The past seven days
Posted on July 9, 2008
Filed Under Blog, Satya Speaks
The Past week or so …….
Schools at 175 Rupees a month :
It is early days yet. Very early, indeed. No new idea can be counted as success until it grows her own roots on the ground and finds more nurturers than the inventors of the idea. Isn’t that stating the obvious ?
As Shashi Bhushan Kumar, the district collector of Khammam, Andhra Pradesh went about planting a sapling inside our Kusumanchi school, my mind was wandering about the times in the future when this sapling would become a tree. Would it become a tree or struggle to grow in her new home – SKS-CL Academy !! It is early days yet. Very early, indeed.
We had a very healthy congregation of officials, community leaders, villagers, parents and children at the launch of our first rural school on Saturday, July 05, 2008. There are 10 Rural Schools across the districts of Khammam, Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy and Medak that have got underway in AP which hope to provide high quality public education at affordable fees in rural parts of India.
A side story :
This project employs rural women and men as teachers who are barely educated themselves but have a lot of spunk and enthusiasm. A few of them come from economic backgrounds that are BPL (Below Poverty Line) for sure. The collector of a district is a tall statured person beyond reach for them. It was only after the inauguration that I discovered that our own mentors were very sure that the Collector is unlikely to show up for the event for their school is so small, modest and poor that it is not fit for a collector to visit them.
After Shashi left along with his entourage after spending over an hour and a half, I discovered that our mentors were aghast that such top officials including the Dy Collector (Raghunandan) not only visit our ‘modest school’ but stayed there for such a long period of time and interacted with so much of warmth and concern.
I am sure that the stature of their school went up in their own eyes during the course of the inaugural function. And they said in no uncertain terms – “ Collector sahib goes to even big functions only for a few minutes. We never thought he would even come to SKS – CL Academy”.
The Road Ahead :
Currently, I view it as an R & D project that calls for a whole lot of innovation in order to make it viable as well as scalable. It is a worthy project that attempts to solve the problem of capacity building for India by blending schooling with employability training in rural parts of the country. Insha Allah, We will succeed.
Part II
Three qualities of an entrepreneur :
I spent two days with the acads team of Delhi along with Shivku, Sharad, Suzy. I felt very good about the interaction as it had all the ingredients necessary to help deal with the past, come to grips with various dilemma / concerns etc,. I, particularly, feel satisfied with events / occasions such as these because of the quality of interactions and messages that get carried by each one of the participants back to our jobs / positions.
Needless to say, we were short on time. There were a bunch of questions that went unanswered by me due to shortage of time. I committed to Ashutosh that I will do one of those in my blog – ‘What are the three qualities of an entrepreneur ?’ So, here I am …..
Let me confess that these three qualities are unlikely to remain the same should some one repeat the question at some other point in time In any case, let me go ahead and share what occurs to me, at this point in time :
- A deeply internal locus of control :
An entrepreneur (or an entrepreneurial person) believes that he is responsible for all the outcomes in his life. He is likely to have crossed a stage in life where externalizing the blame for his/her own agony was a commonplace. He is likely to be a part of the ‘solution set’ than the problems. He is always likely to have an internal script that urges him to ‘do something about what he is worried about’. He is unlikely to sit on anger, park himself in a state of frustration for more than a minute or two.
Naturally, this is an attribute that can be acquired or cultivated through sincere efforts and enhanced self-awareness. - Comfort with unstructuredness :
This is easier said than done. It may even sound clichéd but this is indeed a very important aspect of entrepreneurship. Successful entrepreneurs ( and entrepreneurial employees) are very comfortable and even find additional energy when confronted with unstructured situation. They do not become dysfunctional.Not every thing is finely tuned, defined, written out on sheets as job description, tasks to be done, Key performance outcomes in our professional lives. Doing what is not defined is what entrepreneurial people do and enjoy in addition to the usual stuff.
- People – People – People :
I am speaking about successful entrepreneurs (or people) here. Perhaps, every successful person who has to work in the midst of people needs to have phenomenally good people skills. An entrepreneur is no different. Build unimpeachable reputation as a just / objective person is the most important attribute over a long run to build credibility with people. I need to be seen as trustworthy. Dependable. Inspiring. Accessible.
Just to clarify – you may not have great PR skills and yet you are a great people person because you are seen as a good guy/girl to work with. Ability to build teams, energizing them about the goal being worthy, getting out of their way while they chase the goals are some of the people related virtues that I have seen in successful entrepreneurs.
Incidentally, my broader definition of entrepreneurship includes areas covered by role models such as Mother Teresa, Gandhiji, even as it includes JRD and Mohd Younus.
Ashu - Do I make sense ?
Satya
Comments
6 Responses to “The past seven days”
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Dear Satya
This comment comes from a former employee of CL. I am not going to rite about the nitty gritties as to what happened at CL for which i had to leave,but yes it gave me a new lease of life. I looked at my family(including my newborn son) and drew inspiration from them. It also helped that one of your absolute jaw dropping communication sessions some days back helped me a lot. I told myself “3 yrs from now, something in e-learning domain will change and I will be architect of that change”. I joined a very small competitor company of yours, made 2 centres in 2 months of madness and unstructuredness(which u have just ritten above)worked from 9 to 9 for office(included IT,operations,classes,workshops..you name it) and 1100 to 3 in the morning at my pet project.Something within in my heart tells me that the dream is slowly ..very slowly… taking shape.I am thankful to you and i truly hail your imaginative thinking.I rite very little ,infact for 33 months at CL,apart from official mails, i did not rite even 10 CLMS mails(directed to all).But today I am riting after a long time and its a pleasure to comment on the qualities of an entrepreneur coming straight from a horses mouth.
I just want to add 1 more quality of an entrepreneur: He has to be prepared for any eventuality(obviously negative) and b a just a liitle proactive in detecting that one. Even if he comes near 50% of that, i think he is there.
All my good wishes to you and every CLite.
May it reach dizzy heights.
Regards
Dipak
Beautifully expressed, and yes congratulations for SKS-CL Academy!
satya , u always make sense…….
Hi, interesting idea - the AP schools that you are upto. Is it Rs 175 a month/child? And you plan to make it work without aid?
Dear Satya,
I have read your article and i have found you to be person who likes to view ordinary things in a new light. Though I belong to one of your rival brands in the education segment, your views have compelled me to have a different opinion about yourself.I have been able to convince myself to discard some preconceived notions about you and your company and i think this is a positive sign for all of us to coexist in this competetive world in a better manner.
The concept is wonderful and parise worthy. The education on affordable cost is the development secret of the country. The light of education should reach every nook and corner of the country in order to eliminate poverty.
We a group of youug people of Vision in Aciton support you for the same. We are also striving to reach the unreached with formal education and technological approch to traditional methods.
Benny
9810482264
Vision in Action Public Chartable Trust, Delhi.