Shantanu Prakash

Shantanu Prakash,Educomp Solutions

Shantanu Prakash

MD, Educomp Solutions

1988: Son of a SAIL employee in Rourkela, "where no one had any money", cracks IIM- Ahmedabad
1990: Set up a brick-and-mortar education company in partnership with a college friend
1994: Sets up Educomp with two employees and a scraped-together capital of Rs 100,000
Now: Along with wife Anjlee, controls 60 per cent of Educomp, whose market capitalisation stands at Rs 4,115 crore or Rs 41.15 billion. (The first venture, which the friend kept, has shut down)

In 1994, Shantanu Prakash, the managing director of Educomp Solutions, was back to the proverbial square one. He had parted ways with a college friend, who kept the brick-and-mortar education business they had started together after Indian Institute of Ahmedabad in 1988. Joining IIM-A was the culmination of a journey that took Prakash out of Rourkela to Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, and then to the famous Sri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi University.

erhaps because his own path was paved by education, Prakash was convinced that future success lay in helping to educate others. Information technology was a new thing at that time. Prakash, who saw himself as a pioneer, an evangelist and something of a romantic, admits to fantasising about the potential of e-learning and digital education.

"There are 100 million kids out of school in India. What can we do about them? The non-profit and charitable concept has destroyed education in India. What Educomp is doing in education is like private healthcare and making it affordable as well as profitable," says Prakash.

The beginning was tentative. With Rs 100,000 in capital and two employees, he set up Educomp and set up the computer lab at Stuart School, Cuttack. The students had to pay Rs 30 a month for using it. "It was not easy. Schools are difficult to change. To get in and set up the lab was a huge challenge," he recounts.

Today, Educomp has 1,500 employees, 10 offices, a fully-owned subsidiary in the US, a recently acquired company in Singapore and 3.6 million students on its rolls. It is the first listed educational company of the country. Its attrition rate is only 3 per cent. "It is easy to become passionate about education, rather than making colas. That is a huge component that keeps people here," he says.

The next is back to where it began, setting up 100 schools across the country, brick and mortar stuff.

K N Memani, who began many years ago as an employee at S R Batliboi, at that time a small firm in Kolkata, and retired as the chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young India, says there are many who have the potential to be successful and know what to do.

But it is the fear of failure that thwarts most of them. "Luck, timing and decision making are all important, as is a wholesome perspective. But, in the end, you have to have to courage and fearlessness."

"I have an unshakeable belief that I have a larger purpose in life - to change the world through education"