Yash Ranga On Visualising Potential Through The Lens Of Social Entrepreneurship

Yash Ranga provides strategic vision to the two intertwined verticals of Jaipur Rugs Foundation: skill development and social development, through engaging multiple diverse stakeholders and by curating an effective partnerships platform that maximises impact at scale.

Jaipur Rugs is known the world over for its inclusive carpet value chain that links grassroots artisans with global markets. It has got featured in ‘The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid’ and has received a number of accolades. Its unique socio-economic development model is a topic of constant reference among government, industry, media and academia.

Prior to joining Jaipur Rugs Foundation, Yash was associated with a Silicon Valley based boutique IT company inspired by the disruption in technology that is taking place with Big Data, Predictive Analytics, Mobility and the Cloud. His niche areas include Conscious Capitalism, Founders’ Mentality, Social Entrepreneurship, Multi-Stakeholder partnerships, Sustainable Development Goals and Base of the Pyramid Innovations. Yash is Advisor of a conscious fashion initiative ‘OneXOne’ by Swarovski, supported by the United Nations office For Partnerships and co-founder of Conscious Luxury Movement.

With background in software engineering, entrepreneurship and business strategy, he is a national boxer and a theatre artist by passion.

Yash discusses Opportunities to systematically tackle poverty in india and the incorporation of love and expression into business practices.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Tom Allen] - Yash, to kick things off, could you please share a little bit about your background and what led to your passion in social enterprise?

[Yash Ranga] - Absolutely. I see this as a journey of balancing my logical mind and my magical heart, that started with a Silicon Valley based technology company. I was working in tech innovation, on big data machine learning and Predictive Analytics. During that course, I realised that as a sportsman and a theatre artist, I have always believed in intuition, and now was in a space where my job was to make people not believe in their heart but to believe just in technology.

That's when I realised that it was time for me to take the shift from a logical mind to magical heart. I just realised I wasn't made to work with and for machines, but made to work with human beings, and I think that was my wake-up call.

I then started on the journey with social enterprises and people in India and around the world, and it has been incredible.

Absolutely, and that's led to your role as the Sustainability Lead at Jaipur Rugs. Tell us a little bit more about the organisation's purpose, and the sort of work that you're doing?

During my journey I was looking for businesses that had impact on not only just their balance sheets but have a huge impact on society and the environment. I was very curious to meet with the founders and know about business structures, especially [regarding] how they define business. On one of these interesting conversations with the founder of Jaipur Rugs, Mr. Nand Kishore Chaudhary, who is also known as ‘the Gandhi of the Indian carpet industry’ and ‘the father of the modern social enterprise space’, I got to ask him a question and I said, "Nand, define business for me?" I think his definition of business changed my perspective to see the world completely, and I have surrendered myself to the social enterprise movement since then. I think it would be very interesting to port that definition that he gave here:

He said, "Yash, business is next to love, it is the creator and preserver of human civilisation." I think that was my 'aha' moment when I realised that there is someone who believed that there is space for love in business.

I think that was my big thing with Jaipur Rugs, and Jaipur Rugs is a social enterprise that has transformed life for 40,000 women artisans across 600 villages of India and has connected the crafts and cultural expression to art connoissers in almost 60 countries around the world. Jaipur Rugs is a socio-economic, 360-degree, transformation wonder.

We don't use the word development here, because we believe that as a business we play a role of catalysing the change in the life of individuals in a transformative way, not as a development approach. We have something, we give something, and things develop.

But the way we see the world at Jaipur Rugs is that the world is full of potential. We say that we don't see the world with the lens of poverty, we see the world from the lens of potential, and I think [because of] the potential that the founder saw in the craftsmen, communities and especially women in rural areas.

He has now transformed the company to one of the best social enterprises for thousands of people at the base of the pyramid, as well as at the top of pyramid.

It's a huge amount of impact there Yash, and there's some really interesting insights coming through. What are your observations then of the social enterprise movement in India?

I would love to take you through a journey in time to the origin of social enterprise in India. You will find text that says [social enterprise] started from only the year 2000, or somewhere after 2000. But I think the design of India as a country itself is a very social country, and most of my population is a rural population. The way the organisational sector evolved was more social in nature. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation had been a big supporter of the social movement in work, to business, and the transformation to nonviolence. I think that was the origin; we have social entrepreneurship in our DNA.

But more structurally, yes, it was after 2000 especially that India saw an impact on civilisation from globalisation. 2000 was the year that marked a benchmark, where we started thinking in a different way of doing business.

I think that's how it started in India, and now we are one of the most dynamic social enterprise ecosystems in the world, because given the length and breadth on diversity, we have an opportunity to leverage the demographic dividends. There's almost more than 2 million social enterprises in India, in different segments, of education, energy, financial inclusion, healthcare and sanitation. I think we are all a very progressive group of social entrepreneurs.

There's some great projects happening there, and it's a really interesting movement for us to watch here at Impact Boom. Given the world is experiencing such added impacts right now with COVID-19, where do you see key gaps and opportunities to tackle poverty in India, in this time that we are facing?

You know what Tom, I think this COVID-19 situation is going to be present for a long time. This is just one repercussion of what we as the human race have been doing for a very long time. I think now nature in itself has given us a stop sign, that if we don't realign ourselves, rethink, and re-purpose the way we engage with nature and other humans [there will be consequences]. The way we used to engage in businesses has led to what we are into now, and it's a very interesting time in history of human civilisation where we have started reflecting and thinking what is the most important element of human growth?

I think it's just that we've opened up new potential. Many businesses and organisations around the world have seen a slight downturn, but I think that's pretty slow compared to a big downturn to potentially come in front of us. In India, yes, there have been a lot of challenges because we have a huge migrant population in the country. That population itself is equivalent to the population of some of the most advanced countries. There we see a lot of tension but given the current leadership that we have in country, and especially the way businesses have come forward and how they have collaborated, it is really giving us hope. I think the fear for the future time to come and given the impact of COVID-19, we are not limited by it, but we are under control and in a balanced way.

That's what we are expecting to see in keeping for us in the future, but this is a beautiful time to see collaboration and co-creation.

These are all topics that will most certainly be unpacked at this year's Social Enterprise World Forum, which is going fully digital and that's from the 21st to 25th of September 2020.

Yash, with over four thousand entrepreneurs that are expected to attend, what are you most looking forward to about SEWF Digital?

I'm a big admirer and a supporter of social enterprise around the world, and I think the Social Enterprise World Forum is the perfect place for me to regenerate and relearn lots of things which I usually do around here. Especially given the virtual nature of the world forum, I think what I have learned from going virtual completely after travelling around 200 plus days a year, it will be most interesting to organise my time in a way that I can get the most out of the best examples and inspiration around the world.

It'll better help me to organise my time, my schedule, and make the best use of the emotions that are ready to be uncovered.

Absolutely. Well, we can't wait to see you there Yash, it will be a great week. Talking about inspiring projects or initiatives, which ones have you come across recently that are creating some great positive social change?

I’ve been reminded of a very interesting project that I recently came across. It was a social innovation lab, which we have for the first time here in India. This social innovation lab has again in this time of COVID-19 been established in the poorer regions of India, and this lab is helping to accelerate local solutions to global problems. This lab will also be showcased on the 10th of September during the New York Fashion Week Virtual Summit, wherein these women are tackling global problems through local solutions. It's called the Manchaha Lab. In Hindi it's called Manchaha, and the English translation is, "allow the heart to express."

I think that's one of the incredible projects that I've come across. Another project that I would love to mention here is the organisation called The Barefoot College. Again, it is out of India, and it is helping to transform the energy excess problem in the most rural and the most unreachable parts of the world by creating and developing solar, in which women are developed as solar engineers and they light their whole villages and communities after they are trained. With energy being one of the biggest challenges developing countries are facing, this is another incredible example that I've come across.

To finish off then, what books or resources would you recommend to our listeners?

I have been on a mission. Every time I come to the Social Enterprise World Forum and even before that when I started my journey in social enterprise, my mission was to help develop the world's first club for social business: the world’s first fortune club social business.

To get to that point, I'm constantly following and reading two special books, which is also in my bio. One is called Founder's Mentality, which is written by Chris Zook and James Allen. They are senior partners at Bain and Company, and this book is a very classical distillation of the essence of a founder’s style, and what creates more sustainable businesses. Learning from the examples of these fortune companies, the leadership and their mindsets inspired me a lot. I'm constantly reading this book and following their development. The second book is Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia. It's about liberating the heroic spirit of business, and how business can elevate joy and light. These are my two all-time favourite books that I'm constantly updating myself with.

It's been a pleasure talking to you as always, and we'll look forward to seeing you at SEWF Digital this year and following your journey into the future. Thanks again today for your generous insights and time.