ISBR College organized a visit to Vindhya E-Infomedia for PGDM 2017-19 batch on 18th July 2017. Professor Nanaiah Pattada, Director of Industry Interaction, gave a quick introduction of the company before we left the campus. Prof. V V Rao and Mr. Ranjan accompanied us for the industrial tour.
Prof. Nanaiah set our heads baffled when he said, “enjoy the route, it’s a nice road”. Little did we know that NICE was the company that constructed the road. This route, encircle around the peripheral of the city and facilitate fast movement to the extreme ends of Bangalore. It was a fast lane and we cruised. The breeze was cool and journey relaxed. At 10.30 am, we assembled in front of Vindhya E-Infomedia, where an employee warmly welcomed us.
Mrs. Pavithra Y S, Managing Director, Vindhya Infomedia and a first generation entrepreneur who has a child like approach towards doing things shared with us their story from inception. Before she began, she checked our zeal by shooting questions about objective of our visit. Nikhil Singh from our batch instantly stood up and answered that we had come to see how this wonderful organization runs. This set the stage for further discussion.Once she stated her vision we were spell bounded.
She informed us that the company started its operation in 2006. Sign language is the official language here and being the MD she was excited to engage us in a short session. She taught us few basic signs like good morning- a gentle gesture- placing right palm onto the left followed by a rising sun animation with the same hand, sorry- placing your closed fist on your heart.
She told us their vision-“To be a socially responsible enterprise that aims to create impact over the especially abled people and at the same time strike a balance in the company with profit & philanthropy.”
With a very simple incident she explained the perception the general public has towards especially abled people. AMSc. Graduate who is crippled from below waist, was waiting at a bus stop when people dropped coins to him –this expresses the mind set of people towards disabled.Vindhya’s MD vision is to change this perception. As youth we should have inclusive view of them. Few of our students who have had a chance to study with differently abled people shared their views with MD.
Sandeep said his friend, a tabla player who is blind has managed to wash his own clothes, uses a smart phone and leads a regular life.
Shubum told us about his classmate Saipriya, a handicap who was able to manage her everyday chores at school all by her self. Seldom when she fell and was offered help she always said that she could manage to stand by herself.
Yet again our brains stalled to Mrs. Pavithra’s perception, she said, “isn’t wearing specs a disability to a regular person?”
There was a moment of silence; the message was delivered in a subtle manner.
Post this we had Q&A with the MD, Ms. Pavithra Y S.
Q1: What kind of challenges did you face initially?
Pavithra : I, like many others had the same conception about especially abled people and I was not aware of the term RISK and knew my husband will support me at my worst. With this open mind I began this organization employing disabled. Passion is all that is needed to achieve your dreams. Life is not at all easy straight corridors. I never think of failure, fear is just around our ego.Only by learning and evolving myself, I have achieved this stature.
Q2 : Did you have any difficulty in training the employees?
Pavithra : For that we have sign language as the official language of the organization. Our interpreters teach the language to every new employee. Also Buddy assistance and extensive classroom training is given to make them flawless. They have an impressive record of client service.
‘Culture’, culture is very important in an organization. Culture, multitasking, self-motivation and fearlessness are the key for a successful entrepreneur. We also have accommodations for the outsiders.
Q3: Vindhya Pvt., how did the name come up?
Pavithra (Her face lit up): That is my daughter’s name. Also it represents the Vindhya hills that continue to rise in altitude each year (the only growing mountain), attributing this to her company’s growth.
Takeaway:
We observed how various departments of the company works. It was similar to any other office. An important lesson we learnt was people working here were given task according to their abilities. A deaf person was given a back end document job while a vision impaired person worked on voice process.
Vindhya, what an inspiration it is!! An epitome of courage, passion, zeal to drive forward always and never look back even when you have your life filled with failures. Let’s make this world a better place by developing an inclusive environment. Being diligent, surviving through the critical phases and striving through life is what budding entrepreneurs ought to learn. One important aspect of being an entrepreneur is to multitask, which was depicted from team Vindhya. This experience was something surreal.
Thank you team Vindhya for inviting us to know you and giving us an opportunity to learn from you.
Contributed by PGDM (2017-19)-
Hemant Kumar Rao, JasleenAhluwalia, AmishaShukla, Rahul Somishetty, MounikaSriniva, Anirban Mukherjee, Vinayaka B S.