Think Local! Act Local!

Yesterday, I happened to talk to an awesome friend of mine after a long time. We discussed a lot of things. I mean, too many things. I was having my dinner at around 11:30 in the night while I was talking to him and he was still in his office sorting out issues and attending to all the calls he missed in the day. Both of us have become extremely busy in our own lives to meet in person, but his schedules are beyond my imagination. We did a project together while in college. He went onto work for an analytics company right after college. Two years later, he quit his job to start his own company. Sri Hari, has always carried with him the go-getter kind of attitude. The only thing necessary to sell any damn thing in this world. And I am sure his new baby will grow up very fast and big. 

Out of the many things that got exchanged between us, certain things are worth a mention here. May be more. Consider this fact that can be and is easily generalized; of youth unemployment, of innovation, of students from tier-2 cities and many more. I am sure you are thinking what I am thinking. The metric to measure the skill required to perform any job will take prominence in any decision while assigning a job to a person. Although in today's world there is a lot of cross cultural thought process in the way we look at things, some basic awareness on the subject in focus is expected. Rest is assumed; like the person's capabilities to train himself and get ready for a particular execution. The next thing would be to create a platform to utilize such a skill and innovate. 

We both have spent our best learning days in Bangalore. And we both have gone behind opportunities that any metro would offer. We have had our share of fun together and have travelled overseas as well, together. The opportunities that we got, not many would. Fundamentally there must be something wrong at places where there is no such an opportunity to utilize, showcase and excel. I had two job offers in hand even before I graduated from college. You will get a job even if you need it or not. That is a decent Engineering College in Bengaluru for you. One was from a IT Company and the other was doing business in the field of Hydraulics. The IT company roped me in to work on the complex computer languages which I had no idea about and the Hydraulics Industry roped me in to sell Industrial hydraulics to its customers in Western India. I was blank in both the areas, but still I got a job. My life now had a strong safety net. 

The question is why am I looking back at all these things now? The idea of developing the local economy to decentralize the power structure and enabling the local resources to continuously improve is what I wanted to highlight here. Although the IT Company that hired me was of the Indian Origin, what it did mostly was to serve the banks of International Origin. But I refused their offer and instead decided to sell Industrial Hydraulics for this German Company. I was building profits for this 100% subsidiary in India but was selling all the components that got manufactured only in Germany. If you consider the world as a global village, no doubt I was contributing to the humanity as such by creating and establishing a market for these products in India which added fuel to maintain and increase the employment levels in Germany. But the GDP's are still independent to the economies and we still take loans from the world bank and request for co-operation from our neighbours. So the concept of the world as a global village is far from realized and we need to look at our own country first. There are lot of issues here already.  

So, what needs to be done. When I think about this now, my discussions with Hari yesterday sits predominantly in my mind. He has just showed us how to empower the local youth and bring them on board the financial services in the country. Two things which are the most essential duties of any citizen is to vote and to pay tax. Hari and his team have definitely affected the latter and even though they run a commercial organization the team has shown how to participate for better governance in this country. No, it was not a social activity that they did. They did not go to any rural school and donated a few books. They did not go to any village and adopted it to build a few toilets and provide ten irrigation pumps. They did not go to a slum to distribute food and blankets. All they did was that they went to a remote Rural Engineering college in the outskirts of Mangalore and hired four to-be Engineers into their company. That's it! 

Brilliant isn't it? I was so proud to listen to this. He said, all these four students have written a two page email conveying their regards for offering a job! I understood that theirs was the first company ever to step into the college for a campus recruitment drive. Now, what has this done? Why such a big news about it? Some company has hired some engineers for some project of theirs to serve some customers of its. Well, replace the word 'some' by 'local' and read the last sentence again. And now, think about how this is generating livelihood source for such people from the rural areas, producing local economy and eventually strengthening it. He is aware of their skills and is ready to provide an extensive training to them to get them on board his company requirements. Now, that according to me is a masterpiece. He knows he has hired people of a certain skill level when there is a pool of resources carrying better skill. He knows he has to invest in extensive training. But still these guys have taken the risk to bring on board the local resource just to empower them. He signs off the call by saying this, I have to run this company at least to offer jobs to such people and supporting them. I was surely inspired. No, he has not paid me to market for his company and propagate the ethics and culture they follow. The board of directors at Pace Wisdom Solutions that includes my good friend Hari are surely participating well for the country. Keep it up guys!