Learning the ROPE(S)

With this I hope to learn more from the mentor identified for me and network with other awardees,” says Sreejith, CEO of the social enterprise.

ROPE (Rural Outsourced Production Enterprises) is the first entrepreneurial venture of Sreejith N.N., where it outsources production from global customers in selected sectors and skills to villages using Information Communication and Technology (ICT) tools.

Though the start-up is just over a year old, ROPE already has 30 clients which include companies like IKEA(Chennai), Industree Crafts (Bangalore), CwithCo (New York) and TiE (Chennai).

The PanIIT Global Alumini conference to be held in Chennai in December, where ROPE is supplying over 4,000 eco-friendly bags, is just the beginning of a number of national and international clients the company is fast winning trust of.

“I always had this romantic notion of working in villages,” recalls Sreejith, on why he decided to work on micro finance and rural business incubation projects in Madurai. This is after a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Trichur Engineering College and a Post Graduate degree in Development Management from Tata-Dhan Academy.

Outsourcing, until then, was a very fluid idea Sreejith was conceiving in his mind. He approached RTBI (Rural Technology and Business Incubator) at IIT-Madras with the idea. “I was initially placed to work with DesiCrew (Rural BPO Business) to help build its model,” says Sreejith, who also worked for a brief stint with RIN (Rural Innovations Network).

Luckily, RTBI was convinced on his plan to build business in production outsourcing from urban companies to rural artisans. The ROPE model that took shape was an extension of three ideas.

Dr. Aarti of IIT-Madras, who was involved with a rural craft project, provided the ground work; Dr. Ashok Jhunghunwala (Director - RTBI) agreed to give the start-up space in the IIT campus and bear the expense of the team during the incubation phase and Sreejith build the business and its operations.

A Bangalore-based company called Indus Tree Craft Foundation were their first clients. With Rs. 25,000 as its initial capital, sourced from different well-wishers, ROPE set up three units to extract yarn out of banana fibre. The business clicked and soon Sreejith decided to concentrate on natural resources like coconut fibre, bamboo, sisal, korai and elephant grass.

“In four months I got three clients. That’s when I approached for funds,” says Sreejith. ROPE was granted a seed funding of Rs. 5 lakhs by RTBI. Later, it even got funding from L-Ramp, and an Angel Investment from Patrick Fischer who later joined in as one of the directors on board.

Today, ROPE works with eight different eco-friendly fibres, and has over 140 artisans working continuously with them.

One of the biggest challenges for ROPE today is to match up to the customers’ expectation. “It is not enough if artisans have skills. We update them with the latest trends using technology to make sure the design appeals to clients,” says Sreejith. ROPE recently tied up with Fab India, which offers their expertise to the rural artisans.

It has so far made a turnover of Rs. 30 lakhs. But it does not plan to rest on its initial success. “I want ROPE to become a Rs. one crore company by January 2010.”

Log on to www.ropeinternational.com or write to sreejith.nn@ropeindia.com