Diary of a Rural Manager!

I was reading yesterday an article by Mr. Sanjiv Phansalkar: What stops rural enterprises from growth and prosperity? . Mr. Sanjiv Phansalkar has written a good article but I find the article quite limited in explaining the scenario. The factors contributing to the failure among rural enterprises as per him are: Lifestyle obstruction, Modes of thinking, Sticking to schedules and Patterns of living. I propose ten better reasons on what stops rural enterprises from growth and prosperity. I have referred rural enterprises as micro-enterprises at several places in the current article. 1. Rural Enterprise Sector: Rural enterprises works in the segment where entry barriers are low and it is easy for these new entrants to enter the market. This poses a threat to the micro-enterprises already competing in that market. With an easy entry, all micro-enterprise tends to produce identical or nearly identical products – both in terms of quality and design, without offering significant product ...

Social Entrepreneurship movement is considered as next big thing and start ups of the development sector. The time needed to solve the social issues is vast, but thanks to the social enterprise movement, these issues are finally being fixed using sustainable business models and market forces. One of the most important tasks for the entrepreneur is to gain clarity about customers’ needs and willingness to pay. This helps in establishing a sustainable business model and create social impact alongside profits for external shareholders. That makes the social entrepreneur different from persons involved with Charity, For Profit Business and Government. I will quote these three articles as a source of my brief understanding: Dream Bigger, Plan Better: 7 Tips to Keep in Mind Before Starting a Social Enterprise Is social enterprise becoming a reactionary force? If the Goal is Scale, Promote Theft I attended a lecture on Mr S K Shelgikar on 25th November 2017. Mr S K Shelgikar, Advis...

New sources of funding, new actors and new technologies are quickly changing the landscape of the sector. Currently, not for profit sector is transitioning their operating and/or business models. For transitions to happen successfully, they must look at the historic perspective of why their enterprise is developed in the way that it did and at the same time look at the anticipated future trends. To go through the evolutionary change, there is need of a design thinking for analysis. Business Model Canvas is the ultimate framework for this purpose. Business Model Canvas represents a business model or business case with nine simple building blocks, including customer segments, channels, and relationships; value proposition, key activities, resources and partners; cost structure and revenue streams. The canvas therefore combines the financial viability of a solution with its usability and feasibility. This tool helps the manager to focus on what’s driving the business and value delive...

Today, the development sector has emerged as an unconventional yet full-fledged career option amongst the youth worldwide. People seeking careers in Development Sector face a dilemma on the choice between MBA in Rural/Health/Forest management and fellowship opportunities pan India. There are pros and cons to each choice: 1. Academia : Most candidates become largely irrelevant in running social enterprises by putting effort to keep themselves either too much academic or searching for degrees from premier colleges. B School always provides a broad base knowledge base than that is gathered in classroom training of Fellowship. 2. Seeking Experience - The grassroots experience is a must before jumping into solving an issue as one has to acknowledge the gap between ideology and lived experience. Fellowship experience will be much more diverse and fruitful than 2 years in MBA school. 3. Network Effect - The number of students enrolling and attending the MBA is much more than the fello...

Today is World Refugee Day: There are now more displaced people on the planet than at any other time in human history. UN Security Council has failed to prevent war through negotiation, diplomacy, and sanctions. By the end of 2015, 65.3 million individuals had been driven from their homes as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations. Of these, 21.3 million were refugees, 40.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 3.2 million asylum-seekers (UNHCR, 2015a). The civil wars always have unfolded refugee crisis in every part of the world. The refugee choose to transit to safe locations and may become “stuck” in a country that was intended to be a pit stop on a longer journey. But why don’t refugees just stay in these countries such as India, Turkey or Greece? Human Rights as well as Living conditions of destination where migrants had most wanted to reach significantly affect their migration intention. The reasons for this are clear: poor...

As a fresher, I always thought experience is just a word, but now I certainly believe in it. I have understood the ebbs and flows of the profession better.  What really do organizations want out of the professional? The simple answer is “get the job done”. Generally speaking, all managers are charged with three responsibilities: making money for the firm while saving time and reducing expenses. In below lines, find few tips for the first-time managers: Skill development It is always expected to have basic skills to conduct meetings, reviews, analysis, and communication skill. There must be always focused on developing self-capacity to increase productivity. This includes a small task of planning for day work in hours to being updated with the latest know-how in the field. Work on your written and verbal communication skills to become more appreciative and acknowledging of your coworkers. Ask for Trouble- Effort is important but where to put effort distinguishes achievers from...

I had a chance to spend time in Mulkanoor for professional exposure visit recently. Why? Mulkanoor is guiding light of India's cooperative movement. I was able to visit Mulkanoor Women's Cooperative Dairy (MWDC) and Cooperative Development Federation (CDF) promoted Thrift Cooperatives but unable to go at Mulkanoor Cooperative Rural Bank and Marketing Society. The purpose of the visit was to gain an insight into Community Micro Finance & Livelihood intervention work and gradual evolution of the cooperative model formed by the local women. I tried to learn from personal experiences as well as technical formalities by interacting with staff, members, & board directors of the cooperatives. My visit began with a morning ride from Hyderabad and it was about a four-hour drive. Mulkanoor falls in Bheemdevarapalli mandal of Karimnagar district. Mulkanoor is a hub of agriculture related activities. This area is known for paddy, maize and cotton cultivation. In addition to it, ...

The informal economy in India is run by entrepreneurs providing products and services to the customers. These low-skilled occupations require low financial investments and thus have a relatively low threshold for entering. The street vendors have created a carefully constructed beehive of economic activity in the public space. They have created a functional system for themselves without waiting for government to provide them the legal permission, space and subsidy. In the series of street entrepreneurs ( first part ), I am presenting here a blog post by Anishok Mishra from the 2016-18 batch of XIMB: The Cost behind the Taste - The Chaiwalas of Bhubaneswar . Tea, or as we fondly call it "Chai" is one of India's most preferred hot beverages. Almost every person in our country has had a sip of this drink once in their lifetimes. Some prefer it black, some with milk, some with a splash of lemon and those looking to get healthier by drinking it prefer it "Green...

Rural management gives career option in both for profit as well as non for profit sectors. A rural management professional can very well be part of the mainstream down the line even though starting career from a rural base. Job search in the rural management domain is more about information asymmetry than plain vanilla hunt for opportunities. While seeking for job, professionals apply for anything and everything in response to the posted vacancies in the job portals. Consequently, the chances of resume being ignored by the recruiters becomes high. To avoid the rejection, it is suggested to have a customized resume and job applications by including the keywords used in the job description that fits with your skills and experience. An updated Linked-In profile and healthy networking helps in a great way. I have faced difficulties as a job seeker looking for the right job and even knowing name of various companies/ organization of the rural management domain. It is best to choose a tar...

SHG Bank Linkage Model pioneered by NABARD served the dual purpose of financial inclusion as well as social empowerment for rural poor women from excluded communities. SHG program had shown to be successful in connecting both unserved as well as under-served customers with financial services. In the changing financial landscapes, it's merely a question of time before the JLG movement overshadows the SHG movement. The data on regulated microfinance institutions (MFIs) that submitted their numbers to the Microfinance Institutions Network indicates that over the past year, loan portfolios grew by 84 percent, and loan disbursements grew by 45 percent ( Source ). SHGs financed by the bank despite government schemes like NRLM became stagnant with the growth of the MFI sector. The data set ( Source ) shows a decline in SHG financed by banks post 2013 while the JLG movement is seeing tremendous growth. JLG model has led to the establishment of a large microcredit sector in India...

I have joined at ALC India Limited today. I have moved into consultancy act from programme implementation role. I hope my work will take me places and the initial exposure that was localized in the nature and context will be broadened. Tangible gains go hand in hand with the intangible ones in career of every employee. There will be business relation to establish, field tours to get insight, policy level to conduct and markers to lay for the future. Hoping this life will not be fully devoted to the job and conforming to its mindless dictates. When I quit the job with Chaitanya, I almost felt I had unfinished business to do. I felt that my reputation with ADS and in peers had been very good. And then you have to start searching for job after a gap, it is tough. It knocked me out for few interviews. I have seen a lot of ups and down with the career even a pink slip. I have emerged stronger after experiencing harsh realities of the lives early on in his career. When you get on a learn...

Market and State are principal agent of development. The welfare prone Indian state is now promoting the digital financial inclusion and cashlite economy.The demonetization narrative and data has been diverted towards digital and cashlite economy. The state appears to have vision of going cashless, notably like South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The cashless economy is an utopia but cashlite economy will happen till 2050. The digital ecosystem in India is demonstrated in the diagram below (Thanks Microsave) : The issues in move towards cash-lite economy has been discussed in detail here -: 1. Policy Level: RBI has drafted policies (in its Payment System Draft Vision Document ) to accelerate the shift towards electronic transactions. This policy will require an integration with National e Governance and Digital India plan for having a significant outreach and affect. The 'Committee on Digital Payments', headed by Ratan P Watal deployed by Ministry of Finance ...