Praveen Parameswar is the chief executive officer of Kerala-based Thoughts Academy Pvt Ltd. He is on a mission to make Thoughts Academy as the most reliable, credible, and trusted company in the arena of ‘Organizational and Human Development’.

In an interview with The Education Post he speaks on several things, ranging from the beginning of Thoughts Academy and its vision to the challenges in entrepreneurship and Kerala’s startup culture 

Could you explain how did it happen, what prompted you to start this kind of a venture?

After completing MBA in HR from Cardiff University (UK) with rank and best student award, I wanted to do something of own, which is deadly challenging with focus on human resource, and related to business and economic development.

We had detail discussions with eminent people such as Prof. Edmund Heery, associate dean, Cardiff Business School, John Steel, director, student development unit, Cardiff University, Dr. Franki Asare-Donkoh, expert in International Relations, and Keith McGregor, business mentor at Venture Wales. These talks helped me to zero-in to the idea of Learning and Development. Thus Thoughts Academy was started in the UK in 2010. It was incubated at Venture Wales with Keith McGregor as mentor. We started our operation in association with the Training and Development Department of Cardiff University that was then headed by John Steel.

In 2012 I decided to move to Kerala with keen interest to be a part of the development of the state. Here I join hands with Rahul Nair who is an expert in occupational psychology and Rahul Easwar, an expert in learning and development. We have been good friends since 2003. They were also thinking in the same line to do something as own, challenging, related to business, with focus on human resource. This led to the beginning of Thoughts Academy Pvt Ltd in India.

In 2014 we redefined our operations as ‘Organization Development through Modulating Human Performance’. In the same year we started our operations in the Middle East, anchoring from Dubai Knowledge Park. Currently Rahul Nair heads our Middle East operation that sprawled across seven countries. Here in India we are now a 12 member team, anchoring from Trivandrum.

About the initial capital when starting up, founders and other support

I started the organization with Rahul Nair and Rahul Easwar.  As we didn’t invest much on office space, material infrastructure etc. hardly Rs 2 lakh investment was needed to begin with. Now the company has crossed 10 million in turnover.

What were the possibilities for you in Kerala during that time?

This is an interesting question. We started the company in the UK in 2010. In 2012 when we decided to move to India, everybody advised to launch in any metro such as Bangalore or Mumbai or Delhi, as there is already a good eco system that supports our business model.

That time in Kerala the idea of ‘Organization Development through Modulating Human Performance’ was not very popular. Most of the organizations did not even think about seeing human performance development in such a detail, holistic and strategic manner. They were only exposed to stand alone trainings and motivating speeches.

But we were very keen to fix our base in Kerala. We didn’t see any challenge in establishing us in an already ready market, but to focus on a challenging place like Kerala. Then we took the above situation as an advantage, as we got a first mover advantage in the industry of ‘Organizational Development through Modulating Human Performance.

What were the challenges at the initial phase, how did you overcome it?

We stepped into Organizational Development at the age of 26. Many of the organizations were not ready to accept three youngsters of this age to assist them to organization development. But some of them such as IBS PLC, ASAP, HLL Lifecare Limited etc. trusted on our ability and were ready to give opportunities.

We used those opportunities in the best manner. The team put maximum effort to make each of those programs massive success. Every time we wanted to cross the expectation of the clients. This worked well. We started getting more assignments through references.  Advice and guidance of industry bodies such as NASSCOM has also helped us a lot during the initial phase.

One of your taglines says, ‘celebrate training’, the significance of such a motto

We are on a reengineering state that decides to use the word training less and development more. Thus we will be removing this tagline soon. Hence instead of answering to the above question I will explain what we do.

Thoughts Academy was started as a Training and Development Company. But powered from our experience in the market, we are re-defined as an entity that does ‘Organizational Development through Modulating Human Performance’. We partner with organizations and assist them to move forward.

In this VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world entrepreneurship is not a cakewalk. So choose this path only if you are passionate about it. Passion need not always be towards any business idea. It can be about the idea and culture of entrepreneurship

To ensure the best results we follow ‘7 D Model’. Here we begin with collecting DATA regarding the organization from multiple sources, DEFINE the areas to be addressed, DESIGN the program, DEVELOP materials such as case studies, worksheets, templates etc, DELIVER the program, assist the team to DEPLOY it in daily assignments and DETERMINE the results. We address the need confirmed during the ‘DEFINE’ stage through TRAINING, COACHING or the introduction of appropriate STRATEGY.

The intervention can be effective only if the approach is as holistic as the above.

What’s your current position in the market-clients and turnover details?

We are the only company in Kerala who joined hands with the largest IT company in state (UST Global), largest manufacturing company in the state (HLL Lifecare Limited), largest skill development project in the state (ASAP), largest social development project in the state (Kudumbasree) and largest IT infrastructure development project in the state (Akshaya) in organization development through modulating human performance. There is no other organization in Kerala who associated with all of them in this process.

In addition to the above IBS, Allianz Cornhill, Cognizant, Brahmins, Joy Alukkas, GES Infotek, Ramada Hotels etc. are some of our other clients. We have delivered professional development program for teachers from nearly 600 schools and 100 Arts and Science Colleges.

What’re your immediate goals, how do you like to position the company in the future?

Goal 1: To get into agreement with 25 companies in the state for a 2-year long assignment on which we assist them in Organizational Development through modulating human performance.

Goal 2: We have developed a personality-profiling tool, ‘FACE’, that helps people to know more about their professional effectiveness. Till now people from more than 30 organizations have tried this. Their feedback has boosted our confidence in the tool a lot. We plan to promote this more about the organizations across the state.

Goal 3: In another four months you can say that the most effective human development program in the world is from Kerala. We are launching our dream project ‘LIFOLOGY’ in March. This is for the first time we announce this to the world.

In future Thoughts Academy will be the most reliable, credible and trusted company in the arena of Organizational and Human Development. We will be the first choice of companies and people who want to move forward.

As it’s like a mentoring firm, what’s your message to youngsters who wish to bet on entrepreneurship to shape up their life?

The celebrated reasons to be an entrepreneur such as one can be her own master, work only when she likes to work, not answerable to any and so on are mere myths, not even near to reality. Hence these should not be the reason to step into entrepreneurship.

In this VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world entrepreneurship is not a cakewalk. So choose this path only if you are passionate about it.

Passion need not always be towards any business idea. It can be about the idea and culture of entrepreneurship. Once you are into this, invest heavily on human resource, than focusing on stunning offices and other material factors.

Has Kerala turned out as an entrepreneur-friendly state?

When we started India operations in 2010 Kerala was not ready to accept youngsters as entrepreneurs. Youth into entrepreneurship was merely considered as a crazy thought. When we approached various organizations for an opportunity to associate with, it got neglected just because of age. We three were 26 then. But last 5 years witnessed drastic changes in the state. Now I think Kerala is ready to receive youngsters as entrepreneurs.