DIFFERENTIATED ENTREPRENEURIAL ABILITY: AN INTERVIEW WITH SIVAKUMAR
Arpit Shah & Burra Naga Trinadh, both belonging to PRM30, are on a journey to meet IRMAns who are making differences. They were hooked up with Sivakumar, second batch of the two-year Post-graduate Programme in Rural Management at IRMA, and presently the head of the ITC’s agribusiness division. Presently Sivakumar is also on the IRMA Board of Governors.
AS & BNT: Tell us something about your childhood and education. What was Rural for you before joining IRMA?
SK: I grew up in an urban-like industrial township near Kurnool in the state of Andhra Pradesh. My father who was an engineer used to work in a cement factory in the township. As a school kid, I aspired to become an IAS officer, because for me an IAS officer was the district collector who was the local hero and the chief guest at all the functions that happened in the town. So, I decided to go for a 3 year degree course, which was a faster route to appearing for a Civil Services Exam, rather than a 5 year engineering course that my father expected me to join. I went to Silver Jubilee College in Kurnool which was known for sending out many of its students to the IITs, IISc, Civil Services and all the management aspirants to IIMA in those days. Initially, for me Rural was a scenic beauty, a holiday destination, or the grandfather’s house. Two key events occurred which changed my conception of rural India and probably the course of my life! The first one was when I joined the college’s NSS programme, and had gone to different villages for doing an economic census. I saw the real rural India and it came as a shocker to see the poverty and quality of life in the villages from close quarters. The other event occurred when as the Chairman of our College Students Union, I met with various politicians, ministers and bureaucrats for certain negotiations and understood Government beyond the District Collector. I then decided ‘IAS is not for me’.
AS & BNT: What made you think Rural and study Rural Management? Was IRMA your 1st choice or did it happen by chance?SK: When I was at Silver Jubilee College, my seniors appeared for various entrance exams and IRMA had its entrance exam for the first time. Many of my seniors cleared civil services, got into the IITs and IISc, and most of the MBA aspirants made it to IIMA. Interestingly, none of them cleared IRMA and that became the talk of the campus. In that way, it motivated me to explore IRMA. At that time, management was seen as business and Rural was perceived as development. The fusion of Rural with Management really fascinated me, and then I was convinced to go to IRMA instead of IIM A. IRMA thus became my 1st choice. I appeared for both CAT as well as IRMA entrance exam. I cleared CAT and got admission into IIMA and prepared myself to go to Ahmedabad as I hadn’t heard from IRMA. On the day when I was leaving to Ahmedabad, IRMA results were out and I cleared it. So, in the same train I got down at Anand instead of going to Ahmedabad.
AS & BNT: Tell us something about your college life at IRMA, the faculty at those times and any fond memories in the hostel?
SK: The first thing that surprised me at IRMA was students calling the faculty by their first names. Faculty were more like friends and were very much young. We used to have very good conversations and it was more of a Co – Learning atmosphere. As a batch we had very high diversity with participants from various academic backgrounds. I still remember an incident where we were having Operations Research examination. I along with 8 of my batch mates gave away blank answer sheets and walked out of the exam hall. Later, the Profesor called us and enquired. We told him that the question paper was of elementary standard, so we felt it was silly to write the exam. On hearing this, the faculty laughed and said that 15 other participants also gave blank answer sheets saying that the question paper was very tough! Also, I used to get playfully drenched in the rain on the lawns and I cherish those moments even now. My three key learnings at IRMA were: learning new management tools and techniques; exposure to rural, both practical and case study based; appreciating diversity of perspectives and synthesizing them into your thinking. This last one in particular has been the most important lessons of life that I learned at IRMA.
AS & BNT: How was life after IRMA and tell us how IRMA shaped your professional achievements?
SK: My first job was at Gujarat Oilseeds Cooperative Federation (Grofed). It was a challenge and I had my own fair share of ups and downs. I was presented with an opportunity to handle entire north east operations which I readily took up. I had to shuttle between the branches of Guwahati and Calcutta. Later, I was back to the head office at Ahmedabad. After 6 years at Grofed, I joined ITC and have been working here since 21 years. My first serious interface with Rural India came during my fieldwork component of IRMA and that’s when I realized the purpose of my professional career should be to create institutions that empower the rural people and improve their quality of lives. I also believe that the entrepreneurial ability of rural person is far beyond the capability of a typical urban person. The person, whose house I stayed in during the fieldwork was performing multiple roles in his village: acted as the postmaster, farmer, doctor as well as part time secretary for village co-operative. The concept of ‘Sanchalak’ in the ITC eChoupal model was largely inspired by this person. This holistic motivation aligned with ITCs triple bottom line approach helped me in architecting the eChoupal model.
AS & BNT: Could you please elaborate how ITC eChoupal’s operations are making differences for the poor people?
SK: Despite hardworking farmers, abundant arable land and a large pool of research, farm productivity remains low and stagnant. This spirals a vicious circle of lower farm incomes (and therefore, poverty) low investments and low capacity to absorb knowledge. Numerous intermediaries also exploit the farmer in the absence of institutional reach, leading to inefficiencies in the value chain and eroding competitiveness. ITC Limited’s (www.itcportal.com) eChoupal initiative leverages the power of the Internet to empower small and marginal farmers with a host of agricultural services related to real-time market information, crop management know-how and localised weather forecasts. Through transparent discovery of prices at their doorstep, e-Choupals connect the farmers with global markets. By virtually integrating the supply chain and creating significant efficiencies in the value chain, e-Choupals create unique business model to make the initiative financially sustainable and scalable. Today the eChoupal initiative covers 40,000 villages and benefits more than 4 million farmers. In the coming years, with the spread of mobile telephony and physical infrastructure, the success of eChoupal would enable its reach to cover at least 100,000 villages of India, empowering more than 10 million farmers.
AS & BNT: That is truly exciting, and we are proud to be part of IRMA, where this expansive work may have germinated. IRMA has its own philosophy and idealism. Do you think IRMA’s idealism associated with its objectives is too much considering the present day market conditions?
SK: It has been an ongoing debate for a long time. At one level from a very narrow perspective, IRMA was set up to produce professional managers for democratic rural institutions, particularly the cooperative sector. So the institute has every right to stick just to its original mandate. At a much broader level, my biasis actually towards this argument; the ultimate goal of IRMA as an educational institution should be to improve the quality of lives of rural people. If this goal, due to changed market conditions, requires different approaches like institutional innovations, new methods of collective action, new tools for capacity building etc, they must be pursued. Also, I believe that the democracy need not be defined as cooperatives alone, so long as people are empowered to exercise their own freedom of choice that’s democracy too.
AS & BNT: Today an MBA is much more than just a degree and everyone wants to go to the top business schools. So, how is IRMA different from any other top Business school in the country? Also, what is that an IRMAn should completely take advantage of while studying at IRMA?
SK: IRMA is in a completely different league. We are a differentiated player in the stream of Business Schools and management education. The fusion of Rural with Management is a very interesting and the specialized courses that are offered at IRMA make it a unique institution. The challenges and opportunities that the economically surging nation is throwing up requires multiplying IRMA like institutions. At a fundamental level, the management concepts, tools and techniques taught at IRMA are no different from any other Business school. However, IRMAns are exposed to rural India. Being with rural and getting close to the rural realities is something which helps IRMAns in building up personal values and ethos. The diversity that one experiences at IRMA would help in developing thought processes. From the library of insights and multiple perspectives, one can synthesise all of those into their own thinking process. I think these would be the most gaining experiences and learning that IRMAns take with them for life from IRMA.
AS & BNT: Do you think that IRMA should be more visible and we should tell about the excellent work carried out by IRMAns across various sectors and in the ways they are impacting millions of lives in a better way?
SK: IRMA’s ideals as well as practices are much more deeper and expansive than what others know about IRMA. PRM is a mega visible brand of IRMA. But the institute itself is very balanced that includes research, training, consulting and education. However, IRMA has always been media shy. IRMA should publish books, articles and research work on digital media and put them in public domain. IRMA’s contributions to the multiple fields should be published in a manner that is understood by its stakeholders, common man, bureaucrats, state governments etc through both print and electronic media. It would be really good if the institute can come up with a book carrying out the message what difference are IRMAns making in creating a better society across various fields. Probably, even a documentary or a 30 minutes show on television about IRMA and what does IRMA stand for should be communicated. It is time that IRMA becomes more visible and should not restrict itself to the narrowly defined “sectors” or within the limits of Anand.
AS & BNT: What message would you give to all the IRMAns and other aspiring rural managers?
SK: This sector requires lot of innovation. Today this field has many opportunities, and the opportunities are bigger for rural managers than general managers. So, one should discover this truth oneself and try to achieve the full potential.
AS & BNT: How is Mr. Sivakumar after work or on a break?
SK: I don’t distinguish between a personal life and professional life. I balance them 24*7 and I am fortunate to have a very supportive family. Also, I keep blogging and am active on social networking sites. I travel and attend meetings on weekends when necessary, and also available if my daughter calls me up at office for personal work.
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