Business with Empathy

When you wish to be in Social Life, you have to become a Problem Solver. You encounter different types of issues: some purely idiotic and some have high social value. With each exposure you become rich with experience. 


Being Secretary of my Covered Campus Society, it is incumbent on me to look after cleanliness of the premises, care for the Society Garden and hence need to co-ordinate with daily workers like Guards, Sweepers and Gardeners. These are thankless jobs but the guys do their work with utmost dedication. 




 One fine morning the President of our Society called me as he wanted to discuss one important issue. I rushed to his residence where I found him discussing animatedly something with the Society’s Gardner. I joined them in the discussion. The Gardner is in his middle age with strong built. He works in our society in the day time and does his night shift in a nearby Mall as a Porter (Hammal). For both the jobs he gets around 16000 monthly. 

 The Gardner started explaining to me about how his daughter is pursuing her UG Studies and wish to appear for UPSC to become an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) Officer like most of the young Indians of her age. She has also joined a Coaching Class to get training for it. There she got to know from her friends that a Big EdTech Company provides Online Coaching for UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) and promises huge success in the Examination. The young girl fills the online form without consulting anyone.

 The next day she starts getting calls from the Edtech’s Counselors explaining how brave her decision is and how her life is going change after this. They ask her to appear for a mock test to check her aptitude and also get her scholarship. The cost of Mock test is Rs. 10,000. The enthusiastic Counselor immediately comes down to Gardner’s house and provide few more “lessons” to him and his wife. The mother of the Girl gets fully impressed while the Gardner wanted some more time to take a call. He immediately calls President (a well wisher) of our Society to get his opinion. The President asks him to delay the final decision till next morning as he wanted to consult me (thankfully he has good opinion about my abilities). But in the meantime the Counselor, who visited Gardner’s house prevails on his Wife (Gardner’s) to part away with cost of the Mock Test. The wife was so convinced by the idea that she gives cash to the Counselor immediately. 

 So the Gardner is here to get our verdict. I get furious to know about this proposition and ask him to immediately get the money back. I suggest the Gardner to ask her daughter to avail lot of free resources available online. I also assure him that I will get her connected to a few good Mentors and Resource persons who can guide her in her journey. I also suggest not to target UPSC alone as millions of aspirants take this examination every year and the outcome of the examination is most unpredictable. As I explain this to the Gardner, I visualize hardships of his daughter and make up my mind to help her out in the preparation. The Gardner listens to my arguments and appears convinced. I feel happy that I’m able to save somebody from a huge monetary. 

 Two Three days pass by, I forget the incident. One day, I got to meet the Gardner and after initial greetings ask him : “Did you get back the Mock Test money from the Company?” 
 “No. The company representative refused to refund the amount citing the reason that it had been transferred to their Head Office account.” The Gardner’s replied. 

 I retorted “But it must a huge amount for you. How will you make up this loss?” “My wife has promised to shoulder the expenses of this course which will cost us around Rs. 80,000. She will pay the amount in installments. She works as helper in a Private Hospital. She gets Rs. 8000 monthly.” 

I mentally calculated and concluded that the installment will eat away three fourths of monthly salary of this lady. 

 I suddenly felt as if 440 volt current jolted my body. 

How wrong was I? How old fashioned have I become? How I fail to appreciate the Aspirational India? 
 I try to reconcile with the ethics of the EdTech Company, salute the unknown Counselors who successfully converted a prospect. Shake my head and say aloud to myself “Who says key to  successful business is  EMPATHY?” 

 




 © Ashish Kolarkar E-mail : kolarkarashish@gmail.com 11.04.2022

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