The Indian Business Council (IBC) Mauritius hosted a talk ‘Entrepreneurial & Business Lessons-Candid Talk Series 5’ focusing on Women Entrepreneurs, Challenges, Achievements, and Learnings. The panel was composed of Director at Campus Abroad Mauritius Ms Rajeshwari Jayasankar, Managing Director Electra Mauritius Limited Ms Archana Naik, Executive Director at AMG Group Ms. Meenakshi Saxena and Deloitte Director Gauri Naik, moderated by IBC President Dr Suresh Nanda.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Nanda emphasised that the focus in today’s times is to help understand the entrepreneurial journey, challenges faced, and the role played by the entrepreneurs on the panel today in navigating future business opportunities into the future, amidst the changing landscape.
He underlined, “As we start the discussions, I would request panel members to share their ideas where in the end, some 10-15 business ideas would be germinated to help ensure that some of us can roll to the next level with the participation of 4 women entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs.”
Platform Africa brings you a series of standalone in a slew of separate articles featuring each of the panelists starting with the director at Campus Abroad Mauritius, Ms. Rajeshwari Jayasankar who narrated her journey in making the shift from India to Mauritius, weathering challenges, and opportunities to create a reliable brand and her advice for budding women entrepreneurs.
Director at Campus Abroad Mauritius, Ms Rajeshwari Jaishankar
Zoology graduate from Madras University, the Director at Campus Abroad Ms Jayasankar boasts of an incredible profile where she started off at the Bank of America and later moved to the division of Marks and Spencer serving as a sourcing agent for leather products. The year was 1988 when she moved to Mauritius, co-promoting along with her husband Mr Jayasankar Seshadri, Campus Abroad which is today a leading brand in the field of higher education.
At the outset, Ms Jayasankar narrates her journey as an entrepreneur where she candidly says that circumstances were quite different and the entrepreneurial spirit unfurled more as a matter of survival and not by choice.
“We moved to Mauritius a long time back as my husband, the true entrepreneur behind our partnership wanted to make the shift to set up his business here. In those days. the local shores were heavily advertised as an ideal destination to do business together with the idyllic pictures of the island that grabbed the attention of my husband making him determined to set up here. What followed was several months of discussions and more than gentle persuasion, I yielded and we embarked on this entrepreneurial journey. What we came out to do did not work as expected and we were forced to find other opportunities – thus Campus Abroad was born,” the director at Campus Abroad told.
On the challenges in this rich and entrepreneurial journey, overcoming obstacles and in particular cash flow issues, Ms Jayasankar describes it as, “Challenges aplenty!!” She says, “Making inroads into the unknown and unchartered was quite a difficult task where back in those days, the sector was not as organized coupled with the fact that we were not local did not help.”
However, hard work, perseverance and the determination to succeed helped tilt the balance in favor of this entrepreneurial couple where both managed to not only overcome several hurdles and at the same time, have to their credit several achievements where they helped impact lives together with carving a niche for themselves.
Among the many challenges, the Campus Abroad Director illustrated, Fly by night operators; negative impact of these operators tainting the whole industry; dishonest practices where it took them time to understand the prevalent education system prevalent on the island. And the fact that they had no credentials to seek representation from universities overseas.
She remarked: “Valuable lessons were learned from every hurdle. On the cash flow issues, we didn’t face any such major crisis except for the fact that we had to be prudent in managing our expenses since our income came in once a year in the earlier days that needed to last us till the next cycle. I am very happy to say that to date we operate as a zero debt company.”
There are several key milestones or accomplishments in the life of an entrepreneur and she says there have been proud moments at the personal level with students excelling and doing exceedingly well which gives a sense of fulfilment.
“We cannot put a monetary value on the achievement of students. It was just a couple of days when we ordered a painting from an art gallery online when a lady called asking for our address for delivery. When we shared our address, she said, “Oh! I know Campus Abroad and it was Mrs Jayasankar who sent me overseas and because of this I am running my own enterprise.”
There are many such anecdotes in the life of the entrepreneur as she gives a peek, “During the COVID days when we had to get ourselves vaccinated at Welkin Hospitals, most of the doctors on call knew us by names as we sent them overseas. There used to be a time when we had to write to universities seeking representation in Mauritius. Today, I am happy to say that the tables have turned where many world-ranked universities get in touch asking if we are interested in working with them.
“The trust reposed on us from the community at large is something that we are immensely proud of and making a dent in a foreign land amidst reasonably stiff competition adds a feather to our cap! On a personal note, I want to emphasise that both my children (Rohit and Sandeep) came back to Mauritius which over the years has become more home to them than India.”
The journey in the life of an entrepreneur can’t be complete without maintaining a work life balance and as asked by the panelist, Ms Jayasankar terms it as a very difficult task but in her case it has been smooth owing to a tremendously supportive family. She concedes: “Of course, there were moments of frustration and anger where in the earlier days, a feeling brewed that life at the office or at home was just work, work and work!!! Teamwork both at the workplace and at home is key!”
She doles out precious advice to any entrepreneur: “Plan ahead and organize yourself goes a long way leading to an understanding to take things as they come and deal with it. In the end, realization dawns on us that life is this wonderful journey of ups and downs.”
One advice that the successful ‘Edupreneur’ offers for aspiring women entrepreneurs is to follow their dreams, be passionate about what they want to do, and explore and research opportunities thoroughly before diving deep in a systematic manner while always keeping the feet firmly grounded.
“I think it’s important to have a big vision, believe in yourself, and build trust. Don’t try to do things that you think are better than what your competitor is doing, hone and harness your ideas, set lofty standards cum keep innovating to turn them into your USP that will most of the time define your success. I also have some advice for husbands: Encourage and support your wife to help her achieve her aspirations, turning them into reality,” says the Campus Abroad Mauritius Director.
On a question by the moderator on the need to encourage more women to become entrepreneurs who are by nature more multitalented as compared to men, Ms. Jayasankar observes that there is a general fear of the unknown, and many women are reluctant to take the plunge. At the same time, she also mentions that more and more women are now starting their own businesses and witnessing positive results.
She advocates that on a larger scale, there is a need for Governments to step in to offer more opportunities together with incentives such as funding and training looking at this huge gender imbalance at the workplace. While on a smaller scale, she avers that bodies such as IBC can play a part in helping to mentor budding women entrepreneurs coupled with opportunities across medical tourism, training, counselling, and health care.
