When Serendipity helps build a strong career

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Mahesh Joshi 5 min read May 12, 2025, 08:00 AM ist chance meetings can form careers. Summary Mahesh Joshi’s new book reveals how a university course led the Vishal Mehta of Lok Capital to switch from a telecommunications career to the Social Impact Space View Full Image Hit Investing: Strong returns through high-impact investment technology by Maheshi, Penguin Random House India, 240 Pages, 799. Serendipity played a major role in the life of Vishal Mehta. In 1999, after working in the telecommunications sector in India for four years, he decided to do an MBA from Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in the United States. When he started studying for his degree, he had a clear vision: to either make a professional shift to the consulting space or continue in the telecommunications sector. This was the time that India’s privatization story started, and many new private businesses were set up in sectors, including financial services, telecommunications, education and healthcare. Until that time, most of these services and their delivery were dominated by government and controlled institutions. Vishal’s work in the telecommunications space in India was a direct result of this privatization story, where he also quickly realized that most of these new businesses were set up for the higher revenue segment in India and for the masses life did not really change much. This realization of the non-inclusive growth he saw was buried somewhere in his priorities and did not expose until he arrived at the University of Michigan. Also read: Is early retirement a good idea? Not for your health, but when he started his studies at the University of Michigan, he offered a course that would literally change his life. The course was presented by CK Prahalad, then one of the world’s most visionary management thinkers. Prahalad has taught Michigan Ross since 1981, but his influence grew in 2004 when he co-authored a book entitled The Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. The book galvanized how multinational corporations (MNCs) watched around the world at the poorest consumers. In itself, ‘bottom of the pyramid’ was not a new concept. It was first used by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 when he talked about poor people who were regularly forgotten because they lived at the bottom of the economic pyramid. This demographic segment, argued Prahalad, was actually a profitable consumer base. As he explains, ‘. . . Typical photos of poverty mask the fact that the poor represent resilient entrepreneurs and value -conscious consumers. ‘In his opinion, it was a better, more empathetic approach to help the poor – one who worked with them to bring about innovation and to create sustainable scenarios where they were actively involved, while companies provided profitable products and services. Prahalad wrote: “Such an approach existed and in several cases passed the idea stage, as private companies, big and small, began to successfully build markets at the bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) as a way to eradicate poverty.” This would mean that a formula must be created to achieve optimal results. Prahalad devised a ‘low price, low margin, high volume’ model; Products can be offered at very low prices and margins to generate profits simply by selling enormous amounts. This model has changed the management strategies almost permanently. In India, the biggest example of Hindustan Unilever was in selling the wheel brand of detergent to low -income consumers in India. Also read: The secret of success? Energy management Prahalad was not a very flamboyant speaker. There were no conditions on stage, and he spoke almost no expressiveness or voice modulation. But when he did speak, it always left a profound impact on those who listened to him. That was exactly the effect on Vishal. This echoed with the lack of inclusive growth it saw in the private sector in India. It was perhaps serendipities that he met Dr Aravind, at the time his senior at Michigan Ross at the time. Aravind is the grandson of Dr GovindAppa Venkataswamy, founder and former chairman of Aravind Eye Care Chain of Hospitals, and was involved in the hospital chain, which is focused on meeting the needs of low and middle income in India. While Vishal spent time with Aravind, he began to think about what he heard that Prahalad had discussed in class. One of the first opportunities to test these ideas was the possibility of replicating Aravind Eye Care’s model in Africa as part of one of his choices during his MBA. It was the first time Vishal was actively thinking of a business model where profit maximization was not the purpose, and where shareholder value was seen in a very different way. His experiences convinced Vishal that his interests were not in the telecommunications sector as he once thought, but in the social sector. But practical intervened. He still had to pay off his student loans, and Vishal worked at Capital One, a consultant firm in Washington DC for the next few years. Then he began to be actively exploring for new opportunities in the social space. Almost a year has passed. Unfortunately, the traditional non-profit sector was looking for vintage and sector expertise-the one thing Vishal was missing, as it was of a reasonable commercial mainstream background. As almost every opportunity hit a cul -de -sac, Serendipity took the wheel again. Also read: The power to break during a working day, it was about this time Rajiv Lall moved to New York. At the time, Lall was a managing partner at Warburg Pincus, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. Lall wanted to use the same principle of venture capital for socially relevant businesses. He wanted to use his significant investment experience in India. Of course, he was looking for someone who could drive this matter forward and be based from India. Rajiv heard about a general knowledge of Vishal. He likes what he has heard and gives Vishal a cold call, which has reached his voicemail. As he listened to Lall’s voice message, Vishal quickly did a preliminary research on Warburg Pincus, because he was completely unaware of the private equity industry. Soon, the two set up a meeting on coffee. It was Serendipity again. After a three -hour meeting, Vishal was ready to return to India and get to work (at almost a quarter of the salary he earned) to build Lall’s vision. The two men even came up with a name: Lok Capital. Lall delighted to discuss matters with his wife before making a firm commitment. Vishal laughed and said, “I will discuss it with her, but I make this dedication to you: I will move to India!” Excerpt with permission of Penguin Random House India. The book will be published later this month. Write to us at [email protected] Read: Catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #Features Mint Specials