Innovation comes with problem solving attitude, every problem has an innovative solution that needs to be recognized, recognition of problem and uncovering its solution with creative and innovative insights is what an entrepreneur does, Every entrepreneur has its own Marveling journey of finding his own solutions to the common problems and implementing towards change . There is another such journey of an entrepreneur we’ll cherish today our entrepreneur named Ankit Agarwal who founded a social enterprise in the year 2015 presently named PHOOL (flower) in KANPUR who knew a random adventure of him to River Ganga will land him towards a substantial business idea. Let’s peep into his plan that undoubtedly solved numbers of problem through one arrow.
In India, around thousands of worshipers in a day visit temple and present there sacred and pure emotions towards God by offering flowers and woven flowers garlands they bring along, these flowers eventually are collected and sadly thrown into the sacred River Ganga. River Ganga is India ‘s sacred river but is threatened by severe pollution, the factories and industries are definitely on blame but the temple’s wastes are also dominantly contributing with them. Numbers of flower waste from temples near river Ganga are Directly thrown in the river diluting the river with insecticides and pesticides which are harmful for marine life. It’s a irony of cause that one side we are worshiping the sacredness of river Ganga and at the other side we are allowing it to get polluted to it’s highest peak point, but as an entrepreneur insights work, Mr.Ankit Agarwal looked into the seriousness of the matter and identified a great business opportunity which solved the problem and created opportunities at the same time. He came up with the idea of converting these flower waste into lifestyle products like incense sticks and cones of different fragrances and flowers and natural gulal. PHOOL as no doubt struggled a lot to give this idea a great business platform but with all hope, hard work and faith, it has now grown it’s family from 2 to many, and have developed a Superb market base and above that they have till date recycled 11060 tonnes of flowers, employed 73 women on daily basis, have offset 11 tonnes of pesticides, and were able to sent 19 children to school. They have also received various awards for same, some of which were IIM INDORE KALPVRIKSHA 2016, ISP I Diya challenge and more of them.
PHOOL collects 8.4 tonnes of flower waste from temples of UTTAR PRADESH on daily basis ,then it converts the waste into charcoal -free incense sticks, organic vermicompost and biodegradable packing materials ,these incense sticks are handcrafted by their women flowercyclers , employing women for such great work is a remarkable intiative, it helps them to earn and live a healthy lifestyle, by working with PHOOL these women were able to send their children to school. Business models like PHOOL are perfect example of sustainable and eco-friendly business platforms ,our curiosity may drive us to the question “how did that entrepreneur came up with this idea ” well that’s a story to be heard too; It all started on the auspicious day of makar sankranti , when Mr Ankit Agarwal and his friend went on an adventure to ghats of Ganga,they could see the worshipers performing Suryamanaskar, some of them were simply meditating while others were watching the beauty of river, but there was another of it, they couldn’t unsee the squalor at the river Ganga , despite all these squalor and grubbiness, adding up to it they saw number of flowers being thrown into river Frivolously from temples realising upto it, it bought him to think About substantial solution for it, and there after months of research and rational thinking he came up with the idea of PHOOL.
Business should start shifting it’s focus on sustainable growth and should contribute to the development of country, India needs more such projects like PHOOL. This business model is an inspiration story for all us, it drives us to make action for our own created problem. We can also become a problem solver and can contribute to the good of society and country, all that requires is a conscious mind which can think of solutions rather than ranting on problems, I would definitely say Mr. Ankit Agarwal was a real worshiper as through his actions and business, he had collected blessings from Ganga and worshiped the river in a real sense.
