Deshpande Foundation Fellowship in NW Karnataka

The Deshpande Foundation is a Boston based philanthropic foundation focused on Innovation, Entrepreneurship and International Development. They recently launched three unique fellowship opportunities, where fellows can get grassroots experience working in Northwest region of Karnataka

• Sandbox Fellow: This is a year-long program for young professionals or post-graduate school candidates who seek an extended experience working in on-the-ground development and/or social entrepreneurship.
• Innovation Fellow: This is a shorter term opportunity (up to six months) for an entrepreneur who would like to test a product or idea in a development lab setting.
• Junior Fellow: This short term (three to six months) opportunity is designed for mid-degree graduate students or experienced undergraduates who want to make an impact through field experience

Prof T.S.Tikot Lecture

Pof T.S.Tikot

Brief Summary of the Lecture

          Prof.T.S.Tikot shared his experience in the context of CEO perspective, because CEO plays an important role in the organization building. Prof.Tikot organized his lecture into specific points & recapped each point after completion.

                        Any CEO must be mission oriented not project based or fund based. Prof. Tikot explained how his organization rejected a fund offered by multinational company to work on education in slum areas because his organization mission was to work in higher education. Later the same company referred many funding agencies observing organization commitment towards his mission. Prof Tikot also said that proper blend of 2P’s i.e. Professionalism and Passion is required for any CEO to succeed in his job in the long run. Highly focused to mission, Innovation, Self-satisfaction & unique contribution makes a CEO successful.

                        CEO should focus on building community, because organization roots are to be strong. Due to globalization & corporate culture entering into development sector, speedy, time bound operations and large deliverables is important. Building community helps in future expansion, intervention & investment

                        CEO should take an extra mile & set an example or model. Prof. Tikot explained how he changed the existing policy which had different yardsticks. The mobile charge of staffs upto Rs.500 was paid by the organization and for the CEO there was no such ceiling. Prof. Tikot made Rs.1000 as the ceiling for the CEO. Prof. Tikot said that honesty, transparency cannot be 99%, it should be 100%. Only functional Hierarchy should exist and CEO must be able to access without fear by everyone because fear obstructs creativity.

                        CEO should own the mistake and should not fix or make victim anyone for the mistake unless it relates to ethical behavior. CEO should educate about the mistake and see how to improve the system.

                        A lot of patience is required by the CEO at the time of crisis management. CEO should be a good listener and should not respond quickly. CEO should act as facilitator and make employees to realize their dream. Prof.Tikot suggested that Honesty, Transparency & integrity pays us in the long run apart from our core competency.

 

                        In the discussion session, a fellow asked Prof.Tikot to share his initial experience about how he started the organization. Prof. Tikot initially clarified not to replicate the model because it was started in an informal way without any professional or scalable approach. Initially a group of five members informally gave financial support to needy children drawing a small amount from their salary. Accidently a foreign donor came to know their work & offered to donate a larger amount. When funds came in larger amount there were forced to register the organization. Two close friends Vijay & Pramod kulkarni suggested to open a Development Resource Centre (DRC) which acted as office place for more than 5 NGO’s consisting computer & other office facilities. These resulted in cutting the administration cost of these NGO’s to almost nil. 

                        In an another question, a fellow asked that when she knows the internal system of an organization and feels that it does not suits its personality, she will be in the dilemma whether to quit or stay in the organization. Prof.Tikot suggested that we should not go for an ideal system. As far as system is open & prepare to listen your opinions, we should manage to live with it.