Roland Berger's Challenge Club supports Indian public charitable trusts
Corporate citizens have a responsibility to society - and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants takes this responsibility very seriously. The Challenge Club at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants is a group of currently 43 talented and committed young employees from all over the world who decided for this reason to support two projects in India on a strictly pro-bono basis.
In these projects the Roland Berger experts worked together with the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and its affiliate, the Nabha Foundation. These Indian public charitable trusts work to promote an equitable, prosperous and humane society, embodying the principles of holistic and sustainable development. The Nabha Foundation is particularly involved in rural development.
Under the general heading of “Fighting Poverty in India”, over the past four months one team of the Challenge Club looked at the role renewable energies could play in alleviating poverty in India whilst the other team was elaborating a strategic framework for the assessment of infrastructure measures in a rural area. On Thursday (Nov 6) the teams presented their working results to their Indian counterparts in Mumbai.
It was suggested that renewables might be turned into a second IT-story for India, paving the way for more wealth creation. Our team came up with ten specific recommendations in three general areas: Technology, policy and capital.
For the infrastructure project in collaboration with The Nabha Foundation Roland Berger delivered a strategic roadmap on methodology and suggested the steps the Foundation might take to reach the next level of development aid (after emergency stabilization), thus becoming an agent of change.
The presentation was attended by Don Mohanlal, and Dr. Nitya Mohan Khemka, President and Director of the Khemka Foundation respectively. Maria Angelica Vargas, a Director of the Nabha Foundation and Shivdullar Dhillon, a senior adviser to the foundation also attended as well as other important local representatives.
At the lively group discussion following our presentation Dr. Nitya Khemka expressed her appreciation: "Please do know how much we value your team’s extraordinary efforts at helping us chart out a strategy for our foundation… Once again, a huge thank you to all of you at RB for your excellent work."
Roland Berger HR and our Corporate Responsibility department initiated the somewhat unconventional approach taken by the Challenge Club, showing that good corporate citizenship can mean just using our existing expertise and applying it in an unusual environment. "I would have never believed that we could come up with something as relevant, interesting and useful as we did – the long discussion we had was proof of that.", said a delighted Viktoria Telinova, consultant with the Prague office.
Roland Berger Partner Marcus Berret who leads the Challenge Club was highly impressed by the commitment to and interest in the development of India shown by his colleagues.
On Friday morning (Nov 7) a general discussion of the challenges faced by India during its transformation process was kicked off with a key note speech by Dr. Ken Gnanakan, a distinguished social activist and environmentalist. His talk enlightened everyone as to the true plight of the poor in India and the many causes of still widespread poverty. Gnanakan runs a group of ACTS institutions located in Bangalore, seeking to alleviate poverty by education.
Also on the panel was another expert on the Third Sector, Don Mohanlal, President of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, as well as a regional politician, Sujeet Kumar. Kumar is from Orissa in eastern India, one of the poorest regions of the country. Samuel Selvakumar, Director of Vodafone India and Sanjay Lonial, Assistant General Manager of Godrej & Boyce represented the business world. They gave impressive examples of how companies can contribute to improving the living conditions of the poor, such as by distributing mobile phones and basic consumer products especially developed for the needs at the bottom of the pyramid. To the audience it was fascinating to hear the personal insights of all participants. The lively discussion that followed underlined the high level of interest in this matter. For Roland Berger the challenge has just begun: Partner Marcus Berret: "We are going to continue to support the Indian non-profit organizations."
In these projects the Roland Berger experts worked together with the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and its affiliate, the Nabha Foundation. These Indian public charitable trusts work to promote an equitable, prosperous and humane society, embodying the principles of holistic and sustainable development. The Nabha Foundation is particularly involved in rural development.
Under the general heading of “Fighting Poverty in India”, over the past four months one team of the Challenge Club looked at the role renewable energies could play in alleviating poverty in India whilst the other team was elaborating a strategic framework for the assessment of infrastructure measures in a rural area. On Thursday (Nov 6) the teams presented their working results to their Indian counterparts in Mumbai.
It was suggested that renewables might be turned into a second IT-story for India, paving the way for more wealth creation. Our team came up with ten specific recommendations in three general areas: Technology, policy and capital.
For the infrastructure project in collaboration with The Nabha Foundation Roland Berger delivered a strategic roadmap on methodology and suggested the steps the Foundation might take to reach the next level of development aid (after emergency stabilization), thus becoming an agent of change.
The presentation was attended by Don Mohanlal, and Dr. Nitya Mohan Khemka, President and Director of the Khemka Foundation respectively. Maria Angelica Vargas, a Director of the Nabha Foundation and Shivdullar Dhillon, a senior adviser to the foundation also attended as well as other important local representatives.
At the lively group discussion following our presentation Dr. Nitya Khemka expressed her appreciation: "Please do know how much we value your team’s extraordinary efforts at helping us chart out a strategy for our foundation… Once again, a huge thank you to all of you at RB for your excellent work."
Roland Berger HR and our Corporate Responsibility department initiated the somewhat unconventional approach taken by the Challenge Club, showing that good corporate citizenship can mean just using our existing expertise and applying it in an unusual environment. "I would have never believed that we could come up with something as relevant, interesting and useful as we did – the long discussion we had was proof of that.", said a delighted Viktoria Telinova, consultant with the Prague office.
Roland Berger Partner Marcus Berret who leads the Challenge Club was highly impressed by the commitment to and interest in the development of India shown by his colleagues.
On Friday morning (Nov 7) a general discussion of the challenges faced by India during its transformation process was kicked off with a key note speech by Dr. Ken Gnanakan, a distinguished social activist and environmentalist. His talk enlightened everyone as to the true plight of the poor in India and the many causes of still widespread poverty. Gnanakan runs a group of ACTS institutions located in Bangalore, seeking to alleviate poverty by education.
Also on the panel was another expert on the Third Sector, Don Mohanlal, President of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, as well as a regional politician, Sujeet Kumar. Kumar is from Orissa in eastern India, one of the poorest regions of the country. Samuel Selvakumar, Director of Vodafone India and Sanjay Lonial, Assistant General Manager of Godrej & Boyce represented the business world. They gave impressive examples of how companies can contribute to improving the living conditions of the poor, such as by distributing mobile phones and basic consumer products especially developed for the needs at the bottom of the pyramid. To the audience it was fascinating to hear the personal insights of all participants. The lively discussion that followed underlined the high level of interest in this matter. For Roland Berger the challenge has just begun: Partner Marcus Berret: "We are going to continue to support the Indian non-profit organizations."
For more information about The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, India see:www.khemkafoundation.org
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