Creating job creators, entrepreneurs and start-up setters is his mission and adopting various platforms and organisations, Manish Gosalia, continues helping young and elders, women and army veterans to kick-start their own business and contribute in generating wealth as well as building the economy of the nation in their own small way
BHARATI PAWASKAR
Warm and welcoming, he comes from a prestigious business family in Goa and entrepreneurship is in his DNA. A third-generation into Goan business sector, Manish Gosalia, wears multiple hats. Associated with various organisations that work on a grass root level to mentor young, budding entrepreneurs, Gosalia, as an area director of pan India organisation – I Create India, has trained, mentored and coached 100 plus Goan entrepreneurs in the past decade. Holding a Master’s Degree in Entrepreneurship and International Business from the University of Queensland Australia, Gosalia, a commerce graduate from Goa University, is schooled at India’s premier boarding school Mayo College. And that speaks volumes of his creative acumen.
Involved in building grass-root level entrepreneurs in Goa on a pro bono basis with I Create India since 2011 Gosalia explains the area of their work, “We do training, facilitation, mentoring, recruiting while guiding our trainers to deliver excellence in facilitation, training and mentoring to participants and proteges.”
Indeed, I Create has mentored and coached several beneficiaries from Goa to take up entrepreneurship through various training programmes.
Recently, I Create India and Directorate of Indian Army Veterans (DIAV) have entered into a memorandum of understanding for establishing Business Incubation Centres (BIC) at different locations of Army units in India for helping veterans and their family members in their second innings to start their own enterprises. It was with the same spirit that I Create India’s CEO Ulhas Kamat recommended Gosalia’s name for taking forward this programme of entrepreneurship development of veterans of the Indian Army.
“These skilled persons exhibit traits of becoming successful entrepreneurs, some of them are still young in their fifties and ready to play the second inning of their life and many who come from rural areas can help create job opportunities for the village population – apart from generating wealth,” observes Gosalia.
The second organisation that Gosalia is involved in is Toastmasters, a non-profit educational organisation that focuses on public speaking, communication and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs with more than 1,600 clubs in 143 countries.
“Toastmasters Goa has seven clubs in Goa – one in Margao, two in Panaji, one each in Porvorim and Mapusa apart from one corporate club at Siemens and one upcoming corporate club at Teva,” he shares.
Toastmasters International has helped people from diverse backgrounds become confident speakers, communicators, and leaders. Toastmasters is a program that will definitely help the Goan youth to become better communicators (after all Goa has been one of India’s best literate state) and will boost their confidence and become citizens of the state, he feels. Toastmasters International, where leaders are made, continues to build on its legacy by providing a strong foundation for the future. Toastmaster members learn to tell their stories. They listen and answer. They plan and lead. They give feedback and accept it. Through its community of leaders, they find their path to leadership.
“We meet, we learn. We grow, we glow,” smiles Gosalia who believes that today’s youth need to develop communication skills and leadership qualities. They must be offered impromptu speaking opportunities so that they are groomed to be speakers on public platforms. It will develop their skills in problem-solving, decision-making, team-building and effective time-management.
Happy to be at this juncture of life, Gosalia, an ex-IMC chairman of Margao Industrial Training Institute (ITI) boasts of being a guiding force to ITI students too.
“The corporate sector in Goa must extend their generous help to these ITIs by way of adopting them and then upgrading them, providing infrastructure as well as experts and specialists in specific subjects. We can’t expect the government to do everything. We must contribute our bit for uplifting the society,” states Gosalia who continues to focus on building the vocational skills of the Goan youth. His stint as IMC included running entrepreneurship programs at the institute to encourage the trainees to explore entrepreneurship opportunities in the state using the skills learnt in college for example - plumbing, electrician, beautician, fashion design, etc.
Way back in 2008, Gosalia served as a faculty, programme head and corporate relations officer at MIT Institute of Design, at Loni-Kalbhor, Pune where he was a part of the founding team that set up one of India’s first programme on Design Thinking and Innovation. But what was his role in Design Institute?
“I was responsible for planning and conducting classes, workshops, events and seminar as well as set up exam schedules, take examinations and do jury co-ordination too,” states Gosalia who also did faculty recruitment while delivering lectures on entrepreneurship, business management and international business – things that he was trained in. During his tenure from 2008 – 2010 he rolled out three batches with an average size of 15 students.
“All of my students are now either successfully employed in firms and companies across India and abroad while some are running their own firms,” he quips joyfully. Well conversant in five languages, Gosalia is a globe trotter and has travelled to over 20 countries. A fitness enthusiast - he includes yoga and meditation in his daily routine of maintaining health. Swimming and walking keep him fit. Adopting a positive attitude towards looking at life, he believes in giving back
to society.
As a state, Goa needs a dynamic leader, who can guide the state to a bright future. Goan youth needs mentoring, they need training and guidance to think in a positive way and to take up risks. Instead of hunting for government jobs, they must try to set up their own small businesses. Gosalisa who has been dealing closely with Goan youth expresses his opinion that it’s time, we, shed our fears and phobias and take up challenges, head-on.
“We must educate our youth in various vocational tasks so that they can earn early, in their twenties. Those who are willing to take up risks must start their small
business. Macro businesses grow and soon become medium. If followed with consistency, these businesses can grow into a big industry. In the mission of nation-building, all of us can contribute our share and I am doing my bit,” concludes Gosalia, an avid reader of various management and personal finance subjects.
