No Guilt Profit

“Have you considered Social Impact Investing as an asset class?” is what my friendly banker asked me. “You mean in something like Facebook or Snapchat or Twitter? Certainly making a lot of social and financial impact from what I hear” I joked. He smiled knowing well that I did not mean what I said. He was right in his assumption. I have been toying to get into this space for the last couple of years; not as an investor, but as an active participant with direct involvement in some part of the process that leads to creating a social entrepreneur. It’s something that that is so dear to my heart; to make a positive difference – where scale really does not matter. It’s also been a personal belief that social enterprise and not charities are a better way of serving Society, as the elements of profitability and accountability force in the concepts of efficiency and scale. (Our self serving God men apply this rule selfishly and very successfully).   But, on a positive note, any enterprise that allows for personal fulfillment in climbing Maslov's pyramid and deliver the most basic need "a positive return on investment" is an exercise in "profit without guilt". I have read news and stories of some fabulous work being done in this area; and it would gratify me a great deal to raise a fund to ignite socially impacting ideas to reality.  Somehow, my CV has held no appeal to any of the organizations that I have applied to; and my involvement has been restricted to making modest contributions through crowd-funding to ventures that are being run by young professionals, and achieving a lot of good. So, yes, my eyes lit up, when Mr. Banker handed me an invite to attend an event on Social Impact Investing – where, I was told, I would meet up with several interesting personalities connected with this space; and if not – I was in for a fabulous themed dinner organized by Chef Hemant Oberoi himself. What an incentive – intellectual and/or intestinal gratification.

Interesting personalities is an understatement. I met some magnificent minds, both young and old that evening. What I heard from them was a revelation; something that shook and stirred my soul enough to put down their views in my blog as a mark of salute to their enterprise.

It struck him that the art of weaving hand knotted rugs would soon die out in Rajasthan; as the people involved in the weaving process were from under privileged minorities. To survive, weaving was just not enough means to earn money or respect. It was not that there was no money in the trade; in fact there was lots of it; but most of the money was sliced out by the middlemen and end traders. So to set the system right; defying caste, community and family ostracization; he created an organization that now contracts over 45,000 artisans as job work contractors spread over 600 villages in 6 states of India, producing 500,000 rugs every year. For Nand Kishore Chaudhary; the journey began in 1978 with a modest capital of Rs 5,000 and some space in the backyard that he borrowed from his father to set up 2 looms and 9 weavers. His growing proximity to the “low caste” weavers disturbed his family; but for him, it was a lesson in understanding of their joys and pains – which is why he feels - he has been able to achieve the scale at which “Jaipur Rugs” operates today. His social business model is a matter of dissertation at top ivy-league institutes; and while he has won tons of awards and accolades with a few brickbats too – none of it seems to have impacted his simplicity or humanness.

 The second man who impressed me was probably as old as the first; somewhere in his early sixties – at least from his looks. He started an enterprise just 3 years and not 3 decades ago with a capital of around Rs 30 million that today commands a valuation of Rs 300 million hearing which several side conversations went into silence. His business vision took seed as a solution to providing clean energy to the millions of radio towers that provide uninterrupted mobile telecommunication capability to the many million cell phone users across India. “Do you know how much diesel is consumed each year to keeps these towers powered?” asked Sushil Jiwarajka. “Close to half a billion liters. Do you know that there are over a billion handsets that are in use in India as we speak” he added. “Do you know half the diesel meant for these towers is stolen by the diesel mafia?” His Company OMC (Omnigrid Micropower Company) set up small solar and battery power units for these towers and the villages in the immediate vicinity. He told us stories of places in India which had mobile phones but no electricity and the sufferance of the people, especially women and children because of the lack of power. Some of the stories came straight out of unbelievable but true; like how a woman accidently poisoned her crying child at night - thinking she was giving him milk to quell his hunger. He then described the change that a single light, fan and electric point from a 15 Watt battery in each house made to the entire social behavior of the village they resided in. He was told he would wind up his company in less than a year as people would not pay for the power as well as destroy the infrastructure he was creating incited by the power lords in the area. In fact, the empowered people have stood up against the power mafia and have taken up the safety and security of the mini solar plants the same way they would protect their own homes. Payments for the power are prompt based on a pay as you use model. There was a time when getting a single rupee to fund his idea was an exercise in futility and today there are large international funds wanting to invest in his venture. Social entrepreneurship has been gratifying for him and his investors.

The third person I stood up to cheer was a young man of 23. He walked up confidently to the dias and started off by saying “A year or so back, my company did a turnover of Rs 50,000 a month. Today it does around Rs. 5 million a month. I intend to take the turnover to Rs 50 million a month by next year end and raise US$ 100 million on the stock market soon thereafter”. I have seen and heard many confident young visionaries and that did not impress me much. But, this boyish looking man, an engineer from MIT (USA), winner of multiple citations and awards from heads of states including ex-President of India Mr. Abdul Kalam is blind from birth. His parents hail from rural Andhra Pradesh and were advised by well wishers to dump the blind child in the well, as he would be a burden to look after. Thankfully, the parents of Srikanth Bolla did not heed to the advice and today he runs a company that produces packaging and consumer products made from tree waste. But wait, that is not the impressive part either. Most of the people working in the company are physically or intellectually challenged. He may be visually challenged, but that has not stopped him from understanding how to create a manufacturing process that can be more efficiently run by the disabled than people we call normal. Now that really requires some vision. There are some 80 million disabled people in India and Srikanth serves as a role model that provides them with the self esteem that they are not a burden to society. Incidentally, he is not out do any one a favour - he truly believes that a disabled person is actually more efficient than a normal person because of the passion and commitment level of the former to have been entrusted with responsibility. Now tell him how can one not stand up and applause at his achievements?

I met several people that evening who have given up top paying jobs with multinationals to pursue social entrepreneurship. By no means are they driven by altruism; and by no means greed either. They have understood that the intellectual capital in terms of adaptive talent is phenomenal in what most describe as the bottom of the pyramid population in India. That segment not only presents a sea of opportunity but an ocean of pent up demand; and servicing that simply - cost effectively - in sync with the social and natural environment is equal to a universe of smiles for all.  

Let me end by saying, the dinner did not disappoint either and I left with a lot of food for thought.