Business Mind Social Heart

Exemplifying the Next Generation Organization Culture

By Parmesh Venkateswaran

After immigrating to the US almost a decade ago, I returned to India to reconnect with
my roots, to work for my rural brethren. After completing my MBA from the University
of Illinois, I was scouting for a suitable opportunity in line with my goal. People in my
network guided me to MART and were confident that I would love working here. It has
been more than three months since, and I cherish every moment at MART that has given
my interest a purpose. But, apart from that it is the organizational culture and work
environment that is truly invigorating and motivating. This article is a reflection of my
experiences at MART.

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Organizations all over the world are embattled with fast paced growth, rapidly changing
technology environment, increasingly complex competition and need for adapting to
ever-changing needs of the business. As organisations work in such challenging
environs, commitment and creativity of their employees take toll. No wonder,
organizations are increasingly facing issues like high attrition rate and employee
dissatisfaction. At MART, however, the scene is very different.

Working at MART

Pradeep Kashyap, founder CEO of MART, believes family bonding is the strongest of all
human ties and relationships, and chose to emulate it in creating an organization where
team members are connected to each other perpetually and are caring and forgiving
towards each other. However, non-hierarchical family structure does not mean
unipolarity. All decisions in MART are made through consensus as it is committed to
democratic principles and
transparency. So be it hiring of a
new staff, undertaking a new
project or organization expansion
decisions are taken collectively. It
is no surprise then that long
serving employees become co-
owners at MART. Six of MART
employees are its co-owners.

I. MART Purpose:

Every organisation needs to have

a purpose. At MART the purpose
is to help improve the quality of
life of poor communities. Mr
Kashyap’s words – “MART has a
business mind and a social heart”
is its raison d’être.

MART has created a number of successful business models and market interventions
that have on one hand made the difference in the lives of rural communities, on the
other helped businesses make inroads in the rural hinterland.

In some very successful rural market interventions MART has helped members of self
help groups to become entrepreneurs. MART organized and trained tribal women in
sorting, grading and storing their produce to sell it at a higher price in urban markets,
thereby improving their income generation skills. MART has assisted MNCs to acquire
insights about rural communities to develop appropriate technological solutions.

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II. MART Values

Values lay the foundation upon which the organization builds itself. A strong value
system binds an organization to its employees, clients, shareholders, partners and the
community. It describes the organization’s spirit and culture. MART follows traditional
family values in its conduct with all its employees, irrespective of their individual
functions.

In my involvement with MART, I have appreciated these values in the conduct of my

colleagues. It is the commitment to these values that the organization remains focused
on its non-hierarchical and transparent system. Team members have no designations
and no secrecy in their payouts. “Decisions are taken through a consensus, and every
individual’s opinion is valued. The limited structure enables quick decision-making and
encourages personal accountability,” explains Saroj Mohanta, Partner at MART. It is
apparent that each member of the MART family has internalized these values and there
is a clear effort to ensure that the perceived values are brought to life through actions.

III. Ethics and Excellence

Ethics is an integral element of working at MART. The leadership leads by example and
instills the basic principles of simple living and high thinking in all the team members.
This has resulted in behavioral characteristics like integrity, humility, courage, fairness,
patience and simplicity in all team members. “While choosing a new team member,
MART places a lot of emphasis on ethics and excellence”, says Benjamin Matthew,
Partner at MART.

MART believes that excellence is a process of continuous self-improvement. Excellence

is achieved through a quest for wisdom, which is derived from the integration of
knowledge with intuition. In more simple terms, the leadership believes that it is
important for all team members to acquire experiential knowledge. “Team members are
encouraged to bring in their experiences and intuitions to their work. The leadership
plays an active role in mentoring and motivating each team member, which helps us
walk the path of excellence. Flexibility to choose areas of interest and individual roles
enables the team members stay motivated,” says Saurabh Shrivastava, who has been at
MART for the past two years.

IV. Innovation

Innovation is a key driver for an organisation’s growth and employees need to be

empowered to think creatively and conceive effective solutions. MART has embraced
innovation as a key component of its culture. It has oriented itself as knowledge
organization and this has fueled a thirst for innovation and creativeness among all
employees.

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A number of creative models have been conceptualized and implemented over the
years. These models have enabled a number of corporations and development agencies
to successfully implement their rural programmes in India. Kirti Mishra, Partner at
MART, says: “Where conventional thinking does not work, we adapt and create
solutions that work in that context. Every team member spends significant time in the
field understanding and empathizing with the needs of the rural community. The
organisation in turn draws upon their learning to create workable solutions.”

The team members view every new engagement as an exciting challenge and work hard
to develop a sound understanding needed to come up with the most effective solution.
Kaushal Kumar, a team member at MART, says “Seeing is believing and learning happens
by doing. Team members are provided with a learning environment, which increases
their ability to devise intelligent solutions. Team members are encouraged to undergo
training, interact with experts and work on diverse projects, to increase the breadth of
their learning.”

MART has infused a refreshing change in work culture. Employees at MART are highly
motivated and loyal to their organisation. This is evident from the fact that very few of
them have left the organisation and those who left have returned. Mr. Kashyap says,
“Family members never leave their family, they are attached to it throughout their
lives.” This culture is carefully nurtured and has become deeply rooted in the
organisation over the years.

MART has turned down offers of acquisition and external investment so that its culture
is not jeopardized in any way. Group vacations and outings are regularly organised in
order to strengthen the bonding among coworkers. MART is in every sense a true family
and operates very differently from most organizations where I have worked. MART
values and culture position it as next generation organization that not only exudes
enthusiasm and motivation to tackle the largest societal challenges with an open mind,
but can do so staying completely grounded in its core values.