The young mind is the most powerful sanctum where education is the shrine. It can imagine, create, innovate and also wreck a society depending on what is present inside. Education, on the whole, is not just teaching kids subjects and helping them score good grades. It is rather the most vital fragment of building a society and the genesis of creating a new world.
Construction and the deterioration of a generation solely depend on how a kid is brought up in his/her school. The knowledge and disciplines practiced during school life become a part of their personality which they are going to practice for the rest of their lives.
A kid taught to grow a plant stage by stage will have knowledge about plants and their process without theories or periodic tests. A kid taught to write an answer to a question in their own words from what he/she understood will help the child improve their knowledge and writing skills. A kid taught to build and repair small toys will help them turn broken things into beautiful masterpieces. Similarly to raise a disciplined society you have to start practicing the principles from school.
The sole purpose of education is to help the young generation gain more capability of thinking. Help them walk through the doors of imagination and find the magnificence of their minds.
We understood these facts with deep sentience as our guest Mr. Kavin Kandaswamy captivated us throughout the session with his inspiring talk. We were awestruck to hear about the revolutionary ideas he has enforced in the field of education. He quoted saying “ you cannot train the future generation if you keep preparing them with past knowledge”
It was an honor to have his presence and we felt very inspired from his humble and captivating talk.
NEBULA OF THE STAR
Every star has a nebula that consumed itself from gravity giving birth to a new star. Our parents are no different from nebula. Their love and affection towards the kids are so monumental that they burn themselves out to make a star out of us.
Throughout the talk, Mr. Kavin Kumar Kandasamy recalled the importance of his father in his life and how the principles of his father made him who he is today.
“ My father is a first-generation entrepreneur who was a brilliant aspirant acquiring state 2nd in PUC even in the olden days when people hardly gave importance to education.”
Due to financial struggles, his father Mr. Kandasamy was unable to proceed further with higher studies. These struggles however did not hinder the greatness that was contained in him. He ventured off to build the life of his dreams and started off setting up a small business called Mangalam textiles. Despite the stumbling block in finances, his father made sure to educate the three kids at some of the best institutions in the state. Mr. Kavin Kumar Kandasamy completed his schooling at Montfort School Yercaud. It is a renowned institution that has produced many notable alumni who are in high-ranked positions in their respective fields.
Ailing from an agricultural background Mr.C K Kandasamy faced countless struggles to attain financial stability. Hence, as a first step, they shifted from their native town Aravakurichi in the Karur district and moved to Anthiyur for their business. With a strong will and perseverance, Mr. Kandasamy carried out his business and succeeded in providing a strong educational foundation for all three children.
Mr. Kavin Kumar Kandasamy blissfully shared the successful upkeep of an invisible promise all three children made to their father. As a result of his education, Mr. Kavin has excelled in his venture at a very young age of 32 that made him the youngest secretary of the Montfort School Alumni Association in 100 years. He also mentions that all the morals he upholds today had their foundation from his school. With the quality education, his sisters are excelling in their respective fields too.
He recollected one incident that changed his perspective on life forever. It was during his school days when his father dropped him off at his hostel and handed over all the money in his pocket for his monthly expenses. Mr. Kavin noticed that his father had given all his money to him with nothing leftover. So he split the money, his father had given and returned some back to him. He understood the importance of education at that moment, which ignited his fire of passion towards the educational field.
THE BRIDGE OF DESTINY
After completing school Mr. Kavin decided to take some time off before choosing his career path. Unlike others, he didn’t want to blindly choose an undergraduate program just to pass out with a degree. He was clear that he will only choose the study related to the field he was really passionate about. So he took a year’s break and worked with his father helping him manage his businesses. At that time their business was impeded and did not do well. The one year of assistance to his father made him realize that he wanted to become an entrepreneur and expand the business.
He was awarded a scholarship to study Undergrad at an esteemed university in Australia. The course was a double major in Marketing and Business management. Upon successfully completing the course he moved on to work there for a 6 months duration after which he came back to India.
The Mangalam factory was shut down due to operational issues but it was beautifully transformed into a school called Mangalam Nursery and Matriculation School. For a year He worked on entrenching the business and stabilizing the group. The following year he decided to complete a master’s degree in International Business and was admitted to the Biggest Business school in France through scholarship. He was a very sincere and determined student that he was elected as the delegate of his college, winning the polls by 67%. He was then looking forward to joining internship programs in the country as a part of his Master’s study.
He precisely recalls that he applied for 120 companies and did not receive acceptance due to the language problem he faced because he was not fluent in french. One day out of the blues he got a call from Amadeus organization that he was accepted for the internship with basic pay of 5000 euros. Consecutively he got calls from MNCs like IBM and Airbus. However, Mr. Kavin decided to go with the first offer that came from Amadeus. His efforts and good performance helped him secure a full-time job at Amadeus after the internship program. The job was all about connecting with people from various sectors and it required a lot of effort to get the job done. During his time at Amadeus, he met lots of people and connected with them over countless conversations.
Suddenly it struck him that this was not his calling, this was not the right bridge to his destiny. And if he does not get back now he will be stuck in this loop for a long time. After 3 months of work, he came back to India in 2013 and saw that the two institutions and all the businesses with 84 employees were running smoothly but they were still in debt.
He felt that this was his true calling and this was the right Bridge to his destiny. He took over the responsibilities and stabilized the Mangalam group. The two institutions are now 7 institutions and 84 employees have now expanded to 973 employees.
AGGRANDIZEMENT
Humans are gifted with nature’s most magnificent creations, which is the human mind. The power to imagine and create something that has never been seen before. Among all the species on earth, it was a man who shot for the stars, it was a man who set foot on the moon and it was the human mind that made all of this true. You, reading this article now, a satellite providing the service for you, a mother at a distant land talking to her son, face to face over the phone who is far away from her. All this is possible just because of this neuromuscular organ weighing just 1.5 kg. Imagine the countless capabilities it possesses and each person having different abilities and talents waiting to be revoked.
The world could be a different place if we learn to conjure nature’s most powerful weapon and transform it into something beautiful. It might sound complicated but has the simplest solution. It is to train the mind from the young stage itself. We have come down to the answer on how the human mind can be trained to embrace its powers. The answer is nothing but education.
Mr. Kavin Kandasamy has understood this ultimate truth and has revolutionized the learning system in all of the institutions. He says that students must be taught about the power of imagination and that they have the capability to create things in their minds themselves.
He added that many people think that a college education is the basis of a student’s career. Due to this misconception, people fail to understand that school education is the fundamental structure that will shape a child’s future ventures. So fixing the school education will clear out all the hindrances a child faces while stepping to the next stage which is college.
Our society has different variants of education systems. For example, every government school has an alternative private school, and education is split between different classes of people. No matter what type of school a child goes to the underlying fabric of education is the same. It is basically a place to empower a kid’s ability to think and overcome the conquests of life and make them a better person than they were before.
Mr. Kavin says that we have so many advances in technology that it has become very easy for us to travel across the globe. The generation a few decades before us wouldn’t have thought that going to space would be possible. But here we are now having satellites and cross galaxy travel studies done at ease. He says that his own imagination has no bounds and at times he used to think of the boundless possibilities that could arise in the near future.
He shares with us a very pleasant memory of a small talk he had with his wife Mrs. Nandhini. They were conversing about the traveling facilities we have today which makes it easy for us to visit foreign countries easily. But in the future, our technologies might develop to a stage, where traveling to different planets might become possible. At that time we must make sure to support our kids and help them explore to their fullest. Mr.Kavin just saw the world differently not as how it is but how it could be.
THE INTENDANCE
In 2014 the Riverside Public school was in need of new leadership so Mr. Kavin acquired it under the Mangalam group of institutions.
He understood the governance of the educational institutions and also the finances required to sustainably run an educational group. That’s when Mr. Kavin started with K3 which is an asset management company. Without a financial source, running a self-sufficient capital-intensive unit is difficult. So he divided the governance into two different setups. K3 manages and owns the assets while the trust solely runs for the institution alone. Many people perceive education to be a charity when the institution says it is run on a nonprofit basis. But no institution can run for free without a financial source. He insists that being honest about the finances is definitely not a mistake. To maintain the sustainability of an institution it has to be based on the merits of numbers. Without the source, it is almost impossible to sustain an institution. Even during this pandemic, not one employee was removed from the group even though it was difficult to cope.
The institutions were run on advanced systems that even the pandemic did not have a big impact on them. Even before the pandemic, the system utilized remote learning and online classes thus making it easier for them to adapt to the shift. Today, the Mangalam group is now running successfully under the wonderful leadership of Mr. Kavin Kandasamy with over 7000 students out of which 10% are admitted with scholarships. The institution provides over 700 scholarships every year for students.
EFFLORESCE
Once the educational sector was stabilized the attention shifted towards K3. At that time K3 handled only a select number of projects exclusively for companies that were looking forward to establishing their companies in India. Only 5 to 6 projects were done every year due to the lesser bandwidth of the consultancy. However, each project was done with excellence as they had time and resources to concentrate on the limited projects they accepted. Later on, Mr. Kavin decided to invest in personal protective gear which was not welcomed or understood by his peers when it was started. Now, it has become very popular that they were approached by many people requesting them to supply their products. This became the genesis of Myppe which is a personal wellness product manufacturing unit of the group.
The brand was named ‘My’ because the word my has an invisible significance. It has a subtle power that gives people a sense of ownership making them feel indifferent to the brand they use.
Mr. Kavin shares a quick point about marketing wherein any product has its roots in two halves. The first half is the purpose of the product and the second half is the ability of the messenger or marketeer to tell its story. If the messenger taking it to the people is good, half the work is done. All possibilities are amplified to a higher level. But if the messenger fails the product fails too. At Myppe he is the messenger who imagines, narrates, and inspires people to evolve their personal lifestyle and bring about innovation in their practices. Now K3 was also stabilized and started to run smoothly with the resources.
However, Mr. Kavin felt that he had stepped away from his education roots and moved a bit away from his passion. He practiced a periodic movement while getting involved with the industry. Each industry that was set up had its involvement for a span of 5 years after which it is stabilized and Mr. Kavin goes on to focus on the next one.
Now that he had worked on K3 and had it stabilized he again shifted his involvement back to education. He focused 2 years on the education systems and felt that our fabrication was not rooted well. He noticed that the 3 years a child gets during the college years is not enough time for them to develop the necessary skills. Hence he founded a skill development company called WI Skill. He combined K3 with the skill development company and emerged it as a separate sector focusing on skill, sports, and fitness.
So the consecutive 5 years of his time he spent on this particular venture just when the pandemic hit the globe in 2020. The sports sector was on hold however the demand for skills continued. So the skills sector is still active and is being continued in auto mode. The process was put at a standstill and the focus shifted towards MYPPE where they received countless demands to supply the personal protective equipment to various organizations. Throughout the pandemic, they supplied the products to 7 state governments across India. Apart from this they also supplied the product to WHO and the UN during the outbreak.
It struck him that these incidents cannot be completely eradicated but the best we could do is practice safe lifestyle habits.
MyPPE became the world’s first personal wellness product manufacturing company to supply safety kits around the globe. He also exclaimed that on the day of our interview he was in Chennai to demonstrate to a few companies the benefits of distributing safety products to its workers.
He showed us the safety products manufactured by MYPPE which were, UV pocket sanitizer and the face mask specially customized to prevent poisonous gases and pollution from affecting the organs. The Pocket UV sanitizer is a made-in-India product that is capable of killing germs in just 40 secs. The mask has a customized design specially made to protect us from inhaling harmful gases and atmospheric pollutants and can be used for 6 months duration. The mask is being distributed to workers at petroleum companies to protect them from poisonous substances.
Even though MYPPE is a budding organization that is just 6 months of age, the success of the impeccable products manufactured has gathered the attention of numerous clients. Currently, myppe is associated with more than 100 people and around 97 institutions are regular clients of the company. MYPPE has many achievements in a short span that they met with the foreign affairs minister of Dubai regarding the product presentation. The Karnataka government has decided to make Myppe products a part of their wellness system.
Mr. Kavin happily exclaimed to us that everyone in the organization and also the consumers are proud to witness an Indian company self-designing an entire product that is capable of hitting the global markets. Let the world know we are capable of competing in the world trade too and we have the expertise to venture out beyond this. Currently, MYPPE has industries operating in Coimbatore, Bangalore, and Pune. As a quick tip for sales and marketing aspirants, he added that any product that is launched should be done at the correct time. It should not be done in advance or after the demand is over.
As a conclusion ritual, he provided us a few golden words of advice.
“Time is the most important asset and the threshold separating man and god. So always have command over your time, Your past has power over your present and the present is the vital part influencing your future “.