Pioneering the journey of Mentor on Road, USA

A strong-willed and clear motive to eliminate the most troublesome barriers facing the business world and society at large, while striving to bring about an all-inclusive growth through practical knowledge-sharing and problem confrontation is literally what drives Jagat Shah – the Chief Mentor for Mentor on Road.

Mentor on Road has already drove 5800+ miles across India addressing both functional and operational issues in rural enterprises, small, medium and cottage industries, while advising on mobilization  and making optimum use of funds by start-ups. The tour covered 35 cities across 22 states of India spanning 65 days, while directly impacting over 10,000 companies.

Likewise, one such challenging project starts from June 04, 2017 from Boston, Massachusetts. 

Mentor on Road, USA is embarking on a journey traveling to 30 cities across 24 states pan-US for 78 days in 2 legs. Chief Mentor, Jagat Shah will be traveling by road for meeting and offering practical guidance to 100+ institutions such as SMBs (Small and Medium Businesses), start-ups, women empowerment institutions and Indian diaspora across all 30 focus cities of US as seen below.

                        Mentor on Road, USA map

The key objectives for meeting every stakeholder are distinctively mentioned below.

Objectives for meeting Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s):

1. Providing US businesses with first-hand information on Indian market dynamics.

2. Mapping and identification of best prospect sectors in India for a US exporter.

3. Addressing critical issues faced by US businesses prospecting Indian markets by providing practical approaches to overcome them.

4. Present snapshots of the current trade and investment scenarios in India, with the goal of educating American businesses on reforms being implemented by the India’s government under the new Prime Minister since 2014 i.e. the idea of India 3.0.

Objectives for meeting start-up incubators / accelerators:

1. Guidance on enabling US based start-ups to stay competitive in global markets by following proven methods of market research, positioning and via exploration of markets by digital means.

2. Informing US based start-ups on managing cultural issues in continuously growing emerging markets such as India for smoother market penetration.

3. Providing start-up incubators with practical information on India's market dynamics and focusing on opportunities in India - a market of over 1.3 billion people.

4.  Since we are meeting US based Indian diaspora and women empowerment institutions across US to address multiple issues in India pertaining to:

• Town planning
• Building smart villages, towns and cities
• Agricultural technology
• Social justice and societal welfare

we will provide US based start-ups with different perspectives for building sustainable businesses through social enterprising.

Objectives for meeting women empowerment institutions:

1.  Connecting US based women empowerment institutions to Indian women business institutions for increasing participation of India's women across India's economic activities, which today stands at a low of 9%, compared to 62% in the US.

2. Providing a platform for women entrepreneurs in the US to connect them to Indian businesses for a bigger and faster growing market.

Objectives for meeting Indian diaspora in the USA:

1. Encouraging US based Indian diaspora to engage in Personal Social Responsibility (PSR) in India by contributing their time, experience, network and ideas to programs like Clean India (Swachh Bharat), Stand-up India for women entrepreneurs, Skill India, Digital India, Smart cities / villages / towns and Start-up India.

2. Motivating US based Indian diaspora to adopt their native home village / town in India, so as to convert into a smart village / town where Mentor on Road - USA will help Indian diaspora with pain point diagnostics combined with financial inputs. Thus US based Indian diaspora do not need to make any investments; they only need to manage the project.