business, and since three-fourths of the business is done
with the government, they take a large sum of money as security, further
compounding the crunch. “At times the company has to wait for more
than two years for payment. Banks are very cautious about loans to this
industry. We have been lucky enough to get bank over-draft facilities.”
“The so-called venture capitalists are a lot with the sole objective of
maximizing profit. Unlike the west, the appetite for risk is very low in
Indian venture capitalists; they do not support innovation and would much
rather invest in tried and tested business models.”
As an organization, ANTS is unfazed by competition. Due to the half-baked
government programs, their competition comes at two levels. They
initially have to content with the ‘fly-by-night’ operators that will close
down within a year. The second level is the corporate sector, which are
there to cash on the funds provided by the government, and yet are
unable to reach smaller towns and offer relevant services to the needy at
the right price.
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Speaking on the issue of women entrepreneurship, Rumi says, “There is
nothing like ‘woman entrepreneur’. It is the same struggle for men and
women alike. I have never faced any difficulty in business as a woman. I
have always faced difficulty as an entrepreneur because of the
bureaucracy and government departments’ inefficiency and apathy.”
“If the government actually wants to support entrepreneurs then they
have to understand issues like corruption. One is forced to bribe to get the
work done in government and public sector. Definitely it is also the
responsibility of the individual to fight against the system and not accept
this.”
Future
ANTS provides a platform for collaboration between the industry and the
general masses across urban, rural and tribal settings. Their mission is to
provide a source of sustainable livelihood to a minimum three lakh people
from 2011 to 2020 through skilling, direct employment and developing
micro-enterprises.
One of their projects is to promote vocational training amongst school
children. The percentage of population with vocational training in
developed countries like Germany, US, UK, Korea etc. is much higher as
compared to India.
The Central Board of Secondary Education has introduced vocational
education for students in schools which is a great development in the
education system of India. ANTS is one of the partners in Karnataka which
will support the students till their PhD levels.
“As the Government is keen to spoil the market by offering free low-end
training programs, we are exploring more sophisticated markets like
medical diagnostics and media.” The profit figures might not be very high,
but the company’s growth story has seen development at about forty to
fifty per cent per annum.
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Message
You have to be very dedicated in your work and passionate about what
you are starting. If you have these two qualities then you will definitely
succeed no matter if you have funds or not. You should have the creativity
and acumen if you want to succeed.
I did MPWE course in 2009 which helped me a lot in networking. It was a
wonderful experience meeting a lot of people, sharing the ideas, working
with many likeminded people. In business, networking is very important.
Keep networking wherever you go. It’s the same people you will meet
when you go out in the real world. Your friends will be there to help you till
the time you die.
Entrepreneurship is about taking risk and accepting the failures. If you do
not succeed at first, try again.
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Straight from the heart
TWINKLE KAPDI: MPWE 2010
In order to challenge the clichés and stigmas that plague women
executives in business, Twinkle started Karavaan Network – a support
network for folk artists and travellers in 2010. It primarily designs
customized solutions for travellers visiting the Kutch region and organizes
many art events in the district. Still not satisfied with her adventure off the
beaten track, she is, as you read this, is exploring adventure tourism as a
business venture with a working title of ‘Three Stones’.
Meeting Twinkle and listening to her story is an experience in itself. She is
proficient in English, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Sindhi and Spanish, has
interests like motorcycle riding, travelling, visiting new places, learning
new languages, writing, photography and world cinema.
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The beginning
It was Twinkle’s dream to become a globe trekker right from her
childhood. The interest came from her family with whom she used to go
on long tours in vacation. Having spent her early teenage years in Kutch,
she has very strong sentimental values attached to the place. For her
education after the 10th board, she had to venture out of Adipur, a small
town in Kutch. Her interest in photography and writing which had
originated in school days got culminated into passion; and eventually she
chose a career in journalism and mass communication. During her college
days she travelled to a lot of places for making short documentary movies
handling work of script writing, production, camera work and editing. By
the time she graduated, the travel bug had already bitten her, resulting
from her research related trips and it remained with her as the driving
force of her life flowing as an undercurrent always.
After completing her graduation in media from Mumbai, her first job was
with Image Pvt. Ltd. – a photo concessionaire company based in Miami,
Florida. She worked as a lifestyle photographer on a cruise ship sailing in
the Caribbean Sea. The job involved two things which she loved doing the
most – travelling and communications. “I visited many countries during
the first contract but still, I believed that I could perform better if I start
something of my own and hence I returned to India and started
freelancing for NGO films and documentaries. This enabled me to scan the
length and breadth of the country.”
While she travelled to various countries like Bangladesh, Chile, Sri Lanka,
US and France she witnessed different cultures, developing a love for new
languages and documenting around two hundred tapes of folk art and
music from around the world. Roaming around in city streets,
experiencing the local culture and knowing local issues from their angle,
helped her to expand her understanding about the problems that exist
both at the micro and the macro level.
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This impulsive manner of travelling gave her a wider perspective of life.
“The more I travelled, the more I felt the urge to start something which
would give meaning to my travel. I was seeking some medium for
manifesting my skills of connecting with people into something more
productive and effective. However vague, the itch to start the
entrepreneurial journey had already begun.”
The struggles
Lot of ideas were brewing in her mind--like starting a theatre for kids in
Kutch, a mobile library for village students, short film club etc. While she
was still fiddling with them and continuing with travelling, she got to know
about the MPWE course at IIMB. This was to become one of the major
milestones that would help her set the course of her life ahead.
Being from the field of audio-visual media, she was new to the realm of
business models, market concepts, and management jargon. But at IIMB,
the curriculum of MPWE was designed in such a neat fashion that it
equipped her with the required knowledge to not only start a venture but
also to shape up her blurred ideas and put them into practical application.
Surprisingly, a lot of learning came from her peers also. She had been a
story teller all her life but when she attended the program, she met many
interesting women and learnt from their inspiring stories. These women
came from different segments of society, with varied age groups,
youngest being twenty-two to eldest being sixty-five, from backgrounds as
diverse as an art gallery to steel manufacturing plant. It was amazing to
see how they managed multiple roles while running big corporates and
looking after family, while maintaining strict deadlines and bringing up the
kids; all at once.
”It inspired me how they maintained superb integrity striking the right
balance fulfilling the responsibilities these roles demanded. The words of
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encouragement that I received from them have come a long way with me
in my journey as an entrepreneur.”
“It’s after discussions with Prof. Ganesh and other faculty that I took the
first solid decision of starting with tourism enterprise. He advised me to
progress step by step, suggesting that later my model could be expanded
as and when the time will be right. So after lot of brainstorming, it was at
IIM where I streamlined my ideas and gave them a direction. It’s here; I
conceived and presented the concept of Karavaan Network.”
Dream. Explore. Discover
After completion of MPWE at IIMB, she did a lot of field work to develop
her network in Kutch – the largest district in the country comprising of 960
villages full of rich art and culture. Many art forms which were going
extinct needed audience, right encouragement to survive and sustain.
Travelling and scanning all those remote habitats, meeting with artisans,
shepherds, village ladies, folk musicians, she developed close ties with the
communities from extremely remote areas near the White Rann and thus
understood their culture, lifestyle and challenges more closely.
In September 2010, Karavaan Network was launched as support network
bridging up the gap between folk artists and all kind of travellers. She was
learning to apply the principles of business through trial and error and was
just staying afloat by remaining positive. However, it went through stages
of conceptual revisions and amendments in pricing model during first two
years which was required to attain financial stability. She was struggling to
develop a sustainable revenue model since its conception, without which
she couldn’t proceed further to expand its services and reach.
Karavaan Network was organizing art events, customized tours for
families, couples, bike riders, functioning just in Kutch publicising only
through word of mouth. She realized the need to explore other forms of
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tourism for generating multiple revenue streams to strengthen the
structure of the venture.
In December 2012, in order to explore the adventure part of tourism as a
business concept, she collaborated with Swaroop Srinivasan - a fellow
rider having an automobile industry background from Ahmedabad. After
conducting few exclusive motorcycle trips for Royal Enfield Bikers from
Gujarat and Delhi who came to visit Kutch, it was decided to branch out in
adventure tourism.
After over two years of work in the field of folk art and tourism, Karavaan
Network continued to craft travel experiences, now adding in its journey
“Three Stones” – The new extension focusing on the element of
adventure in travel. So folk events, cultural and rural tours were getting
conducted under banner of Karavaan Network whereas the services of
Three Stones included the motorcycle rides, camping, mountaineering,
rappelling and adventure tours.
Clubbing their passion for riding and travelling, the team launched this
venture with an ambition to reach out to the customers’ need for off-beat
destinations, rides through untrodden paths and contact with wonderful
cultures of the world. While Twinkle took care of the people, the
networking, the culture and the land, Swaroop brought expertise in
technical, mechanical, bikes, machines, etc. into the partnership.
Three Stones is the platform for people to experiment with the surprises
offered by the world. It is an idea applied to break the monotony of the
daily lives by reaching to the extremes of the outdoor. Adventure is a
great substitute for meditation and self-discovery, as it requires the
harmony between concentration and balance of mind; be it treks,
mountaineering, rappelling, sky diving or motorcycle rides.
Motorcycles, as a mean of travel, allow one to reach inaccessible areas
and at the same time connect with people, place and surroundings in a
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more personal way. Three Stones steps out of the mundane and offers
people to explore in a way never imagined through various adventure
activities and local connect.
In February 2013, Team Three Stones launched its pilot ride Rubaroo
Kutch. Later for exploring the states of Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh,
Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, different products were designed with
expertise from experienced riders. Their new products “Ad’wine’ture
Ride” and “Legendary Ladakh” gained popularity instantly as Three
Stones’ emphasis is on local connect with places and in conducting only
exclusive tours for small groups only.
Three Stones also offers solutions to corporate world designing exclusive
packages for them focusing on team building exercises based on
adventure activities. The people who are stuck in their monotonous work
and need a break can not only refresh but also discover their own hidden
talents.
Three Stones being few months old company is still in its infant stage. The
plan of providing in-house solutions for renting tents, safety gears, saddle
bags and other adventure accessories is in pipeline. She intends to take it
further with the pace that venture requires.
“Learning from the two years’ experience of Karavaan Network and
understanding what goes in developing the model of Three Stones further,
I intend to construct strong foundation for the organization that has scope
to grow and expand with years to come. For the same reason, the policies
laid by the company need to be revised along with the regular market
research. Our team is determined, taking it steady, gauging the
opportunities and trying to sustain through tough challenges with grace.”
Setting the stage on wheel
This is about introducing the concept of mobile performing stage in the
country. The basic idea is to establish a performance stage on wheels
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exclusively designed (customized road vehicles), for travellers who will
make journeys along with artists and artisans. The artists get the platform
to showcase their work along with the process involved for the same.
During the journey, travellers can avail home stays at villages or the camp
sites and get to interact with artists and artisans from that region. Both
the sides get to exchange their learning. It can also become a platform for
lot of NGOs who wants to reach out to intrinsic part of the rural India.
We live in a country which changes its hues every hundred kilometres or
so; with different climates, languages and cultures. This mobile
performance stage would be a journey through the cultural and
geographical kaleidoscope that is India.
“I am strongly looking forward to research on this idea as I see mobile
stage as a strong platform to conduct cultural exchange programs along
with community development and creating employment in rural sector of
the country.”
“Being a traveller and running a travel business are two completely
different things. The model that I am presently working on does provide
employment in rural sector but there is one rudimentary question that I
often face from my inner self – as in to where to draw the line. I make sure
to double check that my work remains in the ethical zone as rural tourism
is a very sensitive industry – it involves cultures and traditions with which
people’s sentiments and values are strongly attached.”
Message
When you start a new venture, it seems easy and doable. The real
challenge is not starting up the venture but sustaining it against all the
odds. In the beginning, the venture stayed afloat on the terms of no profit
no loss. Now I consider those initial years as just the soft launch which got
invested in research and development. In times of difficulties, I found
support from my inner circle of friends and family who encouraged me
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through out. They understood my quench to make some crucial journeys in
my life with the passion of travelling at its core. Especially I found the
strength I needed from my mother who stood by me like a rock and from
the helpful guidelines that I received from my brother.
However, there are times when it is difficult to see a clear progress in your
venture and when others grow fast with wonderful turnover figures while
you are still fiddling with the idea, working on it and polishing it. But
patience is one of the most important keys to success. With time, I have
learnt that every kind of business has to go make its own journey through
all the stages required for growth and stability. You cannot just directly
jump to the top; you have to climb the steps of the ladder one at a time.
The process is as much as important as the results and the way we know
the famous travelling quote, the journey is as enjoyable and important as
the destination.
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MANAGEMENT PROGRAM FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
In an effort to encourage, empower and educate potential women entrepreneurs
to create their own business or social enterprise or to grow their existing
enterprise, the Nadathur S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning
(NSRCEL) at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) has been
annually conducting a six week long Management Program for Women
Entrepreneurs every summer since 2004 at the IIMB campus.
This unique program requires participants to prepare and present a business plan
for their proposed or existing business or social enterprise. Many alumni of this
program have taken their business plan forward to start new enterprises or have
initiated growth in their on-going enterprise. This program is specifically designed
for women entrepreneurs to build their network and is focused on guiding and
enabling them to identify business opportunities and develop a viable and
sustainable plan for their proposed enterprise. All participants are required to
present their business plan to the group in class and submit a copy of their
business plan for evaluation to receive a certificate of program completion and
thereby become an IIMB alumnus with privileged access to the IIMB network.
Prizes with certificates are awarded for the best business plans as judged by
faculty and experienced entrepreneurs. Options also exist to present to venture
firms and angel investors. Over the years, the MPWE has also gained considerable
goodwill among entrepreneurs and enterprise funding circles.
The Management Program for Women Entrepreneurs has about eighty sessions
covering all subjects of relevance to entrepreneurs including Entrepreneurial
Orientation, Business Planning, Economic Environment, Business Economics,
Industry Analysis, Business Strategy, Product Development, Marketing, Sales,
Services Marketing, Product Management, Operations and Supply Chain
Management, Accounting, Costing, Working Capital Management, Pricing,
Finance, Banking, Budgeting, Managing People, Law, Taxation, Communication,
Negotiation and Networking as well as a field trips to firms run by women
entrepreneurs and panel discussions with women business and social leaders.
For details of the current year MPWE program please check at the link below:
http://www.iimb.ernet.in/executive-education/open-programmes-long-duration-programmes
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aritra.naiya@gmail.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pooja Rai is a fourth year student of Indian Institute of Technology
Kharagpur enrolled in B. Arch (Honours). As an active member of the
Entrepreneurship Cell of her college, she conducted an Entrepreneurship
Awareness drive in her hometown – Lucknow. She has won national level
business plan competitions and has faced the challenges of working in a
start-up. She is interested in dramatics and dance. She aspires to be a
social entrepreneur someday.
She can be contacted at pooja.arch28@gmail.com.
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aritra.naiya@gmail.com