An evening with Mr. Verghese Jacob

On Friday, June 20, we had an insightful session by Mr. Verghese Jacob, CEO of the Byrraju Foundation. Mr. Verghese had a distinguished career with Godrej before moving into the social sector in 2001.

About Mr. Verghese Jacob

Verghese Jacob is a name synonymous with mentorship, strategy, and social impact. He is widely recognized for his work at the intersection of leadership and social innovation. Mr. Verghese has served in pivotal leadership roles, shaping organizations and nurturing future leaders along the way. As a management mentor, he has guided countless professionals, inspiring them with his strategic clarity, human-centered leadership, and ethical action. He has also been a mentor to many NGOs.

But what truly sets Mr. Verghese apart is his deep-rooted commitment to social transformation. Through innovation-led initiatives, Mr. Verghese has applied business thinking to solve social challenges, empowering marginalized communities and fostering sustainable impact.

An accomplished speaker, advisor, and strategist, Mr. Verghese has deep insights on how to lead with empathy and execute with vision. Mr. Verghese’s love for learning is infectious. He has pioneered many successful learning interventions in both the corporate and social sectors.

In his younger days, Mr. Verghese was a top-level tennis player, who ranked fourth in the country, ahead of Ashok Amritraj. Though circumstances rerouted that journey (For most parents, education took priority over sports those days.), he channeled the same passion into bridge, competing at the national level. Mr. Verghese continues to play bridge (which he started playing during his MBA at XLRI), leveraging online channels and winning national level tournaments. He plays against robots these days. (Mr. Verghese mentioned during the Q&A that tennis can only be pursued by more affluent people or with sponsorships. Moreover, players peak at a young age. Think of Sinner and Alcaraz. In contrast bridge can be played by anyone. Age is no limitation. More people should take up bridge. It is an intellectually stimulating game)

Mr. Verghese holds an MBA from the prestigious XLRI which recently conferred on him the lifetime achievement award. He has held senior level positions in Godrej, including the Group HR Head and CEO of a joint venture. Mr. Verghese has led the Byrraju Foundation with distinction for the past 25 years.

On his journey

Mr. Verghese grew up in Kerala. He completed his graduation at the College of Engineering, Trivandrum. Later, he completed his MBA (Marketing and Finance) at XLRI.

Mr. Verghese worked with Godrej and Boyce for over 20 years across different functions, assignments and roles- Sales, Branch manager, Marketing manager, Head of a product line, Head of Machine Tools. At a young age, he was groomed for senior level responsibilities.

Though he was not a career HR professional, Godrej made a bold move appointing Mr. Verghese, the Group HR head. When he became the HR head, Mr. Verghese prepared for the challenge by going back to XLRI for a two-week specialized HR course. Under his leadership, there were many HR innovations including delayering the organization (There were 17 layers at that point of time). Godrej had a joint venture with GE. From GE, many best practices like Six Sigma and Workouts were picked up and implemented in Godrej. Support functions were streamlined so that they could serve the strong line functions better.

Mr. Verghese was then appointed the CEO of a joint venture with a Singapore telecom company. Godrej Telecom. That brought him to Hyderabad. A factory was set up in Tirumalgiri. Unfortunately, the venture could not take off following the telecom scandal and various restrictions imposed on the private sector in telecom.

At this point, Mr. Verghese was on the verge of going back to Godrej headquarters in Mumbai. But in 1999, in a sudden turn of events, he had a kidney failure that led to a kidney transplant. He was only 45 then. Mr. Verghese resolved that if he came out of the crisis intact, he would move into the social sector. It took about 2 years for things to come back to normal. During the transition period, Mr. Verghese was a director on the boards of some companies. In 2001, on the invitation of Satyam founder, Mr. B Ramalinga Raju, he joined the Byrraju Foundation (BRF).

BRF was a pioneer and ahead of its time. (Compulsory CSR funding came much later.) Promoted by Mr. Ramalinga Raju, in honor of his late father, BRF had ambitious plans for rural transformation. BRF brought various innovative practices from the corporate sector into the social sector. It also forged alliances with various organizations and universities. BRF also took up research in the social sector, disseminated the knowledge widely and held conferences regularly. Many students from the top universities like Harvard and Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, came to work as interns at their own cost. They made significant contributions, working in the villages for about 6 weeks. And this kind of volunteer work also helped them to strengthen their CV.

BRF also roped in other partners to scale up its initiatives. That is how 108 and 104 were launched. Today, 108 (emergency response services) is available in 24 states and 104 (helpline for health related services) in 12 states. These are ideal examples of public private partnerships.

Despite severe health challenges (two kidney transplants, heart surgery, infections, sepsis), Mr. Verghese has thrived as a leader in the social sector. He believes that if we do good to others, good karma will come back to us.

On Social vs corporate sector

For a corporation, the revenue is the topline and profits the bottom-line. The topline for the social sector is the number of people impacted. The bottom line is how well the meagre funds are used. A recommended practice is to keep overheads below 10% and ensure that 90% of the funds is spent on the beneficiaries. To make sure that the services are valued, NGOs often insist on small copayments from the beneficiaries. NGOs also try to leverage their own funds by roping in other partners. (That is how 108 and 104 came into being.)

In the corporate sector, it is often a rat race. People are competing with each other. Successful people may climb up many rungs of the corporate ladder. Only later they realize that the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall.

In contrast, the social sector provides opportunities for actualization at a young age. The satisfaction one gets is way more than we can imagine in the corporate sector.

The social sector has also become more attractive for people to join. About 25 years back, working in the social sector was equivalent to taking Sanyas. Now, salary levels are much better, and the gap is probably only around 20%. Many CSR projects are run by the companies themselves. So corporate executives have many opportunities to contribute, even without quitting their job.

On the challenges facing the social sector

There are more than 2.8 million NGOs in the country. But less than 100,000 of them are well structured and well managed. Others depend on the founder who is typically a good-hearted man and widely respected in society. The NGO dies with the founder. There is no succession plan. The lack of professionalization is a major challenge.

NGOs should outlive the founder. Systems and processes must be put in place. Mr. Verghese gave the example of the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa. Even though she is no more, the work is going smoothly. In fact, few even know who the leader of Missionaries of Charity is today.

On poverty alleviation

India has 400 million (40 crore) people living below the poverty line (income level of below $ 2 per day). This makes up 40% of the global poor. In recent years, the government has been trying to tackle the problem through direct transfers to the bank accounts of the poor. But identification of the poor is a major challenge. Many undeserving people are getting money while the poor are not getting enough.

It is the fundamental right of the poor to get government benefits at their doorstep. The Delhi government has demonstrated it is possible. Unfortunately, politicians, bureaucracy, corruption and lack of accountability have ensured that we have not been able to tackle poverty as effectively as we should have.

There is no dearth of money. If we consider all the schemes available, each village with a population of more than 6000 gets Rs 200 crores every year. We should spend this money more efficiently. We should track progress in real time with metrics and ensure there is accountability.

We should ensure that the poor get enough money to meet their nutrition, housing, education and healthcare needs. Our definition of poverty is currently too narrow (only the calorific value of the food consumed). We need a multidimensional poverty index. Instead of the current benchmark of Rs 3600 per family of 5, we should be able to provide Rs 15,000 per month to meet all their basic requirements. Tackling hunger alone is not enough. Without sufficient income, even one calamity (like a crop failure) will derail the poor, make them pull their children out of schools, and force them into migration to the cities.

On income inequality

In India 1% of the population accounts for 50% of the GDP. The bottom 50% accounts for 1% of the GDP. We should be ashamed of these statistics.

Only the salaried class is being taxed currently. We should tax the rich more. Some groups like rich farmers who are currently not being taxed should be brought under the tax net. There is a lot of money in the country. Even a small tax can have a great impact. CSR (2% of corporate profits) is a good example.

On promoting social entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurs can play an important role in providing goods and services at a reasonable cost for the poor. We need more social entrepreneurs in the country. Unfortunately, there are some organizations who are pretending to operate under the guise of social entrepreneurship but with a strong profit motive.

Students must be encouraged to do projects in social entrepreneurship. Different institutions like XLRI, TISS and SP Jain have different formats to promote social entreprneurship. At XLRI, Students have to live with Adivasis for a month. TISS and SP Jain offer full-fledged courses.

On attracting talent into the social sector

We should target people when they are young. We should offer courses on social entrepreneurship to MBA students.

Making a switch to the social sector after spending many years in the corporate sector is more difficult and happens rarely unless there is burnout or frustration. But by then people are much older and the fire in the belly is gone.

All of us have a calling to support the poor. One piece of advice from Mr. Verghese to corporate executives: We should not be doing just checkbook charity. We should also contribute our time and expertise to the development projects.

On social impact assessment

There is a need for third party verification to ensure that funds are properly utilized for social impact. For this, live tracking of the beneficiaries is needed. The metrics must be clearly defined before the project starts: How many beneficiaries will we cover? What is the time frame? How much should the overheads be limited to? How do we end the project? Is it one-time or ongoing? Do we track the progress made by the beneficiaries over time? Live tracking makes it difficult to fudge.

There are many fraudulent organizations in the social sector. Section 80G is being used by them for money laundering (converting black money to white). Then there are corporates who spend money on business activities and show them under their CSR spending. Some business groups are contributing a lot to CSR due to their scale. But they are setting a poor example by their opulent and extravagant lifestyle.

Compulsory audit is needed to ensure that CSR funds are not misutilized. The government does not have the political will to enforce this. On the other end of the spectrum, the government has made it very difficult for NGOs to raise funds (FCRA).

On tapping the Gen Z

How do we tap the energy of Gen Z for social good? The family plays an important role in imparting good values at a young age. In college, courses on business ethics can also help. Transaction Analysis (TA) sessions can help to cleanse ourselves of our mental baggage and become more self-aware.

Concluding remarks

Mr. Verghese has bounced back from serious health problems at least 10 times in his life. Each time, he has gone to the edge and come back strongly. What is the secret?

The secret is to keep doing good. When we know that we have done only good and no harm, we can sleep peacefully. We will also be supported by the goodwill and prayers of friends and well-wishers.

In contrast, some ambitious people resort to short cuts. But everyone is watching. We can take short cuts to please our bosses. But we cannot fool our peers and family members. We should never sell our soul.

Midway through his career, Mr. Verghese walked away from money to join the social sector. Since then, he has never been short of money. Money has always come when needed.

As Prof Sudhakar Rao added, when intentions are good, resources will come. The entire universe will come to our aid.