Kalpana Sankar
TRIUM’s global network builds strong connections across the world and one such connection is with the vibrant city of Chennai, where our Class of 2012 alumna Dr Kalpana Sankar, continues to be the guiding light as Chairperson and managing trustee for the Chennai-based NGO Hand In Hand (HiH).
HiH work for the economic and social empowerment of women and society at large by creating enterprises and jobs to create sustainable communities.
As a key part of their recent Module 5 in Chennai, our Class of 2017 had the opportunity to experience the work of this inspiring NGO first-hand with a visit to HiH project sites. Chennai is typical of a TRIUM module with its mix of lectures from leading TRIUM Faculty combined with ‘out-of-classroom’ experiences which often inspire ideas that come to life.
For the diverse global cohort from various industry backgrounds, the visit proved to be a transformational experience and left a lasting impression, with Grant Chamberlain describing the trip as ‘very insightful and moving. It was excellent to see how this charity is transforming the lives of not only the youth in India, but also how the team works to provide adults with the tools, training a education necessary to lift themselves out of poverty and sustain themselves for the long term.’
After the module, which will be TRIUM’s last trip to Chennai, we caught up with Kalpana to discover more about her experiences with Hand in Hand, her advice for aspiring social-entrepreneurs and her initial motivations for pursuing the TRIUM program:
Your journey to grassroots activism is not the most conventional career path for most trained physicists. What inspired this journey?
My association with the Government of Tamil Nadu where I was the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for an IFAD-funded women’s development project motivated me to continue in this sector. The project introduced for the first time in India, the concept of self-help groups and back-end subsidy. This helped the cause of social, economic and political empowerment of women. I worked with the Government and oversaw such projects on a very large scale for over ten years. After this, I got the opportunity to lead a local organization, Hand in Hand based out of Kanchipuram with Dr Percy Barnevik as an adviser and mentor. I wanted grassroot exposure and hence, I took a break from my Government job and gladly accepted this role.
What aspects of being the Co-Founder of Hand in Hand do you find the most challenging and the most rewarding?
Sustaining and attracting talented human resources is always a challenge! As a co-founder, you can’t just give up, your role could change but your passion and commitment are eternal. It is impossible to find staff who match the passion. For them, it is a short-term engagement or a cause that appeals to them. To find people with integrity, passion and ownership to work at the grassroots is the biggest challenge.
The smiles on the faces of people whose lives we touch, be it in India, Africa, Afghanistan, Cambodia or Brazil, make you feel very humble. I feel I am a small instrument who has this opportunity to alleviate the sufferings of the poor and marginalized with support from Government, donors and bilateral institutions. Recognition from reputed academic institutions is also rewarding, as I have a strong academic background with two doctorates and a TRIUM MBA.
What are Hand in Hand’s biggest achievements so far?
Running a grassroots NGO like a corporate and having developed a scalable model that has yielded very positive results across ten countries are big achievements. Having been able to touch the lives of 1.5 million women and through them, bringing positive changes in the lives of 7.5 million individuals is a true feat! Creating jobs in the BoP segment by empowering them and taking them through a process of savings, training and capacity building, access to affordable credit and providing linkages to the market using their collective bargaining power, which is the biggest strength of a poor person – these are just a few of our achievements. None of these achievements would be possible without the support of my team and solid mentorship for the Board of Trustees!
In your opinion, why is education key to overcoming social and gender inequality issues?
Education gives a lot of confidence and enables you to deal with issues in a rational and pragmatic way. It helps you negotiate with different stakeholders and trains you to be good in whatever job you undertake. Education is very important, especially for women, as women leaders are still a very minuscule proportion. Though it is tough to balance work and personal life, some people have to be role models for others to emulate. We need to help and inspire other women to break traditional stereotypes and contribute in a meaningful way to society in whatever form or wherever they are engaged.
What is your advice to other TRIUMers who are aspiring to become social entrepreneurs?
You must be sure that you have commitment to the cause. You should resonate strongly with it. You need passion, patience and financial resources. Social entrepreneurship involves managing an enterprise or business, having the right people and processes in place that can be developed over a period of time after trying out a few pilots.
These days, running a social enterprise has become extremely scientific with social research and technology that guides you to make the right judgement / investment decision so that you are able to apply business principles.
What inspired you to study the TRIUM Global Executive MBA?
I was struggling to manage Hand in Hand at one point, though I knew my job and had the experience. The challenge was to bring financial sustainability and profitability in the for-profit entity that we had acquired. I felt that a management degree from a reputed institution like TRIUM would hone my skills to provide more informed leadership and make our institution sustainable.
What did you learn on TRIUM that has helped you most in your career/personal development?
TRIUM has given me a strong overview of finance, strategy and negotiation that proved extremely helpful for goal setting, vision building and enhancing productivity at the work place. Personally, TRIUM has given me immense self-confidence, I started imbibing best corporate practices from my peers in terms of creating shared value and governance. This helps me in my day to day functioning, making me more systematic and professional. It was also a wonderful opportunity to learn from different cultures.