A bunch of mavericks has an idea — maybe one that will make life simpler for people or fill a market gap. But they want to put the idea into motion; namely, start a business and make good money out of it. After much struggle and convincing the hard-nosed investors, the business finally takes off and, lo, soon they’re a huge success, with their story being told in business circles and magazine articles.
Now, usually, in the life of a start-up, it is up to this point that most people hear about the company often. Once it’s floating along nicely, people don’t pay much attention to everyday happenings in the venture.
But what many people don’t realise is that successful, established businesses too require guidance and advice, albeit of a different kind. This is where Entrepreneurship Organisation comes into the picture. Founded in 1987 to, according to their website, ‘transform the lives of entrepreneurs who transform the world’, the organisation currently has more than 12,000 members spanning 52 countries. EO is divided into chapters — there are 163 worldwide. The South Asian region consists of five countries and 19 chapters, of which 15 are in India.
Businessmen such as Dhanraj Natwani of Reliance Group, Saurabh Kakkad and Aakash Khanna of MTS Mobile-Swan Telecom, and Ankur Choksey of Choksey Chemicals are members of EO. Even those in sectors such as media, design and retail are part of this organisation — for instance, Pawan Agrawal of Dainik Bhaskar Group, Tarang Arora of Amrapali Jewels and Salil Chaturvedi of Provogue India, among others.
BLoC spoke to the chairman of the organisation’s South Asia region, Chiranjiv Patel, to know how it functions, and what its purpose is. He is also the managing director of PC Snehal Group, which is engaged in carrying out government infrastructure projects, water distribution, sewerage networks, and treatment plants across the country.
Excerpts from the interview:
Could you explain what EO is?
EO is what we call an influential community of entrepreneurs. Today, we have more than 12,000 members and 160 chapters across the world. From every State or city we have a chapter in, we select no more than 60-100 entrepreneurs. This makes it quite exclusive. In cities such as Ahmedabad, Mumbai or Delhi, where the number of businesses is very high, it is quite difficult to select just 50 or 100 people to be part of this initiative.
In South Asia, we have a member strength of 1,200 top industrialists of an entire region. The combined employee strength of EO in my region is more than one million, including the labour strength of EO member-companies. Every big group in India is part of this organisation.
How does a company benefit from being part of EO?
We are the largest peer-to-peer organisation. We get the best of speakers and create the best of experiences. We offer our members not just training but experiences, retreats, and global events.
The benefit, of course, is largely in terms of the learning programmes, that take place every month. The members gain when they attend regional global and chapter events, where you can listen to wisdom from the best speakers from across the world. There are also a number of workshop trainings, usually theme-based.
For instance, the ‘university’ (a three-four day event packed with learning and activities such as listening to speakers and visiting campuses) in Amsterdam, had ‘change the world’ as the theme, and people who really changed in the world and made a mark in their own way — like Muhammad Yunus, Malala Yousafzai, and Kofi Annan — were the speakers.
We are holding one of our first global universities in Hyderabad from October 25 to 29. The four-day event is very South Asia (SA) oriented and the theme is ‘Jugaad’! We expect around 600 global leaders from 78 countries to be part of the event, which will involve understanding how South Asian leaders have improved lives and businesses through jugaad.
Why is such a peer-to-peer network needed?
After a point, everyone becomes successful. People who apply for EO are all successful businessmen, but they still aspire to go beyond their comfort zone, and take their companies and learning to the next level.
‘Learn and grow’ is one of our key missions. All businessmen yearn to grow more — today, if they earn ₹100 crore, there is always a dream of achieving ₹500 crore, and then ₹1,000 crore. EO makes a big difference in helping them achieve that. This is by enabling:
a) Peer motivation and learning.
b) Networking and opportunities to connect and learn. Sharing experiences you learn of from people around you.
How does one become part of the organisation?
The global criterion is that any company applying at EO must have a $1-million turnover. That’s a minimum requirement. Now the amount does seem pretty low so there are numerous other criteria we look at.
We have a rigorous interview process, where we scan the applicant keeping the core values of EO in mind — how involved is he in the business? Is he really a controlling stakeholder? What is his contribution, personal interest? How far is he or she willing to go out of their comfort zone? These parameters are necessary because we’re trying to create many once-in-a-lifetime experiences for our members.
So, while $1-million turnover is one criteria, it is not the most important point we look at while selecting members.
But won’t start-ups and companies that are not yet at the $1-million mark also benefit from this? How does EO include them?
That is a good point. And here, I will talk about three important products that EO offers.
Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards : This is solely for students. At EO, we don’t do any philanthropy. Our giving back to the society is in terms of creating more entrepreneurs. We pump in one million people into the system, and these people need jobs, businesses and platforms. Entrepreneurship is the only way this problem can be solved.
So how do we encourage young entrepreneurs? Through the Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards (GSEA). This is a competition that has been running for many years across the EO fraternity. In this, we invite students who have registered a company and started doing business, to apply.
Last year, we had 535 participants in the South Asian region alone. In the GSEA held last year, an 18-year-old Mexican who invented a bra that could detect breast cancer was the winner! He will be given $1 lakh seed money for his business. It’s not just the winners, even those who reach the top three in the regional finals receive mentorship from the judges.
Accelerator programme : This is for entrepreneurs who are at the ₹1-crore or ₹2-crore turnover level. We have accelerator programmes across the world that take in 12 participants and train them to scale up their businesses, for a fee of $1,000. Candidates need to apply, and get selected. Once a committee reviews the applications and finalises the 12, they go through a year of training.
Mentorship : Mentorship is a programme that connects EO members to mentors. These mentors can be within EO or outside, and could also be the country’s top-most business leaders.
Established businesses too benefit from learnings within the EO. For instance, I run an infrastructure company and today, my business is, say, $50 million. How do I scale up? I still want to learn and grow, and I could be facing a number of challenges — with regard to maybe this being a family business, or roping in employees, or restructuring. I need someone who understands my business, someone who has been in this field, someone I can trust.
And that is the core platform that EO provides its members, in terms of connecting them to mentors they select. It’s a one-year programme, and we have a mentorship chair dedicated to helping members connect with a ‘pair’, their mentor. There is a monthly six-hour meeting, a con-call every 15 days for 30 minutes, and a six-hour meeting once a month.
EO is for the next generation of business-people who want to grow — and it helps further development at any point in life.