My dear friend and batchmate Pranavanand, as the facilitator of our alumni e-group, keeps us thinking, active and fresh at all times. The article he uploaded yesterday — “Four Reasons Why Any Action Is Better Than None” by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor at Harvard Business School and author of Confidence and SuperCorp — is truly insightful and motivational. After a long time, this piece set my thoughts free in the alumni forum. It reminded me of the old saying, “Actions speak louder than words.”
These days, I am deeply engaged with the idea of social enterprise and exploring the real feasibility of integrating it into work with the poorest communities. In doing so, I find myself coming face to face with the very principles discussed by Kanter. I am realizing how even small doses of initiative and action in a new direction can break months of inaction and passivity. Over time, such practice helps us overcome our worst fears and anxieties, and suddenly we find ourselves taking risks and bold steps we never thought we were capable of.
While a lack of work culture, enterprise and innovation has rendered much of our bureaucracy and government nearly crippled and ineffective, similar tendencies are visible in sections of the non-profit sector and, to some extent, even in the corporate world. Passivity, ivory-tower thinking and idle talk often dominate our social and professional spaces. Many second- and third-generation enterprises, in India and abroad, are witnessing a creeping culture of complacency. In the United States and several European countries, top leaderships grapple with the reality that even senior management has grown complacent — one of the reasons often cited for the liberal use of the H-1B regime in recent years.
Our country faces another set of challenges, historically rooted in what is often described as the Macaulay doctrine — privileging chaplusi (sycophancy), divide-and-rule tactics, buck-passing (so that responsibility ultimately rests nowhere), and bhrashtachaar (corruption, not restricted merely to unethical financial dealings) over sincerity, talent and hard work. This partly explains the visible lack of motivation, passion and initiative in many workplaces, where even leadership sometimes appears to discourage ownership among workers.
Among the middle class, many parents still feel happiest when their children — however talented — secure “safe” jobs, even if they are less rewarding and offer limited prospects compared to riskier but more promising avenues. Even today, the prevailing mindset often holds that a secure job is everything; all else can wait. It is no surprise, then, that social enterprises and innovation remain limited, and that relatively few Indian companies feature in the Fortune 500.
Yet hope persists. Our population includes lakhs of individuals who break barriers, refuse to let circumstances imprison their minds, and strive relentlessly toward better solutions. Among them are some of the finest thinkers — hardworking and determined to achieve meaningful change. They refuse to let situational compulsions hold the entrepreneur within them captive.
These are not only the celebrated or emerging N. R. Narayana Murthys, Nandan Nilekanis or Indra Nooyis of the country who redefine success through exceptional intellect, ethical practice and hard work. They also include countless non-MBAs, non-professionals and even those without formal education — people we meet while commuting or travelling — who, through indomitable spirit and entrepreneurship, make us proud.
I can think of two broad categories. The first comprises highly motivated employees across sectors; the second, entrepreneurs who embody the principles discussed by Kanter. In the first category are those responsive employees — even in small-town government or municipal offices, courts and banks — who put in that extra effort so they do not leave work unfinished. We see them in district hospitals and modest nursing homes: doctors and nurses who leave no stone unturned for their patients’ well-being; teachers in schools whose sole mission is to nurture each student’s potential.
I vividly remember many of my own teachers from middle and high school. Even as a child, I knew they were not well paid, yet I can still feel their samarpan — unparalleled dedication — to their profession. Many others from later years, including those at XISS, shaped us profoundly. The same spirit is visible in many of my daughters’ teachers. I also recall sincere clerks, bank managers and senior officers from institutions such as Small Industries Development Bank of India, Industrial Development Bank of India and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, who contributed significantly to the SHG movement and later to microfinance in India. Across levels — including in state and central governments — there are many ministers, MPs and MLAs who serve with commitment.
In the second category are entrepreneurs like my classmate from Ranchi, who set out to pursue an MBA in Delhi but eventually built a large service network supplying fire-sensor devices to centrally air-conditioned buildings across NCR, serving major public and private clients. Another classmate, after completing his engineering degree, expanded his father’s modest 8’×8’ ready-made shop into a substantial wholesale clothing enterprise and remains deeply involved in charitable and social work.
Last year, while travelling from Ranchi, I met a man in his late thirties from Samastipur, Bihar. He had come to Delhi 8–10 years ago seeking a job; today he runs a ready-made garments factory in Shahdara employing over 250 women and exporting to the EU. I can also think of many similar stories around us — individuals who began with little but built something meaningful through initiative and conviction.
What they share — whether with global leaders like Bill Gates or Barack Obama — is the conviction that change is the only constant, and that they themselves can be agents of that change. I strongly recommend reading Rashmi Bansal’s inspiring books: I Have a Dream, Connect the Dots, and her earlier work Stay Hungry Stay Foolish.
We have immense talent, hard work and goal orientation among us. Then I sometimes wonder — what exactly is ailing us? As the saying in Bihar goes, “Pados mein Bhagat Singh paida ho, hamare ghar mein nahin.” We know the true purpose of education, yet as parents, students and policymakers we often reduce it to mere instrumentality. Change, however, is inevitable. If we do not change our mindset voluntarily, circumstances will compel us — and perhaps not for the better. But if we choose to change, we can still be masters of our own destiny.
In recent times, growing concerns about inequity and injustice in social and economic spheres have created new challenges for the non-profit sector. Traditional funding sources are shrinking; government funds are tightly scheme-bound. The bursting of the micro-credit bubble and the absence of well-grounded mechanisms that balance social, economic and political agendas — in a domain increasingly politicised — have intensified these challenges.
As long as even a single family lacks adequate food, health, education, security and freedom from discrimination, there is work to be done. As long as the world is not free from war, as long as we cannot reverse global warming, as long as we cannot secure our planet, we have no time to idle away. Nor can we remain confined to ideation alone.
With this resolve, I will soon set out on a new path — exploring social enterprise as the central focus of my next professional chapter.
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