Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Here is something that i loved. YES ...we cannot replicate !

I love being where i am ! that is not status qouish statement  !!

I love serving the organization that i served this long (NABARD). It has done so much for helping / grounding thoughts, allowing rural / social innovations and social enterprises in hinterlands. Perhaps unparalleled in the country...its a 100 % CSR company ...yes paying taxes too to the exchequer – figuring in the top 50 tax payers consistently  . But NO tokenism about our development work ; we virtually plough back all the profits we get into development spending …in the unending search for solutions and answers. But , an organization of this kind is still unheard of in the public and market space...yes, we may be a bit sarkari in approach in terms of the time taken ( I can assure you it could be far less than a World bank or ADB) we just donot market ourselves, we are shy, that's how we were groomed, do your job , that's all .

I was privy to a presentation by an IIM Prof, who did a study of my organisation...independently , no financial support , just logistical support to show where project areas are. He covered 10 projects PAN india , took 1.5 years for the field study , did no IRR , ROA analysis, but did a well being analysis from a client perspective . Believe me he said “ you guys are non-corruptible ; you have no understanding of the trust capital you have gained with communities” it is unparalleled I have never seen anything like this in my over 3 decades of work”

I slept very well that day, my respect of what we do and the organization that I work just leapfrogged that day  . He did visit tribal livelihood projects, watersheds which we have supported ( a part of the 2 million ha we support)  , some SHG aggregation models, our rural innovation projects etc etc . He said he is writing a book about it.

Well amidst all this hunky-dory stuff there are some that failed , which he documented ..YES, even if don’t document success ; we should record our failures, its rates and the reasons for failures. That is a greater lesson..least discussed..........

The real truth even in social enterprises and innovations is that ""man""matters the most . When we scale up a good pilot lesson to slightly visible scales ......we could get everything right, the project, funding, logistics, stakeholder support etc but may not get the right human beings that piloted the success. The underlying thing..."we cannot replicate human being" well even clones don't help.

Listen to this guy's spirited talk ...just great . He made my day!!! Thanks pallotta !.. You inspired me to scribble these few words too.....

Works at NABARD for poor HH / was Research Affiliate at CDS, Tvm / was Visiting Faculty on microFinance for MBA students NMIMS, Mumbai.