NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, JAN 18
With a mission to ‘Make India’ as a prerequisite of Make in India, I CAN I WILL Foundation, an NGO comprising a commune of nearly 100 individuals who believe in life as an opportunity to dream and achieve, has completed one year of its existence this month. This foundation believes that Make India can materialize only by empowering the workforce of India in the SME sector and the Indian society with commitment, motivation, passion, and vigour.
Today an estimated 42.5 million SMEs are in India forming a staggering 95% of the total industrial units employing about 106 million, which is around 40% of India’s workforce. As many as 11,500 startups would come up in the country employing over 2,50,000 people by 2020, according to key findings of India Start-up Report 2014 of industry body Nasscom.
According to the Foundation trustee, Shyam Taneja, “The SME entrepreneurs are usually conditioned with a checklist of dos and don’ts and are accustomed to limit their life choices to ordinary; leading to mediocre lives. They miss numerous growth opportunities with a mediocre mindset. ‘I Can’ and ‘I Will’ are two magical elementary phrases that can get them out of mediocrity. When combined as ‘I Can, I Will’ they behold the power to transform lives.”
Sharing the success mantra of SMEs, Shyam Taneja said, “Need of the hour for any organization and individual is to develop, learn, grow and give. This movement can only help us to realize our dream of ‘Make in India’. Last year we have started an initiative called ILEAD – a Sangat of Entrepreneurs, big & small – from myriad industries who regularly Learn together, Evolve together, Achieve together & Develop together.”
“Two Chapters – VedVyas & Vashishtha – are operational in Ahmedabad who meets twice a month to help each other grow. The basic philosophy is to give time & energy to make each other travel the journey of Continuous & Sustainable Self-Development. Our sessions are very scientific, powerful and allow the entrepreneurs to develop leadership qualities through effective questioning, powerful listening, perception shift, and awareness creation,” added Taneja further.
After a year of successful chapter operations across Ahmedabad and New Delhi, ILEAD commune is now well poised to strategize its expansion plans across major cities of the country and go global. More and more strategic learning and motivational tools are being planned for the Leaders to enable them to pioneer the MAKE INDIA movement.
Explaining the expansion plans, Taneja said, “Our third Chapter will come up in Rajkot, the SME cluster of Gujarat, on January 29. We will add two more chapters in 2020 taking the total number of the commune to 300. We charge Rs 20,000 as annual fees and a donation of Rs 40,000 from the members to sustain our activities without any governmental support. And we plan to global over the years.”
When asked about not taking the help of government in their mission, Taneja said, “In neighbouring Pakistan, Sialkot-based SMEs have been flourishing without any help from the government and this self-dependence has boosted the all-round growth of the city.”
“Like charging our mobile, I learnt to change myself through ILEAD. I have reduced 12 kgs of weight. Our Foundation’s scientific approach has impacted my life as well as business to grow on my strength. In recognition of this feat, recently I had gone to Japan with Ahmedabad Mayor Bijal Patel and the Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner as part of State business delegation,” said ILEAD Western Region Chapter president Raju Kapasi, who is also the Director of Kapasi Handicrafts.
“Unlike other platforms that only focus on business development, ILEAD is a movement that focuses on both personal and business growth. That is exactly why I chose to join this movement of continuous and sustainable development. I got both, the right momentum and direction in my personal and business life. ILEAD added value to my life,” Kirit Patel, Founder, Aryaanya Group commented.
Saurabh Shah, Partner – Suvarna Nagari Jewellers, said, “With the help of ILEAD, my attitude has completely changed. Now, I am ready to face challenges. Through new strategies, I tackle my financial difficulties more effectively and have proposed a 50% growth in my business. This is a platform to achieve overall growth.”
“By joining ILEAD, I learned from the life, knowledge, experience, and habits of other leaders from this commune. My objective of joining ILEAD was to learn as much as I can about the business environment. Becoming a part of this platform taught me to be curious. It helped me a lot in my personal and business life. With ILEAD, I was able to identify the habits which stopped my journey to achieve my goals,” Setu Doshi, Partner – Cure World Healthcare said on being the commune member.
