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I can’t believe its week 5 already. Its been simply amazing.
I talked about some of the positives of Drishtee in my earlier blog and today I would like to focus on a few issues this organization is facing, in my opinion.
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Drishtee is doing too many things. There are too many “pilot” projects and they keep experimenting with initiatives. Now, experimentation is nice but the problem is that the learnings from these “pilot” projects are not carried forward and the projects not nurtured. It might be better if Drishtee focuses on a few projects, make them grow and sustain and move on to other projects.
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Because Drishtee is doing too many things, there is a problem of integration. Integration takes place in the senior level management and for a regular staff, all units of Drishtee (Micro Finance, Educational projects, E-kiosks) operate as separate entities. This leads to having to complicated a communication strategy (if you look at their website, you will be confused and ask yourself – so what does Drishtee really do?). The key is to integrate these projects into one Drishtee brand that is realized not only by the senior management staff but also other employees and interns. This will also possibly help employees and interns collaborate and come up with better initiations.
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Dis-connection (if this is a word) with villages (this might just be a personal problem and not organizational). A lot of the projects for the villages are conceived and planned in the head office in Noida (near Delhi). Although there are people working in field, it is very difficult to convey information to them, ask them what to do and get results. Sitting in the head office and trying to make predictions for rural India’s market has been a challenge. I was supposed to go this week, but train tickets didn’t work out so I’m going on July 2nd (Im really excited about this)
I will definitely talk about more issues in the future. Seeing how an organization is run, identifying its strengths and weaknesses, etc are valuable learnings I aim to take from this internship and I think I am doing a good job at it.
Ok - now about my work in Model Village Plan. I have finished a draft of the business in a box for flour production in but am waiting on survey data from the village (was supposed to get it on saturday). Currently, I am working on identifying machinery, design, etc for tunics and petticoats stitching centre. In addition, I’m doing research on FabIndia (an awesome company in India that brings products from rural India) to explore what Drishtee has to do in 3-5 years to achieve a similar status.
Sadly, I haven’t travelled much in India. I wake up, go to work, come back and read or learn to use design softwares. It is too hot and I have no money. ha. I was supposed to go to Taj Mahal on Sunday but one of my friends got sick so had to postpone it. Will hopefully plan a few trips when Razeen gets here this weekend!
