Ideas to Impacts is in the business of promoting innovative ideas that can create significant positive impacts for both customers and the small towns of India. This presentation talks about our vision, mission and what Small Town model is all about.

1. IDEAS TO IMPACTS (I2I)
SMALL TOWN MODEL
By Gireendra Kasmalkar
Founder Director, Ideas to Impacts Innovations Pvt. Ltd.
July 2016

2. Vision
Providing services and products from small towns of India to create
➢ Positive economic impact through cost benefits to customers
➢ Positive social impact by inclusion of remote places and people
Beyond these benefits, we aim to be the best in the business, so our model becomes
the industry default in our offerings.
About Ideas to Impacts (I2I)
We promote innovative ideas that create significant impacts for both customers and
societies.
Pioneering the small town model, to serve the global, urban and non-urban Indian
market.
IDEAS TO IMPACTS (I2I)
Small Town Model

3. Delivering – Catering to Indian and global customers
Solutions – IT and non-IT services, products
Small Towns – Larger talukas and smaller districts
Triggers
➢ Today, more than half of the employees in metros are from small
towns
➢ The small towns have excellent infrastructure and colleges
➢ Indian off-shoring has become expensive. Customers are exploring
off-shoring to Philippines etc
➢ Instead, offshore to “Bharat” (non-urban India). Small town
model is the next logical step in the off-shoring journey.
SMALL TOWN MODEL
Delivering Solutions from Small
Towns

4. IT Services (for Indian and global companies)
❑ Development
❑ Testing
❑ Technical helpdesk
❑ IT Support
❑ Implementation support
Non-IT services (for Indian companies)
❑ Sales support for companies targeting non-urban India
❑ Local language related services for content and publishing companies
Sweet Spots
➢ Some services will become sweet spots for the small town model. e.g. L1
support, maintenance of products, local language services. More to be
discovered.
➢ Small town will become default for such services, and thus will find its place
in overall off-shoring landscape
SMALL TOWN MODEL
Services Offered – IT and Non-IT

5. Cost and Social impacts are obvious. But, how can the delivery be better?
➢ Correct identification of sweet spot services for the small town model
➢ Aspirational jobs for the right skills leads to better service
➢ Freeing over-qualified resources from jobs that can be moved to small towns
increases overall efficiency
How are risks managed?
➢ For global customers – the right pyramid of skills in metros and in small towns.
Just as off-shore is actually optimal mix of onsite and off-shore.
➢ Availability of Infrastructure and colleges is no more an issue with small towns
English Communication
➢ Indian companies do not need English – local language may be preferred
➢ For global customers, the right pyramid mentioned above also manages
communication challenge
In spite of challenges, if the model makes economic sense, it is inevitable.
SMALL TOWN MODEL
Challenges and Solutions

6. Can small town model promote start-ups?
➢ Start-ups are a buzz today. But restricted to metros, working on metro
problems
➢ But there are non-urban challenges – Remoteness, Language, Relevant
content, Inclusion. Start-ups needed to solve these as well
The Small town start-up solution
➢ Start-ups in small towns work better, as they are closer to these problems
➢ e.g. Drone applications (remoteness), Language applications, agricultural
products (relevant content), Digitization (Inclusion)
➢ Small town start-ups can partner with others for core technologies and
operationalize them / build scalable solutions on top
I2I will angel-invest, incubate, support with services in small town start-ups to
ensure their success
SMALL TOWN MODEL
Small Town Start-Ups

7. 1. Is it a social cause?
➢ There is a very positive social impact, both on small towns due to
employment close homes, and on metros through reducing the migration.
➢ However, our company is for-profit. Unless we run our business profitably,
we do not create sustainable employment in the small towns
2. Is it training / skilling?
➢ We are not in the business of training. We would like to create
employment rather than employability. The onus of training our team is
on us.
3. How is it different from Rural BPO?
➢ We are in small towns, with good infrastructure and colleges rather than
in villages. We are addressing the unemployment of engineers and
graduates in these places, with services with good potential for
professional growth rather than BPO.
SMALL TOWN MODEL
FAQ’s

8. 4. What is I2I role?
➢ Firstly, as a business in providing solutions from small towns.
➢ However, we are also keen to promote this model, by helping companies
with their own small town centres
➢ We would even encourage competition, as it only promotes the model
5. How about attrition? Will employees not want to move to cities for better
opportunities?
➢ Attrition is actually much lower in small towns and rural BPO’s
➢ The problem is no different from people wanting to move from metros to
foreign countries. Some people may, some people may not.
➢ Some people may want to move back from metros to small towns. If
people do get other jobs, it is a success of the small town model.
SMALL TOWN MODEL
FAQ’s (Contd…)

9. 6. What will be the yardsticks of success? Same as those for off-shoring
today?
➢ Yes. The yardstick is that the service should be delivered better than
earlier
➢ There will be services that will happen better from on-site, some from
metros, and some from small towns
➢ Hence, the various components of off-shoring (onsite, metros, small-
town) will be complementary rather than competing
7. Can innovations, start-ups happen in small-town?
➢ The one big pre-requisite for innovation is need. So the innovation
that addresses problems of the non-urban India are more likely to
happen in small-towns
➢ Start-ups do need ecosystems, which are currently lacking, but the big
push today is towards creating the ecosystem (incubators etc.) for
small towns. I2I is proud to be part of this movement.
SMALL TOWN MODEL
FAQ’s (Contd…)

10. Thank You...!
Gireendra Kasmalkar
Ideas to Impacts Innovations Pvt. Ltd.
Email: Gireendra.Kasmalkar@IdeasToImpacts.com
Mobile: +91 9822055785