Teaching Learning Community—The Story of a Butterfly: Nurturing Entrepreneurs in a Community

By Snigdha Shevade

Change is constant and it implies transition. It is a universally known fact that things cannot remain where they are. Likewise, businesses, too, tend to go up, stagnate for a while and come down.

The Teaching Learning Community has a unique structure and an unwritten constitution. It is built like a village community wherein young entrepreneurs are literally raised by elders (senior TLCians} who have gone through the same transformation process. This unique structure of three levels viz. physical level, intellectual level and emotional level is the secret of TLCs success.

The TLC learnings assist tweaking in business models that help entrepreneurs bounce back. They help shift paradigms that help businesses take sustainable leap towards growth. They not only facilitate growth, they also ensure survival and revival. The mainstay being focusing on guiding the chrysalis and building the self-propelling butterfly. The success then depends on powerful positive and creative efforts in all aspects of society and alliances built among those engaged in them.

Change can be beautiful; butterflies are the greatest proof of this! This book shows how Teaching Learning Community made this possible for twelve years and is still counting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Mar 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781482889024

Snigdha Shevade

Snigdha Shevade is a budding entrepreneur running her family business since 2006 and a member of TLC since 2007. TLC played an instrumental role in developing her entrepreneurial skills. Through this book, she wishes to share TLC’s uniqueness and pass on its benefits beyond her circle.

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Copyright © 2017 by Snigdha Shevade.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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- Founder’s note –

The birth of what would eventually be known as the Teaching Learning Community is so vivid in my memory that it seems as if it was just yesterday and not more than a decade ago!

When my wife Shaila and I, who firmly stood by me through thick and thin during this entire journey, reflect on the fond memories, we marvel at how things have been unfolding in these 12 long years. What began with helping a handful of friends with their business issues has evolved into a close-knit, growing community, spread over more than 5 geographical areas, marching ahead towards creating a pocket of excellence in the state of Maharashtra.

Yet, for me, the parameter of success of TLC is something more significant than the victories and testimonials of the members; it is the smile of contentment and the twinkle of pride that I behold in the eyes of the family members of TLCians during my personal visits and interactions...

While it is truly heartening to see entire families enrolling into TLC and reaping its benefits, it is equally disheartening to see some members struggling to cope up with their peers in the community; which led me to conclude that there are two crucial factors which are and will be instrumental in the success and sustainability of TLC. They are Quality and Passion.

The absence of any one of these will lead to the failure in performance of both, members as well as TLC. Failure attributed to any other factor would be a lame excuse.

I am asked often as to how I envision the future and the uniqueness of the TLC as I see it...

While TLC is slowly but surely inching towards its vision of the 1000-member mark, its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is a movement involving mass collaboration, where all its activities are fairly self-regulated and, most importantly, the transformation of the trend of Leadership to Leader-shift, where co-created outcome is built, thus blurring the boundaries between leader and follower; the central focus being cultural facilitation rather than that of strategy articulation.

What better testimonial to more than a decade of its existence than the documented version of the concept of the TLC; the book The Story of a Butterfly, which is a fruit of extensive work, in-depth research and tenacious dedication by Vandana Atre and Snigdha Shevade.

I am no astrologer but the strong belief in my life philosophy One gets what one deserves has held and will hold true for every member of TLC and for TLC itself!

- Rajendra Bagwe

Co-founder of Reliable Autotech Pvt. Ltd. and Founder of TLC

Date: 6-Mar-17

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- Guest’s Note -

I am very fortunate and proud to be associated with TLC. Though not a participating member, I very much feel a part of this community by virtue of having conducted a series of seminars for this invigorating group of entrepreneurs.

It is an empowering concept and is a movement with a growing impact and enormous potential. I believe that TLC has a larger social and national importance beyond the participating community. The country needs employment opportunities for the large and rapidly growing numbers of young adults, and these can be created only by the success of the small and medium industries who are the principal backbone for such employment.

Entrepreneurs need the basic and latest knowledge and skills required to run successful enterprises and this is the role which TLC primarily satisfies. The skills and knowledge are imbibed and applied, not just merely learnt, due to the methodology of the TLC. The methodology is simple and effective, one learns, then practices and finally teaches (a further way of learning), while constantly being under peer review. Peer groups both encourage and apply pressure as and when necessary. The peer review also ignites the practice of excellence.

It is important to have an organization like TLC because the basic knowledge and skills required to run and grow a business are often missing or unused, even amongst experienced businessmen. TLC is not only a cluster for excellence but TLC also acts like a platform for networking, to help generate business and extend the reach of its members. And it also helps its members in CSR activities. It has a multiplier effect with the whole community as a resource for every single member.

I see the members growing and bringing the wealth of their own experience and learnings to further enhance the knowledge base, rather like what the founder and chief mentor, Rajendra Bagwe, did and still does.

I like to envision this model is taken up and spread across the country with many similar clusters of excellence and empowerment springing up everywhere.

- Anil Gadgil

Founder of Holistic Living Center

Date: 30-Jan-17

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- Author’s note -

The overwhelming feeling I had while embarking on this project still continues. It is a true privilege to have TLC – a place that holds a special place in my heart – as the subject of my first published book.

This book started with an interesting discussion between Vandana Atre (I fondly call her Vandana Maushi) and her friend Lokesh Shevade (my father), also a member of TLC. She was amazed at how one person so passionate about bringing about a difference in business practices continues to do so for over 12 years. Her curiosity led to a meeting with Mr. Bagwe, which then sparked the idea for the book. When I came to know about this meeting, I jumped at the chance to contribute to the project. It was a great opportunity for me to give back to the community that had helped me develop my entrepreneurial skills. TLC has been and will forever hold the place of an important pillar of my professional life.

There are two main reasons I chose to write this book. The first and the foremost: TLC is a movement that has been silently working for business excellence in the SME sector in Maharashtra for the last 12 years. It strives to percolate world-class practices and focuses on their implementation, which makes it so unique. The second important aspect is that it doesn’t charge fees. The contribution received from members is just for sustaining the sessions and activities around the year. The way by which concepts are taught, efforts are taken and effects experienced by TLC companies are exceptional. There are innumerable ways to cause breakthroughs; TLC is evidently a successful one. It has been time tested for over 12 years now. By documenting it, if we can encourage SMEs to implement such concepts in their organizations, or initiate such forums in other states, our efforts would have truly paid off. When or if that happens, it would be the best moment for this entire project!

This book has been written in two languages – Marathi and English. The concept owner and author of the Marathi book, is Vandana Atre, a senior journalist and a published author of several books in Marathi. It has been published by Rajhans Prakashan, Pune in Marathi. The co-content writer and author for the English book is yours truly! I do not know how to write my introduction, but an author’s introduction is mandatory. In the least possible words, I am an entrepreneur by profession and a member of Teaching Learning Community since 2007.

The memorable time I had while working on this book, filled with learning and phenomenal experiences, would have been impossible without two people – Vandana Maushi and Rajendra Bagwe, my mentor. By giving me this opportunity, they have conferred an unforgettable value on it! It is an honor I do not know how to reciprocate! Even though words cannot describe what I feel, I wish to thank them for guiding me through this project, nurturing me to write better and for providing me with innumerable special moments to cherish. I will forever be grateful to both of them for giving me this experience of a lifetime!

Vandana Maushi’s family, which took on the role of perfect hosts along with her, for the countless writing sessions we had at her place; especially Mukta Gundi, her daughter-in-law, a dear friend and the voice behind our audio chapters for reviews: thank you all, for contributing to this book like it was your own project.

My family and my people: thanking them would be inappropriate, because their contribution in the making of this book is beyond gratitude. They did not just give me time to write; in most cases they created it for me. It won’t be entirely inaccurate to estimate that about half the time I spent in writing this book was courtesy of this support group. Had they not been there, this project wouldn’t have completed by the deadline I had targeted. I’d particularly like to mention Kedar Bhave for editing my drafts with the patience and commitment as if he had written this book himself. It was impossible for me to do what he did for this book and it means a lot!

To the people who contributed to the contents of this book: special thanks goes to Chetan Bhat and Avinash Rahane to have collected and shared the photos; Gaurav Dharkar to have helped gather information across locations, and of course all the TLC members who were gracious with their time given for interviews which added special charm to this book. Utpala Lad, thank you so much for being there on a short notice and proofreading this book. A wholehearted thanks goes to Hemant Bele for designing the cover page. Rajendra Bagwe has contributed to the content in the form of a Takeaway at the end of every chapter. I cannot thank him enough for his wholehearted support in everything including content writing!

My heartfelt thanks goes to Partridge India and every team member that has worked on this book. Without their involvement and support, it would not be possible to launch this book on our desired date!

To all those who even through a small part have contributed to this project and not been named: thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

I sincerely hope that you, my readers, will excuse me for any oversight or omission – know that it is not intentional. Finally, I earnestly wish that through this book, I have been able to represent the value that