The Rural Boardroom

We imagine the Rural sector to be one big organization whose purpose of existence is to grow, grow within, better the lives of people who are a part of it. More importantly, this organization is not working for anyone else but for itself. Just like in a social construct of a family, all the endeavours and maneuvers of the family are for ensuring a better future for all it’s family members. For each family member who is at a different stage in his life, the parameters of growth, happiness & satisfaction are different at different points in time. For instance, for an ‘elderly person’ in the family, the ‘growth’ is in terms of ‘contentment’, ‘feeling wanted’ and ‘good physical health’. In order to create an environment that caters to these needs of the elderly person, the family provides for certain amenities like – giving him/her company (being with them) or making him part of a social group maybe of his own age group that meets often and talk their hearts out. For bringing the feeling of being wanted, the family involves them in decision-making process and seeks their guidance in affairs that the elderly can easily relate to and contribute due to their experience of life. For good physical health the family takes them for regular physical checkups and during failing health, the family ensures their treatment at healthcare centers like hospitals. Even for making this happen, the family has to have a roadmap/plan, processes defined to execute the plan. For eg. For being with the elderly person, the family member has to define his own timetable, balancing between his/her own professional commitments and family commitments and set side a time to be with them; the story can go on with other parameters that could define the goals of other stakeholders/ members of the family.

In the context of the organization, envisage as if the entire rural sector was one big virtual organization, surpassing geographical boundaries. All the stakeholders – whether it be the Government, private sector companies looking for growth in rural, public sector companies operating in the sector, people residing in the rural areas, consumers of the goods and services emanating from the rural sector etc. that have some connection to the rural sector are actively contributing members of this organization. All of them have a stake in this promising organization and all of them are an integral, responsible and active part of the organization. Lets call this organization as Rural Inc.

The reason for existence of any organization is to grow. Professional organizations/institutions grow in a structured, planned and methodical way, Rural Inc. has been envisaged to be one of such organizations. The Board of Directors of Rural Inc. will meet annually in ‘The Rural Boardroom’ to discuss the important issues pertaining to the Rural sector and to set the growth milestone for the next year. It is in this Rural Boardroom that would archive all the deliberations of the board meetings of the Rural Inc. and create a ‘Decision portal’ of the important decisions taken at the Annual Board meetings.

Annual General Board meeting will be a spread-out meeting of all the stakeholders of Rural Inc. where the decisions of the Board would be discussed with the stakeholders and a charter for the way forward would be chalked out.

Contributed by – Prof Anuja Agarwal, Associate Dean,Rural Management,WeSchool