SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH MENTORING

The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.

                                                              Plutarch, Greek Philosopher (46-119 CE)

Like many youth, Bharath also joined Pre-University Course (PUC) in 2006 taking Science stream – Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Computer Science, as optional subjects to fulfil the dream of his parents to become an engineer. When the second year PUC Public-examination results were announced in May 2008, to his utter shock, he found out that he had failed. Bharath mustered enough courage to drop out of Science stream and register for Commerce stream (History, Economics, Accountancy and Business Studies), through correspondence course and passed PUC with a first class (>60 %) in 2009.

Bharath Rajanna (b.1991) was eldest of three sons of Rajanna, employed as a Constable in Karnataka Police Service and home-maker Nirmala. Passing PUC in first class gave Bharath enough confidence to pursue his Bachelor’s degree in Business Management (BBM) at Acharya Institute of Management Sciences (AIMS), a reputed college situated close to his home. After joining the college Bharath also started participating in extra-curricular activities.

Apart from working on my PhD in the area of Business Incubation, since January 2007 I was working as a Consultant with N.S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM- B). Sometime during May 2008 I got a call from Prof. Ranganathan, who introduced himself as a teaching faculty at AIMS, requesting me to visit the Principal at an early convenient date, as they were keen to engage my services to the newly established AIMS Entrepreneurship Excellence Centre (AEEC).

On the appointed date and time, I met Prof. Ranganathan and his college Principal. After a few minutes of general discussion, Principal informed me that AIMS had established AEEC just a few months before. She further said, ‘to learn more about entrepreneurship programme and Business Incubation I visited IIM, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) along with Prof. Ranganathan. When I requested the faculty in-charge of the Centre to suggest someone in Bangalore to be an advisor to AEEC, he suggested your name, perhaps because you were a consultant to NSRCEL, IIM-B.’ She requested me to join AIMS as an advisor to AEEC, visiting the college once a week to develop programmes for training the students to get motivated to start their own enterprise.  She also requested me to be a mentor to Prof. Ranganathan, director of the newly formed AEEC to ensure effective implementation of the programme.

Prof. Ranganathan, a graduate of Chemical Engineering and Post-graduate in Management, both from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) had worked in the corporate world for over three decades and retired as General Manager, CEAT Limited.[1] No sooner I joined AIMS as advisor to AEEC during June 2008, I established a process to short-list students both from BBM and MBA programmes, (limiting to 30) for admission into AEEC as student members. Faculty from different departments who were interested in Entrepreneurship related activities also were encouraged to join AEEC as faculty members.  I had developed a four module programme for the student members to get exposed to ground realities of business. After successfully completing the four modules they needed to develop a Business Plan based on their idea for establishing a Start-up. Thus, the student members were trained to become entrepreneurs based on their ideas and motivation levels.  Prof. Ranganathan, though a senior citizen by age, was an enthusiastic learner and believed in action. He ensured all my suggestions were promptly implemented within a short period of time. I also advised Prof. Ranganathan to enlist AIMS as an institutional member of National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) which was established in 2003 by Dr. Ramesh Wadhwani[2].

The main objective of NEN was to bring together the Higher Education Institutions in India as a community to foster entrepreneurship, focussing on Institutional Capacity Building. The goal of the community is to enable new and future entrepreneurs to access events and resources, share ideas and content, organize and market activities, and forge relationships across India and the world. Programmes included a variety of supports including competitions. AEEC encouraged the students to participate in several such competitions organised by NEN. During 2011 AIMS, as an institution got the FIRST position in the NEN annual competition among over six hundred NEN members participating across India.

On completing his BBM in 2012 Bharath took up Post-graduate Common Entrance Test (PGCET) conducted by then Bangalore University for MBA admission and based on his merit ranking he opted to join MBA course at AIMS itself. When Bharath joined the MBA course, AEEC had already gained high level of reputation and hence the student members had to really work hard to maintain the status quo. In 2013 Bharath led a team of four students to participate in a State level Business Plan competition organised by Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) with his Business Plan and won SECOND position among 70+ participants that fetched Rs.50,000 as prize! Perhaps this led to Bharath deciding not to take up his placement job offer of Berger Paints with a package of Rs.500,000/annum to the utter dismay of his parents!

In July 2014 I had established a Business Incubator[3] (BI) with an eight seats office sharing space mainly to support Start-ups that can make some social impact. Having completed MBA with a first class and rejecting the placement offer of a Multi-National Company, Bharath with three of his classmates as partners approached me sometime during early October 2014 to establish his Start-up, Edu pinnacle in my BI.

Edupinnacle as an enterprise focussed on training college students in soft-skills and analytics to enable them to get placed comfortably at the end of their course. Having known Bharath’s enthusiasm and commitment, I decided to incubate Edupinnacle. But within a short period of four months, all the three partners left Bharath one after the other, as they did not possess the needed enthusiasm nor the resilience that are essential ingredients for start-ups to succeed. Thus, by February 2015 Bharath was left all alone, caught between the anger of his parents and his own disappointment as the partners had left him high and dry.

Being the mentor, I asked Bharath to rework on his Business Plan and establish realistic business targets if he has to manage it alone and provided him financial support to meet his one year working capital expenses. I also suggested him to give some fixed amount of money to his mother every month for one year to reduce his parents’ frustration. It took almost two years for Bharath to stabilise his operations. There was no looking back after 2016, by which time he had hired an employee and a few interns. By 2018 Bharath not only repaid all the money that I had given him, but, even gifted a SUV[4] to his parents!

Even after stabilising his business, Bharath continued to be a tenant in my office space till COVID struck during first quarter of 2020. By this time Bharath had become a toughened entrepreneur and had built the required systems and processes to manage the business. As colleges were the clients of Edu pinnacle, Bharath helped some of them to go On-line to conduct regular classes, apart from developing new verticals like training the faculties to teach virtually, hand-hold a few students virtually in a few areas and initiate certification courses in Analytics.

Meanwhile in early 2020, his parents naturally satisfied with his progress, found Bharath a suitable life partner in Chandrika and they got married in June. The couple now have a sweet little girl Shreya who has completed two years!

[1] CEAT Limited (formerly, Cavi Elettrici e Affini Torino) is an Indian multinational tyre manufacturing company owned by the R.P.Goenka Group.

[2] Ramesh Wadhwani is an Indian-American billionaire, businessman and head of investment firm SAIGroup He is the former chairman and CEO of Symphony Technology Group, a private equity firm for software, Internet and technology services companies. He established the Wadhwani Foundation for economic development in emerging economies, with an initial focus on India. Initiatives in India include the National Entrepreneurship Network.

[3] A Business Incubator is a program that gives very early-stage companies access to mentorship, investors and other support to help them get established.

[4] Sports Utility Vehicle -generally refers to stylish, sleek looking vehicles that offer elegant city driving but also handle rugged terrain.

November 17, 2024 | Ravi 91