I realized very early in my entrepreneurship journey that I have chosen a field where dealing with new challenges is integral to achieving success. A significant amount of my efforts were spent in confronting these challenges, resolving the situation and moving on with fresh set of learning. Several times, I have looked back at these situations, some of which were near death, if I may call them, and feel so happy for the way they turned out for my organisation and me.
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| Anshu Gupta |
It was good that funds did not come easily
Our organisation Goonj decided to focus on the issue of lack of clothing for a large number of India’s population. Our biggest challenge was to convince people that this indeed was a problem. Indians are used to seeing children of rural populace and urban underprivileged without clothes. We fail to realize that clothing is one of the three basic human needs, along with food and shelter.
Here was a problem that was larger and more serious than the more popular and well-known issues of society. However, we soon realized that it was far easier to raise funds for fight against AIDS than to launch a campaign that would clothe the needy.
Those were really tough days for Goonj. Money was hard to come by and we were not able to get started. However, looking back, the delay in receiving financial support gave us an opportunity to learn more about the problem. We understood how the world at large saw this issue and what was required to correct this perception. We soon got on to creating awareness and changing the perception of the people. Looking back, I think if we had received funds easily at the initial stage, we would have right away plunged into our work—collection, processing and distribution of clothes—perhaps, without really understanding the law of the land. This key learning played a vital role in the way we began our operations when funds started coming in. We realized that the growth of the organization does not lie in generating volumes but in creating a movement and taking the idea further.
Stay with your vision
One of my earliest lessons in entrepreneurship was to carry a strong conviction in your vision. A belief that is so strong that no amount of external pressure or luring could move it.
| Snapshot |
| Name: Anshu Gupta Age: 39 yrs Education: Mass communications ( IIMC) - journalism and then advertising & PR, PG- Economics Experience in business: 10 years, 1992-98- corporate/adv. agency: 98 -founded GOONJ Leadership style: Grow as an idea not as an organisation./ Big learning: It’s not only about becoming leader, its about creating leaders and also - LAGE RAHO ! |
| Factsheet |
| Name: Goonj Domain: voluntary organisation Turnover: 3.00 crore Set up in: 1998 Employees: About 130 people in all Headquarters: New Delhi Website: http://www.goonj.org |
| Business Model |
| Focuses sharply on clothing for the under-privileged. |
In 2008, Bihar faced severe floods. As it usually happens, the villages were the worst affected. Since the flood situation was well reported in the media, there was no lack of funds available for flood relief. An organization approached us with a proposal to build a school structure in a village.
We declined the offer and told them that in our view the village did not need another physical structure. The money should be used to ensure that more kids attend their schools regularly and employment is generated through the staffing of skilled teachers and other employees. After a while, the organization came back with the money and told us to carry out what we had proposed.
When we asked them why have they returned to us, they replied, “We want to work with you.” It is about building relationships. It is about providing the customers the assurance that it will happen. And, finally, it is about transparency.
Show them the value and they walk with you
For the collection, processing and distribution of old clothes, we had put in place a system of supply chain and logistics that would achieve two objectives: • ensure that those who give cloths understand the social situation and contribute and not just make it an act of discarding unwanted cloths and • those who receive the clothes contribute certain value based on their abilities so that they do not consider the cloths to be donations.
In order to ensure that the ‘donors’ understood the need for clothes among the underprivileged and volunteer to ‘donate’, we told them that individuals would have to bring their clothes to the collection centers, which were the houses of some of the volunteers. We refused to go to their doorsteps to collect.
For the process of identifying the needy and distributing the cloths among them, we partnered with local social entrepreneurs, who were the opinion leaders. However, we soon realized that not many among them understood the value of distributing clothes. I told them if I give money, I must receive a report on how the money was spent, along with a couple of photographs of the progress made. However, whenever I asked them for a report on
the clothes distributed, they would not revert.
There began a whole process of educating the social entrepreneurs about the situation. We got them to meet the villagers, who explained, through real life stories, of the lack of clothing being a major health and social issue. Parents narrated instances of their children dying during the harsh winters. Young and educated community members explained how they could not attend job interviews as they didn’t have a decent dress. And, womenfolk highlighted the social and healthcare issues they were facing due to the lack of sanitary solutions. The social entrepreneurs realized the need for clothes among these people and came forward to support us and take up the task of distributing them.
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