Mentor on Road
as a program was started under a vision inspired by our Honorable Prime
Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. The program is literally driven by our Chief
Mentor, Jagat Shah who has a passion for long distance driving and has
worked as an International Trade Advisor and a certified Cluster Development
practitioner and Mentor since over 25 years.
Jagat has a marvellous
experience in working with over 45 countries and is a global citizen having
travelled to 72+ countries. In one such sojourn when he had accompanied the
current Prime Minister of India, Mr. Modi, an idea was seeded to marry the
passion for driving long distance along with his tremendous knowledge and networking
contact base for mentoring Small and Medium Businesses and Start-ups.
Consequently
in 2015, Jagat kick started the first Mentor on Road journey, where he
travelled 35 cities - mainly Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities – to understand the pain
points faced by the Small and Medium Enterprises as well as the Start-ups. We
did not have such a grand vision since the very first day, but as our team
started working with diverse organisations pan-India, we were able to refine
the program even further. Hence, as time progressed we were able to
amalgamate both business and social sectors, which formed a huge nexus when
there is interplay between them, thereby creating a win-win for both.
Meanwhile, we
are gaining enough support from a variety of stakeholders all across USA, and
it was an honor when the United States Commercial Service which is a part of
the U.S. Department of Commerce showed confidence in our program and partnered
with us for the USA trip. Now we are embarking on a similar mentoring road trip
pan-USA starting from June 04 for 78 days in two phases. Mentor on
Road – USA covers over 32 cities in about 24 states, with an approximate road
journey of 15,452
Mentor on Road - USA coffee table book inaugurated by Mr. Thomas Vajda, Consul General of USA in Mumbai and his business team.
Mr. Thomas Vajda, Consul General of USA in India launching the Mentor on Road, USA website.
People have often
asked the purpose of going through the pain of driving all around? Having a car
served the dual purpose for us. Firstly, as cited earlier, long distance
driving has been a passion of our Chief Mentor, Jagat Shah. And secondly,
traveling by road was a symbolic representation of the commitment that Mentor
on Road displayed towards the grass-roots level approach by reaching out to the
remotest villages and towns on the way.
The grand and
ambitious vision for Mentor on Road - USA is to travel to 32 cities pan-USA, attending
four events in each city while addressing all the four pre-decided
stakeholders. Firstly, in the morning, group meetings have been lined up with
American Start-ups at Universities or Innovation Centers. Secondly, meetings
have been lined up with Small and Medium Businesses in the afternoon,
thereafter meetings have been lined up with Women Business Empowerment
Institutions and lastly we have meetings lined up with our own Indian Diaspora
in the evenings.
All these
stakeholders will be greeted and presented with different and customized objectives
practical to their identified needs. Each stakeholder will be presented with a variety
of opportunities in New India and will be introduced to the vision of India
3.0.
All the
companies that are willing to trade with India in terms of both goods/services
or knowledge will be provided with the necessary network and resources from our
previous Mentor on Road tours.
Post the
completion of each event, all the attendees will be handheld for a year under the
Mentor on Road - USA program and will be given complimentary
mentoring for the same period. We at Mentor on Road - USA understand that all
of our partners in each of the 32 cities cannot be so mobile under any
circumstances. Hence as a token of our appreciation, all the stakeholders will
receive a summarized grass-roots report of our key takeaways from the entire USA
tour. This will enable them to explore the opportunities that they might not
have been aware of previously. We will also write a daily blog here to share
the daily experiences and learning’s.
MoR USA map
As we write of
this program, a group of five young team members is literally working day and
night for the Mentor on Road – USA program which is set to happen across 32 US cities
for 78 days. Over 82 meetings out of targeted 120, have already been fixed and
we are still counting.
As far as
overall planning goes, the team has been given full liberty to approach each
stakeholder in the way they wish. We have gone beyond the conventional cold
calling, mass mailing and have approached partner organisations on the platform
they are most likely to be available on. For doing so, we had a very strong
hold over market research and over communications.
Initially, a
huge data bank of all the prospective partners was developed, which was later
on approached on an individual basis. Then there was a common narrative set by
Mentor on Road – USA for its communications, which still remains
consistent. While working with one of the most innovative countries globally
i.e. USA, we were able to adopt new technologies and apply even finer control
documents. Everything that has been sent out from the Mentor on Road war room (as
we now call it) has been recorded in text. We have a very solid process in
place which does not stop in the unlikely absence of any team member.
Transitions have become quicker and having a young team has helped in reducing our
overall turnaround time as they are quick to receive feedback and differentiate
what’s working and what’s not. Accordingly, they make amendments and get ready
for another bout and so on and so forth.
The seed which
was sown by our Prime Minister has turned into a sapling after the Mentor on
Road, India tour, and will hopefully become a full grown deeply rooted tree,
post the Mentor on Road – USA tour. And we at Mentor on Road envision creating
a forest with more such trees as God knows how many more we need. With plans to
do a Mentor on Road in Europe and Africa in 2018, the journey has just begun! Jai
ho (Let victory be yours)!
MoR, USA coffee table book
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