Interview by Anne John

Soaring temperatures, over-worked air conditioners, availability of cheap fuel, lack of awareness – just a few factors responsible for the Middle-East’s infamous high carbon footprint. Launched in 2009 in the UAE, Ekotribe has become well-known for promoting sustainable living in the region. Anu Agarwal, Chief of Ekotribe talks to us about the journey so far.

Anne John (AJ): What was the motivation to start Ekotribe?

Anu Agarwal (AA): Over the past 6 – 8 years, I increasingly found that we have so much wastage in urban societies. Wastage in plastic bottles, aluminium cans, water, food – everything. We are a “Use and throw” society. Also, my travels have taken me to all parts of the world and I realized we have such a beautiful planet and [...]]]> Sustainable living has become a necessity today says Anu Agarwal of Ekotribe, a business supplying eco-friendly products and services in the Middle-East.

Interview by Anne John

Soaring temperatures, over-worked air conditioners, availability of cheap fuel, lack of awareness – just a few factors responsible for the Middle-East’s infamous high carbon footprint. Launched in 2009 in the UAE, Ekotribe has become well-known for promoting sustainable living in the region. Anu Agarwal, Chief of Ekotribe talks to us about the journey so far.

Anne John (AJ): What was the motivation to start Ekotribe?

Anu Agarwal (AA): Over the past 6 – 8 years, I increasingly found that we have so much wastage in urban societies. Wastage in plastic bottles, aluminium cans, water, food – everything. We are a “Use and throw” society. Also, my travels have taken me to all parts of the world and I realized we have such a beautiful planet and all we are doing is plundering it! Lastly, the increasing problems of climate change are for all of us to see – increasing hurricanes, extreme temperatures, pollution etc. We all have to start changing our lifestyles in small ways and I thought of doing my part.

All this got me thinking and I started looking to find greener alternatives for my everyday products. I found not much was available in the UAE. I started visiting trade shows in the US and realized that there is a whole range of eco-friendly options out there. We just haven’t seen them in the UAE. I felt that there was a huge opportunity here to bring eco-friendly options into this region…… and Ekotribe was formed.

AJ: Tell us more about the work you do. How does Ekotribe promote green living? What services do you offer?

AA: Ekotribe promotes green living by sourcing green and sustainable products and bringing them to this region. We cater to the wholesale market/corporates and The Green Ecostore handles the retail/individual customer needs. Ekotribe is a distribution and marketing division. We sell wholesale to retailers & corporates across the UAE, Saudi, Qatar and the region. Our range of products covers items for the family, kitchen, home, office and garden. Our customers are guaranteed products which are easily absorbed into the ecosystem, without compromising on design or quality. We offer high quality products that are either – biodegradable, environmentally safe, handmade, natural, recycled, recyclable, reusable, sustainable or organic. We support environmentally friendly manufacturers and  designers.

Ekotribe also offers green consultancy services to offices, though in a limited way. We provide consulting services on how to have a greener office, greener school environment etc. However, we are concentrating more on products initially. But we hope to increase our range of consulting services in the future.

AJ: The UAE isn’t particularly well-known for being eco-friendly. How well was your idea received by customers?

AA: Most people are extremely excited to find eco products finally available in the UAE. They need to be educated and explained on the benefits and thereafter, the demand increases automatically. I find a lot of UAE residents are becoming very conscious of the need to use greener products and they prefer eco options for their families.

What is very encouraging is that most large corporates now prefer giving eco items as gifts rather than the standard T Shirt, cap or keychain. I get specific requests for “only eco options”.

My customers are predominantly Westerners (male and female) and Arab women. I am amazed at the conscious effort made by Arab women to try and go green!

AJ: From where do you source your products? How do you ascertain how eco-friendly they are?

AA: We source our products from all over the world, ie: US, Australia, Canada, UK, China and India.

We select our range of products and partners based on the following criteria: Does the company test on animals?, Does this ‘green’ product use more resources than its ‘non-green’ counterpart?, Does the parent company make efforts to reduce waste and recycle in their facilities?, Can the product be reused, composted, or recycled once its life is finished?, What’s the environmental impact during the manufacturing process?, How much packaging is used for this product? Lastly, Is the packaging recycled or sustainable?

A whole step-by-step process is involved in choosing which products we market and add to our range.

AJ: What are the most popular products at your eco-store? And what are your personal favourites?

AA: Our bestsellers are the KeepCup, SnackTAXI sandwich bags, bhappy tote bags, Shains Kids Bracelets,  USBCell rechargeable batteries and the entire range of Water Bottles. My favourites are the Envirosax bags and the KeepCup reusable coffee cups. I use them on a daily basis.

AJ: Being a start-up what challenges did you face? Did you have to face any challenges being an expat?

AA: I think my biggest challenge was educating the customer! Once they see the products and realize the benefits, they buy them! Luckily, the UAE government is very involved and aware of the need to go green and that has given a huge boost to us. The constant coverage in the media has also made the public very aware of the need to live a greener lifestyle.

As an expat, I find no limitation or challenge working in the UAE. In fact, the UAE government departments in Abu Dhabi and Dubai have been one of my biggest customers to date!

AJ: What has been the most valuable lesson that you have learnt over the past few years?

AA: My biggest lesson is you have to grow slowly and steadily. Rome was not built in one day! You must be passionate about what you are doing and offer good quality products and excellent customer service. 

AJ: What are your future plans for Ekotribe?

AA: Very soon, we will launch a retail store. Plans are being finalized. And in the next few years, I plan to start manufacturing my own range of products!

*Photo credit: www.vectorportal.com (Used uner the Creative Commons Attribution License)

Interview by Aparna V.Singh 

In this interview, we meet Preethi Sukumaran, Co-Founder of Krya, a small business with big plans to help consumers go eco-friendly. Their first product is a soapberry detergent. 

Aparna V.Singh (AVS): “Eco-friendly” is often seen in terms of end product, but your philosophy is on the entire process starting from sustainable business cards. How did you come to this philosophy?

Preethi Sukumaran (PS): Many times the footprint of the final product is the smallest part of the company’s overall footprint. In creating an “eco friendly product”, We might choose to import raw materials from faraway countries or travel often in a gas guzzling car, thereby undoing all the good environmental work that the final product can do, potentially.

A truly sustainable company HAS to measure the footprint of the sum total of ALL its [...]]]> Eco-friendly is a way of life at Krya, says Preethi Sukumaran on her initiative to make home products sustainable. 

Interview by Aparna V.Singh 

In this interview, we meet Preethi Sukumaran, Co-Founder of Krya, a small business with big plans to help consumers go eco-friendly. Their first product is a soapberry detergent. 

Aparna V.Singh (AVS): “Eco-friendly” is often seen in terms of end product, but your philosophy is on the entire process starting from sustainable business cards. How did you come to this philosophy?

Preethi Sukumaran (PS): Many times the footprint of the final product is the smallest part of the company’s overall footprint. In creating an “eco friendly product”, We might choose to import raw materials from faraway countries or travel often in a gas guzzling car, thereby undoing all the good environmental work that the final product can do, potentially.

A truly sustainable company HAS to measure the footprint of the sum total of ALL its activities and constantly work on improving its total ecological footprint.

This leads us to interesting, principle based decisions with sustainability at its heart:

Consumer interactions:

- If a consumer lives next door to our home / office or on our way, we often drop off their detergent ourselves instead of sending it through our regular delivery partner – this ensures that our service is fast, and that no extra carbon is wasted while delivering our product.

- We publish free resource guides and e-books for consumers to make their own environmentally friendly products at home, using simple, available ingredients. These are formulations that we can commercialize ourselves, but we feel that in the larger interest of sustainability, it is okay for consumers to lighten their consumption and make their own products.

Partner interaction:

- We practice fair trade with all our partners – we offer the best rates for raw materials and manufacturing, and do not as a principle bargain on prices. This leads to better trust, better product quality, great service and a win-win deal for both us and our partners.

- We also choose to work with partners with high environmental integrity – this adds back to the environmental integrity of all our finished products.

Designing product formulations

- We design products with a high amount of environmental integrity as well. We never add cosmetic ingredients, like fragrances, unless they have real value to the consumer and make a difference in her experience.

- We proudly declare every single ingredient that goes into each product we create – this is ahead of government mandated standards in the categories we operate in.

AVS: From careers with conventional FMCG to a ‘sustainable goodies’ business – how did you prepare for it?

PS: We are very grateful for the wonderful training and values we learned in the companies we worked in, including gold standards in corporate governance, managing a brand P&L, building teams, developing new products from thin air, and a fine appreciation for effective brand building.

We built on these skills in the gap year we took before we started Krya, to research natural products, understand boot strapping a company better, read up on website design and usability, and creating great packaging.

This is our first time at everything in Krya and every single day throws up new opportunities to learn. At any point in time we are reading half a dozen books on everything, and finding, reading and subscribing to newer blogs. We also try and meet atleast one interesting, new person every week.

AVS: What have been some of the apprehensions from potential users? Is the average Indian urban user ready to go green when it comes to daily use products?

PS: When we started Krya, we thought of ourselves as a niche brand / offering. As we progress, I’m delighted to see how many varied consumers we get spanning age groups and life stages.

To give you some examples: Vegans love our products as we are a vegan company. We use no animal or animal derived ingredients in any of our products and do not test on animals.

Consumers with young children love our detergent because they are concerned about the effects a synthetic detergent can have on their children’s skin.

Consumers living in water scarce areas like Chennai like our detergent concept because it can help them re-purpose wash water.

Having said this, we do come across certain apprehensions.

The chief among them is credibility related. We are finding a certain amount of healthy cynicism among consumers for green products – they often find they are not as green as they are painted to be, or unable to justify their value in their lives.

It is great to see that consumers are looking for depth in brands and companies – this is a sign of a healthy and mature set of consumers who will (once you have proven yourself) reward you with a great deal of enthusiasm and loyalty, which is something we see at Krya.

AVS: Tell us a little about how the Krya detergent gets made.

PS: Krya is made on a small-in-spirit (actually large), certified organic, horticulture farm in A.P, near Ongole.

The soapberries are harvested every year around April. Once they mature, fully ripe fruits are plucked, they are sun dried on a large stone platform for 3 days.

Once they are sun dried, the fruits are de-seeded, and the seeds are stored for future planting.

The de-seeded fruits which are now hard, dry and brittle, are then powdered to our specification in the processing unit within the farm.

Once powdered, a small amount of calcium carbonate is mixed with the soapberry powder (3%) and then packed in the Krya packs.

AVS: How have you been getting the word about? Is it a challenge as a new business in a niche?

PS: Being an ethical, sustainable company, it is a challenge to build awareness for our brand, without using fear based or push based marketing methods or exploiting the insecurities of any particular group of consumers.

For example, our brand naturally attracts a lot of parents who want to use safe products on their children. Many, consumer segments are vulnerable to exploitative advertising today and parents are one of them. A parent today has to wade through a minefield of products that confuse and cajole them into buying them as an investment towards their child’s well-being.

This kind of marketing is something we do not do at Krya.

We try a lot of different things in Krya. We use several permission based methods of communicating with potential consumers like our blog, features by invitation (like this opportunity with Women’s Web), and our Facebook Page.

We have also tried blogger and expert review programmes. The most recent one which we did was to get a designer who works with handlooms and other Indian fabrics and prints to try out Krya.

The designer loved Krya so much that she blogged about it, and recommended it extensively.

We are constantly on the lookout for newer, refreshing and non-intrusive ways of connecting with our consumers.

AVS: What next? A little about your future plans. 

PS: The products we create under Krya can be divided into 2 categories:.

- Green cleaners for the home :detergent, dish wash and floor cleaner

- Personal care : solid shampoo, bathing powder, natural talc and natural deodorant

This year, we are focusing on the range of products that help you clean your home in a natural and sustainable manner.

*Photo credit: Preethi Sukumaran

Interview by Aparna V. Singh

Coming across Ritika Mittal’s MORA sarees is something of a shock. Few of us even know that the North-eastern states of India produce some exquisite silk fabrics unique to them. Even stranger it is to find them allied to Kalamkari techniques from Andhra Pradesh and ending up as saris that look traditional, yet have a certain je ne sais quoi about them.

When I came across MORA on Facebook, I knew that I had to interview the woman behind it, and find out more.

Aparna V. Singh (AVS): I’ve learnt from your website about the curious way in which MORA started up, with you designing saris for your own wedding. How did it grow into a business venture?

Ritika Mittal (RM): I designed my first sari in [...]]]> Ritika Mittal, textiles entrepreneur on the one-of-a-kind saris she creates at MORA, her fascination with the North-east and why she doesn’t want big business!

Interview by Aparna V. Singh

Coming across Ritika Mittal’s MORA sarees is something of a shock. Few of us even know that the North-eastern states of India produce some exquisite silk fabrics unique to them. Even stranger it is to find them allied to Kalamkari techniques from Andhra Pradesh and ending up as saris that look traditional, yet have a certain je ne sais quoi about them.

When I came across MORA on Facebook, I knew that I had to interview the woman behind it, and find out more.

Aparna V. Singh (AVS): I’ve learnt from your website about the curious way in which MORA started up, with you designing saris for your own wedding. How did it grow into a business venture?

Ritika Mittal (RM): I designed my first sari in November 2008, just before my wedding in December. I had been working in media for over a decade – before I decided that I wanted to do textiles. I had no formal training in textiles, none at all – so I was like, let me try this and see how it goes! What happened was that I went backpacking to Ladakh for 2 months, and once I was there, I realized that what I really wanted to do was work with the local women’s groups – and the only way I could do that was with textiles.

I designed about 9-10 saris, and they all got sold through someone I know who runs a store in Vizag – I didn’t even know where those saris ultimately went! I realized that I couldn’t do it this way.

AVS: Why not? Why was it so important for you to know where your saris went?

RM: I can’t explain the kind of effort that goes into each sari. They are like my own babies – I need to know where they have gone to. Now, we make a maximum of 100-150 one-of-a-kind saris a year. Most MORA buyers become a part of our network – they want to know what we are doing, where I am travelling to create textiles. It is a very personal connect.

AVS: So, tell us a little about how each MORA sari takes shape.

RM: I design the saris. My mother, who lives in a small town in Punjab, translates the design based just on the drawings I send her. In fact, when I started making saris for others, the longest time went into convincing mom that she was not ‘just a housewife’, that she has a storehouse of energy in her. It’s a very homely sort of environment in Punjab, where the tailoring and finishing is done – we know the tailors, we know their families, their children run around our house.

As for the fabrics, I travel for most of the year and spend time with the weavers. I don’t want to uproot weavers from their home environment, so instead, I travel and stay with them for months. Me and my mum – we are both horrible business people – we close our online sales when I am traveling. We do keep people updated by mail or through my blog. Once I am back and we have a collection ready, we let people know.

AVS: Why the reluctance to work in a more “business-like” fashion and grow?

RM: I don’t want to put deadlines on the weavers and artisans. How will an artisan breathe if they have to create under deadline? We are ok with making less money, but we don’t want to be big. We do it with a lot of love and we want to keep our people happy. We stick to 1 collection a year and the moment we feel pressure, we say ‘stop’! We have got offers from big stores to work with them, but we don’t want to.

We give our weavers higher daily wages than the big guys. All our weavers get paid well and they are happy that they get to work with their traditional weaves and experiment as well. This is the first priority for me, and if I grow big, I may not be able to sustain this.

AVS: What is your special interest in textiles from the North-east of India?

RM:  The Kala Ghoda festival has played a big role in taking MORA to others. In 2009, I visited the Kala Ghoda precursor wearing one of my designs, when an organizer who said spotted me, you must show at Kala Ghoda! That’s how I ended up exhibiting our collection at the 2010 event.

At the event, I don’t know why, I just announced to people that our next collection was going to be from the north-east – I am such a loudmouth! I got to Guwahati and that’s how my explorations began. For the 2011 collection, I have used traditional weaves from Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal as borders. Now we are working on reviving traditional looms that are almost dying out. Pure muga silk from Manipur, for example is so difficult to find now – it is getting mixed with tussar.

North-east is going to be something that I will never leave. The rest of India gets taken care of – this place is so rich internally but gets nothing. Logistically it is very difficult – no courier, no transport – often I have to send hand-written letters, but I love it.

I cannot be everywhere, but I can do whatever possible in a small way, to revive textiles here. I am working with other techniques such as phulkari and kalamkari but my focus will be the north-east, the place that I now call my second home.

*Photo Courtesy: MORA

Interview by Aparna V. Singh

Mukta Darera started iReboot in 2008, to help people change directions in their lives. Here she shares her experience with helping people re-look their lives and identify new career directions.

Aparna V.Singh (AVS): Tell us a little about yourself.

Mukta Darera (MD): Born and raised in Mysore, I am a firm believer in second chances – a concept that is the very foundation behind the initiation of this company. I graduated in Electronics & Communication Engineering from SJCE, Mysore and soon became part of the prestigious Intel family; the place that triggered my thoughts to build a world where people can “reboot” from where they left off. I later went on to an entrepreneurship program at IIMB, where the seeds for iReboot were sown.

As for my passions, [...]]]> An interview with Mukta Darera, Founder of iReboot, a life orientation company which helps people discover themselves and  their true career calling.

Interview by Aparna V. Singh

Mukta Darera started iReboot in 2008, to help people change directions in their lives. Here she shares her experience with helping people re-look their lives and identify new career directions.

Aparna V.Singh (AVS): Tell us a little about yourself.

Mukta Darera (MD): Born and raised in Mysore, I am a firm believer in second chances – a concept that is the very foundation behind the initiation of this company. I graduated in Electronics & Communication Engineering from SJCE, Mysore and soon became part of the prestigious Intel family; the place that triggered my thoughts to build a world where people can “reboot” from where they left off. I later went on to an entrepreneurship program at IIMB, where the seeds for iReboot were sown.

As for my passions, I’ve been lucky enough to be all of these – travel guide, tutor, examiner, drummer, theatre actor, anchor, voice over artist, radio jockey, master of ceremony and a Kathak dancer. I have always believed that there is really no limit to how enriching one’s life can be. And the choice to enrich one’s life is in the hands of each and every individual.

AVS: What in a nutshell, is iReboot about? What really is “life orientation”?

MD: iReboot is a platform where any individual can explore a career, nurture a skill or take forward their passion to the next level through a series of structured workshops, mentoring sessions, projects, volunteering and internship opportunities. The focus is on areas which have still not been given mainstream importance in our system – for e.g. photography, travel writing, starting your own restaurant, stock trading, etc. There are upto 20 such offbeat areas that we cater to.

AVS: How did you come up with the idea for such a service? Were there any worries before starting?

MD: Having seen more than 70% of the working population feel trapped and bored in their jobs and most of them adjusting to the frustrations of their jobs to such an extent that they barely recognize themselves, I decided to quit the corporate world and do something about it.

Inspired by two powerful quotes – Robert Noyce’s, “Do not be encumbered by history. Go off and do something wonderful” and Steve Jobs’, “You’ve got to find what you love… if you haven’t found it yet, don’t settle and keep looking”, I felt it was time to empower people to live a life they love.

The obvious worries of leaving a secure future in a cushy job were overcome instantly by the excitement of being able to make a meaningful difference to people. It started off with a few closed group trial sessions, and in August 2008, iReboot was born with its first paid workshop – Wildlife Photography.

AVS: What kinds of people attend iReboot programs? What are the motivations that get them there?

MD: Anyone with the following intentions – career exploration, career guidance, getting back to work after a break, looking at a career crossover, turning a casual passion into a paid hobby, learning something new. In terms of the audience we have had a wide mix of participants, right from – students, working professionals, home makers, senior citizens and even people on a career break.

AVS: What sort of programs are most in demand? Is there any difference by gender here? Are there programs that you’ve added on based on what people want to learn?

MD: Our most popular programs are – Photography, Discover Yourself, Start Your Own Restaurant and RJ/Voiceover. We have not noticed a clear trend in terms of gender preference.

Over the past 3 years we have organically grown the number of courses from 4 to 20, some based on demand for a specific program, and others that we have felt no one was catering to.

AVS: How do you help people understand their true potential or dream career, especially in cases where they don’t have a clear idea of what they are looking at? 

MD: We have a program called Discover Yourself which addresses this specific need – we have participants who are typically confused about where they are headed, or have too many choices and are unclear on how to narrow down, or just need validation. This program helps through a structured set of assessments, group behavioral exercises, guided introspection and one-on-one counselling, and helps them build a career plan through which their goals become clear and well-defined. Apart from this program, we have also started offering personalized career planning services which are more elaborate in nature and also include plenty of industry interaction before a career plan is arrived at.

AVS: Do you have any idea on how many of those who’ve passed through iReboot programs have made big changes to their lives or actually gone through a career change?

MD: We have had more than 2500 participants so far, out of which 50% have gone on to make their passion or new found skill-set a more integral part of their lives through assignments, freelance projects, or more frequent involvement in their passion. Over 10% of them have actually gone ahead and crossed-over to a career of their choice – in most cases, this was because they successfully overcame constraints like  fear of failure, financial commitments, family commitments, etc.

AVS: What next for iReboot?

MD: Lots of exciting plans ahead for iReboot 2.0 – online counselling, e-learning, collaboration with institutes, corporate programs & events and expansion of areas for career exploration.

By Aparna V. Singh

Traditionally, we think of Marketing as aimed at the ‘ordinary consumer’ like you and me. However, businesses also sell to one another, and this area of Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing is fascinating and challenging in its own way.

Jessie Paul is the Managing Director of Paul Writer, a marketing advisory firm she founded in early 2010 to work with clients in the B2B, services and technology space. What drew us to interview her was her creating the Paul Writer community, a first of its kind for B2B marketers in India.

While “Diversity” is a concept Indians understand instinctively, we know little about actively managing diversity at an organizational level. An experienced Human Resources professional, Nirmala Menon is the Founder and CEO of Interweave Consulting , a diversity management solutions firm. Here, Nirmala tells us more about diversity management in India, the rise of new, flexible work environments , the issues that different employees, especially women face , and how actively dealing with these issues can help.

Interview by Aparna V. Singh

Aparna V. Singh (AVS): How and why did Interweave and the idea of offering diversity management support in India come about?

Nirmala Menon (NM): After a long career with ONGC, I had gone to the U.S for an additional Masters degree; while in the U.S, I worked with a Small Business Centre. This was the time when a report called Workforce 2001 was making big waves there, on how U.S workforce demographics were changing, and businesses had to change accordingly.

By Aparna V. Singh

After working with Ogilvy & Mather, the well-known global advertising agency, Sridevi did her MBA at Harvard Business School, which is where her dream of starting up a daycare centre evolved. Amelio is a daycare chain based on an ‘on-site’ model, where an employer offers daycare space and facilities for employees’ children. Amelio has been co-founded by Sridevi with her husband, Raghavan Jawahar (in fact, they had previously given us some useful inputs on couples running a business together).

Aparna V. Singh (AVS): Tell us how you came up with the idea of starting an on-site daycare business.

Sridevi Raghavan (SR): While I was working in the advertising industry, I used to see many of my senior colleagues struggling to manage their careers once they had their children; they would be begging the maid to stay late or trying to make other arrangements. I knew that under the strain, some would eventually decide to take a break while a few others would continue to suffer. It would have made their lives so much easier if they had a daycare at work or nearby.