NEN in the Economist!

Economist article: Start-ups in India

... And there's an indirect mention to my program NEN Startup Jobs: "Ms Parkin’s network also encourages young graduates to work at someone else’s start-up before creating their own. She notes that India’s leading business schools are now quite happy to let start-ups hire on campus."

Indian-isms

I've been compiling a list of corporate Indian-isms, workplace phrases that are so uniquely .. Indian. Feel free to add yours to the list!

"Write a para about your progress." (people love abbreviations here)
"I need it by Friday itself." (saying 'itself' drives home the point that you can't operate on IST)
"You might be knowing..." (instead of 'you may know')
"Please make a PPT." (no one says PowerPoint)
"Do the needful."
"It is like that only."
"Let's chat." (means communicating via IM, not face-to-face or over the phone)

Blackboy Detectives

On work-related travel today in Calcutta, I saw a massive billboard for BlackboyDetectives.com. It conducts pre-marital investigations, i.e. background checks on prospective grooms and brides. I found it funny that such services comprise a large-enough business to warrant a premium advertising spot on a well-trafficked highway.

Pizza Hut Customer Service

Today, a friend and I rendezvoused at the Pizza Hut on Brigade Road. We both had just come from the airport, lugging around heavy suitcases. It started pouring rain, probably one of the heaviest downfalls I've experienced since coming here. We decided to brave the rain (sans umbrellas) in our quest to find a rickshaw after dinner.

As we were walking out the door, a Pizza Hut employee said, "Wait." A minute later, he appeared with two umbrellas and offered to find a rickshaw for us. He then said:

"We'll do anything for our customers."

Placement Day Zero

Today marked the pilot launch of my program, NEN Startup Jobs. We organized a recruiting event at IIIT-Bangalore in Electronic City, and the results were revolutionary: Out of 64 graduating students, 18 accepted job offers from 6 startups.

... dramatic pause ...

In case you don't grasp the magnitude of this achievement, allow me to quote IIIT-B director Prof. S. Sadagopan: 18 students accepting startup job offers is the "highest of any institute" in India. Further, I would posit that, in percentages, this statistic is one of the highest of any educational institution in the world.

A great amount of the event's success is attributed to the maturity of the students, who embodied an institutional spirit of entrepreneurship and benefited from years of NEN-led consulting, programming, and education. Also, Day Zero's success is owed to a carefully chosen group of startups that brought open minds and top-level management to the event. From informative talks to a unique Student-Startup Speed Dating session, everyone was swept away in the fun-filled experiment that was Placement Day Zero.

In Who Do You Want to be in 10 Years?, I talked about some of the problems plaguing the Indian education system, especially around student employability and recruiting. As some of you noted, we're tired of hearing about the problems; let's discuss solutions!

Closing the loop, I'd like to share some thoughts on the solution that incorporates lessons from Day Zero:

1. Institutionalization. One must work with the largest supplier of human capital in India - the educational institutes - to spark students' entrepreneurial ambitions and to introduce startups as a placement option. As an example, the full-fledged support of the IIIT-B administration enabled Day Zero to result in unprecedented recruiting success for startups. It could not have happened in a one-off, off-campus recruiting event or through a Naukri.com for startups.
2. Orientation. Job seekers must be oriented about startup work and life before considering it as a placement option. Entrepreneurship, and startup jobs, is not for everyone, and job seekers need to understand why!
   
3. Screening. Students and startups should be screened before setting them loose on each other. This screening results in exclusivity, infusing an element of trust in subsequent interactions and increasing the desirability of startup jobs. Startups require the best talent, not the leftovers. Analogously, students want to work at high-potential startups that can provide some semblance of job security.
   

The next step for Startup Jobs is to take this model of recruiting and seed it in other top-tier institutes in the NEN network. Stay tuned for an official launch of the program in August!

More Information

• Press coverage of Placement Day Zero [Hindu | TOI | Indian Express]
• Bloggers coverage of the event [Sadagopan]
  
• Pictures from the event [NEN Online]
  
• Participating companies included 8KMiles, Allgo Embedded Systems, Mango Techno, Mobisy, Outdu, Perfint Healthcare, ReadiMinds, redBus.in, Tyfone, and Yos Technologies

Run Maadi Run

Yesterday I ran in the Sunfeast World 10k Bangalore, the most lucrative 10k in the world for qualifying runners. Needless to say, I didn't qualify. My bruised ego was lifted when I informed NEN colleagues about my participation in the race. They said in unanimity: "Ommmmiiiiiigooooooood. 10 KILOMETERS??!! Wowww." And then they proceeded to shake my hand.

It felt good.

National Sari Day

Someone at work declared today National Sari Day. In honor of the event, we donned our best saris. I left mine at home, so I resorted to the good ol' kurta pajama backup option.