Helping SME (Subject Matter Experts) Share their knowledge with Corporates, Startups & Small Businesses: Bodhable Brings A Win-Win Situation For All

It is very true that sharing is caring and when this is done in terms of knowledge, it proves to be more precious than diamonds and gold. As rightly said “You give a poor man a fish and you feed him for a day. You teach him to fish and you give him an occupation that will feed him for a lifetime. “ Knowledge sharing is one of the most important aspect of human growth. Corporations spends millions of dollars to train their employees and work force. When their own work-force share their own practical hands-on experience with new employees of the organizations, it leads to tremendous growth as well as saving the organization from multiple risks of markets and hitherto unforeseen hurdles.

It is believed that the main purpose of knowledge sharing is to help a team as a whole to achieve its business objectives.

Creating and sharing knowledge is crucial for the survival of a businesses. There are many reasons for this:

• Fast-paced change– Technology, business models and social initiatives are all changing very fast. As things changes its hard for us to keep track of it. In some areas what you knew a couple years ago is probably obsolete now.

• High turn-over of employees– It’s hard to see during those days people taking a job for life. When someone leaves a job, their knowledge walks out of the door with them if not capture correctly.

• Organizations usually have a hard time with making something learn and apply in one part of the organization while ignoring the same in another part of of the firm.

• Knowledge sharing is a culture that we need to encourage people to imbibe . so that they can work together more effectively and collaborate with which other making organisational knowledge more productive.

Today we are sharing an exclusive interview of an organization named Bodhable. Bodhable offers SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) a platform to showcase their trade-specific knowledge to the outside world while also showcasing their parent brand (corporation) as the store-house of cutting-edge knowledge. Let’s see how this venture is helping start-ups, corporates and other small and medium business to share their knowledge and expertise and help in their growth. Let’s have a look at the interview of the founder of this young and innovative venture.

 
1.What is the Name of Your Venture? Any specific reason for this name?
Our venture is named “Bodhable” (Trademark registered under parent entity Cobodh Content LLP).
Bodhable is a combination of 2 words:

• Bodh: Sanskrit word meaning “understanding”
• Able: English adjective meaning “having considerable skill, proficiency, or intelligence”

Together both these words (Bodh+able) imply the Ability to Understand. Since Bodhable is a content ecosystem for corporates who are thought leaders in their fields. The one characteristic which weaves all stakeholders on Bodhable is their ability to understand the trade-specific knowledge and the ability to leverage the same for larger commercial interests and the benefit for the larger macro-economic ecosystem.


2.Who is your target Audience/clients?
Corporates who are thought leaders with in-situ expertise and knowledge which is worth sharing with others from other related industries and possible future clientele. The current sectors in focus for Bodhable are Real estate, Food processing, Medicine and HR. With time, the industries and sectors covered will widen.
      
3.Where is your venture based (city, state, country) & What are your geographical target areas?
The venture is currently headquartered in Mumbai with a branch office in Delhi.
Geographical target areas: Indian metropolitan cities, South-East Asia, Middle-east and China.
4.What problems does your venture resolve? What are your products or services?
Every corporation which has made a mark has many unsung heroes within whose relentless hard-work and expertise have made the corporate success possible. Bodhable offers these SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) a platform to showcase their trade-specific knowledge to the outside world while also showcasing their parent brand (corporation) as the store-house of cutting-edge knowledge. It’s a win-win for both the corporation & the SME.

• Products: Content modules
• Services: Content consultancy, content creation services, brand building, networking & training, netting corporate clients in the sales funnel

      
5.Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it came to an existence? What motivated you to start your own venture?
Having worked as an engineering design consultant for 7 years in the Oil & Gas domain across India & Middle-east I’ve always had a zest for details and have always appreciated experts in specific trade areas from process design, rotating equipment’s or piping engineers.
I was on site at Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited busy to deliver project of the VDU (Vaccum Distillation Unit) commissioning & handover to the client (ONGC). Part of that required installation of a mega 300 MT (Metric Tonne) vessel for which a month-long preparation was done by a 30 people team across departments and organizations. When the equipment finally did get installed, we were overwhelmed with joy and filled with pride. Seeing the 50 meter tall mega-structure filled us all with pride! But soon, we all were shuffled into other projects and each one of us got dissolved into newer things. However, that feeling of joy and the knowledge of the entire experience remained in each of our minds. The thought then germinated I my mind that there is so much untapped knowledge in so many SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) across the world, but its undocumented and not disseminated to those in need. It’s dissemination is subject to the vagaries of on-the-job training all the while giving no recognition to those SMEs who have given decades of their lives accumulating and distilling trade-specific knowledge into commercially usable format!
Several years down the line, when I had donned the hat of management in a real estate MNC, the feeling still festered while being complemented by the other cross-vertical considerations which came with the managerial position. This ultimately culminated in me taking the plunge of leaving the cushy corporate job and starting-up! The vision was shaping itself through me.
      
6.Who are your biggest competitors and how do you differentiate yourself from them?
Medium and Wikipedia are noteworthy competitors.
Medium is more focussed on coding & software industries and productivity as a sector. Wikipedia is a broad-based content repository meant for everybody but without any clear purpose (the reader should know the purpose of search and then parse out the relevant content themselves).
In contrast to Medium, Bodhable is more focussed on “core” industries (Chemicals, Medicine, Real Estate, Oil&Gas, Electricals) and “Core” verticals (HR, Supply-chain, Operations). And in stark contrast to Wikipedia, Bodhable is solely focussed on SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) of their respective fields with the aim to gain cross-industry and cross-sectoral traction for the SME and his parent corporation.
      
7.How did you identify your co-founder? Tell us some-thing about your co-founder/s
Bodhable is a single founder start-up. But all employees are co-founders in their own right. The entire team at Bodhable share the common vision of a world with an enhanced corporate content ecosystem.
      
8.How did you hired your first team members? What skills Do you want in your employees/team?
The first hire was a friend and an ISRO qualified Mechanical engineer who shared the vision of a content portal for SMEs with the requisite depth to do justice for current corporate and commercial purposes. The next few employees were hired via online job portals with a fair written and interview assessment tests.
Each member of the Bodhable team should have a passion for detail and an appreciation for expertise. Needless to say, each team-member is expected to be an expert in their area as well, just as our clients are experts in their respective industries.
      
9.What expansion plans are you looking for the next 2 years, next 5 years?
We intend to expand in 3 relevant dimensions:

1. Geographically: S.E Asia, Africa & China in 2 years; USA, Europe & Australia in 5 years
2. Industrial: Health & fitness, Dairy, Fertilizers & pesticides & software in 2 years; Investment & Finance, analytics, history, certification & accrediting in 5 years
3. Organizational vertical: Law, procurement, business development, marketing & IT in 2 years; Accounting, taxation, customer service, leadership & Strategy in 5 years

      
10.Where do you want to see yourself in next 10 years?
I see myself working at the helm of the corporate content transformation revolution
      
11.What are your goals over the next 1, 3, 6 and 12 months?
1 months: Hiring & training of content & BD experts
3 months: Launch of YouTube channel
6 months: Launch of App
12 months: Initiation of Phase 2 of Bodhable
      
12.Have you raised any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?
No. We plan to remain bootstrapped for now.
      
13.What were the problems you faced during the starting days and how did you resolve them?
Starting-up is like re-designing an aeroplane while still mid-flght! I had totally underestimated the no. of complications that will arise and the time delays that would result as a consequence during the start-up journey.
A major tool in my kitty to resolve issues (primarily technology-driven) was to balance the proverbial options of build in-house vs outsource of the various mini-components of the business.
      
14.What was the most challenging part of your journey till now? How did you overcome those challenges?
Although there have been many, but if I had to choose, it has always been finding the best talent, retaining them and motivating them to give their best. To overcome these challenges, at Bodhable, we have instituted a standardized & stream-lined department-specific training system which has been duly synchronized with our online project and task management systems. A predominant portion of our work-force works in a virtual office environment which made it imperative for us to institute standardized work-flow processes and periodic review systems.
      
15.Are you married, single or in a relationship?
Married.
      
16.What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
Reading, playing guitar and watching comedy TV series
      
17.Whats your favorite food & holiday destination?
Favorite food: Pani puri, Dahi puri
Holiday destination: Prague
      
18.Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?
It’s tough to narrow down to one. But I’ve always looked up to Steve Jobs, Mahatma Gandhi, Elon Musk and Sachin Tendulkar.
      
19.What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
A major difference is in the breadth of the realm of affairs an entrepreneur has to deal with. An entrepreneur has a wide breadth of issues at any time on his/her platter but he/she cannot compromise on the depth while dealing with them. While working for someone else, one has the luxury to narrow down the focus and delve deep on a single area which is really good for initial learning phase and to gain expertise. On the other hand, an entrepreneur has to swim in and out of various deep trenches in a single day. That’s why I feel every entrepreneur should first have adequate experience by working for someone else first. A good employee has all the ingredients to become a good employer later.
      
20.If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
I probably would have also pursued sociology as a major. The behaviour of the larger humanity fascinates me. Probably I’ll major in data sciences someday in the future which is the nearest thing to understanding human minds today.
      
21.How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?
It’s been a roller-coaster ride but I’m glad that I have a supportive family who motivate me when I’m down and calm me down when I tend to go over-board.
      
22.Anything, you would like to say to our readers or upcoming entrepreneurs?
To the readers I say that the search for wisdom is the highest form of meditation. To the upcoming entrepreneur I’ll just say that don’t take life too seriously. Play it like a game, play intelligently and learn from each mistake at each level.

23.Tell us something about your education & family background.

• B-Tech (Mechanical Engineer) from NIT Surat [Batch of 2007]
• MBA (dual major in Strategy & Marketing) from Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad [Batch of 2014]
• Family: Father is a retired government official & a practicing systems consultant. Mother is a home-marker. Wife is a corporate lawyer at a prestigious law firm.

      
24.What is your USP which makes it unique & different from other start-ups in similar domains.
Bodhable is a premier multi-industry content ecosystem for Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) across the departmental value-chain of the modern enterprise! The specificity of our mission gives us focus and powers us to serve our clients and customers in a more effective and innovative way.
      
25. What do you think is the biggest threat to the success of small businesses & Start-ups today?
The biggest threat is losing relevance. Small businesses and start-ups are best at being flexible according to the changing dynamics of the larger transient macro-economic ecosystems. This means a start-up should be ready to reinvent itself if that is what the situation demands. Being stuck to tried-and-tested ways is the domain of large corporations and they are exceedingly good at it. Its futile for start-ups to compete with corporations on that front.
Start-ups today are increasingly following a me-too attitude when they mimic the in-trend successful business models while not experimenting themselves about what works in their specific niche business segments. E.g. the mad rush for investors, building modifications of an existing successful product, etc. This me-too attitude is the biggest threat to small businesses and start-ups today.
 
26. Do you consider yourself successful and by what means do you measure success?
Start-up is an endeavour for reaching its goals. The pursuit of success is the biggest motivator for any entrepreneur. A pre-mature pronouncement of success can be devastating for motivation going forward. So no, I do not consider myself a success.
      
27.Please share complete name, address, phone number, email id & website of Your Business & Contact Person 
Name: Ankit Kush (Founder & CEO, Bodhable)
Mobile: +91-9653621237
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.bodhable.com
Contact person: Arbaaz Shakh (+91-8169111532)