Notes

Women Entrepreneurship
Intro
• Good morning, guys!
• I'm Srikala, and today I'm going to provide a case study about women
entrepreneurs.
Women entrepreneurship
• The case study I'm about to present is one of the most extraordinary
case studies you've ever heard.
• This case study is all about a female entrepreneur and the strength of
women in the business world!
Case study
• This is the story of seven ordinary women who had no business
background, no relevant qualifications, and with only 80 rupees in
capital, they built a business empire worth 1600 crores with 69
branches and over 42,000 employees.
• This home-grown brand that i am talking about is none other than
Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad.
• The most intriguing aspect of this company is not its wealth, but the
fact that its business philosophies seem to have a striking
resemblance to those of outstanding companies such as Starbucks
and Apple.
Question
• What is so exceptional about this papad company, how has it endured
more than 62 years, and how did these seven ladies build a business
empire with only 80 rupees in capital?
Answer
• The solution can be found in the incredible history of the lijjat papad.
• This is a story from the late 1950s in India, when education, let alone
literacy, was considered a luxury, and even in terms of literacy during
those times, women's literacy was not even considered important, as
a result of which only 8% of women in India could read and write,
while 92% of women in India were illiterates.
• Furthermore, women were not permitted to work, and family
earnings were insufficient to maintain a decent level of living.
Con….
• That is when, in 1959, in Mumbai, a group of 7 amazing women from
very ordinary backgrounds got together to discuss a business idea
that didn't require them to leave the house, didn't require education,
and could still produce a competitive product in the market.
• This is how the idea of lijjat papad was born with only $80 in capital
provided by a social worker.
• They first started selling their papads at a local store and soon enough due to the superb quality and taste of
the papad even other shops started buying their papads and that's when they started scaling up now when
they started scaling they have the opportunity to hire women at a death cheap cost because they were one
of the rarest avenues of income for women which allowed them to work from home but you know what
Board meeting…..
• When these ladies hold their first board meeting, they establish that
the major purpose of this business will not be to earn money, but to
empower women from the country's poorest households and provide
them with a means to support their families.
• More importantly, they established that money would only be used as
a fuel to scale their impact on the women of India and would not be
the sole purpose of their existence, so instead of hiring women, they
began to give out ownership to every single woman who joined their
business and referred to them as Lijjat sisters rather than employees,
which is what is known as collective ownership.
Collective ownership
• In collective ownership, each employee owns a small portion of the
company, so that profits and losses are shared by everyone in the
organisation, so regardless of your age, caste, or religion, even if you
were at the bottom of the Lijjatr papad organisation, you would still
own a portion of the business. 
• Most of us may believe that this is just another commercial move, but
I have to tell you that this attribute of collective ownership is one of
the fundamental concepts that differentiates Starbucks.
Con…..
• Because, just like the lijjat sisters, every employee in Starbucks is
considered a partner in the business rather than an employee.
Everyone from the baristas who serve coffee to the customers all the
way up to the senior management officers are all given stock options
in the company.
• so this way just like the lijjat sisters every employee in Starbucks could
be a small owner of the company and this move develops a deep
sense of ownership which cultivates the culture of greatness wherein
every employee is motivated to go out of the way and to contribute
diligently towards the growth of the organization
Difference…..
• but the only difference between both these companies is that while
Starbucks ideated this with MBA masterminds and with $1,000,000
capital backing the 7 sisters of lijjat did it way before Starbucks in
1959 without even knowing what is an MBA degree such was the
business acumen of these incredible women.
Second phase
• The second phase of Lijjat was the development of a robust supply
chain that would be cost effective, ensure quality production, and fit
the lifestyle of the women who worked for the company, so instead of
having large office spaces, they use the houses of the sisters as their
small centers of papad making, and this is how the supply chain looks.
Con….
• The flour would first arrive from the mills to the respective central
location where the dough is made, and after the dough is made and
the sisters are bought by a bus facility provided by the company over
here, they would go home and make papads, dry them on the varnda,
and then deliver the papads the succeeding day.
Con…..
• Finally, once the papads were delivered, they would receive their
money and the dough for the next cycle, which would be followed by
surprise inspections by the supervisors to verify the quality of the oil
they used, the sanitation of the house, and, most crucially, the
procedure of manufacturing papads.
• The sisters are now provided aluminium papad makers to ensure that
the papad is prepared in a standardised manner. If one of these
branches does exceptionally well, revenues are dispersed among the
sisters, while losses are shared by all branch members.
Mission and Vision
• After all of this, the most difficult part of all is adhering to the
company's vision and mission statements. For most of us, mission and
vision statements are just stupid formalities with no real meaning.
This is because in the corporate world, everyone knows that mission,
vision, and values are just fancy words written on the wall.
• If your boss wants to kick your ass, he'll do it regardless, which is why
most of us don't grasp the significance of mission and vision
statements. Vision statements are the basic foundations of every
single organisation, and when developed and executed correctly, they
may enable the organisation sustain for a century
• At the same time, if not done correctly, they can bring down a Million
dollar business.
Example
• Apple is a classic example of this; when Steve Jobs was fired from the
company in 1984, it was a $1,000,000 company that stuck to its
values and was a formidable player in the industry; however, after he
left, the company began to deviate from its values, and within 10
years it was on the verge of going bankrupt.
Question……
• That's when Steve Jobs was called back to Apple to fix things and get
the company back on track, and you know what the first question he
asked every single engineer, every single designer, and every single
manager after he took over the company was what does Apple stand
for and what are the values that we believe in as a company.
Mistake
• Because the biggest mistake Apple made was that when he was not
there, they began to lose their identity and began to diverge from
their ideals, resulting in producing the products with no sense of
purpose. Eventually, the brand lost its unique identity, and consumer
loyalty simply fed it away.
Answer
• So Steve returns to ask this question, and within a short period of
time, the entire team is completely clear on what they were intended
to achieve, and this is what gave them the think different campaign,
which told the world what Apple actually stood for, and that is think
different and innovate.
Con…..
• Within just two years, the same firm, with the same engineers and
exact same resources, went on to make history by becoming a
legendary corporation that developed goods that altered the world
forever, and we all know what happened to Apple after Steve left.
Mission and vison of lIJJAT
• This is the significance of mission and vision statements, and in its 62
years of existence, Lijjat Papad has never deviated from its core
values, and even today, after expanding to 67 branches, scaling up to
42,000 employees, and importing their products to 15 different
countries, they still adhere to the core philosophy of their business,
Sarvodaya, which means progress for all.
Con…..
• On the other hand, Lijjat Papad ensures that no single woman is asked
to quit the organisation with every single piece of machinery they
bring in for automation since they are very cognizant that their
ultimate goal of business is not to generate money but to empower
women.
• so that they can provide a better quality of life for their family and
children on one hand we have these evil companies who would put
the health of their frontline workers at risk just to maximise your
profits on the other hand we have lijjat papad wherein even if they
have a great year they use the extra profits to sponsor the education
of their frontline workers' children regardless of their age caste
religion or lower position in the organization
• They do all of this so that the next generation of frontline workers can
be given the opportunity they deserve.
Con…..
• Finally, while we are inspired to be at the pinnacle of technological
revolution, there are people like you and me who frequently doubt
our capabilities, and here we see a standing example of 7 incredible
women who had no educational qualification, no business
background, and no fancy invested and yet they will be able to build a
business empire that is now empowering generations of women all
across the country