Jayant Chhaya had worked with the State of
Wisconsin, USA, in a senior executive level position in the Health and
Employment Department. He had been able to achieve amazing success in his
projects. Yet, when he read of the AMUL experiment, he chose to come back to
India. He wanted to work with his inspirational icon, Dr Varghese Kurian.
Dr Kurian’s office granted Chhaya an appointment for
only the duration of five minutes. A visibly excited Chhaya first shared how
Kurian’s incredible triumph had inspired him to come back to work for his
country. Then he spoke about his impressive work in Wisconsin. After all, he
had to establish his credentials. Suddenly, Kurian interjected tersely to say, ‘your
time’s up’!
Chhaya’s pleas for additional time were in vain. He kept
persisting and many days later, was able to get another appointment... this
time for just one minute. Chhaya got straight to the point, ‘Sir, I want to do
to oil what you did to milk’. The great Kurian got irritated, ‘are you trying
to tell me that I cannot do to oil what I did to milk?’ Chhaya humbly asserted,
‘Sir, it is under your mentorship that I want to do to oil what you did to
milk.’
For the next 30 minutes, Kurian listened to Chhaya
as he explained his ideas on making cooking oil easily and consistently
available to the consumer by using the Amul model of co-operatives. Years after
his death, Chhaya is remembered for having led the Edible Oil Project with the National
Dairy Development Board... his project was 'Dhara', India’s leading cooking oil
brand.
Indeed, Dhara and
its mover may never have made it, if Chhaya had not been able to explain his
idea in a single sentence. Being able to unite the expansive plan into its
focussed form enhanced the impact. In management terms, such an exercise to
quickly and simply define is called an elevator pitch.
Elevator pitch is
about sharing the idea in the time span of an elevator ride... 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Consider a
scenario of an accidental meeting with someone important in an elevator. If the
conversation inside the elevator in those few seconds is interesting and value
adding, the probability of its further continuance will increase. Like it did
for Jayant Chhaya!
Get
straight to the point; do not beat around the bush...
‘Unite to impact’ with elevator pitch to
get the right push!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Goa, India.
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