Chennai: TiE unknots business problems

CHENNAI: Gomathi, a power loom worker with Shanmuga Textiles at Dharmapuri, always has a to-buy list when she goes shopping. And she looks people in the eye while talking to them confidently, a complete change from how she was even two years ago. "Her work too has improved 3X, which is a huge benefit for a small businessman like me," says her employer A S Saravanan.
At Alagendran Nidhi, a small finance company in Pudur, Muneeswari is confident of solving any work- related issues."A positive attitude is a passport to a better tomorrow," says the woman who was scared of her own shadow till a few months ago.
So how did the transformation happen? Both women attended a programme for personality improvement organised by The Indus Entrepreneur or TiE Chennai.
"Personality transformation alone can bring about business transformation. This was the trigger for us to undertake sweeping changes at TiE during the pandemic," says CK Ranganathan, president of TiE Chennai.
"In a chat with Lakshmi Narayan, (former CEO of Cognizant), he told me that it shouldn’t be just TiE Chennai, but TiE Tamil Nadu. We needed to reposition the forum beyond the tech sector and beyond Chennai. We needed a paradigm shift. A simple change — communicating in the native language — helped," says Ranganathan.
The new strategy: Easy to use technology (WhatsApp) to communicate, use of Tamil, explaining complex management ideas through simple real life cases studies, only suggestions offered not advice.
The result: In 15 months, the Chennai model has become the most sought after across the 25 TiE chapters in the country. TiE Chennai has grown from a network of 500 entrepreneurs to 9,000 businesses across Tamil Nadu.
"We started off with a less than five minute audio capsule in Tamil, called catalyst, with messages on personality transformation/improvement," says Akhila Rajeshwar who spearheaded the initiative. The topics range from anger management to customer acquisition; listeners also get a task or two.
"During the lockdown, people had time and once they started feeling improvements, it became a family affair," she says. More than 550 days of messages are now documented. Messages are localised and complex theories such as "Magic of Thinking Big" are recorded on phone audio and sent on WhatsApp every evening.
Then there’s a peer-to-peer learning model called personal board where groups of 10 entrepreneurs meet virtually every 15 days. "The members are in non-compete businesses, not necessarily from the same geography. They are encouraged to develop business plans with an actionable agenda. Each member will have an accountability partner who will monitor everything, be it revenue increase or employee performance. Some members even share their fitness goals. There was initial hesitancy, but when people saw the benefits of team work, there is a groundswell now," says Rajeshwar. Conversing in Tamil has increased the bonding.
‘Biz Kadhai Kekkalam Vaanga’ is TiE Chennai’s third such initiative. Each episode, uploaded every Sunday on TiE’s Tamil website, tells a story -- return of Tatas to aviation or success formula of Waycool Foods or BigBasket. There are more than 70 episodes online.
After TiE received feedback that businessmen were facing regulatory issues, be it GST or filing returns, it rolled out a free programme where an eminent chartered accountant helped solve knotty regulatory issues.
A paid weekly programme for employees teaches simple soft skills such as grooming and talking softly and slowly.
TiE Learn deals with everything about a particular business. "We have begun this with the bakery business. Anyone who wants to know which machine to source, new products, and everything that a bakery needs, with granular business details," says Rajeshwar.
And finally to bridge the gap between knowledge and the real world there is ‘Sindhikka Seyalpada’ (think, act). "Difficult management theories such as marketing myopia, adjacent profit pool are explained so that everyone knows how a business runs on the global map," she says.
"The impact has been phenomenal. Formal entrepreneurship has reached the hinterlands like never before," says Arun Natarajan, CEO of Venture Intelligence, a firm that tracks startups activity.