[SIZE=4][COLOR=blue]Team Shrishti[/COLOR] [/SIZE]
img:48:Team Shrishti A path-breaking six-week summer project of four management students — Piyush Arora, Krishna Murthy, Avinash Rao and Gautam R — of the Mumbai-based S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) completed in July last year, has created a lasting impact in Bangalore. Project Shrishti conceptualised and designed by the famous four, applied the principles of modern management to a Bangalore-based NGO — Shrishti Special Academy — and has morphed it into a profit-making skills training centre. Currently Shrishti Special Academy, a vocational training institute for mentally and physically disabled children, has 58 student-trainees on its muster roll.
Not surprisingly Project Shrishti, of Team Shrishti (as the famous four have christened themselves) was awarded the All India Best Management Project, 2003 of the Delhi-based International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (IMCI). Last year students of B-schools from across the country including several IIMs and XLRI submitted 130 project assignments for adjudication by a panel of eminent judges.
“This was the first time we were exposed to the unstructured environment of an NGO. As we studied the Shrishti Special Academy, we classified its problems into four broad categories — funds, awareness, people and internal processes. We defined our task as the evolution of new processes to streamline each of these activities,†says Avinash Rao, the team leader. “Naturally our job wasn’t merely to identify the academy’s problems, we worked towards putting into place effective systems to manage these processes in the organisation,†adds Rao.
Inevitably, given the usually unstructured environments of NGOs, the B-School students were quick to discern the need for a performance appraisal system, establishment of guidelines for recruitment, and allocation of responsibilities. “A step in this direction was the formation of a core committee comprising the founding trustees and senior faculty. This core committee has assumed the responsibility of monitoring employee recruitment and development,†explains Piyush Arora.
Not ones to rest on their laurels, SPJIMR’s famous four have ambitious plans for the future. “Of course after graduation in mid-2004, we will join the corporate rat race. But we will remember our association with Shrishti Special Academy as an enriching experience and will be happy to lend our expertise again whenever required,†says Rao.
Given their early — and successful —introduction to enlightened self interest, these famous four are likely to go a long way in their corporate careers.
[B]Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore)[/B]
[SIZE=4][COLOR=blue]Sonia Singh[/COLOR] [/SIZE]
img:47:r:Sonia Singh Unlike most youngsters of her generation, Sonia Singh (24) is neither interested in pursuing a high profile career nor in party hopping. A sociology graduate of Bareilley University and a samaritan at heart, Singh believes she has found life’s true calling in teaching children. Not children who go to school every day, but those who eke out a living by doing odd jobs in Lucknow’s bustling railway station.
Every weekday for the past 18 months, Singh has been teaching the three R’s (reading, writing, arithmetic) to an oscillating group of 25 children between the ages five and 15 whose residential address is No. 9, Charbagh Railway Station, Lucknow. “These are children everyone ignores and wishes away,†she says, explaining her choice of pupils. While weekdays are spent studying the three R’s, Saturdays are devoted to learning craft skills and outings for the children.
The eldest of four siblings born to a building contractor and a homemaker mother, Singh has mostly worked without external financial support. After reports of her initiative were highlighted in the local media, some citizens donated stationery. Some aid and advice has also come from the Asha Foundation co-founded by the 2002 Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey. “Though there was no overt discouragement, initially my family wondered about my career choice. Now they are very supportive of my work,†she says. Moreover on Platform No. 9 it was difficult for the child residents to find time for formal study. “Their parents often told me to leave them alone as I would ‘spoil’ their children and the railway police weren’t very cooperative either,†recalls Singh.
But her persistence has paid off and now her students have transformed into recruiting agents and are also very protective of her. “Considering that some of these children could not even hold a pencil a few months ago, their progress has been amazing. Most of them are eager to learn and have innate learning ability. When I hear them making intelligent conversation with educated people, it’s reward enough,†she says with evident pride.
An alternative remunerative career is not on her mind at this point given her busy schedule, though Singh does intend to complete her Masters some day. Deep in her subconscious, even if not overtly, this young idealist seems to be aware that an individual can make a difference and that great enterprises have small beginnings.
[B]Puja Rawat (Lucknow)[/B]