مانوج Chawla

An entrepreneurial journey as a Founder & Managing Partner of ‘Confluence Minds’ - an attempt to create a cohesive ecosystem for all stakeholders in the education system viz: Management, Teachers, Students, Parents, Vendors, Professional Service Providers.

I am responsible to blueprint the India
business strategy, forge strategic alliances and drive the P&L of the business in line with goals set by the
Board of Directors. I am accountable for product innovation, scale expansion and augmentation of sales on
a Pan-India basis.
The company is an early-stage education software and services company in B2B (Brand: Pengala) and B2C
space (Brand: Vidyanext), poised to raise its 1st
round of external funding in 2016. The key focus is on
upscaling the customer base through a large number of Vidyanext centers in Bengaluru and Gurgaon.
Vidyanext offers personalized coaching in an Ed-tech environment for school students
Key Achievements till date in current job:
* Product Development:
o Created the product roadmap and implementation strategy with inputs from all stake
holders
o Forged strategic alliances with Content providers for integration of best-in-class
curriculum along with the internally developed Pedagogy
o Engineering & Software Development: Defining User Experience (UX), and alignment
to philosophy and pedagogical requirements
* Process Automation: Guiding the development of Standard Operating Processes (SOP) and
creating the User Specifications for automation of critical ‘scale readiness’ processes
* Customer Satisfaction: Tireless focus by being directly involved in meeting customers (parents),
consumers (students) and gaining first hand feedback on gaps in implementation.
* Developed business model to achieve Unit Profitability while maintaining a focus on ‘Cash on
Budget’ constraint, as the key metrics for growth
* Strategized and facilitated the plan for the business through a combination of ‘Company Owned
Company Operated’, as well as ‘Managed Premises’ arrangements
* Prepared the framework and business model alongwith all legal safeguards to protect Intellectual
property, while building a successful service and retail model for the Vidyanext centers; by
driving competitive differentiation and profit.
* Leadership development : Recruited, and mentored, 3 key members in the management team, and
created a seamlessly blended group with the inherited team
* Overall: provide direction and leadership towards the achievement of the organization’s
philosophy and annual goals while owning the complete P&L to achieve commercial excellence.
Achievements in previous roles:
At Everonn Education, as President, I lead the channel strategy of the company; the driving force in
integrating product & service offerings through a franchised network. Constructed the operative model;
conceptualized and oversaw the creation of the IT backbone ERP; created cross-product utilization of
capacity; enabled a VSAT based delivery model.
At NIS Sparta, as SBU Head of NIS ACADEMY, developed and executed the entry strategy for
employability linked management education; collaborated with formal education universities & institutions,
leveraged the PPP Model & government support from various ministries, in delivering employability and
skill development programs through a network of centers in Tier I and II cities across India
Prior to the above, was a key contributor to the success stories at NIIT, Aptech, Modi Xerox. Also worked
briefly in Dubai in the IT Education space