I would like to share with you some experiences and invaluable lessons that I gained from a 2 day camping trip last month that I made with 3 of my close friends.
This trip has taught me a thing or two about "Entrepreneurship" and what this means to rural India and has also been an eye-opener on the true meaning of "Value of Life”.
The drive from the slow, lazy yet bussling city of Bengaluru to Hyrige Halli via Mysore and Hunsur, gave me an opportunity to actually experience the diversity our country has to offer and all within a span of 4 hours.
As we left Mysore and headed towards Hunsur, I immediately began to notice a world of change and difference between a city,a town and a village. The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that people are genuine. They smile, they help and above all they are willing to learn (very unlike the city life). Although we call these places "rural", I believe that people here are more open,willing to share and communicate. They are also flexible to change, adapt,adjust and digest new ideas and concepts.
Now, you must be wondering, Is this related to Entrepreneurship??
The answer is yes, everything above is directly related to Entrepreneurship as you will soon discover whilst I continue to share my experience.
As I settled down at the camp site (by a huge lake in Hyrige halli), I began to notice a couple of farmers working their land with their live stock. I felt a very strong urge to talk to them and understand the beauty of a village life - slow, steady yet content.
I approached 4 farmers sitting by the lake overlooking their cattle in order to strike a conversation. I first introduced myself and slowly made my way into their comfort zone, then, I found out their names, where they lived and the other such banalities.
After spending a considerable amount of time with them, I sat myself down by their side to understand and learn more about them.
The conversation I am about to share is going to change your perspective of the term "Villager" and how much we have underestimated their potential.
My first question was "Have you been to Bengaluru?” what shocked me was that only 1 out of four people have ever traveled to Bengaluru (bengaluru is just 250 km away from their village)
Why?? I asked, they replied saying, "They had no necessity to visit Bengaluru first and secondly it was expensive.
(The person who had visited Bangaluru was working in a local tile factory and could not survive cause of the high cost of living and meager pay)
Considering this group was so bound and confined to their geography, I wanted to know their awareness levels of major brands (mainly everyday utility products and FMCG) in the market that we city dwellers use and most likely taken it for granted aswell.
I asked them to name me some cellphone carriers (service providers) they mentioned Vodafone first, Airtel, Reliance and what shocked me was that BSNL, which has been in the telecom space for so long, has very very little recall value.
When I asked them about BSNL, they said they weren’t happy with the service (apparently BSNL has the best networks in Rural India)
What I’m trying to explain in the above example is this: "People in Rural India are very much aware of the rights a customer has and is ready to pay a price for quality of service" ( mind you, these people have had no formal education).
Then I went on to ask them how much would they spend on Currency (colloquial for amount they would shell out a month for Mobile phone recharge)
They replied saying "a maximum of Rs30 ". My jaw dropped, considering I spend Rs 2500 per month on an average (5 years of their talk time value)
The more I spoke to them, the more they surprised me !!
Then I realized that their connection to the outside world would be through television. So I asked them how much do they pay for cable ( TV transmission through wires ) and what are the channels they watch?
They first said we don’t use cables, we own a "TATA SKY" ( a satellite TV service),they said proudly and also named most of the South Indian soap channels.. This was amazing, the penetration of TATA SKY to such small villages is incredible ( I spotted a small hut area or 10ft X 10Ft which houses a family of four with a TATA SKY dish on it!).
What the above example teaches us that these people are open to modern thoughts approaches and philosophies as well as the fact that they were willing to pay the extra money for a TATA SKY (compared to ordinary cable television) as TATA SKY solved their major pain points of clarity television, on demand movies and recharge from a nearby Kirana shop with out the hassles of paying the cable guy and finally No wires to be drawn from the cable provider!
More intriguing is this the fact that their village doesnt have electricity everyday from 9AM to 5PM due to the load shedding by the government, but they own a TATA SKY !!
Now I begin to wonder why the Govt. should not load shed in the cities as well.Are we any better than them?? No, definitely not.In fact we are the people who take things for granted and they are the more resourceful ones.
This shows that the government is clearly blind to the fact that they are the future of India and they are the more resourceful ones...
This trip has taught me a thing or two about "Entrepreneurship" and what this means to rural India and has also been an eye-opener on the true meaning of "Value of Life”.
The drive from the slow, lazy yet bussling city of Bengaluru to Hyrige Halli via Mysore and Hunsur, gave me an opportunity to actually experience the diversity our country has to offer and all within a span of 4 hours.
As we left Mysore and headed towards Hunsur, I immediately began to notice a world of change and difference between a city,a town and a village. The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that people are genuine. They smile, they help and above all they are willing to learn (very unlike the city life). Although we call these places "rural", I believe that people here are more open,willing to share and communicate. They are also flexible to change, adapt,adjust and digest new ideas and concepts.
Now, you must be wondering, Is this related to Entrepreneurship??
The answer is yes, everything above is directly related to Entrepreneurship as you will soon discover whilst I continue to share my experience.
As I settled down at the camp site (by a huge lake in Hyrige halli), I began to notice a couple of farmers working their land with their live stock. I felt a very strong urge to talk to them and understand the beauty of a village life - slow, steady yet content.
I approached 4 farmers sitting by the lake overlooking their cattle in order to strike a conversation. I first introduced myself and slowly made my way into their comfort zone, then, I found out their names, where they lived and the other such banalities.
After spending a considerable amount of time with them, I sat myself down by their side to understand and learn more about them.
The conversation I am about to share is going to change your perspective of the term "Villager" and how much we have underestimated their potential.
My first question was "Have you been to Bengaluru?” what shocked me was that only 1 out of four people have ever traveled to Bengaluru (bengaluru is just 250 km away from their village)
Why?? I asked, they replied saying, "They had no necessity to visit Bengaluru first and secondly it was expensive.
(The person who had visited Bangaluru was working in a local tile factory and could not survive cause of the high cost of living and meager pay)
Considering this group was so bound and confined to their geography, I wanted to know their awareness levels of major brands (mainly everyday utility products and FMCG) in the market that we city dwellers use and most likely taken it for granted aswell.
I asked them to name me some cellphone carriers (service providers) they mentioned Vodafone first, Airtel, Reliance and what shocked me was that BSNL, which has been in the telecom space for so long, has very very little recall value.
When I asked them about BSNL, they said they weren’t happy with the service (apparently BSNL has the best networks in Rural India)
What I’m trying to explain in the above example is this: "People in Rural India are very much aware of the rights a customer has and is ready to pay a price for quality of service" ( mind you, these people have had no formal education).
Then I went on to ask them how much would they spend on Currency (colloquial for amount they would shell out a month for Mobile phone recharge)
They replied saying "a maximum of Rs30 ". My jaw dropped, considering I spend Rs 2500 per month on an average (5 years of their talk time value)
The more I spoke to them, the more they surprised me !!
Then I realized that their connection to the outside world would be through television. So I asked them how much do they pay for cable ( TV transmission through wires ) and what are the channels they watch?
They first said we don’t use cables, we own a "TATA SKY" ( a satellite TV service),they said proudly and also named most of the South Indian soap channels.. This was amazing, the penetration of TATA SKY to such small villages is incredible ( I spotted a small hut area or 10ft X 10Ft which houses a family of four with a TATA SKY dish on it!).
What the above example teaches us that these people are open to modern thoughts approaches and philosophies as well as the fact that they were willing to pay the extra money for a TATA SKY (compared to ordinary cable television) as TATA SKY solved their major pain points of clarity television, on demand movies and recharge from a nearby Kirana shop with out the hassles of paying the cable guy and finally No wires to be drawn from the cable provider!
More intriguing is this the fact that their village doesnt have electricity everyday from 9AM to 5PM due to the load shedding by the government, but they own a TATA SKY !!
Now I begin to wonder why the Govt. should not load shed in the cities as well.Are we any better than them?? No, definitely not.In fact we are the people who take things for granted and they are the more resourceful ones.
This shows that the government is clearly blind to the fact that they are the future of India and they are the more resourceful ones...
Note: The size of the focus group is to small to base any results, never the less, its a learning...
To be continued…
I would love to hear your thoughts on this post,leave your comments below or feel free to contact me jayawanthvishesh@gmail.com.
A big shout out to Miss.Sindhu Nadig for helping me post this!
Dreaming is Believing
