Additional Questions
Who is your customer?
Startups, Small and Medium Businesses in the United States and in India.
What problem does this idea/product solve or what market need does it serve?
- Connecting grass-root innovation with skills, resources, and investors through a cluster approach.
- Taking technology know-how and best practices across the two countries.
- Business expansion internationally with hand-holding.
What attributes will make this idea/product successful? Why do you believe that those features will create success?
The biggest task is outreach to showcase success and help change the mindset of these businesses. So, the attributes that make IABC initiative successful are:
- An innovative way to connect, educate, collaborate the target groups.
- Outreach
- Government and private corporate collaborations.
The reasons to believe that these attributes are the key factors to its success:
Technology Trends and changing needs:
As much as large-scale production has created the cost of products and services accessible to larger populations, it has also taken away the quality of innovation from the hands of most user groups except a few. This has created a vacuum for the population that does not fit into the theory of averages. This also means the talent that can bring back quality innovation to bring out best for every situation is neglected. As the technology has matured from the era of infrastructure products to SaaS and applications, it has created an opportunity for innovation for specific needs. So, for example, healthcare is not synonymous to health maintenance. The need is to narrow down by geography, cultural, hereditary, and many more parameters to be able to serve each individual. The mass production process cannot come up with the solution. We need specialized groups of innovators come up with pieces to solve the puzzle. The same goes true in every field, i.e., K2-12 education is not best fit for all, or set of circumstances that affect crops in Illinois are not using the same tactics in Kerala, India or smart village concept and much more.
As the world is moving more and more towards individualized services in many sectors like education, healthcare, alternate energy, and more, the need for these specialized innovations at the grass-root level and international collaboration has become the NEED. Grassroots level of engagement is required to make the collaborations happen.
The women-friendly workplace in not only the best practice, it is the need of the time:
This also means that the workforce that was designed for men to work away from home, is not required. Work can be family friendly and women-friendly as well. If a remote village of UP needs to work with their herds, or harnessing energy, learn or teach the skills for their local needs, these must be created and used locally.
With technology tools and connectivity, it is possible to collaborate and produce products and services locally. So, educated youth do not have to leave aging parents to despair, and young ones do not have to be deprived of the love and care of grandparents.
This is only possible with extreme-collaboration of subject matter expertise, technical know-how, and infrastructure collaborations across the country and across the globe. This is what IABC is working to achieve.
Underutilized Government Funds and Programs
In the United States, 97% of trade with Free Trade countries is achieved through small business. This is about $192 Billion a year. The US to India export trade deficit is approximately 52% ($21B/$46B. Trade.com data). With many support programs of the USA’s SBA and India’s MSME programs, this deficit shows that there is work to be done to bridge the gap.
The biggest challenge is insufficient organized efforts that focus on small and medium business in perspective of India and USA. IABC is filling that gap.
Explain how you (your team) will execute to make this idea/product successful? What gives you (your team) an advantage over others already in the market or new to this market?
The success factors lie in the grass-root level efforts, partnerships, and programs that IABC has rolled out with its experienced and driven core team and partners. Here is a summary:
Success Stories:
Turning 100 Villages in India as Smart village:
Collaboration with “Cluster Plus”. 1000 days per project to identify the pain point and provide solutions to these villages/towns. Creating business opportunities for businesses along the way.
Collaborating over 105 businesses across India and USA for market expansion in 2017-2018.
Collaboration with:
- Mentor-on-Road (Connected 35 Cities in the USA to 32 Cities in India)
- Small Business Administration (SBA)
- Small and Disadvantaged Business Center (SDBC)
- The State of Illinois
- The State of Kentucky
- State of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh
- City of Aurora
- African American Chamber of Commerce
The delegations are planned for February 2018 from the USA to Many places in India.
Collaborating 50 Women Businesses and bringing 45,000 Women to the economic workforce in India.
Collaboration with:
- Women Business Development Center (WBDC), the USA to connect 50 Women businesses to Businesses in India. The delegation is planned for February 2018.
- Loomba Foundation to help 45,000 widows get into the economic workforce. Most of them would be absorbed by the business expansion as a result of collaborations.
Industry Collaborations
- Narsee Mooji Institute of Management Studies in Hyderabad
- Indian Industries Association
- Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (discussion phase)
- National Minority Business Development Council, USA
Social Medical Initiative
Engagements
Collaboration with R. K. Devi Eye Care Institute for the socio-medico tourism towards abolishing blindness in Northern India.
We have an International following of 140,000+ out of which 200+ are active members. We are set to take a business and investor delegations to India in February 2018, and one delegation from India to the USA in April 2018. The total financial impact is expected to be $100M+.
Core Team
IABC’s founder, Poonam Gupta-Krishnan, is a first-generation immigrant to USA from Kanpur, UP, India. Born in a very humble background Poonam has gone through getting the education in the United States, working for two MNCs, running her own IT company, www.iyka.com that is doing successful business with State, Local and Federal government in the USA. She formed a not-for-profit, www.GovernmentTechnologyFoundation.org to get technology innovation in the government sector in Chicagoland since 2011. Poonam brought the experience of a teacher, employee, an entrepreneur, small business owner, social entrepreneur, and connections to build a team and partners for Indian American Business Council.
IABC team has successful academicians, social entrepreneurs, Industrialist, small business owners, Women Businesses as a team. Below is a snapshot of our team and recent activities:
IABC Leadership Team
Poonam Gupta-Krishnan: Founder, IABC.
Girish Kapur: EVP, IABC-Global, Small Business Owner
Dr. Prithvi Yadav: President, IABC-AP; Director, NMIMS
Dr. Adwadh Dubey: President, IABC-UP, Chairman, RK Devi Charitable Eye-care Institute.
Sunil Pandey: Secretary, IABC-UP; Industrialist; Sr. Executive, India Industries Association-UP
Mr. Vinay Kalani: IABC-MP; Industrialist
Rakesh Jain: Industrialist, Mentor, Speaker
IABC Advisory Board
Karen Goldner: Director, US Women Business Development Center
Pam McLavane: CEO, Diversity MBA Magazine
Jagat Shah: Founder - Global Network & Cluster Pulse
Nimish Jani: Business owner, Schaumburg Village Trustee.
Dr. Manu Vora: Fulbright Specialist at U. S. Dept. of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
Dr. Leon Finney: Social Entrepreneur and Pastor
Indira Saladi: Advocate and Social Entrepreneur
Sherman Jankins: Alderman-at-Large at City of Aurora, IL
And 5 more…