 Hello and welcome to the Eclipse Leaders' Room series. My name is Peter Webb. I'm a director of curriculum and research here at Eclipse. And our focus of attention is on leadership energy, which we define as harnessing human energy for a better future. It's my great delight to welcome here today, Murugu, who's a recipient of the Ilya Award for 2016. Before going into his story, I simply want to pass over to him and ask some key questions about leadership energy. Murugu, welcome very much here today. It's a great pleasure to welcome you and for you to be a recipient of the Ilya Award for 2016. A question that I must ask to begin with is, where does your energy come from? And perhaps you could share a little of your story and tell us a little bit about where your energy derives from. So I want to say that one of the most secret, the whole energy I'm getting from my wife, that what I'm saying, gentlemen, so something you try to help your wife, then you go to the well. So everything I start off from my wife, then now it's gone global. So I saw my wife is practicing energy in method on her menstrual days. Then I try to help my wife by giving an affordable menstrual hygiene method. Then later it become to my family, then to my village, to my city, to my country, now it's gone global. Now I'm searching women in the mosque to help the women in the mosque. So you're suggesting that it's women that give us energy? Yes. So something you try to help to your family members or your brother or father, then it's working well, then you go to the community. So that what I saw, many people straight away they're trying to change the world. I said, please try to change your family, then come to change the world. So what gave you inspiration? The women is a key factor for the whole world. So nowadays you know that around the globe a lot of things are happening. Inspired the world is existing because of that you know the magic, a glue name called mother. That makes the whole world still it is existing. So such you know that powerful the women, so 50% of the women population in very unbelievable condition even if the personal hygiene is never addressed. So these are all I never know while I'm trying to help 10, 10, 15 years before. Then later I came to know not only in India in my country, around the globe hundreds of countries never address this simple women personal hygiene. Because of this you know what I want to say every country is trying to become in America. That means they want to become their country make into developed country. So up to 2012 I never traveled to anywhere in the world except my country. Then first I called up by a big company in London. I'm landing at Heathrow airport. I saw a totally different world that I called up by another big company in Tokyo. I'm entering into Japan. Then you know Swiss everywhere then I found the secret. The difference between developing nation and developed nation not the 10 land police road or the skycraper or the metros or monorail the secret is which all the country the women are empowered that country very well called developing nation developed nation. Which are the country the women not empowered the country called developing nation. But these foolish countries are trying to make a shortcut. They are building skyscrapers paving roads but they never bother about empowering women. That what I said you fools even you are building skyscraper all this thing your country not going to developed one because we ignored the women empowerment. The women personalized the menstrual hygiene is very well connected to the women empowerment. Such area we are focusing we are trying so that I often understood what the cause I'm trying to attempt so what will make even that cause become for the inspiration I never get outsourced inspiration somebody spiritual leader nothing even that the problem become inspiration for me I think you catch my slang what that you are thinking is a problem the problem is become inspiration for me so it was the problem that you saw that gave you the inspiration yes yes it is something different I'm telling yes yes otherwise you are trying to do something then one side you are outsourcing inspiration other side you are trying to do it here the single source the problem itself the inspiration to me to solve it it's a different approach a different approach and so rather than start off with an entrepreneurial idea try to get that idea funded and have that idea promoted you started with the inspiration the inspiration to help your wife and then the inspiration to help other women in rural India and then the inspiration to help women in underdeveloped countries so you are the accidental politician of women's empowerment so not accidental but many times in like this interview people used to ask why you are so keen on this Muruga empowering women there are a lot of other problems then I said there is a connection between women and me from my childhood my father died in a road accident I raised by my mother that's what I said in western country I am also single mother son it's a wrong meaning letter I am having a father either I don't have a father I claim myself also when I am having two younger sisters from my childhood I surrounded by women women I studied in a co-education school so that what I am having a connection with women sensitivity everything so that's what I understood their problem very keen so you were set up for this at an early age and very importantly my mother look for a baby girl as a first child even I was born as a boy my mother used to give like a girl like a mac up up to my 13th age I am having a huge ponytail my mother used to put jasmine rose everything on the top so maybe the soft corner will happen out of this age it's interesting to talk about your background there but I am also curious about what kept you going through those years when your wife had sort of turned away from you and you persisted to develop a machine to produce sanitary pads cheaply for rural women what was your energy that kept you going through that time one part of time whom I am trying to help my wife now understood she separated from me she sent a divorce notice then my mother she thought I become a psycho or a pervert because I collected used napkin from other from women I am researching then the village people thought I became a vampire in the evening drinking girls blood that's what they want to chain my both legs with the iron chain and whole tree upside down so that's what inspired why I did even really amazing so if I thought how I am able to do it then I said so I bought a sanitary pad packet 18 years before because while I am buying the sanitary pad the shopkeeper never hand over me like other product he placed a old newspaper he wrapped it he looks left and right he hand over me like a band item so because there is a curiosity I want to know what is inside then I take out the sanitary pad it is a white color substance like 8 inches weighing of 10 grams I never found any large scale integrated cheap or something wires or conductors nothing it's very simple a quantum of cotton wrapped with a cloth that's why I attempt to make it if there is some circuit some any transistors I may never attempt because a simple matter makes me failure for years and years it become ego in my mind why this simple thing is make me so much failure then I am working on engineering platform secondly even I am failing for 900 times there is a hope if I change the angle of the blade or the material definitely work tomorrow this way every day morning is a very thrilling and suspense day for me is very very interesting no believer will enjoy that I said to the younger generation do some research that the entertainment nothing will give in the world even the billionaire won't get it every day evening I do some alteration in the machine next day I am going to make the trial this is so thrilling night I waited for the next day dawn so this kept me go again and again that what I said the same thing you cannot do the research for longer time with so many failures on speculation or gambling or something because there is no hole this is an engineering platform so no matter even you are failing under some time you will find another hole going on even I failed even today who knows maybe I will try somewhere else in India so there is an incredible purpose behind your story and I understand the curiosity about wanting to perfect the machinery but the purpose that drove you that kept you going could you see at the end of this some outcome could you see at the end of this something that you felt was contributing to a better future how was that able to contribute to your purpose so I succeeded from the day one after eight and a half years to understand the raw material secret like a daub and she could it took two and a half years because it is monopoly of two big corporates how the software industry monopoly two company even one company having telling still now they are having a secret formula you cannot decode by sending the cold drinks to any lab in the world the same it is applied to this then I spend another four and a half years on the mechanical design of machine even then there is a problem after I am designing the machine there is a body in India to evolve with the engineering product they have to certify that the place is called Indian Institute of Technology where I send the machine very first time I am seeing a man with french bird not full panned off and Bermuda's Nike shoes the English with the whole body the English which I am speaking here I am speaking from only 2009 December earlier I do not know the English then the one day they had the doubts is they accepted my thing is innovation there is a great thing you know otherwise they will write as an accident if you are unable to explain why you did this machine in this angle material you are unable to explain they will write on the file an accident but luckily I explained everything it is an innovation but why this man took risk even in his personal life what is going to do with this small machine the engineers have doubts there is a bunch of engineers six, seven engineers like a huge hall their doubt is how I am going to apply this simple equipment against a big Europe and American companies then those days I am unable to explain to the engineers then many times you are unable to explain or debate with your wife son-in-law, father-in-law, your directors do not debate with them so it is practical success the world will start their mouth that is why I took the first machine from my city you know down south of India to 2,000 kilometer away to a very backward state like Bihar around the globe where I set up a machine alone in a very rural area then I saw a magic is happening then I saw a single man army like 10 machine 20 machine 30 machine then I saw the machine is having capable of giving a livelihood for a group of women that will create a menstrual hygiene more than a corporate then I found a secret the data in India not even 10% women are using sand repair in 2004 then I became a public speaker I am addressing in Delhi some international forum then I claimed in India only 10% women are using sand repair then the federal government of India got some angry where is the data where is the source simply speaking in the public I said I worked in hundreds of villages in your time it is called a packet survey then my government called AC Nielsen I don't know how many million they spend then AC Nielsen team took 18 months they come out to figure in India only 12% women only using sand repair up to that the whole world thought India has developed then even India is 10% you think about Vietnam you think about African countries is horrible so this way that it does then now I am damn sure so many people are having it out Muruga still like he is doing in a very different way he is unable to scale out because they want to become a corporate then I told them there is a corporate presence in my country since 1947 they are unable to make penetration more than 10% why should I follow their model because the earlier innovation of Muruga the small machine this industry is macro and centralized model of doing business it is a failure model what I did with this innovation it is a micro and decentralized model of doing things now the women are making parts in rural areas they are coming out their own vernacular language brand they are going to other women they are able to convert from un-agent to hygiene method a beautiful thing is happening that is what I said now I called by Paul Polman of Unilever to London where I am talking about rural marketing with their CEOs because rural marketing is a fancy subject any company can succeed by revenues go up the profit will go down but in this situation Muruga is doing very tremendous in a frugal way how he is able to achieve what I am talking about so this way we are able to transform the world 7 decades what the government of India with so many ministers corporate not able to do it the small innovation did that because you that is what I said by drawing a check no one can change the world you need unders and unders of volunteers by word of Muruga because I said so far the world is going to brand the retail then suddenly the whole all the jackmas everybody is making lot of noise on detailing both this retailing and detailing unable to make any social impact what is Muruga's model is detailing even I am not giving detailing how I did what I am going to do so this detailing is a powerful model but you won't get people to imply by paying you cannot do the detailing you need passionate people and 11th percent come you will become bored you call somebody to detail but I am never going to report even 100 million time I will do the same tempo tempo I am training our juniors or volunteers so this way we are creating an awareness on the women personalizing a beautiful thing is happening with this small equipment and you talk about this in a way a new economic modeling creating a decentralized model suddenly the world is giving me a new term Muruga is a social entrepreneur I said what is that everything after did I got the name so this social entrepreneurship I agreed so both socialist and capitalist model is a failure one that is why even now there is a power in the world the third social entrepreneurship is the only thing it can be change the world because here I am not talking about philanthropy I am talking about something for profit in spite we are able to make a social impact more than a philanthropy social entrepreneurship giving dignity to the opposite person I am not typing I am not making you back there I am giving a livelihood to you then you are going to live on your own it is a beautiful thing of doing things absolutely but a business question might be asked about how do you scale up though how do you scale this model for other economies for other developing so I don't have faith in vertical scaling of CEO of this model we are having a team like hip-hop dance group of people will make round they will dance even I am going out as CEO the other people will catch others hip so this way new management I am trying to form this way I want to branch out across the globe like a movement not a stupid vertical scaling up of the corporate model it will collapse at any time like Eastman Kodak has something but what we are trying the model will collapse at any condition we will spread to the other planets yes but I think this is the breakthrough I think that you are talking about is not the work that you did so much is the actual economic model that you are developing and how that economic model is influencing the lives of women not just in India but in other developing countries as well that's what I recently gave a lecture at Harvard so when I talked about this then they are unable to conceive what I am telling so everybody they will mesmerize in that you know the volume turnover before EBBT something ROI then I talked about okay fine we are coming to your area we created so far around 100 1,124 localized brand why you are not taking that revenue in my account earlier Boruga is you know my background I am a school dropper I studied I never studied English nothing then those days I don't know about any corporate now I am having friends all over the world including from McDonald's KFC simply I can take their contract change into my company name I can make a threat to each and every machine like a franchise then I make a brand in spite knowing everything we never did so making independent creating livelihood something franchising putting a threat again controlling with you whenever you switch off the whole thing will switch off so thousand brands that will create around more than 180 million dollars revenue then it is scaled up already I never took into my account but anyone who go and test yeah it is happening so that's what some agency third party agency they are calculating in this Boruga is going his value on this year is 1.6 billion dollars that's what lot of VCs are circling on me to making in a single they are having a doubt the world why he is doing like this he is a businessman not some mother Teresa I think maybe Boruga one day is going to mono brand all these brands I said I don't know any idea I am not going to mono brand so where do you perceive this going from here so the mission is the correct term I think creating million-doer employment one day in India then converting India into 100% napkin from the current level of 5% why I am keen on India so I am not like selfish so something you know your efforts it becomes scattered no then nothing will happen the outcome if you put some some where you know concentrate like you know we used to play in childhood with the magnifying glass with satellite so that's what we want to make India then later I found even to convert India my lifetime will not sufficient that's why you took a big state in India Uttar Pradesh as a role model to the world converting UP into 100% app using state then we can leave to the India and rest of the world anyone can copy even we have IPR rights on our innovation in spite I put all the secret up front 10 years before on a public domain I am allowing people to copy many people are worrying about before they inventing sorry if I tell somebody will copy I said you fool you do it first then why you are worrying about copy in this situation I put everything on public domain so for 3 days and people only they copied it's a huge world so once you finish the market the NASA will found other planet there is other market too other planets to come so you see that this can be a model to take to the world do you have some way of measuring your progress at this time do you know how well you are progressing at this time any layman can measure you don't need a very complicated method nothing so wherever you go I said the pre-measure of the penetration of that hygiene of sanitary producing definitely it says 5, 4, 2 then launch this scheme set up a machine and provide some livelihood for a dozen of women remeasure after 6 months anyone can see the change that's what is illustrated by guardian, independent, BBC CNN because it's not only talk so I am not an author wrote the book 10 years before I am talking about the book only I am making machine with 643 parts that machine is sent to the remote part of the world where the engineers are going and installing providing training in between I am accepting award and giving interview I am a live current only one thing I want to say to the younger generation so don't use your education only to make your life into cakewalk so use your education to solve a problem in the society that will make you somewhere else you can use as an entrepreneurship anything so be a solution provider don't use your education only to make your life into cakewalk thank you very much I would like to say on behalf of us here at the Ecliffe Leadership and Governance Center what a great delight it is to have you here and to talk with you and we welcome your new economic model for the world and we welcome you again to Lead Israel