Nidhi Pant - One Team, Seven Superpowers

Nidhi Pant is Co-Founder of Science For Society - S4S Technologies. Nidhi works at the intersection of agriculture, gender, energy access, and financial inclusion. S4S trains smallholder women farmers to be entrepreneurs by providing the right combination of technology, finance, and market and increases their household income by 100-200% annually. S4S is working with more than 20,00 farmers and 800 women entrepreneurs, and in the process saving more than 300,000 tons of CO2 from entering the environment. 

Nidhi is the winner of the Women Transforming India Awards by NITI Aayog & United Nations (UN) and has also been listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia and India. She's also the winner of the Unilever Young Entrepreneur Award 2019 by Unilever and the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. She was also named 'Emerging Innovator of the Year' at the inaugural edition of the Economic Times Women Leadership Awards (ETPWLA)

Nidhi holds a bachelor's in Chemical Technology from the Institute of Chemical Technology.

 
A Few Quotes From This Episode

• "We were a group of college students working on different ideas, with different approaches and strengths but united with the common purpose to use our scientific knowledge in service to people."
• "All of us have very unique and different strengths that are very complementary."
• "After seven years, I'm still learning more and more - I am never done."

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

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Transcript

Note: Voice-to-text transcriptions are about 90% accurate 

Scott Allen  0:00  
Okay everybody welcome to the Phronesis podcast today I have Nidhi  Pant, and she is the co-founder of science for society S4S Technologies. Nidhi works at the intersection of agriculture, gender, energy access, and financial inclusion S4S Technologies is a near farm gate food processing platform converting farm losses to value-added products for the f&b industry. As far as products save time, cost, and energy for industrial customers S4S trains smallholder women, and farmers, to be entrepreneurs by providing the right combination of technology, finance, and market and increasing their household income by 100 to 200% annually. S4S is working with over 20,000 farmers and 800 women entrepreneurs and in the process, they save over 300,000 tons of co2 from entering the environment, you are doing good work in the world. She's a winner of the Women Transforming India Awards. She has also been listed in Forbes 30 under 30, Asia, and India. She's the winner of Unilever's Young Entrepreneur Award and 2019. She was also named Emerging Innovator of the Year at the inaugural edition of the economic times women leadership awards. He holds a Bachelor's in chemical technology from the Institute of Chemical Technology. What else do people need to know about you? You have incredible things going on. Thank you so much for being here today. And what else do we need to know about you?

Nidhi Pant  1:33  
Thanks, Scott...another thing that everyone wants to should know about me is that I'm a Bollywood buff. So I watch a lot of cinema Indian movies with song and dance is something that I enjoy. And I love my pet. She's called Toto I got transformed to be a pet parent recently,

Scott Allen  1:56  
A pet and a fan of the cinema, Bollywood, I love it. I absolutely love it. You know, I have a colleague at John Carroll. And her father was a director of films in Bollywood. And I, of course, do not know his name. But we were talking about that. And she was sharing with me, that whole industry because I knew so little about it. But that's awesome. I also love films, tell us a little bit about the origin story of what it is that you are leading. And I know you're co-leading you're a co-founder. So this is a team effort. But tell us a little bit about the origin story because you're doing incredible good in the world.

Nidhi Pant  2:38  
Thank you. I think the origin story is as and as interesting as the business. We were a group of college students working on different ideas, having different approaches and strengths but united with the common purpose where we wanted to use our scientific knowledge and service to people. So that was something that motivated all of us. And we were all working on different prototypes. And we believe that it would be more powerful for all of us to come together and work on one big idea and solve a big problem. And that's when we decided to unite and form us for this stands for Science for Society.

Scott Allen  3:24  
Science for Society. Now talk about some of the differences your description almost made me think of The Avengers, which is in the States, you know, the superheroes, what were some of the superpowers that each of you brought to the table that has helped create this organization doing great, good?

Nidhi Pant  3:42  
Sure, all of us have different very unique different strengths and are very complementary. Also, one of us is a great innovator. My colleague [insert name]. So he likes to do things hands-on, can make or solve any problem just using his technical skills. So everything what a college doesn't teach you is something that he does. And his thinking was really out of the box. That actually is his strength, my other colleague [insert name] is a very applicable leader, where we have learned so many things from him where he has no amount of ego he looks at always the brighter side, and people he respects people fundamentally whether they come from different backgrounds, caste or language but his approach is always consistently looking at those superpowers and others so his superpower is discovering superpower and other people. My other colleague who is Ganesh, his strength is to get everything executed. So managing people day to day tasks, looking at different ways through which things should be done, and in the right way, getting the team aligned, and solving very difficult problems, we work in a very difficult terrain where things can be really challenging both in terms of operations as well as people management. So his superpower is execution. My other colleagues [insert names] are very customer-oriented. They like to look at customers at the center and then build up the model. My colleague [insert name] is really great in partnerships, I bring a business and financial lens into the problem and look at how things can be integrated for impact as well as profit. So people and profit with purpose both so these are, and I think my superpower is definitely the energy that I bring to the team. Yes, we have to do this!

Scott Allen  6:12  
Well, that's wonderful. Energy. I just released a podcast with he's a chemist by training. But he teaches at the Center for Creative Leadership in the United States. His name is Todd Deal. For listeners, you could go listen to that episode. But he shared this term. In chemistry, there's a term called activation energy. And it's the energy required to transform and obviously, given your background, you probably are familiar with this, this concept. But yes, you need that spark, you need that person to help transform the molecules. Well, what have you learned about yourself as a leader in this process? Because obviously, the work that you and the team are doing is really, really making a difference in the world. What have you learned about yourself that maybe a few years ago, you weren't aware of?

Nidhi Pant  7:04  
Definitely, I think the thing that I've learned about myself is that I am I'm very resilient. I never believed in myself. And I thought that when I graduated with an engineering degree, I was also like my, other classmates who were looking at really very successful, couriers. This should pay well as well as give you good brand names. And I cannot believe that today I am working in [insert name]. But I'm born caught up in as I am in bought up and I have been raised in Bombay, I was a city girl, I could not believe that I could go to [insert name] them, 300 kilometers from Bombay, eight hours drive, and work in the villages, I couldn't believe that about myself that I will be able to last year with different backgrounds with a different language and people and people would accept me, as well as in the whole process. I wasn't sure whether I will be able to put so many years, I think when I was young, I wanted to achieve everything really quickly. I didn't appreciate the long game and thought, like the time period for every experimental life is three, three years maximum. And today, after seven years, I'm still learning more and more than I'm never done. So these are the two things. One is that I wasn't sure whether I will be able to play the long game. And I will because I thought I was very fickle-minded to keep on moving to the next thing. The second is that I will be able to adjust in a very diverse background. 

Scott Allen  8:55  
Well, I love your framing of the long game, because obviously you are working on and trying to address some centuries-old in some cases, norms, and shifting some of those norms. And I guess what I would love to explore a little bit more in our time is to talk a little bit about the opportunity that you're addressing, what is the opportunity? What is that ideal future state that you will see that we could be living into? And then what have you learned about that? What are some of the barriers that you see that we have to figure out I mean, I love the kind of imagery of that team. You know, this is the individual who thinks outside of the box and this is the individual who was really focused on the customer being at the center and I am the spark that takes us into the opportunity that you're addressing because I have to imagine the resilience and the grit and the sticktoitiveness that's required from the work that you're doing. You because again, you're pushing on some very old norms, very old norms that are entrenched in societies.

Nidhi Pant  10:08  
I think that's a really nice way of putting it. Very importantly, the big vision that we are chasing is a more equitable future for farmers and a place where we see a very transformative food system, where there is no food wastage, and everyone has access to good food. And at the same time, the men being at the center of this drive this, the men have the same opportunities as men and have the same decision-making as men. So, three things that we are targeting are a lesser amount of carbon dioxide, and greenhouse gases in the environment through new ways of processing. So a better food system is created, which is more planet-friendly. And also there is a lesser amount of food wastage. So that is for the environment, what our vision is, at the same time for people, it is more farmers come out of poverty, and more women are the center of decision making.

Scott Allen  11:26  
Wonderful objectives, wonderful goals that make a difference in our world. What are you seeing, I would love to hear a story of maybe you've witnessed that moment when someone's life is transformed when they build that identity that they can do this work that they can make this happen? I would love to hear that. And then what are some of the challenges that you just keep seeing day-in-day-out that you have to figure out a way around through over to get to the next level,

Nidhi Pant  11:55  
I would start by addressing the challenges. And apart from the base stage, which you would have also seen a lot of times in marketplaces or know about the state of farmers in developing countries like India, I would really want to take you through the life of a man in a village who's married young, who has kids late lives in a joint family. It's a small two-acre farm that is shared between three brothers. As more and more generations come in the land is not enough to meet the requirements of the family and the man is migrating to cities in search of alternate income options. Farming is not what viable the cause of fragmentation of the land or the women is staying at home are responsible for everything starting from what's happening at the farm working at the farm. And also what happens in the household she is laborious has to do all sorts of work, her day starts early, she has to take care of her kids provide for them manage resources, whatever is available. And in some cases or I would say like I say most cases also deal with men who are not contributing to the household income because they spend everything on alcohol or other little activities. So the cash is difficult to come inside. And in this situation, the woman has no means or has to go out outside her home to talk to others maximum proximity is of the labor of the neighbors that are there in her village. So she's really sometimes doesn't have a mobile phone and is dependent on the male member who cannot travel outside the village How will she travel the only way to commute is that to a personal vehicle like a motorcycle or a state-owned bus where there are so many patriarchal and taboos and as well as norms in the in these villages where women cannot go alone out outside should be accompanied by a male member. And these are also sometimes stemming from a really good incident like past incidents that have put women in very vulnerable and risky positions. They have this fear. And in the conclusion, all of this is that they have never found that confidence. They don't have any agency. They are intuitively so smart but are always reminded that they are not equal to the other males and there is no rational reason for that. It is just something that they see around and something that they try to they have accepted that they are subpar to me male members, and they need the consent of the male member for everything. So her life is actually in granularity and I can keep going on and on her life is difficult, the way she's raising her kids. But at the same time, she's always there's a big brighter side of it, where she also has this willpower as well as strong intent to work and take her family out of it. If she has not been educated, she wants her children to study in good schools. She wants to do everything for her family selflessly. And she is ready to accommodate or work whatever, her limited barriers the challenges that she's having, she's ready to take them up and work in the constraints that she is present. So this is the situation I feel what we do is just look at the world in a more equitable manner, where we do not believe that everyone is equal, the starting point is not people have to be provided with what they need. Not saying that this is how it should be, they need to come to that level, we fundamentally believe that we need to go to their level and solve for them with whatever they require.

Scott Allen  16:26  
So basically, you're meeting them where they are, and the messaging isn't too far a bridge from where they are, is that accurate?

Nidhi Pant  16:34  
Yes. We don't expect them to be at a level and say, hey, you can enter our ecosystem only if you have these 10 criteria we give them what they want, they need. Firstly, the first constraint that we were solving is that they require employment or work throughout the year, not in bits and pieces, and they also want this to be done by staying home because the other alternate options are either traveling outside the village for they have to stay outside their home for a longer period of time, say 7 am to 7 pm and that should be something which is an easier task for them to execute and they should not feel tied threatened by using technology. So, we said yes, this food waste is at the farm gate can we actually solve this at the source and who are the farmers he saw all the women working on the field. So we said that we need to solve for them and not want them if we want them as a stakeholder, we have to go to their situation which is design thinking solve for them put the customer at the center. So we initially started by providing only technology, but we realized that to solve all these three bigger problems of wastage, poverty, ordinary income farmers, and clean technology for processing, we need to create an entire ecosystem that transforms farmers to become processes, because the farmers are growing the produce, but they are not earning anything by processing they are just selling the fresh produce. Sometimes that also was in losses because of perishability lack of infrastructure, and no storage price fluctuation. So a lot of times they also lose their produce also processing is done by small and medium scale enterprises. The value addition that happens is converting potato to two potato chips, potato chips are 130 rupees INR per kg and potato is five rupees per kg. So this big 60 times difference is the capturing of that value is done by another player in this ecosystem. Why cannot farmers have that work growing the produce get this opportunity to start processing and earn an additional alternate additional source of income? So that's where we started working at the intersection of all these things. And as much as it sounds very topical or the buzzwords I truly believe that the beauty of this organization is solved is because we are solving so many of these things are to one solution, providing cleantech, a solar-powered food processing device at the foundation for women to process the product, give them a shot, additional income, doubling down their household income, aggregating this produce and selling it to food and beverage industry

Scott Allen  19:49  
And helping to I imagine, transform in the process certain mindsets about who does what, who can do what, and how. Helping people gain that confidence that it can be different. And that we can identify solutions that will. I mean, I love your framing of kind of the Win-Win-Win-Win. And we could probably name some other wins. Tell me a story. Tell me a story about someone that you've interacted with, where that's kind of been the case, we met this individual or this family. And this was the situation. And through our work, resulted in X. I mean, I'd love to hear a story because it sounds fascinating.

Nidhi Pant  20:33  
This is [insert name]. She is from the village of [insert name]. I would want to describe her as a women leader, but the right word would be for her to be a giver. She relentlessly works for other women in her village, also giving them the support and opportunity ideas and taking that leap of faith taking that risk, and has good support from her village, and other village members because of how she has been the risk-taker, the dark horse in the village as a woman, so many years back, taking a lot of unconventional routes. And we met her. And at that point in time, she was struggling, she had challenges that can relate to financial challenges. And she took up this charge of processing, our first set of units were set up in her village, these four remind us to come together and work and provide the data I used to lead it, I literally, we used to literally get updates that they have finished the task in half the time. And we're asking more, and they are very diligent in their work, they also earn a good amount of income. But the most satisfying thing for me was that from the income that she earned, she was able to send her child [insert name] to a college in the city for pursuing his education. And this same child today works with us as a logistics and warehousing manager. And we've seen this entire arc of how this symptom has been catalytic in changing the economical situation of her family.

Scott Allen  22:28  
Yeah, her family and her son. And that's such a wonderful story that now her son is actually working with you to advance the mission.

Nidhi Pant  22:38  
Absolutely. And that also shows he could get his study journalism, he could get employment anywhere. But he's also putting his feet back in class. And that's where you see this, the circle to be complete. And I think we're very fortunate to have seen such stories where these women today are flagbearers for their families to come out of poverty.

Scott Allen  23:05  
Well in what a wonderful mission to have, again, just how you're describing it, there are four or five things happening. Talk about innovation. I love anytime I'm in conversation with someone where what they're working on, has multiple wins across multiple spaces. And that effort is producing so many different, good, wonderful results for the people the community for the world. I just have so much respect for what you're working on what you're building, what you're creating you and that team with their superpowers. As we kind of wind down our time today, what I would love to know is what have you been reading, and consuming? Or streaming? What do you listen to? Does that keep you in a state of learning that keeps you in a state of developing your own skills and growing? Is there something that's caught your eye in recent times that you've really enjoyed?

Nidhi Pant  24:08  
Yeah, I think someone who has just graduated with a bachelor's, I felt very insecure about not being capable laughs a lot of times should lead to lead and being self-doubt, I think and I think from day one, my mission has always been that my the core the meat, which is the knowledge can never be less so I learned both from the field I and experiences and execution and also by consuming ample amount of content about a wide variety of topics. So I enjoy business as well as finance and he's simply drawn towards technology. So I've been reading the cold start problem I have it here with me. It's bad To share, which gives us a lot of good methodologies on and structured ways of approaching, going to market, our business. So these are the three sorts of different areas where I learned and I learned from both podcasts. I learned from Twitter, I think that these days, Twitter threads are great ways of learning, I also subscribe to a lot of sub-stacks on a weekly basis, and I'm enjoying my reading. So I really like long-form reading, and I consume various different sources and authors that I read. I also like to read about other businesses and what their journey has been. 

Scott Allen  25:47  
I love that you've kind of curated the learning. Sometimes people communicate about social media as a toxic place. And of course, it can be, I think we can also curate, for instance, my Twitter feed is primarily people I would like to consume. So what I'm consuming on Twitter is primarily kind of uplifting educational, thought leaders that really helped me think differently, right? So curating that, no, we're not creating an echo chamber, necessarily, but we're curating our learning in a way or we're using that tool as a learning tool. And then I also just love how you're thinking about looking to other businesses, and what connections can we make from over here or there that might apply in our space in our world. And that work is just fascinating to me as well. You know, on this podcast, I talk to a lot of academics, and I love speaking with academics, I just do, but just as much I love speaking with people who are out in the world each and every day, making the world a better place who are engaging in leadership. I'm so thankful for our time today, I'm so thankful for the work that you and your team are doing to make the world a better place to literally transform lives and help communities thrive. Because at times, like we said, sometimes what the traditions have been or what the norms have been in those communities, isn't helping them thrive. And how do we help that work be done? Right?

Nidhi Pant  27:22  
Absolutely. I do believe that. This is a shared responsibility. I do believe I'm very aware of my privilege. I do believe that we collect if this is the world would be a better place. And we want to use our lives or our superpowers in the right way.

Scott Allen  27:44  
I'm happy that we have superheroes like you and the team. And thank you for the work that you're doing. Thank you for dropping in today and spending a little bit of time with me be well, thank you so much, Nikki, I appreciate it.

Nidhi Pant  28:01  
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Scott. Be well

Transcribed by https://otter.ai