Political Consultancy, Samagra | Gaurav Goel | TEDxIITRoorkee
Summary
TLDRThe speaker discusses the traditional assembly line process for products and humorously compares it to the educational and professional trajectory of an individual in India. They then share their personal journey of breaking away from this 'semi-line' to start a social enterprise, Stomach Development, which partners with politicians to enhance constituency development. The talk explores the importance of political consulting, drawing parallels between business and political leadership, and introduces the concept of a 'development entrepreneur' in politics. The speaker concludes with predictions for the growth of political consulting and the potential for political leaders to leverage professional teams for effective governance.
Takeaways
- 🏭 The speaker discusses the traditional assembly line production process, comparing it to the educational and career trajectory often followed in India, which includes DPS, IIT, IIM, and McKinsey.
- 🚀 The speaker chose to deviate from this 'semi-line production process' to start 'Stomach Development', a social enterprise at the intersection of politics and development.
- 🤝 'Stomach Development' partners with elected representatives to support them in various aspects of constituency development.
- 🏫 The speaker believes that their education and professional experiences at DPS, IIT, and McKinsey were preparatory steps for their current role in development entrepreneurship.
- 🔍 The speaker redefines political consulting, aligning it with business consulting, emphasizing diagnosing issues and leveraging expertise to address them.
- 🌟 Political consulting, as described, includes campaign management, on-ground development, policy support, and formulation.
- 🔑 The speaker highlights the stark contrast between the resources and support available to business leaders versus political leaders, emphasizing the need for political consulting.
- 🌱 The importance of political consulting is rooted in the belief that politics is the most potent instrument for sustainable, large-scale change.
- 🛠️ 'Stomach Development' operates as a development entrepreneur within the political system, connecting factors of development to create impact.
- 🔮 The speaker predicts an expansion in the political consulting landscape, increased collaboration, and a future where political leaders have access to professional teams for support.
Q & A
What is the main difference between assembly line production and the semi-line production process for individuals as described in the script?
-The main difference is that assembly line production is a manufacturing process where a product moves through various stations to be completed, while the semi-line production process for individuals refers to a metaphorical path that people follow through educational and professional institutions like DPS, IIT, IIM, and McKinsey to become a 'product' of that system.
Why did the speaker decide to leave the semi-line production process?
-The speaker decided to leave the semi-line production process to avoid being just another 'product' like a bottle of coke or a Tata Nano and to take a risk by starting Stomach Development, a social enterprise at the intersection of politics and development.
What does Stomach Development do, as described in the script?
-Stomach Development is a social enterprise that partners with elected representatives (MPs and MLAs) across six states, supporting them with various aspects of constituency development.
How does the speaker justify their transition from their past education and work experience to their current role in Stomach Development?
-The speaker believes that everything they've done in their life, including their education and work experience, was in some sense of preparation for their current role. They argue that the skills and experiences gained from DPS, IIT, IIM, and McKinsey have collectively contributed to their ability to work hard, be competitive, learn quickly, lead, build teams, and apply transferable skills in their current work in development entrepreneurship.
What does the speaker think about the current definition of political consulting found on Wikipedia?
-The speaker finds the current definition of political consulting on Wikipedia outdated and archaic, as it only refers to supporting political candidates with election management and does not capture the essence of the broader role of political consulting.
How does the speaker define political consulting in comparison to business consulting?
-The speaker defines political consulting similarly to business consulting as a process of diagnosing problems and issues with a political entity or individual politician and leveraging external expertise to address them, which can include campaign management, on-ground development, policy research, and formulation.
What is the primary belief of Samar, the organization the speaker is associated with?
-The primary belief of Samar is that politics is the biggest instrument of change for bringing about sustainable and impactful change at scale.
Why is political consulting important according to the speaker?
-Political consulting is important because it helps to empower well-meaning politicians to deliver on their mandates and effectively bring about change at a large scale, which is essential for sustainable development.
What does the speaker predict about the political consulting landscape in the coming years?
-The speaker predicts that the political consulting landscape will see an increase in the number of entities operating in each cell of the landscape, more collaboration and consolidation among entities, and established players moving to serve clients from the business consulting domain.
What changes does the speaker anticipate for political leaders in terms of professional support?
-The speaker anticipates that at some point, the government will make provisions for legislators to hire or leverage the services of high-quality professional teams to help them deliver on their mandates.
What is the speaker's final prediction related to the 'semi-line production process' for individuals?
-The speaker predicts that more individuals will have the courage to step off the traditional path of the 'semi-line production process' and take risks to pursue their own unique paths, similar to how the speaker did with Stomach Development.
Outlines
🏭 Escaping the Assembly Line: From Education to Entrepreneurship
The speaker begins by discussing the assembly line production process, drawing a parallel to the educational and career trajectory that many individuals follow, which they term as a 'semi-line production process'. They recount their own decision to deviate from this path by starting 'Stomach Development', a social enterprise operating at the intersection of politics and development. The organization partners with elected representatives to support constituency development. The speaker addresses the common question of the relevance of their past education and experience to their current work, arguing that every step was a form of preparation for their entrepreneurial venture. They outline their approach to development entrepreneurship, which involves creating impact at scale by combining various skills and experiences.
🔍 Redefining Political Consulting
The speaker critiques the outdated definition of political consulting, which is often limited to election management support for political candidates. They propose a more comprehensive definition akin to business consulting, which involves diagnosing and addressing issues within a political entity or for individual politicians by leveraging external expertise. They discuss the various aspects of political consulting, such as campaign management, on-ground development, policy research, and formulation. The speaker also introduces a matrix that maps the types of services to potential clients, highlighting the evolution and complexity of the political consulting landscape in India.
🌐 Empowering Political Leaders for Effective Change
The speaker contrasts the responsibilities and resources of a business leader, such as a CEO, with those of a political leader, like a Member of Parliament (MP). They point out the significant responsibilities MPs have, with limited support and resources, emphasizing the need for professional teams and external expertise. The speaker's organization aims to empower politicians to effectively deliver on their mandates. They argue that politics is a critical instrument for change and that political consulting, particularly development consulting, is essential to achieving sustainable and scalable impact.
🚀 The Role of Development Entrepreneurs in Politics
The speaker describes their role as development entrepreneurs working within the political system, akin to business entrepreneurs but focused on social impact. They define the factors of development as including innovative solutions, funding, administrative support, and mobilization. The speaker outlines their approach to bringing these factors together to create change at the constituency level. They conclude with predictions about the future of political consulting, the potential for political leaders to access professional support, and the courage of individuals to break free from traditional paths to create significant impacts.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Assembly line production process
💡DPS-IIT-IIM-McKinsey
💡Development entrepreneurship
💡Political consulting
💡On-ground development
💡Campaign management
💡Legislators and political leaders
💡Business consulting vs political consulting
💡Development entrepreneur
💡Factors of development
Highlights
Introduction of assembly line production process as a comparison to life paths and career development.
The concept of a 'semi-line production process' for individuals, comparing it to an academic and career journey from DPS to IIT to IIM to McKinsey.
The speaker's personal decision to step off the 'semi-line production process' and pursue social entrepreneurship in the field of politics and development.
Founding of Samarth, a social enterprise working at the intersection of politics and development, partnering with elected representatives across six states.
Reflection on the speaker’s academic and professional journey, viewing it as preparation for their current role in development entrepreneurship.
Breakdown of skills acquired from various life stages: work ethic from DPS, confidence and learning agility from IIT, leadership and team-building from IIM, and transferable skills from McKinsey.
Definition of political consulting and its comparison with business consulting, focusing on diagnosing and addressing issues in political entities.
Criticism of outdated definitions of political consulting, emphasizing the need for a broader, more comprehensive approach.
Samarth's focus on development consulting within political consulting, specifically on-ground development for elected representatives.
The unique matrix of political consulting, where services like campaign management, on-ground development, and policy support intersect with different political clients.
Importance of political consulting in empowering political leaders to deliver on their mandates and bring about sustainable change at scale.
Description of the challenges faced by political leaders, contrasting their minimal resources and high expectations with the well-equipped support structure available to business leaders.
Explanation of the role of a 'development entrepreneur' working in politics, bringing together factors of development like innovative solutions, funding, administrative support, and community mobilization.
Predictions for the political consulting landscape, including increasing players, collaboration, and eventual transition into business consulting.
A call to action for more people to step off the assembly line production process and pursue their own unique paths, similar to the speaker’s journey.
Transcripts
so all of you here would have heard
about assembly line production process
it is a manufacturing process in which a
product goes from one station to another
and at every station some value gets
added to the product or some component
of the product gets completed and at the
end of the assembly line the finished
product comes out
a bottle of coke is produced like this
a tata nano is produced like this a lot
of things we consume on a day to day
basis
are actually produced through assembly
line production
process but that's not what i'm here to
talk about
the interesting question is have you
ever seen a semi-line production process
for an individual or a human being
this one that right that exists right
here in this room and in our country
and it is something as follows
you get on to something called a dps
from there you get on to something
called iit
from there you go to a iim and then to a
mck
and pop-up pops out a product of this
assignment line production right
so
and most of you sitting here in this
room today are in a sense somewhere in
this assembly line production process
most of you
uh but it's not exciting to be a
bottle of coke it's not exciting to be a
tata nano right
so with this in mind i said okay let me
try and get off this production process
and actually try and take the plunge as
we call it and that's what i did when i
started stomach development
so it's a
as the uh
introducer described it's a it's a
social enterprise that works at the
intersection of politics and development
and essentially we partner with elected
representatives mps mlas across six
states right now uh and support them
with various aspects of constituency
development but i'll talk about that a
bit later
the important point is decide to get off
the semiline production process and take
the plunge with the hope of course that
at some point a parachute will come and
the risk would pay off
right since the time i have done that
two and a half years back this some some
people a lot of people who ask the
question that what you're doing right
now doesn't have any link whatsoever
with what the training you've undergone
in the last
all or your life right you've gone on a
complete tangent you learned something
else and you're doing something
something completely different right i
like to look at it at a very different
way i believe
everything that is done that i've done
in my life was in some sense of
preparation for what i'm doing right now
and the good thing about this assembly
line is also it helps you
kind of create convincing answers to
these questions and i've tried to create
one so the way i'd like to answer this
is that
a dps taught me the ability to work hard
and to be competitive iit gave me the
confidence
that yes i can do what i want to do
and
and i can quickly learn things that i do
not know as of now
i am give me some basic skills around
leadership around team building and so
on
mckinsey gave a core skill set
which is transferable in any situation
and also a lot of exposure in a very
compressed period of time and therefore
if you do a plus b plus c plus d then
you essentially get to get to what i'm
doing right now which is which is
development entrepreneurship and trying
in my own small way to create impact at
scale so that's the way i look at it so
there's no disconnect between what i've
been doing all my life and what i am
doing right now in fact there's a very
natural flow in which things have
happened
i'll spend the next 10 minutes talking
about three aspects
one is what we do
then why we do what we do
and the third is how we do what we do
starting off with the what question
uh i decided to kind of get on the
internet and look for the definition of
the word business consulting
what is business consulting the first
link that popped up was a wikipedia link
and it defined business consulting in a
very holistic manner it said it's the
process of diagnosing it's a it's the
process of diagnosing the issues and
problems with the business entity and
leveraging external expertise to address
the same and then went down to list a
set of things that can be done on
aspects of business consulting like like
operational transformation strategy
inputs human resource management
technology interventions and so on so
forth so i thought it's a very nice and
holistic way of defining business
consulting i said let me test google a
bit more i put in the term political
consulting
right and this is what it had to say it
said that political consulting refers to
a newly emerged industry to support
political candidates with election
election management
that's to me very very uh outdated in a
way right this is a definition that
would have worked say five years back
it's it's a bit outdated it's a bit
archaic it's it's it doesn't capture the
essence of political consulting it's not
comprehensive enough
right so i said okay let me
let me try and define political
consulting from my side and this is and
i strongly believe that it has to be
defined in the same way as business
consulting
it's a process of diagnosing
the problems and issues with a political
entity or individual politician and
leveraging external expertise expertise
to address them and like business
consulting there could be various
aspects of political consulting campaign
management is certainly one of them
but this on ground development what do
you do after you win campaign is only
till the time that you have you supposed
to you get into the power but on ground
development and of course policy
research and formulations and so on and
there'll be several more that will
emerge with time
samar operates
in the domain of political consulting
and within then within that specifically
on on ground development as i said in
particular we support elected
representatives with holistic
development or some of the development
of their constituencies that's the
that's the that's what we do now if you
want to understand the political
consenting landscape in bit more detail
then i would like to the way i like to
look at it is the following you move the
types of services that you're providing
the potential types of services on one
access so you have campaign management
on ground development policy support and
formulation and then the other axis you
put the various potential clients that
you can serve right you can either serve
a legislator a mla mp a zilla parishad
member a municipal councillor and so on
you can serve a political executive
which is a minister a cabinet minister a
chief minister or prime minister for
that matter you can consult political
parties right and the intersection of
this so this is a three by three metric
metrics and each cell of this represents
one aspect of political consulting
and today as we are sitting and talking
here
there are there are entities in india in
each and every cell of this matrix so
that's the way political consulting has
evolved over the last few years so to
say that it is just a recently newly
developed industry to support candidates
election management would be probably
grossly incorrect
so that's the what part of it
let's move to the why why why is this
important why is political consulting
important in the first place and why we
are doing this
again i decided to draw parallels from
the business world
let's look at a business leader and say
for instance a ceo of a mid cap company
right
what are his responsibilities he's
supposed to manage a uh maybe a
team of of a few thousand people
employees he suppose he would have a
typically revenues of a few hundred
crores let us say
or a few thousand crores for that matter
uh he has to take care of the clients
which could be other businesses or which
could be the end consumer he has to make
sure that the quality of the product
service his company is producing is up
to the mark so that's broadly his
responsibilities right
what are the
what are the things that he has under
him to be able to deliver on this
expectation on this responsibility he
has at the very least a well established
functional office right he has a
professional support team which he has
the ability to fire and hire
right he has the freedom to leverage
external expertise whenever he feels
something doesn't exist within his
system that's the least that any ceo
would have
now let's let's now contrast this with a
political leader right and here we take
instance of a member of parliament let
us say what are the roles and
responsibilities of a member of
parliament
let's say they spend around 100 days in
parliament given parliamentary
functioning and it it started
functioning off late so 100 days in
parliament right and there they're
supposed to kind of talk on everything
from nuclear liability to food security
to sanitation and everything
so they're supposed to kind of
participate in debates raise questions
represent the viewpoints of their
constituents and and and also
participate in standing committees where
they're members of and deliberate there
on lawmaking and so on so that's the
parliamentary part once they are in
their constituencies around 250 days in
a year
they become like very very superhuman
social animals right they have to attend
so many foundation links flagshops
inaugurations death ceremonies marriages
and like it's countless
that's one aspect of what they do when
they're in the conference it's a
significant aspect by the way
any grounded politician or mp at least
at that level would when he is in in his
constituency have around 100 to 500
people visiting him every day with all
with some issue or the other it could be
individual concerns it could be
community issues and he's supposed to
kind of address them grievance reduction
is a big component of what they what
they're expected to do
then add to that the whole
responsibility of facilitating
development in the area that they come
from there's an expectation of the
people it's not a constitutional mandate
but this expectation from the people
that you're supposed to kind of develop
the region that you are elected from
and then they have political party
responsibilities of campaigning and so
on so just think of this this is the
expectation the responsibilities that an
mp
or the people have from an mp and what
is the empowerment
a minimalistic office hardly it can be
called an office the provision that they
get to run the office is is probably not
even sufficient to take care of the
monthly t expenses of their office right
then they have no professional support
at all they have party workers which are
very good in organizing rallies meetings
and so on but they don't they don't have
the
expertise the professional skill set the
mindset the inclination the drive to
develop to do development work or policy
work so in some sense they have no
in-house teams
and then
no provision to liquidate leverage
external expertise you don't have
anything in-house but you also don't
have a provision through which you can
seek external help
so that's the situation in which the
ground reality is contrasting it with
the popular perception right
fundamental belief that we have at samad
is that
politics is the biggest instrument of
change if you want to bring about
sustainable and change and change at
scale then politics is the instrument
for that it has to sharpen it has to it
has to become effective that's the only
way we can reach there and what we try
to do is to empower or support
well-meaning politicians in bringing
about or or delivering on the mandate
that they have that's primarily what we
uh uh what we do and that's the reason
why we why we believe political
consulting is important and that
particularly development consulting is
very very important
so that's the why part of it
let's come how do we do this
again so we have talked about
political consulting we talked of
business consulting political consulting
we've talked about a business leader a
political leader now let's i thought
we'll continue the same analogy and
let's talk about a business entrepreneur
to describe how we do what we do
again i went to google you look at the
first few links it comes of very nice
and clean definition of what a business
entrepreneur is and you would know most
of you would know the definition right
there are three main factors of
production land labor capital and
business entrepreneur is somebody who
gets together these factors of
production takes the required risk
produces the required product or service
and
reaps the benefits of the rewards of it
that's the definition of a business
entrepreneur economics 101 as our
professors would tell us right
good then i said okay let's let's test
google again i put in the word uh
political entrepreneur right in the
recent context and especially in the
context of india what you get out of it
is this right that's political
entrepreneur so i said maybe maybe the
terminology has to change right here in
the in this section so i said okay let
me try something else development
entrepreneur working in a political
domain right and that's a better
description maybe slightly longer but
more precise
there's no definition of this that
exists on on google or anywhere right so
i said okay continuing with the same
analogy let me try and define what a
development entrepreneur working in the
political system is and what are
what's the definition of this animal
right
so like factors of production
if you look at from a development point
of view i'm not talking about policy
here you look at from a development
point of view there are factors of
development and i define them as the
following
there has to be an innovative solution
to a problem and a set of people who are
willing to implement that you can call
it idea plus labor uh but but that there
has to be so this that's one factor of
development this has to exist then there
has to be funding that has to exist it
can either be government funding it
could be private funded it could be
self-funded but there has to be a
mechanism of funding things
administrative support becomes very very
important because when you're working in
the system you need government support
you need approvals you need kind of you
have to penetrate the system and so on
and lastly mobilization is very
important and that's where politics
comes into play you can you can actually
you can actually mobilize a whole
community towards something positive
we've seen
instances of it in recent past
but that's also very important and then
a development entrepreneur working in
the political domain becomes someone who
kind of brings these factors of
development together
and creates the desired impact that's
that's how i would like to define and
this is exactly what we do
and this exactly how we deliver on our
mandates at a constituency level we are
that invisible hand we are that
connecting the dot people who will bring
these different factors of production
will identify a problem identify a
solution identify implementing agency
agency who does this identify a source
of funding get the government
administration the bureaucracy to align
leverage the political powers of an mp
to kind of mobilize community towards it
and then make sure something gets
delivered right so that's that's how we
kind of operate at a constituency level
now before i end let me let me just make
a few predictions right i won't go into
the reasons for it but but based on what
i've seen over the last few years the
certain predictions of this domain the
first set of predictions is related to
the
political consulting landscape right
my sense is that over the next few years
we'll see increasing number of entities
operating in each cell
of this political consulting landscape
this already some other entity in each
cell but that number will increase
significantly plus you could also see
the type of services increase and so the
political landscape itself getting the
political consulting landscape itself
getting expanded so that's one thing
second
increasingly you'll see entities
collaborating consolidation happening in
this domain and somebody say for example
who's working on development and
something who's working on on
campaigning joining hands because their
client happens to be the same so a lot
of consolidation will happen people will
come together and they'll be players
operating across different cells of this
political consulting landscape
and third which is a very interesting
one
my sense is that in a few years from now
we'll see players who get established in
this domain
slowly moving and leveraging their
skills tools and expertise to kind of
serve clients from the business
consulting and the business dynamics the
revenue dynamics
and the skills that they require will
make sure that that transition happen at
some point in time so that's the third
that's one set of predictions
the second prediction is around the
plight so to say of a political leader
right i think sooner or later it has to
happen but at some point in time the
government itself will make a provision
through which
legislators mps mlas and and and the
sorts could actually hire or leverage
the services of high quality
professional teams to deliver whatever
mandates they have it happens across the
world will happen in india sooner rather
than later
and the last prediction and i end with
this and this is the most important of
the lot i think
which is related to the 79 production
process i think over the next few years
more and more people like you sitting in
this room will have the courage and will
will kind of decide to get off the same
line production process and take that
plunge and remove the full stops
question the full stops all the best for
that and thank you
you
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