Business FOR a cause

Though Bangalore is the most happening city in terms of investment, cutting technology and innovation, there is still a lot of dissatisfaction among the general public. It could be due to disconnection of business world and the society around it. Then there are these different kind of businesses which are running on a cause. Though these business firms are working on a social cause, they are not doing charity. We have assembled four pioneers who have excelled as social entrepreneurs and have carved a niche for themselves. Mr. Balaji Pasumarthy, Chief Catalyst of Businessgyan was the moderator.

The panel members who took part in the discussion were

Mr. Gunjan Sinha, Executive Chairman, MetricStream

Ms. Madhura Chatrapathy - Trustee Director, ASCENT

Mr. Hariharan -  Director, Biodiversity Conservation India Ltd

Mr. Ayyappa Masagi - Director, Water Literacy  Foundation

Q: How hard was the transition from being a working professional to being a social entrepreneur?

Ayyappa - My father used to do organic farming with traditional practices with very low investment. Though he was uneducated, he stuck to his traditional knowledge when farmers around him were adopting modern chemical farming. He loved his occupation, which helped him to get the best out of his farm. If you really love your job, you will be self motivated. Global crises can be solved by local knowledge and resources. People say Ayyappa Masagi thinks of rain water and dreams of borewell revival. I have worked for the poor and rich, but it is the deprived who pay me for my work. The rich will always look for saving their money. I have found it is easier to convince small single households rather than apartment owners.

Q: I had done resource planning for watershed development of Karnataka Government projects. I want to know why these projects would fail?

Ayyappa - Though lot of factors are involved, I would like to highlight one important issue, that is they do not involve the local people. For instance, most of the small farmers have 3-4 acre farms, where if you create water bunds, it is very difficult to do farming. So the bunds created during the summer are broken up by these farmers which will get washed out in the rain. So I chose to work with sand pits of 6ft height x 6ft width where sand is put to soak up the water. It is a simple technique of taking moisture to the subsoil without occupying too much of space. But as you know, the government  authorities are not ready to adopt innovative techniques. I feel the main issue is ego of these officials.

Q: This brings us to the question of how to deal with government authorities and convince them?

Madhura - I wouldn't look at dealing with anyone as a problem, since as an entrepreneur the first thing you learn is how to solve problems. Problems are always there and an entrepreneur should look at handling them in a better way. I feel if you handle the government machinery directly without making a protest or talking to the media, we can convince the individual. Many times when a particular official is against our idea, we feel that the whole system is against us. Though I am not a management expert, we all know that problem needs to be broken down and dealt with. As AWAKE members we were proactive in dealing with bureaucracy, and never have it as a collective bargaining for women entrepreneurs. We never accused the government as gender biased nor have we asked for reservations.

Hariharan - It is not that a government policy is wrong. Recently we saw some reports of the village panchayat losing its rights in handling projects. Immediately you see statements from the World Bank which wants accountability and ownership.  But things go wrong during implementation since there is no ownership. Implementation is done from a contractor perspective. In Uttaranchal, government projects failed, so they started what is known as ‘GONGO' Government Owned NGO! Similarly here in Bangalore, BWSSB asked building contractors to adhere to sewage treatment and rain water harvesting regulations. Assam has some water champions. Using the natural resources to get the best out of it is the solution.

Excerpts from the Panel Discussion organised by Businessgyan and Tasmac on the topic ‘Business FOR a Cause'.

Compiled by Levine Lawrence for Businessgyan

Issue BG77 Aug07