In the series “Life as a Project Manager” we have project managers coming from different sectors to talk about their job and how they live the profession as Project Manager. The intention is to provide a real and personal account of the experience in this challenging profession, with examples and references that can help others in their job.
For the first post of the series I have been talking to Rahul Srivastava, a veterinary professional with years of experience in project management in the sector of animal health, nutritional and biological products’ marketing and strategy planning, and with a particular interest for the development of a sustainable agro-veterinary sector in India.
Rahul holds a master’s degree in Veterinary Medicine from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, and an MBA in Agribusiness from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (India). He has also received 9 online certifications from University of Maryland, MIT and University of Pennsylvania (USA) on entrepreneurship development, new venture finance and social impact strategy.
He has a diversified work experience, in locations such as East Africa, West Africa, Nepal and India, in private animal health organizations, government organizations (ICAR-IVRI, Ministry of Agriculture, India), international organizations (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics for veterinary business incubator establishment in Ghana) and international development organizations (GALVmed).
In his most recent job post he was Deputy Director at Hester Biosciences Limited (India), handling business development in domestic and international animal health markets. He established ‘Veterinary Social Business’, an innovative division at Hester Biosciences Limited for catering the veterinary product-services needs of smallholder farmers in South Asia and Africa. He was also managing 4 public-private-partnership projects for last-mile animal health product and service delivery for smallholder livestock farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand (India). He authored 24 publications in international & national journals and professional organizations.
I have been talking with Rahul about his many professional interests and achievements, but we focused on the subjects of social entrepreneurship, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and the role of younger generations in the new business models that are being developed and for which Rahul has been strongly advocating…..
PMDG: You are an advocate for “social entrepreneurship” in the livestock sector. Would this be a new paradigm that can be extended to other sectors?
Rahul: Current and emerging challenges in society can only be tackled with proper understanding of the “grassroot” problem and with design of innovative approaches, especially in the near future of such a troubled century.
As an example of an innovative approach, take the “bottom-of-the-pyramid” strategy that in the last two decades has been widely used by companies in the fast-moving consumer goods sector. This has led to variable results in low-medium income countries (LMICs). There are various factors behind the success and failure of such initiatives, but I have been excited and fascinated by this approach while working in the smallholder livestock sector in South Asia and Africa.
Let me tell you more about my experience in the livestock sector. During the last 10 years, I experienced the huge contrast between the assessments by big established companies and by the newer players in the field, the more entrepreneurial organisations. The former ones seemed to look at the results/numbers as preference to other revenue streams while the latter relied on agility and on aggressive approaches of getting market share. Lack of proper monitoring and evaluation led to biased approaches or misdirected interpretations. In the end, I found the vision of the “creation of economic and social development from below” by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus very convincing, especially in LMIC, and with a potential for “social businesses”.
Motivated by the success of Social Business in microfinance in Bangladesh, I am still trying to bring innovative solutions in the livestock sector, positively contributing to the livelihoods of millions of poor and landless families, building household economies in resource-constrained geographies, and providing essential nutrition to vulnerable communities. I believe the livestock sector has a potential to significantly contribute to achieving minimum eight Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 1,2,3, 5, 8, 12, 13 and 15).
Rapidly changing technologies, especially in information technology and digital financial services, are removing the operational hurdles of the past. I firmly believe that local problems of society can be efficiently solved by the members of the society themselves. So the “social business” will continue and expand, in all sectors. Social entrepreneurship has that catalytic element to bring desired change.
Right now, I am working on these issues with like-minded professionals and organizations and willing to link to more collaborators to mutually learn about the complexities and to design new solutions. But this is for a future interview!
PMDG: You recently reported about the efforts in the veterinary sector to share various Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). For those new to project management, which are the challenges with PPPs?
Rahul: The PPP approach, as a long term arrangement between two or more public and private sectors, is not new. Governments have used such a mixture of public and private endeavours throughout history. The UK was one of the pioneers of PPPs in the early 1990s and used it in various sectors. In India, the first signed and implemented PPPs were in the first half of the 2000s.
In my opinion, this public-private arrangement is likely to continue to exist in all sectors and those new to the PM profession should familiarise themselves with the format and requirements for their sectors. Many may have read that there might be criticism on various aspects of PPPs, but for the livestock sector there is a dedicated handbook from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
In general terms, I believe that attention must be placed in the preparation of the business case. There is a common goal for the PPP, so in terms of understanding and application of skills, much depends on which side the PM professional represents, the private or the public side. For both sides, there are general requirements, such as clarity in the collective plans, resource commitment, activities, timebound deliverables, expected return and benefits, evaluation and stakeholder impact assessment. There are “hard” skills required with the construction of the case and with the assembling of the document.
There are also “soft” skills required as well, such as negotiation, ability to work in highly polarised contexts and the need to understand the boundaries of policies and way of working as both the public and private counterparts will have their frames of reference.
PMDG: We are at a crossing of generations, with Millennials entering now the world of project management. You have worked on a number of initiatives for the promotion of youth inclusion in the livestock sector and youth entrepreneurship. Is the new generation better placed for the project management of the future?
Rahul: As a Project Manager, I often felt the struggle in situations where difficult data-driven decisions had to be balanced with a holistic view and with the aspiration for the “Big Change”, all of them in complex environments with sometimes very limited or unreliable data. Therefore, I feel project managers have to be equipped with behavioural economics tools to understand complex datasets and be able to identify and clearly present the trends emerging from the data.
It is important to provide means for the wider audience to understand the context, always in consideration of a natural resistance to change, in addition to cultural and geographical challenges. Challenges are unique in LMICs – allow me to give emphasis to this aspect…- and there is a very specific need for a proper and real grassroot understanding in delivering projects. Therefore, in my opinion any project or programme manager working in LMICs needs to understand the unique complexity of the environment and relationships, maintain a holistic view, but understand interlinkages of variable data and interest streams. It is challenging…
Would the new generation be better placed? Just before the pandemic, I started discussion on possible ways of social entrepreneurship in the livestock sector on poverty, hunger, health, gender, decent and economic growth, responsible production, climate change, and overall life on land with a young audience and emerging entrepreneurs at the Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai. I felt very encouraged by the response and feedback. I have seen in this example (compounded also with previous experience in the workplace and in the field) that the new generation is bringing innovative ways in data collection and analysis, technology-driven interventions and out-of-the-box thinking.
I personally experienced that sometimes the new generation is placing excessive reliance on the technologies which made them miss the understanding of critical “social fabric” and its importance (and complexity!). They often believe that their “smarter” approach to the data and the processes always brings results, benefits and success. They can be very impacted by the failure. We know that failure is inevitable in project management. Therefore, I believe that a blend of new and old generation representation in a project team is key for success in project management, with an optimal ratio dependent on specific project requirements.
Would old and new generations work well together? It is the responsibility of senior team members to give project managers of the new generation ample opportunities to explore innovation. A suggestive and collaborative approach is best suited for the Millenials, rather than prescriptive directions. I feel that the audacity and the energy of youth are a necessary antidote against the frequent overly cautious attitude of the more “veterans”! –
Thanks to Rahul. I hope that this post was of interest. I leave you here with a final message from Rahul:
“While dealing with complex problems of the 21st century, please don’t generalize the solutions. In the growing connected world, differences are overlooked. Be different!”
Rahul Srivastava
If you would like to contact Rahul directly, you can reach him at:
– Skype: drrahulivri
– Email:drrahulivri@gmail.com
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drrahulsrivastava/
– Mobile: +91 9999383569
Marco Bottacini, Senior Portfolio Manager at GALVmed
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinion of GALVmed.
Project Management Discussion Group 