POINT OF VIEW

Change Management is the Formula!

Karthik KS is one of the prominent leaders in the Intellectual Capital Management Space in India. The Founder and CEO of 24x7 Learning- one among India's leading e-learning Implementation Companies, Karthik leads the company's efforts to capitalize on long-term growth opportunities and align its operations with key customer segments in the global market place. Karthik is strengthening the company's presence in key markets ranging from enterprises to vertical industries. He has been greatly successful in implementing company policies and business strategies positioning the company as a leading brand. Karthik has an in-depth knowledge of Intellectual Capital Management in Enterprises right from technology to users and also the commercial point of view. He has been at the helm of some of the best e-learning Corporate Implementations in India. So what does this active proponent of e-learning in India think on enterprise e-learning in the country?

'Two things I'd like to emphasise- one is- stay focussed. This is very easy in today's time in India. Success is all about saying 'NO'. Anything comes on your way is an opportunity though, but they are not the opportunities of success for you. Stay focussed to the thing only on which you are a specialist.'

Probably this focussed vision has helped this start-up e-learning company to see its business very good today. Although there are still miles to go, last year it grew @100% and this year it is growing at 400%. 24x7 has bagged the 'Red Herring Asia' award recently as the most promising young company, recognised as one of the 100 private Asian firms driving the future of technology.

But then why India and why education gets this focus? 'Our market is India; we remain focussed to India. The reason is –some day or other, Indian market will open up and the 1.2 billion Indians will be my market base. Everyone can realise along with us that unskilled manpower is the single largest impediment to the businesses today. There are lots of education companies. But we need to 'train' 3 million people in technology. In the last 5 years, there is nothing clearly seen to train the work force.' Well, this is how Karthik has studied and evaluated the education market. For him, education is a funny (unique) market. There is no education in fact, which is the paradox in India. Certificates are only noticed in this country. But what he identified very true to the Indian context is corporate learning, which does need skill, enhancement of skill, and not certificates.

And now is the time to fix the important topics for such enterprise training and learning!

No! Because, 24x7 never sees it as a product. Rather it's a complete solution. The clients usually don't see it as a product. 'We go as giving a complete solution to our clients. And at the back end, we have three different vertical executions services; first, we have our own enterprise application, which is the product. Second, we have content services. And lastly, we are in consulting services, which is to help organise increased usage of this industry.'

How do you see e-learning market in India?

There is no documented figure. But you get the feel. Last year it was in the range of INR80-100 crore, that is based on some calculations that I have done. But this year I feel it should be in the range of INR 400-500 crore.

How do you calculate?

This calculation is based on our regular team research. We have offices in Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, BBSR, Bangalore, Madras, Hyderabad, in almost all metro cities. We have the largest sales team in any e-learning company today, whose number is 16. We do have half-yearly and annual sales reviews, and have some analysis on market.



Of course, the challenges are manifold. Because, learning tapers down as one gets older. And interestingly, the average age of this enterprise e-learning is 40 plus. The real concern for him was companies like Hindalco, Birla, and similar ones. Will they do e-learning courses? 'To everyone's surprise, highest elearning usage percentage is in Aditya Birla Group', Karthik says. The guys are information hungry! E-learning was not high. But then lots of people have done it. The situation is similar when Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is introduced in media. Crores of money spent, but they were not used, because of the change management problem. People were not ready; they were more comfortable on writing on paper and re-entering later. Similarly, in e-learning it took a little time. 'Till 2 years back, we scratched the surface. But since there is potential it dealt with directly connected to 1.2 billion Indians. Education is one thing we are all passionate about. And if we have done a quality job, the market is more open. And this has a cascading effect. If one accepts, then another accepts, then another accepts and the things keep going. That is why there is much fund here. There is actual growth.'

And today, the third part of the entire 'solution' – the consultation service, is what that builds a place for 24x7 in the market. Karthik says, he never got paid for that in last 5 years, although things have been changed now. No body pays. Not even an amount like INR5000. The company used to fly its people on charity. The positive result yielded by this was an ensuring renewed of license next year. 'So we give the complete solution, we did the consultancy free, which means client's usage goes up. Which means we'll have increased number of licenses. So that is how we do our business in this competition. Prospecting makes the first level of our job always.' Today, of course, this is not the case.

To strategise the e-learning services, this market leader feels that discipline is much required. Because, time is more important, and the company or the service has to run between. And the success mantra is the successful change management. E-learning is learning. And technology is the smallest problem in e-learning today. But then change management is a plus point. Today 24x7 doesn't bother about technology. It has worked on toughest of problems in this country in terms of technology. For this education service provider, the problem is- 'will ever e-learners do the course?'. And that is where 24x7 will be successful.