What WHY AND: Business Problems Solved Through Desi Network-Bouncing Boards

Business Problems Solved Through Desi Network-Bouncing boards
Shree Shivkumar, 50, found himself in a financial and emotional abyss as

an entrepreneur in the late 2000s. His Erode-based family business, SKM,
a cattle feed and poultry powerhouse in Tamil Nadu with a turnover of
around ₹600 crore back then, was split up between Shivkumar and his
younger brother. Shivkumar felt shortchanged when as part of the carve-up
he got control of the group’s eggs division, a relative rump with revenues
of only ₹80 crore.
Bouncing Board is an informal club of

entrepreneurs. While such a grouping first took root
WHAT in Chennai, they can be found in smaller industrial
clusters in western Tamil Nadu.
Vital self-help group for small and medium

entrepreneurs who don’t have the advantages
WHY of exposure to a spectrum of professionally-
run businesses in metro cities.
Bouncing Boards are not drinking and
socializing club. There are no competing
AND business interests among the members, and there
can be no financial deals between them.
A Bouncing Board is a closed, informal club of a dozen

entrepreneurs from diverse sectors and without competing business
interests. So, for instance, a Bouncing Board can only have one
industrialist who operates in the real estate sector. Besides monthly
meetings, the members get together twice a year for a day-long retreat
where they candidly share everything that concerns their business and
personal lives—from family feuds to falling revenues. Empathy and
complete confidentiality are the currency in which the membership fee is
paid.
In its objective of learning through shared experiences, a Bouncing
Board sounds a bit like Alcoholics Anonymous for those addicted to
profit. For entrepreneurs in small industrial clusters such as Erode (about
400 kilometres (km) from Chennai) who often do not have the advantages
of exposure to a wider spectrum of professionally run businesses in
metropolitan cities, ready access to industry platforms or a sizable corps of
professional managers, Bouncing boards have become a vital self-help
group.
Erode’s first Bouncing Board of which Shivkumar is a member was
formed in 2011. The combined turnover of the members of this group
exceeds ₹3,000 crore. Now there are three Bouncing Boards in Erode
alone and one each in Trichy and Coimbatore. At a time when the
economic slowdown poses an existential threat for small and medium
businesses in large textile and agro-processing clusters such as Erode,
peer entrepreneur forums like Bouncing Boards act as a lifeline on both
managerial and emotional fronts.
For instance, C. Devarajan, the managing director (MD) of the₹800-
crore URC Group with interests in construction, hospitality and software
found himself in the midst of a receivables crisis after the double whammy
of demonetization and the goods and services tax (GST). “It wasn’t that
my clients wilfully held back payments. They had a cash crunch that was
affecting my operating expenses. The suggestion from the members of the
Bouncing Board was that I should personally focus on this issue for a few
months rather than business development or strategy," Devarajan said. It
worked. “The sight of a 55-year-old making weekly visits to their office
perhaps exerted adequate moral pressure on them," he said, sitting in a red-
oxide floored, modest two-storey house that is his corporate headquarters
(HQ).
Rules of the game
Bouncing Boards are not a drinking and socializing club. Its
membership comes with stringent and inviolable rules. To begin with,
attendance and punctuality at the monthly meetings and retreats are
mandatory. Skipping more than one monthly meet—hosted by each one of
the 12-member group by turn—in a year means expulsion; every minute’s
delay of turning up post the stipulated time attracts a fine of ₹1,000, as
does every 100 gram of weight put on by its members since the previous
meeting.
A foundational tenet of the Bouncing Board is that no one can
dispense advice. Only experiences can be shared. And there can be no
financial transaction between its members. So, if for instance, one member
is facing a working capital crunch, another cannot offer a loan or dial up a
financier friend to facilitate a line of credit. At the monthly meetings,
where mobile phones are barred, the chairman circulates the agenda and
each member makes a five-minute presentation on business and family
issues and the progress of their firm’s corporate social responsibility
(CSR) initiatives.
A member designated as the “processor" ensures the group’s focus
and reins those in venturing into the territory of business advice. The
“timekeeper" enforces the five-minute rule for presentations, and the
“scribe" is tasked with noting minutes. What’s discussed in the Bouncing
Boards remains in the room and not shared even with family members.
The issues can range from falling profit margins to marital problems of
children.
“For entrepreneurs, the rule of thumb once was, never discuss your
problems with others because 20% wouldn’t care about it and 80% would
be happy that you have a problem. The value proposition of Bouncing
Boards is that when you share your woes, the burden becomes lighter,"
said D. Venkateswaran, the chairman and MD of Venbro Polymers who
championed the idea of Bouncing Boards in Erode.

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Business Problems Solved Through Desi Network-Bouncing boards

Shree Shivkumar, 50, found himself in a financial and emotional abyss as

Bouncing Board is an informal club of

Vital self-help group for small and medium

A Bouncing Board is a closed, informal club of a dozen

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