At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the entrepreneurship world. As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate women entrepreneur – Manoshi Roychowdhury for an exclusive interview with us. She is a Leader and Co-Chairman of Techno India Group. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, background and advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Manoshi:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
An Alumnus of Loreto School, Asansol, and a degree holder in Zoology, I have also garnered other academic achievements in Mass Communication and Journalism. I was a total sportswoman who enjoyed playing lawn tennis, badminton, and an ardent lover of music.
From a very tender age, my passion for reading books was enormous and I believed that the farsightedness of your life can be reached through reading. It was from a young age I decided to do something beneficial for society. Education has always been my interest and spreading quality education to the people near & far was my dream.
My aim was never to be a leader but to create a difference in the sectors of society. I single-handedly managed to open & successfully run 20 schools across West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, in which more than 15,000 students are currently studying.
I created a platform for students from underserved background in small towns and villages to spread education. Three pillars namely Integrity, Humility, and Humanity have been set forth to create a benchmark in my professional life.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
Entrepreneurship always invites new innovative ideas set to work, challenges, and the creation of job opportunities. I believe that entrepreneurship provides a wide spectrum of ventures and entrepreneurs in every economy.
The vast open arena of entrepreneurship thus acts as an incubator to entrepreneurs. Innovation and industry are accelerated through the combined action of entrepreneurs.
They can motivate each other, share ideas and inspiration, and share planning to establish new industries. The change of the existing industrial climate opens the doors for others at the same time.
Therefore, I feel that the importance of entrepreneurship to the economy is multi-functional. Challenges are there and cracking up every challenge to shape a new forum is itself very challenging and for me accepting challenges and converting them into reality have been my desires for a long.
‘Techno India Group’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please.
Techno India Group has successfully completed 35 years in academia under the guidance of Prof Goutam Roy Chowdhury, Founder & Chairman. Techno India Group boasts of 100 campuses, 4 Universities,22 engineering colleges,12 schools, 18 public schools, 14 HS schools,40 IT Schools, 22 R &D labs, overseas campuses, multi-speciality hospitals, and coming up with new projects of medical colleges & eco-tourism resort.
1 million Alumni, we can boast of are settled across the globe to mark a position in their life. Our mission is to enrich quality education. Techno India Group is a pioneer in the Educational sector & proposes to achieve higher success in the coming future. Our latest venture is Monoshij, a wellness forum where we are catering the services to students, employees, parents & others for their benefit.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
When life gives you 100 reasons to break down and cry show life that you have a million reasons to smile and stay strong… We indeed went through a difficult phase but we are overcoming it by working together as a team.
Amidst this chaos and uncertainties, necessary precautionary measures were taken. Being a representative of an educational hub like Techno India Group one cannot overlook certain areas. The syllabus has to be completed for the benefit of our students and for this all our faculty members of schools, colleges and universities did their best by taking classes through Webinar, Skype, Google classroom and YouTube.
We have developed our own software LMS specifically designed to simplify the online transition and long term digital journey for school teachers and their students. This online tool has been designed as one of the only LMS made in India with many salient features. The FT Department of our Techno Main Salt Lake College and the team of Techno College of Engineering Agartala prepared sanitisers as per WHO Guidelines and distributed them.
Keeping the present scenario in mind we have established an online mental wellness platform ‘Monoshij’,. Our team of experts has counselled every need of a person who was suffering from stress, anxiety, depression in this lockdown period. We have provided cars to Sasthya Bhavan for the doctors and nurses to reach their destinations at this hour of need.
We have reached out to distribute food materials to the people in need through police and organizations like Bharat Sevashram Sangha and Dakshin Kalikata Krira O Sanskriti Parishad. Three of our campuses namely OFFBEAT, Coochbehar, and Shironj at MadhyaPradesh have been transformed as isolation wards for the mass joined our hands of humanity to disunite for some time to achieve greater and safer zones.
Techno India medical unit, DAMA hospital, a flagship project of Techno India Group is a super speciality premier tertiary care hospital in Kolkata and now with the present scenario, It has converted to a Covid Hospital. It is committed to furnishing the highest standards of medical care to match the global benchmarks with extreme sensitivity to every patient’s need irrespective of their socio-economic background. Our commitment to clinical excellence is perceptible in the highest calibre of our team of medical practitioners.
Our nursing staff and paramedical professionals are highly competent and furnish great support to our clinical team. This unprecedented global crisis has made us realize how frail our economic structures and social systems are. In this difficult situation, we must adapt, survive and strive. This phase of pandemic lockdown has forced us all to slow down. We have taken one step at a time to ensure that difficulties are meant to rouse, not to discourage the human spirit to overcome them together.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
Every challenge is met with patience and hard work. I believe in the old saying that “ United we stand Divided we fall”. We work as a team, I empower the right people with the right work which keeps me going.
My passion for work inspires me, I learn new things every day and reading keeps my mind fresh. Am always surrounded by very supportive and understanding family members, well-wisher and blessings from my parents keeps me going.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
– Learn from others but follow your own path.
– Every journey is unique – be agile and flexible but maintain your determination to succeed.
– Integrity, Humility, and Humanity are the mechanism of my life to succeed.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
a) Focus on the quality, service & value and never on the quantity.
b) Be flexible and adaptable because the winners are not who are the ablest to react quickly to change and adapt in a market-responsive way and they often turn a crisis into a new opportunity.
c) Lead from the front to make a visible approach to people.
In your opinion, what is more necessary: An idea or a good team for a successful startup?
I believe that ideas can set to work only if you have a good efficient team. So basically idea and a good team complement each other to set up a successful startup. Positive action blending with positive thinking can make one successful.
To be successful one must keep moving, the word ‘quit’ has to be omitted from the path of a startup. Be focused on your dream and with dedication the fruit of success can be enjoyed.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
I believe that one should have a vision clear of what one wants. Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. Courage and integrity are also important traits one should possess.
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
Honesty and the determination to accept every challenge have worked best for me. I believe in compassion which has really helped me to think for others and reach out to them in every possible way.
I have learnt to embrace the new changes. Communicating with my team has actually worked well.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
My passion for my work and belief in myself keeps me going. I believe that there is nothing which is impossible. I love to spread positivity around me. Gardening and being amongst nature helps me to gain energy.
I believe that to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. I listen to music because it has a healing effect on the mind and shove me up to deliver my best. With a positive mindset, every hurdle in life can be overcome. I strongly vouch that if you cannot find the sunshine be the sunshine.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
Focus on being productive not being busy. There is no magic to success so always strive in with hard work and patience. Equality among men and women which is essential for the development of society can be only possible through the economic independence of women.
Women entrepreneurs should take the challenges of new economic policy to achieve success. Turn every dream of yours into reality, overcome the hurdles but never quit.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
