Inspire Someone Today
Inspire Someone Today
E167 | Responsibility before Results | Change Makers - Manoj Krishnan
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Grades get the spotlight; the child gets the shadow. We sit down with Manoj Krishnan, founder of the Compass Team, to unpack a different way of helping students thrive—through comprehensive assessments that look at emotional health, cognition, speech and language, hearing, nutrition, and more. Instead of chasing scores and hype, Manoj shows how early, standardized screening plus thoughtful guidance can bring students into the mainstream, reduce stigma, and help families and schools act with clarity.
The journey wasn’t glamorous. Manoj shares how he moved from corporate roles into social impact, why awareness was the hardest hurdle, and what it took to convince principals and parents to trade a little class time for long-term gains in well-being and behavior. We hear real stories—like a child who needed months of speech therapy after mimicking cartoon voices, and a teen pushed toward engineering who found his calling in psychology—and the data behind them: tens of thousands of students screened, with up to 40% showing hidden issues that needed attention.
We also dive into career guidance that respects both interest and aptitude, pushing back on the “scope” mindset. Not everyone should code, and that’s healthy for a society that needs pilots, nurses, technicians, artists, and teachers. For aspiring change-makers, Manoj lays out a practical playbook: build a rainy-day fund, hire people better than you, keep a tight handle on finances, market with integrity, and be prepared for a marathon. Tech and AI can help, but presence matters—especially for first assessments where context and body language count.
Along the way, we talk responsible citizenship at home: finish the water you open, take smaller portions to cut waste, switch off lights and fans, queue with consideration—small acts that build the mindset required for inclusive classrooms and stronger communities. Post‑pandemic, Manoj’s team is rebuilding with Aspender, a platform supporting learners from grade one to professional life with skills, placements, and holistic development. If you care about mental health in schools, better career fit, and change that lasts, this conversation will give you both a map and the motivation to start.
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Opening And Mission Of The Show
SPEAKER_00If you look at a country like the US, I mean, which is generally a standard for comparison, there is an act called No Child Left Behind Act, which means all children have to be brought to the mainstream and no child should be left behind. So unfortunately for us, this has evolved only over a period of time. And we thought India is a place where academics is given priority more than anything else. But nothing is done as far as your basic foundation is concerned. Whether students are emotionally strong, whether their IQ is assist, you know, based on what they can do, whether the speech and language and communication are assist, whether hearing is assist, and many of the parameters, you know, related to their psychology, their speech, their nutritional aspects. So we thought that something comprehensive needed to be given to students to help students, parents, and teachers. Because when you help students, you're also helping parents and teachers to address all these issues in a very positive manner. So if there are no pilots, would we all fly? If we don't have people in the army, would we all be safe? So if we don't have radio jockeys, would we all have entertainment that we have while you know moving about in our car, switching on the FM station? No. So I think we need to have people in all professions and we need to train people who are really passionate about what you're doing.
Meet Manoj And His Journey Start
SPEAKER_01Not everything that matters needs to be loud. Some conversations help you pause, some help you see differently, and some stay with you long after the end. Welcome to Inspire Someone Today, my dear visitors. A space for honest conversations about life, wealth, and the choices that shape who we become. No quick fixes, no borrowed certainty, just real stories, thoughtful reflection, and the quiet courage to live with intention. This is Inspire Someone Today, where conversations are human, reflective, and meant to stay with you. Welcome back for yet another episode. Many change efforts fail not because of lack of intent, but because of lack of clarity. In this change makers episode of Inspire Someone Today, I am joined by Manoj Krishnan, who shares his journey into leadership and social impact. What drew him to this work and the challenges he has faced along the way. And what he has learned about focus, alignment, and making change that actually lasts. This is a conversation for anyone trying to do meaningful work without losing direction. Let's begin.
SPEAKER_00Manoj, welcome to the show. Thank you, Sri Gant. I think we are meeting up after a long time. Yes. Pleasure to be here. And I'm happy that you know somebody of your stature has taken up an initiative like this to discuss things on social impact, something that's very important today in the society, and the positive outcomes it could create for many young people across the world.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. That's the reason why we are talking today. You are one of those foremost uh change makers in the making have made significant impact to the community that you are responsible for. Where do we begin? You did not start your career saying that let me be in the social impact place or let me kind of do something for the community around me. But you started somewhere else. So, what was the trigger that drew you to what you are doing today?
Why Build The Compass Team
SPEAKER_00Well, I think uh a long answer I have to cut short because you know, nothing in my life was planned. Okay, this could be a motivation for many people who think that, you know, they are not being guided properly or they are not sure of what they need to do in life. So all that happened was because of maybe the kind of environment I was in, the kind of work that I took up, uh, the things that I observed around me. And finally, even uh starting the compass team was uh basically an accident because it started off from a company I was working, probably that is the last corporate uh job that I took up. Maybe after 19 years, when I started the compass team, I wanted to do something for students, parents, and teachers, because I'd always loved teaching. And uh it was a time when emotional well-being was actually gaining crescendo. So I thought, why not do something that's space? And that is how we decided to set up the compass team. It's been more than 15 years now. So that is how the journey started. So the trigger was maybe the company I worked in, where we were recruiting a kind of specialist to a US. And when I tried to understand what they were doing in terms of service delivery, and I felt that this could be curated into a wonderful program where students, parents, and teachers could get benefited. And that is how the whole thing was born. So if you look at the name, the compass team, then, it is something that has got to do with showing you the right direction. The compass is an instrument that shows you the right direction. Maybe it's something that points north. And uh, it was a short form of what we are actually planning to do comprehensive assessment of students. So we did this as a team, and that is how the term, the compass team, came into being. This name was coined at around midnight. So I called up with two of my partners, they said, This is what I have in mind. This is it, nothing else is required, this is the final name.
SPEAKER_01Hey, that's interesting. That's the birth of Compass. Yes. So, for the benefit of all of our listeners, if you were to kind of give a bit about what is Compass team apart, what was the need for the comprehensive assessment of students? And how did this whole idea come into birth?
What Comprehensive Assessment Means
Awareness Gaps And Inclusion Challenges
SPEAKER_00Uh, I think a very valid point. Now, if you look at a country like the US, I mean, which is generally a standard for comparison, there is an act called No Child Left Behind Act, which means all children have to be brought to the mainstream and no child should be left behind. So, unfortunately for us, this has evolved only over a period of time. And we thought India is a place where academics is given priority more than anything else. But nothing is done as far as your basic foundation is concerned. Whether students are emotionally strong, whether their IQ is assist, you know, based on what they can do, whether the speech and language and communication are assist, whether hearing is assist, and many of the parameters, you know, related to their psychology, their speech, their nutritional aspects. So we thought that something comprehensive needed to be given to students to help students, parents, and teachers. Because when you help students, you're also helping parents and teachers to address all these issues in a very positive manner. So that is how the whole concept was designed. And I think we brought in a lot of changes over a period of eight to ten years because the final module, the final program that we had was not born in the first year. So we started speaking to parents, we started speaking to schools, we started speaking to you know parent-teacher associations, we started speaking to managements, and I think that was probably the toughest part of my journey where creating awareness was very, very important. So one thing that we had was the backing of a film. Maybe if you could quote something like Tare Zameen Par, where dyslexia was the focal point. So I think, I mean, sorry to say, even today there are many schools across the country where students who are dyslexic are not actually taken into the mainstream. We may not know of them probably openly, but I've heard many parents come and tell me this problem. So we talk of inclusive growth, we talk of being equal, we talk of equity and so on and so forth, but this is still one area where we are not really sure of what all these aspects mean. And as Indians, probably many of us are even not sure of the difference between psychology and psychiatry. Psychology is basically a study of the mind, whereas psychiatry involves medication, which is absent in psychology. I'm not going into a detail because I'm not a specialist, but per se, this is what happens. So many things had to be conveyed to parents, many things had to be brought out to the public domain where lack of awareness was one of the main reasons. So that is why we thought, you know, we'll do our best, try it in our own home state, and then start working on this particular aspect, knowing well that, you know, a lot of work needed to be done, and feedback from parents and schools and teachers had to be collected. So the only flip side was that until we knew that, you know, schools were institutions where academics was given more priority. And that is one point that actually shocked us a bit. So even today, if you go to schools with a program of this sort, many schools wouldn't allow because it involves a lot of teaching time that is lost. But actually, time is not lost. When you are involving students, parents, and teachers, you're making it easier for the school and the system to ensure that students become emotionally stronger, more socially responsible, and responsive.
SPEAKER_01I think in a nutshell, what you are kind of focusing on is a holistic development of the spot on. So a very comprehensive assessment and then interventions. Absolutely. Even before you got to that point, what was it like for Manoj? Was there specific moments or personal experiences or the patterns that you noticed saying that okay, this is the issue that needs resolution, this is what you would want to kind of focus on. What was that trigger like?
SPEAKER_00See, I had always, you know, for some reason or the other, and I personally don't know the reason. Because I had always wanted to do something good for the society as a poor. I believe in social impact. And I always believe that money is a byproduct of the value that give. You don't have to chase money. So when you chase money, you lose purpose. So it does not mean that money does not have value, but money should come through value addition and the products or services that you offer. And only then it makes sense. So the trigger was that you know doing something for students because going the way we are actually uh monitoring now, or looking at the way technology was actually into an explosive stage, then we knew that the number of problems and the variety of problems were was only going to increase. So it was not going to show a downward trend. So we knew that something had to be done for children, be it on a small scale, at least if you're able to take care of at least one child and bring him back to the mainstream, I think you'll have a sense of satisfaction. And that is what Andaj, who are these children, who are these kids that you're focused on? No, we are focusing on all novels. See, I'll tell you a very simple example. No, you travel by bike or a cycle or whatever it is, you fall down, you feel that there is a pain in your leg. So until you visit a doctor and until he tells you to take an x-ray, you will not know whether there's a crack. It's as simple as that. It could be a hairline crack, it could be a major crack in which case the symptom is pretty evident. So, how do you know that children have emotional issues? All of them don't exhibit it openly. So you need a comprehensive analysis, you need a situation where you use standardized tools and techniques. I use the term standardized tools and techniques, screen them, identify the issues, and then give remedy interventions. And only then you understand that there are many children for whom very, very small problems persist. So it could be related to the family, it could be related to the social fabric that you're in, it could be related to your teachers, your friends, peer group, society, and whatever. But the idea is to identify this and provide remedial intervention where it is required. Because you know, we generally have a feeling that anything that is not life-threatening is not important. So you have a feeling, okay, atme appte koja. I think psychology is one such area. And off late, people have started realizing that psychological intervention is something that's very important, which is a very significant or vital aspect of our lives.
SPEAKER_01So you're alluding to its mental health and mental well-being.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And I think that aspect is very important for each one of us. You take the school level, you take the corporate level. I think mental health is what all of us are talking about today. To be emotionally strong, to be sound.
Mental Health And Early Screening
SPEAKER_01So, in the work that you have done so far, give us a gist of what has been the impact so far, what has been some of the success stories, and what has been the hard lessons.
SPEAKER_00I mean, if you look at the success story that we have, I mean, I've always felt that we have been able to over a period of eight years until the onset of first floods in Kerala in 2018. We started this in 2010. Now, for almost eight years, you know, we had to slog it out because the concept was totally new. And uh even schools and principals were not prepared to give us time to listen to us. So, as I said earlier, awareness creation took a lot of time. So we worked, and we were rather fortunate to work with almost 150 schools in Kerala, CBSC and ICC schools, screen almost 50,000 students, which is not a small number by any chance. That's a huge number. That's a huge number. So we could in fact, even Times of India carried a study on our statistics. We provide the data. In fact, Times of India was one of the first papers to uh report this, you know, based on the interaction we had. We find uh and we found that up to 40% of children in certain cases had emotional issues, speech-related issues or whatever. I'm talking of all those things put together, nutritional issues, general health issues, you know, related to vision, dental health, and general health and so on and so forth. So all this was brought out only because of the standardized screening pattern that we provided. I'm not saying that we have done something uh big or great, but I think we have been able to provide leave to a lot of parents, students, and teachers also in the process. I mean, to you know, quote one or two simple incidents, uh, we also parallelly ran her clinic in Cochin. So maybe I think this happened several years ago when a grandfather and a grandmother came with their grandkid who was maybe in class too. And you won't believe when he came in, he was talking like Donald Duck. So his favorite cartoon was Mickey and Donald. So they used to put it on for him every time he made a fuss because his parents are abroad. So he had got himself transformed due to addiction that he started speaking like Donald Duck. And it took us almost six months to give speech therapy and bring him back to normal state. So there are several other cases where you know children have attempted suicides. I'm not say all, but a few, because of a simple lack of communication at home. So all these things I think matter to all of us.
SPEAKER_01You did mention creating awareness was the toughest thing in your journey. Was there anything else that was hardest for you to kind of undertake this particular journey apart from creating awareness?
Impact Stats And Case Stories
SPEAKER_00Uh creating awareness was one. The second thing is to ensure that parents, teachers, and you know, the people involved, the ecosystem understood what we were actually doing. So when you talk of comprehensive assessment, when you talk of holistic development, when you talk of life skills, sorry to say, not many understood what we were actually doing. So trying to tell them what it simply means in simple terms was another big challenge. How it would affect the academics of students, how it would affect behavior, how it would affect their personality and all those things, probably we could discuss with case studies and then convince them gradually. And even today, I think that's a big point. See, psychology is one strange area where people are not very comfortable today disclosing that X or Y has a problem. I hope you would agree. We see a lot of ads, you know, endorsed by celebrities saying that if you have a problem, if you feel that you're lonely, you need to talk to someone. But how many of us generally talk? Still a taboo. It is still a taboo subject. So I think talking to somebody requires strength. And anyone who seeks help, I repeat, anyone who seeks help is strong. I don't consider someone who seeks help as a weak person. I consider someone who, because he knows that he has a problem or she has a problem and seeks help. And that is a sign of strength. So we have this system of misinterpreting various things. You know, everything might look hunky dory, everything might look fine, the person might be smiling, but I always believe that there should be one person apart from you who knows everything about you. And this is something that I share with all my students, with teachers, you know, with friends and corporate executives, everyone. Because we are just human beings.
SPEAKER_01I can totally resonate with this, Manoj. A country is so much obsessed with academic excellence, academic brilliance, to have this holistic view, to focus on the emotional well-being, the mental well-being is a tall order. And having worked in this space for nearly two decades, is that right? Absolutely. So we are completing 16 years. Okay. So in this 16 years of your experience, now looking back, what has this journey taught you in terms of leadership, in terms of uh the human systems that you have better appreciation, better visibility now than 16 years back?
SPEAKER_00Life is very simple. We are trying to complicate it. Okay, point number one. Point number two, I think I repeat the statement wherever possible, we are just human beings. We are not human beings, we are just human beings. And I'm not sure if after winking my eyes, I would open it again. We have to be grounded. We have to be prepared to learn every day. We have to accept realities. And we have to relearn and unlearn. I think compassion, empathy for others, a spirit of teamwork, because nothing can be done at all.
Stigma, Seeking Help, And Strength
SPEAKER_01I think you bring home some of those very basic human elements, and that has been pretty much consistent in this series of change makers that we are talking about. And what guest after guest have been repeating is those basic human elements: empathy, compassion, having that ability to connect humanity, human level. Yes. Right? Now, Manoj, we are in 2026. If we were to kind of do what you're doing, would it be what would you do that is exactly the same, or what would you do differently?
SPEAKER_00I would not compromise on the values that I hold even today. No change because I've as I repeated often, money is a byproduct of the value that you provide. We don't chase money. Okay. So we'd be as transparent as possible, work on the same value system. But given a change, probably I thought, you know, uh, I'll quote this example. One of the parents who came to a clinic, he said, Sir, you have to market yourself better because there are people who need your service. And only if you tell them that you have something like this, others will come and know. And I felt he had a point. So probably being in marketing for almost close to three decades, I still felt that I was a poor marketer. I wasn't aggressive. I wasn't aggressive, not because I didn't want to be, but I didn't want to change numbers or figures. But after a point of time, unless you are an entity that is funded or you are a charitable organization, money does count. And every pie has to be made ethically. So given that I would have probably spent more employ people who know the job well, who are people who really want to work in this space and not just for time pass. People who want to make a difference in the society, as you do, at the same time, people who want to be change makers themselves. Yeah. So I think these are things that are of change, and most importantly, I would have probably I was always frugal, but I thought at times we were overstuffed because the specialists that we had were not available very easily. So we have this misinterpretation that unless you uh onboard them, you'll not be able to get them when schools give us programs. And probably that is one of our mistakes, because we learned it the hard way. So there are times when we were without programs for almost one and a half years, and all of them had to be paid. See, you can't give an excuse as a founder saying that you don't have work, so you're not going to be paid. No, I didn't believe in that.
Leadership Lessons From 16 Years
SPEAKER_01This is so much of a lived experience, lived uh uh playbook, so to say, right? You have kind of gone through the journey for you to kind of go back and say what was what didn't work. Which is also a very interesting uh point in our conversation is for more of our people, more of our listeners who are wanting to be in this particular space, who want to do good, who want to be in the social impact space, but they don't know where to begin. So, from mere experience, if you were to kind of provide a playbook of sorts, what's a realistic playbook that you would recommend for people who want to get started to make an impact in the social impact space?
SPEAKER_00Well, Zriyan, frankly, you know, if you ask me, I don't think there is a general thumb room for any program of this sort because we started doing something which was never tried before. I didn't have anything to fall back upon. You know, I didn't have anything to refer. So for me, it was on a fresh page. But if somebody else, you know, asks me today, I would definitely say that one, say for the rainy day and then begin. Because you should have fun sutri. Okay. Point number two employ people who are more capable than you. If not anyone else, have one person who will look into your book of accounts. Because you should know what comes in and what goes out. And most importantly, build a very sound value system with which you'll be able to serve the target customers that you're looking at. Word of mouth alone is not enough for marketing. So, as you always say, only a child that cries gets milk. You should also know how to cry, at least softly. So that you'll have customers convenient.
SPEAKER_01So that's a good enough playbook, uh, at least for people to kind of uh note it down, saying that have a rainy day fund, have people who are more capable, better than who you are as a founder, have a good good leash on your finances if you if you can't manage it, hire somebody who's professional about it. Driven by value system and marketing is risky. You may do a fantastic job if people do not know about it, what good is that uh work? So you need to have better marketing about it.
Values, Funding, And Better Marketing
SPEAKER_00Today you have examples of bad products being sold very well in the market because of marketing. And you have very good products on the shelf, which are not moving out because of a want of marketing.
SPEAKER_01So it's always there. So for somebody who would want to get into this space uh in the social impact space, what do people generally underestimate a lot?
SPEAKER_00See, for us, social impact maybe is always misconstrued with charity, okay, to a large extent. Social impact is misconstrued with lack of money. Social impact is misconstrued with lack of satisfaction. So people say, I'm not here to do service. I think all of us are here to do service. Service that gets paid, but then you don't call it service. One thing that does not get paid is free service. So here the opportunities are apparently. It is only your thought process that makes you tap the right opportunity. I mean, today I think youngsters have a lot of ideas. So if you're passionate about making a change, I think you should start gradually and build up. You should be playing a test match and not a T20. And unless and until you have patience, please don't mention to this. You cannot eat an egg and then look at your biceps. It will take time for muscles to build. It's a marathon. It's a marathon, absolutely. And you have to be emotionally strong to build up this kind of a system. That is what is required. Because you have to be resilient, you have to stay calm, irresistible, what comes in. Because you know, you'll be just like any other business, you'll be facing a lot of turbulent issues. So you have to be prepared.
SPEAKER_01So one area of what I've heard a lot, particularly from the founders, is the challenge around fundraising, the difficulties around fundraising. We want to talk a bit about it.
A Playbook For Social Impact Founders
SPEAKER_00See, I will definitely talk because you know, first of all, like it may let me make it clear too, you know, unlike say X, Y, or Z, I'm not somebody who's replicated a million dollar or million dollar valuation and then probably trying to scale. Because I believe the basic essence, the basic service level, and the impact that you create should only go up, should not go down. So usually what you see is in any kind of service industry, when the number of customers goes up, your service level goes down. And I'm very clear that it should not be the case here because you're dealing with children, you're dealing with parents, you're dealing with educational institutions, and you're dealing with something that's a very important aspect of life. So anything that I provide must carry the guarantee of service. And parents should definitely be able to reap the benefits out of it. In the sense, they should come and tell me that this is what you have done for my child, this is what you have done for us, and we feel that many other people have been part of the system. So, as far as funding is concerned, I think most people look at scale, most people look at technology upgrades. I'm not averse to technology. I feel technology is a very good tool that can be used, especially with you know more new things like AI coming in today. A lot can be done. But again, this cannot be something that can be pushed into the system like an ordinary. Because you have to be genuine in what you do. It is not about probably trying to make someone learn maths or learn physics or learn chemistry. No. Here you're dealing with minds, you're dealing with students, you're dealing with parents, you know, all of them have problems. So they come to you just like a doctor. You know, they're just like we go to a doctor for feeling ourselves comfortable. Parents, students, and teachers and institutions have to feel comfortable taking up a service from our art. So the kind of work that we do will have more of total impact, but definitely monetary returns true because it is not a charity service. So, unless and until I am fully funded for charity, in that case, you know, it would be different. But here, what I need to tell people who look at funding is when you are throwing hundreds of crores into ventures where many of them go bust, probably in one year or two years, you should look at small enterprises where probably a few lakhs could save a lot of founders. Where very impactful work is being done. And this has always been my stance.
SPEAKER_01That's a very good point because the impact that you are trying to make might not be visible overnight. It it is a long-drawn process, it takes time, and when you have investors investing money, the natural tendency is to kind of see, okay, what's the outcome? In that kind of a scenario, as a founder, as a change maker, how do you kind of stay patient with what is going on, still knowing that okay, things are moving? You might not see the outcome, but things are moving. How do you kind of strike that fine balance between having the patience at the same time keeping steady with the bigger, larger objective?
Patience, Resilience, And Metrics
SPEAKER_00I still have paying customers. People come to me, people come to us for service, not to me, to us for service. People want uh help, people want guidance, people want support on many fronts. So when they come through referrals, I feel that I've done my job pretty well. Referral doesn't come easily. I can always entice somebody through marketing tools, but not through a referral, no. So which parents have to be the ones who give your critical feedback and then you know assess your level of service. So I think as far as I'm concerned, as far as the organization is concerned, I think we get customers. Only thing is probably they're not, we are working on something totally different, and as you might know, that new platform is called Aspender, where we are going to be looking at students right from class one upwards, you know, till you become a professional, to ensure that your holistic development takes place, you're skilled, you're trained, uh, you're put in the right institutions, and so on and so forth, everything that is part of the overall developmental ecosystem.
SPEAKER_01Manuj, that is your world. If you were to kind of give this advice to somebody wanting to start something in the social impact sector, where you need to have a lot of patience, you need to invest a lot of time upfront. You might not see results for months, for years together. What would be your recommendation for those bunch of people?
SPEAKER_00If you're not prepared to wait, please don't jump in. So you got to be prepared for the long haul. Absolutely. You have to be prepared for the long haul. There's no doubt about it. Because you you should be someone who is ready to face eventualities, which would come in many forms. You could be someone uh facing very turbulent times, you could be someone facing the backlash of your bankers or finances or people who have lent money to you, unless and until you're somebody who is sitting on a pile of cash. Schools may not come to you, or you know, people, customers may not come to you immediately, but you'll have to wait. I think your work should speak for itself. Fine-tune it. Stay focused.
SPEAKER_01Stay focused, be ready for the long haul. Yes. How do you define success in this scope of work, in this field of work?
SPEAKER_00I think every referral that comes back saying that X or Y has referred you is for me a success. Because unless and until I've done my job well, nobody would recommend my organization to somebody else. And I think 95% of people who have come for our support and guidance are people who have been referred by existing parents or students or teachers or schools. That's wonderful. And for me, that is success.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So in your domain, the success is repeat customers, world of mole people coming back and saying that we would want to have more of this. Abhiruk. How in a social impact world, what do you think should be the metrics of success?
SPEAKER_00I think metrics of success, as in any other case, should be on one, it should be on the level of impact that you've made for people. Okay. The kind of change that you have brought about the individuals, the kind of happiness that you've seen them, and the way in which you're able to change their lives. I mean, you give water to somebody who has not drunk water for a day or a day and a half. I think that itself is an impact that you create. Because you're giving something that is most important or essential. Similarly, here, there are thousands of parents, lacks of parents within our own country who want help. And today, I mean, you have many service providers across the country, that is fine. But the commercial inclination to belittle your own service level is something that is bothering me. But I always feel when parents come to you, they come with high hopes, as in case of a hospital. Okay, you can always charge them because no service is free, but at the same time, ensure that this is not dependent on the actual outcomes or the service that you give them. And that is very important.
Career Guidance Over Hype
SPEAKER_01You did mention a couple of things that you are doing, both compass as well as ask mentor. Yes. If you are to walk us through, tell us what's in store from a compass team as you kind of look ahead, and if there are any success stories that you would want to kind of share with our listeners.
SPEAKER_00Success stories are many because I'll tell you, career counseling and career guidance, it's a highly overdone topic. Okay. The point is from class 9 of a class from class 10, today most of the parents in our country are not sure of what their children want or what their children want to study. It's a very simple thing. So they go by scope, and the students also go by scope. Okay, AI is good, machine learning is good, deep tech. First and foremost, do you have the ability to code? Do you have it in you to be a technical guy? In fact, in my one of my LinkedIn posts recently, I had written that a majority of engineers in our country don't know how to hold a screwdriver properly. It's a fact. I'm not belittling anyone. Because today engineering is all about training people in the core areas and then uh making them professionals who code. Does it really make sense? So, career guidance is something that we actually do and for which there are a lot of takers and parents are actually, again, referral customers. So, you know, I had one of these students who was mad on doing engineering. His father said, Still, I would like to do an apt tube test and try if he's okay with it. And you won't believe he took up psychology after the counseling. And he's somebody who is now a qualified clinical psychologist, loving his profession. So I think that is what career analysis and career assessment at the school or at the college level should do. It should guide you right. You should ensure that you don't select the wrong course. It is a lot different from selecting the right course. We had one student who came with his father. I think when we did his IQ testing, we found that he was brilliant, very high IQ levels, and his father initially told me that he wanted to go in for civil service. So I asked him why he was not being sent, or why he was not sent. And mind you, this person came with his son who was in a state of depression, having dropped out after one and a half years of doing VDS because this father said, I don't have a doctor in my family. So now things have changed because at least in a small percentage of cases, students are trying to figure out on their own. But I think guidance is some something that's very important. If you see, I think interest plus aptitude both count. I may have interest in flying, but if I'm scared of heights, I can't be a pilot. The first and foremost trait that I look at for somebody who wants to be into human service, whether it's being a medical professional or a allied healthcare professional, is compassion and empathy.
Right People In Right Roles
SPEAKER_01I think that's a huge difference that you're making to kind of ensure that the right individuals with the right skills are getting into the right jobs. So that five, ten, fifteen years down the line, they don't sit back and say, Why the heck did I choose something that I'm not enjoying?
SPEAKER_00Well, I'll tell you, see, as someone who deals with banks very uh often, I'll probably take my own bank. You know, I was talking to one of my branch managers. I mean, he's that I still don't know why I studied engineering for four years because I'm a bank manager now. So you write engineering, do you know, slog it out, and then finally you write the bank test, you qualify, you become a banker. Today the whole thing is system driven. So, why had you studied engineering for? Is it for some other traits? I'm not sure. So today the options available with parents and students are many. We have thousands of careers. It all depends. See, I think we need to have a society where you have radio jockeys, you have doctors, you have lawyers, you have charter columns, you have people from all professions. So if there are no pilots, would we all fly? If we don't have people in the army, would you all be safe? So if we don't have radio jockeys, would we all have entertainment that we have while you know moving about in our car, switching on the FM station? No. So I think we need to have people in all professions and we need to train people who are really passionate about what you're doing. It should not be by chance, it should be by choice.
SPEAKER_01And Manoj, in this space where there's so many problems, so many exciting problems to solve for, you always kind of tend to get carried away saying, okay, which one do I kind of pick and solve for it? How do you prioritize it? In your experience, how do you prioritize when you have four or five different sets of problems coming your way? How do you go about picking, okay, this is what I'm going to focus on, this is what I'm going to solve?
Prioritising Problems And Impact
SPEAKER_00I mean, I think I would pick up the problem that distressed my peace of mind first. It depends on the intensity. It could be a small problem, but I have to solve something that immediately relieves me of my stress and brings peace of mind. That is what I would do. What gets you agitated is what you are going to prioritize. Absolutely. So if you lose sleep because of problem X or problem Y, I think you always have an option to prioritize. And look at the impact that it would make. If it is going to impact one person, I can still hold on. But if it is going to impact ten other people, I think I ought to be urgent.
SPEAKER_01Well, gentle is important. You bring back the same old concepts in this space as well. Absolutely. In the current state, what does responsible change making look like?
Responsible Change Starts At Home
SPEAKER_00See, I could be a bit lengthy in my answer because you know, there is also something called SRI, Three India Foundation or Social Responsibility Initiative that I run. I have a website too on this. So it is all about making people, especially children, right from home, aware of their rights and responsibilities and practice social responsibility, something that we mack. Okay. Now I say that if a society is socially responsible, you take the case of Japan. Why is Japan a big success story today? Why are Japanese people so good to deal with? Why are the systems and places good? Why are their processes really effective? It is all because they are a very responsible population who think that you should not be a disturbance for others. And I think social responsibility entails knowing your rights as importantly as your responsibilities. So this is something that children should be taught from home. I think grooming at home is very important and parents should practice this. I mean, on a flip side, or probably on a humorous note, if you drive in a place like, say, Cochin or Bangalore and you have young children with you, probably they would learn a few cuss words if you're agitated today. Because your system does not allow you to ride or drive properly. But if all of us thought about each other, I mean, let me take the example of Mizora. Why is it that many people have talked about Mizorum as one of the best places that follows traffic rules? If Mizorum can follow traffic rules, why can't other states in the country, other union territories in the country follow traffic rules? Are we all not human peaks? I think it is a sense of social responsibility that should dry all these aspects. So you create that first. Now you take the case of Swaj Bharatabyak. I think a lot of money was spent in purpose. So are all these places neat and clean even now, after having spent so much money? Have we changed? Has our mindsets changed? Has our way of thinking changed? I think that is what being responsible is all about. Think more about we than me. So it could be about, you know, being in a flat, not making a noise that is nuisance to others. It is about standing in queue wherever possible. It's about not wasting water or fruit. It is about not consuming more than what you want. And we see examples of this in our daily lives.
SPEAKER_01It's a powerful call out, we versus me. Absolutely, yes. If you were to recommend two or three micro experiments for our listeners to try, small experiments for them to try this week.
Micro Experiments For Daily Life
SPEAKER_00What would those First and foremost thing? I think all of us attend weddings, parties, or receptions, right? Now you would have seen people picking up plastic water bottles that are served. Because you know, not many served in glasses today. You have portable water bottles, small bottles. And in most cases, what you find is you find people picking up one bottle of water, drinking or sipping just once, discarding that bottle off. And when they feel thirsty, they come back for the second because water is freely available. If at all, you take a small bottle of water, ensure that it remains with you till it is consumed to the last drop. Because there are people in our country who possibly walk for four and a half or five kilometers for a vessel of water even today. So you would not know the value of what water is. If you want to have more food, have multiple servings. Don't try to put everything together in your plate. You may not be able to eat. And then finally, what happens is you throw the whole thing into a dustbin, which is criminal. And we find a lot of people looking for these bins to have food, which is pathetic. Start from home. I think parents have to be firm and polite as far as such things are concerned. Okay, uh, when you wake up from a place, even if it is for one minute, switch off your lights and fans or the ACs. So if all people across the country start doing this, I think something can be saved.
SPEAKER_01What's the easiest micro experiments uh one can try? So watch out for those uh pet bottles, water bottles, small portions rather than large portions, so that you can be mindful of what to eat at the same time, what not to waste. And um even smaller micro experiments, switch off lights and fans when not needed. Excellent. Great list of micro experiments, uh Madaj out there. So if there is one small pause or reflection you would invite the listeners to try, what would that small pause would look like?
SPEAKER_00If you are passionate about something and are genuinely interested, please forward. Sir, as every religion says, if you have genuine intentions and if you are able to do work on those lines, you'll not have a bad end either here or if at all you believe in the next life there. I think try to be as genuine as possible to yourself and to others.
SPEAKER_01Manuj, what next for compass and team from here? What's your goals, objectives for 26 and beyond?
Post‑Covid Rebuild And Aspender
SPEAKER_00As I said, you know, we are trying to build up Aspenter. So, I mean, the post is slow. Uh post-COVID, in fact, COVID was a time when probably we were, I would say, without work for 27 months and everything had to be online. So, as a company that is focusing on offline assessments in school, because my professionals always wanted to see children face to face and then do an assessment, and that was a basic of doing it. I don't think there's a shortcut. You can always, you should always have the first assessment done personally because it gives you a lot of syntax. It gives you a lot of feedback and it gives you an understanding of the body language and the overall accuracy of the child. The second and third could be done online. So here you don't have a substitute. So when schools were closed, I think they were without work for 27 months. So from that, no, it's been a bit tough building on because the banks and financial institutions that lend you, they cannot be very generous because there were so many other organizations within the country suffering. So then finances were badly affected. So we are building it gradually. Now we want to be considered as a holistic service provider, giving value to parents, students, teachers, and everyone in the society, including corporate executors, to have a better and more meaningful life. And I think the effort is on, though it's gradual.
SPEAKER_01Anuj, it's been fantastic knowing you, fantastic knowing what you and your team are doing in this space of holistic child development, bringing all the stakeholders uh together. Wishing you great success, wishing you more power to create more and more impact, just not in one state, but in all states in India. Before you and I sign off, Manoj, what's your inspiration today's message to all of our listeners?
SPEAKER_00You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have. Oh, what's a powerful statement. Could you repeat it again? You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice that you have.
Closing Wisdom And Next Steps
SPEAKER_01Until being strong is the only choice that all of us have. Thank you for spending this time with us. Conversations like these remind us that good doesn't always come from answers, it often comes from better questions. Inspire Summon Today began with the belief that each of us has the power to make a difference. Not to grand gestures, but to everyday choices. That belief still holds now with a little more depth and a lot more listening. If something from today's episode stayed with you, carry it forward, share it, sit with it, or explore it further through the IST community or the book inspire someone today. Until we meet again, stay curious, keep inspiring, and inspire someone today.
