First Trip - India '09

Finally took my first journey. I traveled to the state of Gujarat, just north of Bombay (Mumbai). It is also home to my community. Was based in Ahmedabad and traveled frequently to a city called Rajkot, which is one of the industrial bases in the country for all engines manufacturing. This city hosts 4 industrial estates, which are lands alloted by the government specifically for industrial activity.

I made 2 round trips, 6 hour each between Ahmedabad and Rajkot to meet with a few of these engine manufacturing companies and its local market.

But everytime I travel to a new location, I am always amazed to see new devices or designs of devices for functions we take for granted.

For example, the picture below is of a road-side tea stall.

The guy is using a regular "chula" for making tea, which is a coal burning stove. The uniquness of this chula is that there's a pump connected to it. So instead of waving a fan to heat the coals as normally done in any household, he uses a rotary pump to blow air into the chula.

All tea stall owners in the city use this chula design!!

Back to the roots

Back in Mumbai, India to continue on the second phase of SEED's journey. This next step is very crucial to build the most important aspect of the business.

Watch for this space as information pours in.

Cheers.

Is India an Elephant?

India; is it a Panda, Peacock or a Tiger or any other animal? This was the topic of discussion at this year’s India Business Conference at the Kellogg School. My answer, I guess it depends on your individual perspectives and experiences.

But a bunch of business folks at the conference unanimously called India an Elephant. This begs the question of what did businessmen/women find so elephant like about India? Is it its enormous size that makes it a difficult place to do business in? Or is it its strength that is represented in some of its business houses like the Tatas or Ambanis. Some people commented on the mental ability or capacity of the elephant as being indicative of Indian businesses, while some hinted that once in rage no one can stop the elephant from storming and moving forward.

It brings to mind an old joke or idiom where 4 blind friends touch different body parts of an elephant and describe it as a snake, a wall, a tree trunk and a rope analogous to its trunk, skin, feet and tail.

While some people like to call India, a country of contradictions, C.K.Prahalad interestingly enough re-positioned it as a Kaleidoscope. Whether you are a blind person touching an Elephant or have 20-20 vision looking through a kaleidoscope, India is definitely a land of growing business opportunities and innovations.

The conference I attended on Saturday discussed exactly why this was the case about India and Prahalad opened the forum with some fine examples and ideas to make the case in point.

What is the Indian market like and how do its consumers behave?

· 2/3 rd of the population lives in poverty = Base Of Pyramid (BOP)

· Markets are unorganized and inefficient

· Diverse religious and cultures

· By 2025, 300 million new workers. But out of 100 Indians, 70 complete primary education and only 7 graduate = large unskilled workforce

· 60% of the total population is <30 old = " aspirational">

Traditional business processes and products do not easily transplant and work in India. For example, take the picture of the Elephant.

This is an example of a distribution system that the election committee of India is using to distribute electronic polling booths to the far regions of India. Impressive!!

Therefore, to do business in India, traditional business models must change. How? Prahald provided some different points-of-view (POV) on how to do this.

Different POV #1

Price - Profit = Cost, versus the traditional method of Cost + Profit = Price

Different POV#2

Value equation for emerging markets has to change (see figure)

Different POV #3

Innovation sandbox => Embrace the constraints of emerging markets

Different POC #4

Investment capaicty doesn't come from money only, but should also come through increasing collaborative capacity.

The conference was entirely targeted towards MBA students only. Other speakers included T.N. Balaji from ITC Ltd. who talked about e-Chaupal and another interesting Agri-business concept that has also been successfully implemented by ITC, and CEOs of Future Group, Bharat Forge, etc.

Check out the conference website for more information: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2009/indiabusinessconference.aspx

Social Entrepreneurship and Terrorism, a solution to 26/11

26/11! That's how the media is reffering to the terrorist attack in Mumbai on Nov. 26th, 2008. This incident was too close to home for me. On that day, at 11am when I had planned to complete a homework assignment for one of my classes I heard the development of terrorist activity starting from one of my favorite café and a common hangout spot in Mumbai, Leopold Cafe. For the next 6 hours I was watching live streaming news from a local Indian news service as the events unfolded. The sight took me back to that unfortunate September morning when a number of us saw the second plane hit the second of the twin towers live on TV.

The last few days have not been easy in trying to stay focused to complete my assignments while wanting to know more about what’s going on in Mumbai, calling all my family and friends daily to find out the latest and to get a pulse of the emotions running through everyone’s mind. Every time I hit the books, I can’t help but drift into the sights and sounds from that Wednesday. Here are excerpts from the commentary from some of my friends.

“I am cancelling my trip to Mumbai for next week. My dad’s freaking out and will not let me get out of Delhi.”

“I’ve joined a group to talk about how we all feel and the message we want to send to the government”.

“Everyone is fine. Luckily this happened at 9 in the night, when most of my friends and family had returned home.”

“My cousin works at the Taj and his shift got over an hour before the terrorists entered the hotel. He lives close by, a stone’s throw away and can hear all gunshots and bombs going off. We were really worried for him, thank God he’s safe.”

“Can you believe it, there were only 10 of them!”

“There’s been a total lack of intelligence and a breakdown of the system.”

“We are going to organize a rally to force the government to take action. We are paying all of this tax money and if it can’t even protect us in such a situation, then the government has no right to be in power.”

I’ve been listening continuously to comments like this and watching news incessantly. Why do I need to watch the same news over and over? I finally realized that this is a knee jerk reaction, a way for me to find peace within me, a way to cry out about what’s happening. I haven’t spoken much about my feelings, how I feel and I guess I need to vent. I thought I could keep my thoughts to myself. But that's not helping and so here it is. This post is my way to vent out my emotions.

I’ve never believed that governments had enough of a power to effect change no matter how noble their ideas. Instead, I believe that this new breed of entrepreneurs called Social Entrepreneurs have more power to effect change and that’s the reason they are doing what they do. I immediately decided to research online for social entrepreneurs or people not recognized as one yet, who work to fight terrorism by fighting social problems such as poverty, lack of education and healthcare by creating income generating opportunities. These social entrepreneurs all know that terrorism stems from adversity and from a continual betrayal by the system. There needs to be a method for people to vent their anger, disappointments, frustrations and the only outlet or counseling they get is from terror groups. Sometime back, we heard from a speaker at a business event that Hamas is considered as a social service group. No doubt!! The challenge for the social entrepreneurs then is to provide access to an alternative outlet to vent.

As David Bornstein describes them, “Social entrepreneurs = Destabilizing forces”

So, here I was online searching for people who were doing this kind of work and to find a way to put my built up energy into their work rather than organize rallies, write letters to government officials, demand their resignations, etc. which I feel are all reactionary measures and not pro-active steps. My job here is to highlight some of the work that these other brave souls are enduring. They work among populations that are known to breed terrorists. Their challenge is to not only work with dismembered sections of the society but to also come up with solutions in places that lack access to common services.

Here’s what I came across….

1. Sushobha Barve - Center for Dialogue and Reconciliation (CDR)
Profile: http://www.ashoka.org/node/2648
Other weblinks: http://kashmir.ahrchk.net/mainfile.php/v1n6/250/, http://www.opfblog.com/290/bridging-divides-by-sushobha-barve/

2. Susheela Bhan - Institute for Peace Research and Violence
Profile: http://www.ashoka.org/node/2647
Other weblinks: http://proxied.changemakers.net/journal/300506/paul.cfm

3. World Comics - http://www.worldcomicsindia.com/index.html

4. Greg Mortensen and David Relin, authors of the book, “ Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations…One School at a Time”, http://www.threecupsoftea.com/

5. Students tackle terrorism, illiteracy, disaster relief and more in social entrepreneurship contest - http://news-service.stanford.edu/pr/03/social264.html

Stanford student Uri Pomerantz, an Israeli, lost his great-aunt in a terrorist attack at a Jerusalem bus stop in 2002. Hisham Jabi, a Palestinian now studying at the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management in Southern California, lost a cousin to a bullet in 1991 as Israeli troops quelled a demonstration in Nablus.

Their losses could have made them enemies. Instead, they chose to become business partners. To address the economic roots of terrorism, they teamed up to form Jozoor Microfinance (Jozoor means "roots" in Arabic). The company grants microloans to young Palestinian men who could become targets for recruitment to terrorist groups. More than 60 percent of the Palestinian population lives on less than $2 per day, and the unemployment rate exceeds 50 percent.

I invite all you folks out there to add your experiences and comment on other activities beyond what I have listed here.