Binoy Meghraj MBA2000, Vice Chairman of Meghraj Group and the Chairman of Meghraj Capital Advisors, the Group’s Indian investment bank, is making an impact through his involvement with Business Bridge, whose aim is to provide high quality, low cost business education to entrepreneurs and small business people in developing economies. This was first published in AlumniNews, Issue 131, February 2014. Find out more about our alumni community at http://www.london.edu/alumni

1. AlumniNews ISSUE 131
FEBRUARY 2014
MAKING AN
IMPACT
Binoy Meghraj MBA2000, Vice
Chairman of Meghraj Group, an
international financial services
organisation, and the Chairman of
Meghraj Capital Advisors, the
Group’s Indian investment bank, is
putting something back through his
involvement with Business Bridge.
DOMINIC MIDGLEY reports
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER: Budding
entrepreneurs at work on a
Business Bridge course

2. ■TheBigIssue/Developing Africa
When Binoy Meghraj heard about
Business Bridge he knew that he
wanted to get involved. Set up by
London Business School’s
Professor of Management Practice
in Strategic and International
Management and
Entrepreneurship, Michael Hay, its
aim is to provide high quality, low-
cost business education to
entrepreneurs and small business
people in developing economies.
“I am a big believer in the
benefits that entrepreneurs can
bring to their communities in terms
of job creation, and wealth
creation,” says Binoy. “Business
Bridge is focused on providing
actionable business education to
entrepreneurs who wouldn’t get a
chance to get such an education
otherwise.That’s something that
really struck a chord with me.”
Today he is both a donor and a
trustee of Business Bridge, which
offers two basic courses: Making
Sales, which is essentially about
marketing, and Managing Money,
which looks at financial accounting.
“We’re very focused on trying to
make what is taught as practical
and as actionable as possible,” he
says.
Each course has eight modules,
delivered in eight weekly four-hour
sessions in a classroom. The
trainers are a mixture of alumni of
the School or other business
schools, successful entrepreneurs
and executives from local
businesses who offer their services
pro bono.
One student called Sivuyile, who
runs a security business, is a good
example of the transformative efect
the Business Bridge course can
have. When he joined the
programme in 2012, he had just
one employee. Today he has 15.
He was in the third week of the
“I am a big believer in the
benefits that entrepreneurs
can bring to their
communities in terms of job
creation, and wealth creation”
BINOY MEGHRAJ MBA2000

3. ■TheBigIssue/Developing Africa
Making Sales course when he
spotted a film crew in the street.
“When Sivuyile spoke at his
graduation, he said that previously
he would have thought, ‘It’s not
something I can do’. Instead, he
approached the crew and offered
them his services,” says Binoy.
“While they turned him down, he
persisted, and when he
approached them again the next
day, they saw the wisdom of his
pitch and hired him. It was all down
to the confidence he had
developed through attending
classes at Business Bridge.”
He adds: “We’re very focused
on trying to make what is taught as
practical as possible, and as
applicable as possible. I think that
what’s driving it, what is at the
heart of all of this, is a belief that
business education is a powerful
tool to help to overcome poverty. It
does that by building businesses
which are sustainable, and which
are generating employment.
“We work particularly with micro
and small enterprises that are
operating in poor communities in
developing countries.
Typically, the environment is one
where unemployment is high and
where there is very limited access
to business education of any sort.
In these sorts of environments
many people end up turning to
running a small business as one
way of generating income because
there aren’t employment
opportunities with companies.”
Having run pilots in South Africa,
Ghana and India, Business Bridge
is the subject of a major research
project run by a team from London
Business School and the World
Bank, which focuses on measuring
the impact of training in South
African townships on employment
creation and business performance
and sustainability. Interim results
show a very encouraging impact
on all of these measures. Results
will be published later this year.
Binoy’s involvement with
Business Bridge means he makes
regular visits to the School
campus. He is also a loyal donor to
the School and has been a
volunteer interviewer for the MBA
programme. “It’s a fantastic
community to be a part of,” he
says. ■
For more on Business Bridge,
contact JanineTitley at
janine@thebusinessbridge.org