The Piggy Bank Metaphor
This piece was written as an essay for the New Generation Seminar Series (www.eastwestcenter.org/ngs)
The old piggy bank, which all of us have used in our childhood, provides an interesting metaphor during these challenging times. It conveys the principle that whatever goes in comes out (no promise of supra normal profits), that small is beautiful (Microfinance vs Big Ticket Loans) and a good product is one which is simple in its design (Thank you derivatives!). If only the Wall Street guys had one of them.
Similarly, at CFM we work with our artisan groups across India to make products which are simple in design but utilitarian in nature, taking into account the need of our customers. With around 10 milllion people dependent on handicrafts in India, a slowing global economy will have a severe impact on the ability of these people who are already under tremendous strain to earn a decent meal. Handicrafts is not only about creating jobs at the community level, but has other multiplier effects-less migration, use of locally produced sustainable raw materials, creating a sense of pride in the artisan who makes the product and above all conserving traditional skills.
Before I proceed further, would like to tell a bit about myself. I was born and brought up in Assam in an environment where there is a lot of pressure from family and friends either to become a engineer or doctor. But fortunately I didn’t get admission to any one of them and went to Assam Agricultural University to do a course in Agriculture and my life changed forever. Although I didn’t learn anything about agriculture, those four years sowed the seed of entrepreneurship in me. Since you had all the time to do everything except study, some of us got together and started ‘Friends of the Environment’- a club of students and academics to create awareness about the environment. You can say that this was the first social venture for me.
Then there was this long journey of 3 years to Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) where I landed in 1998 to pursue a management course with a difference. IRMA was set up by Dr Varghese Kurien, the milk man of India, to develop professionals to manage rural enterprises. In the year that we graduated, it was the dotcom boom and also the bust. Every issue of business magazines have these smart looking young people from India’s premier institute the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM)’s smiling at you from the cover-another start up was born. Me and my friend Rahul Nainwal thought why not us. At that time we didn’t knew anything about social entrepreneurship. The challenge was- can we use our knowledge about management and development to come up with an idea to bring large scale impact. Thus was born MITRA Technology Foundation.
The idea behind MITRA was to use technology to bridge information asymmetry in the development sector so that by creating a sense of trust and transparency we can connect individuals who would like to contribute, with NGO’s who are the beneficiaries. Today MITRA owns and manages www.iVolunteer.in, the largest volunteer placement initiative in India. It manages around 2500 volunteers every year both in India and other developing countries.
In 2005, I took a sabbatical from MITRA to look at other opportunities and founded CFM, an initiative to create wealth for artisan communities in India by creating employment opportunities. Today CFM works with around 1200 artisans across India and has sold more than $500,000 of merchandise.
As a social entrepreneur the current financial crisis creates unprecedented challenges as we have to deal with heightened funding challenges, consequential decisions, organisational alignment and management of traditional trade-offs. But I believe that upheaval and rapid change can also bring about new opportunities for focus, innovation and clarity.
The fellowship will provide me an opportunity to enter into candid, generative and instructive conversations with new age leaders, leading practitioners and social sector leaders and also to experience firsthand how different economies are coming up with coping mechanisms. By sharing our experiences all of us together will be able to generate ideas, strategies and insights for surviving and even thriving in this climate.
And who knows, we all might at the end of the program take a piggy bank home to remind us of our values, beliefs and our dreams and the power that lies within us.
The old piggy bank, which all of us have used in our childhood, provides an interesting metaphor during these challenging times. It conveys the principle that whatever goes in comes out (no promise of supra normal profits), that small is beautiful (Microfinance vs Big Ticket Loans) and a good product is one which is simple in its design (Thank you derivatives!). If only the Wall Street guys had one of them.
Similarly, at CFM we work with our artisan groups across India to make products which are simple in design but utilitarian in nature, taking into account the need of our customers. With around 10 milllion people dependent on handicrafts in India, a slowing global economy will have a severe impact on the ability of these people who are already under tremendous strain to earn a decent meal. Handicrafts is not only about creating jobs at the community level, but has other multiplier effects-less migration, use of locally produced sustainable raw materials, creating a sense of pride in the artisan who makes the product and above all conserving traditional skills.
Before I proceed further, would like to tell a bit about myself. I was born and brought up in Assam in an environment where there is a lot of pressure from family and friends either to become a engineer or doctor. But fortunately I didn’t get admission to any one of them and went to Assam Agricultural University to do a course in Agriculture and my life changed forever. Although I didn’t learn anything about agriculture, those four years sowed the seed of entrepreneurship in me. Since you had all the time to do everything except study, some of us got together and started ‘Friends of the Environment’- a club of students and academics to create awareness about the environment. You can say that this was the first social venture for me.
Then there was this long journey of 3 years to Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) where I landed in 1998 to pursue a management course with a difference. IRMA was set up by Dr Varghese Kurien, the milk man of India, to develop professionals to manage rural enterprises. In the year that we graduated, it was the dotcom boom and also the bust. Every issue of business magazines have these smart looking young people from India’s premier institute the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM)’s smiling at you from the cover-another start up was born. Me and my friend Rahul Nainwal thought why not us. At that time we didn’t knew anything about social entrepreneurship. The challenge was- can we use our knowledge about management and development to come up with an idea to bring large scale impact. Thus was born MITRA Technology Foundation.
The idea behind MITRA was to use technology to bridge information asymmetry in the development sector so that by creating a sense of trust and transparency we can connect individuals who would like to contribute, with NGO’s who are the beneficiaries. Today MITRA owns and manages www.iVolunteer.in, the largest volunteer placement initiative in India. It manages around 2500 volunteers every year both in India and other developing countries.
In 2005, I took a sabbatical from MITRA to look at other opportunities and founded CFM, an initiative to create wealth for artisan communities in India by creating employment opportunities. Today CFM works with around 1200 artisans across India and has sold more than $500,000 of merchandise.
As a social entrepreneur the current financial crisis creates unprecedented challenges as we have to deal with heightened funding challenges, consequential decisions, organisational alignment and management of traditional trade-offs. But I believe that upheaval and rapid change can also bring about new opportunities for focus, innovation and clarity.
The fellowship will provide me an opportunity to enter into candid, generative and instructive conversations with new age leaders, leading practitioners and social sector leaders and also to experience firsthand how different economies are coming up with coping mechanisms. By sharing our experiences all of us together will be able to generate ideas, strategies and insights for surviving and even thriving in this climate.
And who knows, we all might at the end of the program take a piggy bank home to remind us of our values, beliefs and our dreams and the power that lies within us.
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