Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation
EMPRESSARIO …An Entrepreneurial Insight
JANUARY ‘2013 Vol. VI Iss. 1
IMT Hyderabad
CONTENTS Prarambh Speaks……………………………………………………1 WHACKY IDEAS THAT WORKED!! Attero Recycling: An environment friendly startup…………………………………………………….…………….2
Monthly Features Looking Ahead for Greener India………………………..5 Social Entrepreneurship & Sustainable Growth: A myth or reality....................................................................8 The Online Restaurant Guide: ZOMATO……..…………..10 The Social Enterprise Magic Bus- II……………….……….14
Add-ons Readers’ Corner……………………………...……………………..15
Team Prarambh ..…..…………………………………………..…...16
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Prarambh Speaks “With a stout heart, a mouse can lift an elephant� - Tibetan proverb One look at the proverb and you think what has it go to do with the newsletter. You would think for a second why the newsletter has suddenly changed its tone towards being philosophical. The reason behind is the current economic scenario, with articles in newspapers saying authorities are optimistic about the growth of the economy. As our economy is on the recovery path and our businesses full of optimism, as students, we too look forward towards a positive change of things. So this edition, we look for sustainability and innovation in business. As mentioned in the last newsletter about IMT Hyderabad hosting two American schools, Portland State University and Columbia School of International and Public Affairs for their projects on Social Enterprises through SE Magic Bus, so we had a small conversation with a couple of students from Columbia University, while they were here this month for their project on Social Enterprise and Sustainable Development. We also have been receiving a lot of articles on Social Enterprises from different B-Schools across the country. It feels great to know that we can do so much in the field of social enterprises and innovation. We look forward for more sharing of ideas and facts so that we can try to make the world a better place through innovation and optimism. Happy reading
Team Prarambh
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WHACKY IDEAS THAT WORKED !!
Attero Recycling: An environment friendly startup (Deepanshu Bhatia, TAPMI, Manipal)
Ever wondered where to dispose off your laptop, tablets and mobile phones? Where does all the hardware associated with technological world go? The Gupta siblings (Nitin and Rohan) certainly have the answer. A B.Tech in electrical engineering from IITDelhi and MBA from NYU Stern School of Business, Nitin Gupta (32) founded Attero Recycling in 2007 with his younger brother Rohan. The first Indian company for e-waste recycling, Attero means ‘waste’ in Latin. It is not as easy as it may sound. The siblings had their fair share of tough time. Apart from land and machinery, the project was dependent on research unit. Like any other business start-up, Gupta siblings were dependent on funding for the same.
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“A representative will come to your doorstep to collect laptops, cell phones and other e-waste (even single pieces) if you call the helpline number,” explains Gupta. “The company already boasts of a clientele that includes GE, LG, KPMG, Nokia Siemens, Visa and The Leela.” (Sourcehttp://www.iitdalumni.com/node/76532) Fortunately, in 2008 they raised $6.3 million from Venture Capitalist firms. It is not as easy as it may sound. The siblings had their fair share of tough time. Apart from land and machinery, the project was dependent on research unit. Like any other business start-up, Gupta siblings were dependent on funding for the same. Fortunately, in 2008 they raised $6.3 million from Venture Capitalist firms.
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Facts: Funded by - VC firms NEA-IndoUS Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
This shows that they are not only into a serious business but also careful about their image projection! A cue for budding entrepreneurs.
It is the first e-waste recycler to be registered with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Ministry of Environment & Forests. It is recognized as Tech Pioneer 2012 by WEF In the last financial year, the company processed 4,000 tonnes of ewaste. About 70 per cent of the company’s revenues currently come from private sector companies. The government sector accounts for another 20 per cent and the rest comes from the banking and financial services sector. Greenpeace India has projected that there is 8 lakh tonne of e-waste generated from electrical and electronic waste in the country. By 2012, this will double to 1.6 million tonnes.
1. Their website http://www.attero.in/ has few interesting taglines as below We’re rewriting the future
We’re re-formatting the earth
We’re growing technology
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trees
out
2. Another ‘Atterobay’.
interesting
initiative
is
For those who are new to this concept
Interesting Information:
Image_Source: http://www.advertolog.com/atterorecycling-6621405/print-outdoor/letschange-the-nature-of-e-waste-14794105/ (*Image might be subject to copyright)
of
“Atterobay encourages recycling and re-use of mobile phones through environment friendly ways. So if you are wondering if I sell my mobile how much money will I get? Search on our website to see an up-to-date valuation of your handset model. Our easy to use website allows you to sell your old mobile phone online with a pickup from the comfort of your home depending on your
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availability and convenience. Not bad, right?” – (Quote from website)
References
Attero Recycling has early mover’s advantage and very few competitors in current scenario. It may expect high growth potential in the segment in coming years.
http://startupcentral.in/2012/05/atterorecycling-bets-on-retail-consumer-market-withatterobay/
Also, India has adopted a new e-waste law in 2011 that makes companies liable for their own e-waste. This is like cherry on cake for the Gupta siblings.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/201 1-06-12/pune/29649769_1_abhishek-pratapbrominated-flame-retardants-electronic-wastes
Already 5 years into the business, it’ll be interesting to observe in which direction ‘Attero Recycling’ heads to. Nevertheless, it’s definitely need of the hour. As their punch line reads – ‘It’s never waste, until it’s wasted’, I wish for their better future!
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Monthly Features
Looking Ahead for Greener India (Divya .S, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow)
The objective of every business is to reduce and eliminate waste to improve cost effectiveness and operational efficiency. There are some industries which break the rule and add value to the society by working on waste resources. Such industries work dedicatedly towards solid waste conversion and safe disposals through technology and collectively constitute the ‘Solid Waste Management’ (SWM) industry. As India is rapidly developing with increased urbanization and industrialization, SWM business has a foreseeable future.
Overview of solid waste management industry
be done in smaller economies of scale and can use the Hub and spoke type of Business Model (i.e. collecting waste from different locations to a centralized place). The next process of treatment of solid waste and conversion is a large business with substantial fixed investment in machinery and technology. In India, this type of industry is encouraged by the government as a public private partnership with a BOOT model to modernize the whole industry. The main advantage of the business is that the input resources (waste) are available in plenty and are growing at a faster rate (i.e. One can easily acquire the required resources).
The main process includes solid waste collection, transportation, conversion into different forms and disposal of hazardous materials. The first two steps, namely collection and transportation of waste, can
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Adding value proposition through innovation SWM industry is mainly driven by innovative technology to convert the waste more efficiently. The industry can be extended by adding value to the material
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they convert from waste. E.g. if one is able to convert waste polyethylene into biopolymers (used in critical medical applications) instead of recycled plastics, it will add more value to the business model. The underlying fact is that, companies have to acquire technical competency to discover a cost efficient way to convert polyethylene
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into biopolymers. Similar research is being conducted on extracting bio diesel and petroleum feedstock from organic waste. Further development of the above process into commercially viable industrial technology is the main challenge and herein lies the future for solid waste management companies. Another major developing area is electronic waste, popularly known as ‘E waste’. According to the recent data by hardware manufacturers association - Mait, India presently generates about 400,000 tonnes of e-wastes annually of which only 19,000 tonnes are recycled. Developing an incentive plan for depositing the e waste will encourage the households to dispose the waste in a proper manner. All the above technological improvements are possible with the integration of two or more branches of science and engineering such as biology, chemistry, energy, polymer science, etc. along with integration of industrial and manufacturing process. Looking for opportunities in one sector by leveraging the other will increase the scope of the business. Eg: with the generation of chemicals from E waste, the scope of industry has increased ranging from electrical & electronics to chemical industry.
Also different kinds of input from various sectors will increase the productionpossibility frontier a company. Companies can also gain the competitive advantage by customizing the waste conversion process in every region along with local governments. On the whole, SWM companies have to act as an interactive platform with the public in creating awareness, with the government to utilize the resources, with other businesses to develop the technology. This will definitely make the SWM business lucrative in India.
References http://www.ihs.com/products/chemical/technology/ pep/chemicals-from-agricultural-wastes.aspx http://siteresources.worldbank.org/ENRLP/Resource s/4609561163449042857/Private_Sector_Participation.pdf http://www.businessstandard.com/india/news/india-gets-first-e-wastemanagement-rules/438474/
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Social Entrepreneurship & Sustainable Growth: A myth or reality? (Punit Bhansali, IIM Shillong)
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The World has enough for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed”. The world today is facing a massive economic slowdown and we are once again standing at the door steps of yet another recession like that of the year 2008. The inability to revive the economy clearly indicates that there is a definite error in our growth strategy. Now we have to decide that whether we will be driven by our greed or we will try to develop and grow in a sustainable manner. In the past few decades there were many instances which indicated that shortcuts and unethical ways employed by the companies led to their collapse. The burst of ‘Dot Com Bubble’ in early 2000 was the result of human greed and motive to earn maximum profit by investing in an area with very high growth rate and opportunity. Another eye opener was the collapse of mighty Lehman Brothers in 2008 which was once one of the leading investments. But the lust of earning more and more drove it to keep all the rules and regulations aside and
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take high risks in lending money. Had it chosen the path of sustainable growth it might have been one of the top most investment banks today.
The need of the hour is to plan a strategy where we can achieve the appropriate growth rate but not at the expense of exploiting resources and hampering the environmental balance. This goal is not unrealistic as is evident from various examples where the organizations are making profits with sustainable growth. A highly innovative and unique model is adopted by a tribal community in Meghalaya, to conserve forests and simultaneously generate income to feed an entire village. The ‘Mawphlang’ forests situated in the East Khasi Hills district, 25
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Km from Shillong, are kept conserved through centuries. The tribal communities taking care of these forests came up with an idea to generate income from carbon credits by reducing emissions from degradation and deforestation (REDD). REDD is a pilot project where the community managing and safeguarding the Mawphlang forests is paid by the government and UN for reducing the Carbon Dioxide gas from environment by preserving the forests. The forests are considered to be sacred with no external use of forest resources permitted but the untapped resources can be used within the forest premises for various purposes. The forest contains a wide range of bio-diversity and flora of great medicinal and nutritional value. The Mawphlang forest trust or the tribal community have implemented several sustainable ways to raise funds like organizing meditation camps, bird watching for photographers and nature lovers, hosting food festivals and ecological conferences, charging a nominal entry fees (forest safari), developing Ayurvedic medicines for treatment of various diseases and even incurable diseases like cancer etc. Thus on one side they are ensuring that the resources will be used in a judicious way and on the other side they are earning livelihood for the villagers living in and near the forest premises.
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Mawphlang Sacred Groove
There are numerous examples to show that achieving ‘Sustainable growth’ is realistic. But we must learn to cater to our needs rather than to our greed. If we succeed to come up with several similar models for sustainable growth than the day is not far where we can really achieve UN’s concept of Green GDP rather than GDP which will posturize the growth of a country, focusing on environmental issues.
References http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/427443the-world-has-enough-for-everyone-s-need-butnot-enough http://megtourism.gov.in/ecodestination.html
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The Online ZOMATO
Restaurant
Guide:
(Saumya Rastogi, NMIMS, Hyderabad) In today’s world, people have a busy schedule and not much free time on their hands. Whenever they get some time people like to go out with their loved ones. The idea of going out mostly involves going to a lounge, a restaurant, a club, etc. Different people opt for different places. Some people like trying restaurants, cuisines. A few want to go to places suited to their budget, whereas some prefer places close to their residence. Everyone desires knowing these things beforehand. Zomato.com helps and provides details of all the places as per the individual’s requirement. Zomato.com is an Indian website which provides information related to restaurants, pubs, clubs and events in India, Sri Lanka, UAE and UK. The company provides detailed information to more than nine million online users and web platforms, every month.
The Origin of Zomato Zomato.com was started in 2008 by Deepinder Goyal and it was initially named ‘FoodieBay’.
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Deepinder Goyal is an IIT-Delhi graduate with Integrated Masters in Mathematics and Computing. While working with Bain and Company, a leading management consulting firm, Deepinder noticed that the employees in the office would gather to look at menu cards to order food. It was then that he came up with an idea to prepare an online database of all the menu cards. Thus, Deepinder along with his college juniors Pankaj Chaddah and Gunjan Patidar prepared an online database and called it Foodiebay. The database started in places such as Delhi, NCR and spread to Kolkata, Mumbai and other cities. In 2010, the company got an investment from Infoedge, the parent company of Naukri.com and soon it was rebranded as Zomato. The company launched applications for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry devices.
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Zomato.com The website is an online food guide which provides information and reviews about restaurants, pubs, clubs and events. It allows users to explore restaurants by location, delivery, nightlife etc. The information provided includes address, timings, cuisines, cost, payment methods, special events, and concerts to be held and also reviews and from people who have visited the place earlier. Customers can easily look through the options available and choose the place which suits them best.
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Strategy and Expansion Zomato has been trying to position itself in the minds of people through advertisements, twitter and also physical activity. It has launched advertisements on TV. It started a FoodieFriday quiz on twitter. Some of the physical activities it conducted in 2012 include food marathons such as FoodSprint in Delhi and Zomathon in Bangalore and Mumbai. Teams were formed and challenging tasks involving food were given to the teams. Zomato also launched its print version of restaurant guide. The company also started online ticketing for its ‘events’ section around New Year for restaurants and hotels in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune.
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The company plans to invest USD 2 million to expand its operations in the country and abroad. In India, Zomato plans to make its presence felt in Goa, Guwahati, Shillong and Kochi and also target Europe and Middle East by 2014. It has also started its blog. The company also plans to increase the number of employees during the year. Thus, truly ‘Zomato is all about food and where you can find the best of it’. So next time when you want to go out and you are unable to find a place, log on to Zomato.com and you will surely find a plethora of places you can visit to spend our time.
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References: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/ne ws-by-industry/services/hotels-/restaurants/zomato-to-invest-2-mn-forexpansion-in-fy-14/articleshow/18076998.cms http://www.indiainfoline.com/Research/Leader Speak/Deepinder-Goyal-Founder-and-CEOZomato/36925196
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The Social Enterprise Magic Bus- II (Kaustubh Tandon, IMT Hyderabad, PGDM)
The Social Enterprise Magic Bus Program in its second pit stop in India was at IMT Hyderabad with a fresh set of students. It was the turn of the students from Columbia University to experience India as a country which has tremendous potential for social entrepreneurship but along with that, it has its own set of problems. This methodology of teaching on the Bus during the visits to potential social entrepreneurial avenues is the brainchild of Kim Alter, who is a social entrepreneur, social enterprise consultant and has twenty years of experience in the field including her six year stint at Said Business School, University of Oxford. In their venture, the students got the opportunity to visit Bhimavaram which is a small village in Andhra Pradesh. It’s a maxim that ‘’India lives in the villages”, going by that, the students had a first-hand account of exploring the elementary socio economic fabric of the country. Though the Social Entrepreneurship working in tandem with IMT Hyderabad students highlighted some serious issues to be addressed , yet were highly optimistic after meeting the local villagers . The old methodologies coupled with new approaches stimulated by the Government, as per them would prove to be instrumental in realizing the objective.
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The background of the students was mainly Public Policy and Health, interacting with PGDM students facilitated a cross exchange of cultural and academic ideas, with the guests enjoying the local festivities with the natives. ‘Human Resource is India’s biggest capital, they (Indians) should improvise on that’ was the suggestion of the students. They were amazed by the fact that how the women ran their house holds on less than a dollar per day. They advocated the involvement of all the stakeholders in the development scenario. Public private partnership was called for by the delegates, who said so after having a meeting with the District Collector. The meeting was facilitated by Dr. Archana Pillai, Associate Professor at IMT Hyderabad. The visitors also shared their earlier consulting works in the US, indicating some of needs to carry out similar endeavours in India, with special emphasis to insulate it from the rampant corruption prevalent elsewhere. The challenge of sustainability and scalability also popped up, with advice to be more cautious. Proper Staff selection and Adequate Training were also some of the suggestions given if the goal is to be realized, combined with long term investment in Human Resources and Capital.
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Add-ons Readers’ Corner Got any comments? Would you like to contribute to the newsletter? Get back to us at: ecellprarambh@gmail.com. Your comments/views and articles would be published from the next issue. A few things to be kept in mind: Articles/comments should not be demeaning / damaging in nature. Articles should be to the point and of around 500 words. The decision of selecting the articles to be featured and the number of such articles rests with the faculty mentor and editor of the newsletter. So put on your thinking caps and show us your intellect side.
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Team Prarambh Faculty Mentor Dr. Archana Pillai Core Members: Arjun Chaudhuri Udit Luthur Divya Vuppala Vaibhav Chabra Manish Vishnu M. Designing, Compiling & Tech support: Pankaj Kumar Gaurav Prateek Mukherji Editing team: Rohit Seth Anshika Rai Ridhima Kumar Tanay Kotriwala Ameya Lingaraju
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Vol. VI Iss. 1 | Empressario | Jan 2013 | Prarambh | IMT-H