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WF: The BachatNiveshBadhat was a great initiative from IDFC MF.'One Idiot' is a great step forward. What was the genesis behind this novel concept of 'One Idiot'?
Kalpen: IDFC Ltd. our parent company has a subsidiary called IDFC Foundation and the role of the Foundation is basically to look at CSR work for IDFC Ltd.Around a year back, as a part of our domain expertise of Mutual Funds and Investments we came up with the thought that there is a huge need towards creating financial freedom and literacy when it comes to dealing with money. Two trends are relevant today- the first one being that when this generation grows old and retires the social landscape will be different in terms of living independently.They will not have the social support that the oldergenerations have today.When today's generation retire the landscape will be very differentand there is a huge gap in terms of estimating what lifestyle would one have30-40 years down the lineand how does one gets ready towards it.
Secondly, finance has always remained an important yet a very boring element of our life. The youth today has not embraced the concepts of managing money with much interest. There are many options to spend money at this stage in life and the topic of saving money is boring. There are not enough incentives to save money.
Our attempt is towards managing these trends and increase awareness on how to do deal with money and be prepared to lead a life so that one is truly independent as true independence eventually comes only through money. If you have the right amount of money you can lead a life of your choice. You do not have to start rich to make money. You can take the correct steps and be successful by having enough money for your retirement.
We felt the need to anchor the initiative by reaching out to students around the country especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and towns because the gap is far more pronounced there. In partnership with IDFC Foundation, we felt that we should take our expertise in the area of financial services and use it to disseminate knowledge about money management. Our intent was to equip college going kids who are about to graduate with the right knowledge around the time they get theirfirst salary cheque, so that the chances of them adopting these principles and living with them go up significantly.
The kids and youth today have many ways and means of absorbing knowledge. The conventional college lecture route would not give desired results. We realized that to make a deep impact in terms of their habits we need to do sessions which are insightful, engaging and enriching else this program will not be successful.We need a lot of word of mouth publicity happening from groups of students who have done the first round of interaction with us. With that in mind, we decided on a movie format because movies work very well, movies also have a very scalable reach if done in a very interesting manner.Movies can also make a significant impact. So in collaboration with IDFC Foundation, we thought of making a movie with the right content and the right quality standards. It had to be professional so we zeroed in on Amol Gupte who has done landmark work around education and kids in his two earlier movies - TaareZameen Par and Stanley KaDabba. We shared the idea with him and seeing the potential of making a deep impact on the youth of the country, he collaborated with us.
The protagonist in the movie is a middle class man and his journey of life is the story. He lives a frugal life negotiating for every rupee and he is made fun of because of his habits. Thus in an entertaining manner, the movie highlights the concepts of discipline, leading the right life, savings and yet not compromising on the things that you like to do. It is a 30 minute long movie and without revealing more of the plot, I invite all of you to watch this movie, and am sure you will find every one of the 30 minutes absorbing and engaging.
Our audience basically is students who are in the graduating or in the post graduating batches probably in their last semesters. They are at a point when they would soon get a job which is the right time to influence them or impart them knowledge.
We started talking to various colleges seeking appointments and showcasing the movie. Post the movie there were many questions on personal finance. Some of the questions included :How do we save?What is insurance?How to do a KYC?How to open a DMAT account? What are stocks and bonds?
So we created a website called 'One Idiot'. It captures different dimensions of personal finance in a user friendly manner. We have cartoons, interesting visuals and videos. We are in the process of developing the content further.
WF: How are you actually taking this message to your target audience : the graduating youth?
Kalpen: Our intent from the beginning for this initiative was 'Not for Profit'. Therefore apart from IDFC Foundation being named in the movie, we have not done any branding. We would have achieved our objective if we make a meaningful impact on youngsters to start taking their first steps in terms of starting the right investment plans or having a right insurance or having a good advisor or having good saving habits.
We have also realized that 500 people who work in IDFC cannot reach out to few lakh students to whom we want to in the next 12 months. So we are also inviting volunteers who are experts in the field of financial services. At the end of the movie, there is a scripted 20 to 30 minutes message which reinforces the aim of the movie and guides the students towards the right path in personal finance and gives more clarity around questionsthat may arise.
On the website we have "Become a volunteer" section and we are very happy that we have invited almost 250 people in the last week to join as volunteers. Those who are like minded and those who want to work with us on our CSR framework can join us in the initiative. So far we have covered 65 colleges and we would have covered roughly around 9000 students who are all in their last semesters. We have a Facebook page and we would have got about 50000 hits on Youtube.More than 50000 people would have seen our message if you consider the physical and virtual world together message in the last 40 days since the rollout of the movie.
WF: In what way are some IFAs involved in this wonderful initiative? How can more IFAs get involved, if they wish?
Kalpen: Our idea is open to anyone who can conduct post movie sessions aligned with our thought process of giving the right advice. Many treasury managers, senior CFOs, advisors, financial planners andbankers have got inspired and agreed to join this initiative. Some of them have access to colleges and educational institutions through their contacts and so they are helping us in reaching out to these few colleges. Some of them are joining us to conduct the session where we have got the tie-up in place but we need speakers for the post movie session. A lot of financial planners are connecting with us and helping us out through their contacts, their experience and their wisdom where they not only open their doors for us to reach out the colleges but they also have been taking over conducting the sessions after the initial sessions are held by our team.
Any advisor who would like to involve himself/herself with this CSR initiative, has contacts in a college and can conduct the post movie session is welcome to become a volunteer for our One Idiot initiative.
WF : This is truly a wonderful initiative. While the Government and regulators have been talking about including financial literacy courses at the college level for some time now, you have shown the way in which you can actually deliver a high impact message to college students, without waiting for any regulatory or Government support - by relying instead on the strength of your convictions and great execution. Heartiest congratulations and all the very best!
Wealth Forum spoke to a couple of the early IFA volunteers to get their feedback on this initiative. Here is what they have to say :
NeerajChauhan, The Financial Mall, Delhi
This is one of the best education initiatives I have seen in the industry. The target audience is just right - 22-24 year olds who are completing their post graduation and entering their first jobs. The movie is great - it teaches all the essentials of prudent personal financial management in such an engaging manner - with all the masala that we like in movies - that everyone can easily relate to it and understand its messages. Whichever colleges I have taken this to, it connects brilliantly with the audience. They all feel that the characters in the movie are real - people they can relate to - and therefore the message goes down very well with them.
In the post movie interactions, I have found that even management students who learn so much of complex maths, know so little of basic personal financial management. The impact of inflation and compounding on their financial lives is something they haven't come across nor thought about. The other big lesson they get from this movie is that to become rich, you don't have to start big - its important to start early, even if you start small. These interactions and the responses to the movie show us exactly how big a gap exists in the financial knowledge of graduates and post-graduates, and what a wonderful job One Idiot is doing in helping bridge this vital gap.
MukeshDedhia, Ghalla&Bhansali Securities, Mumbai
When I first saw One Idiots, I was simply thrilled - it is so well made and so effective. The target audience that One Idiot addresses is absolutely the correct one. If we are able to educate youngsters just before they get their first salary cheque, we will help put them on the road to financial success, rather than watching them fall first and then come to us advisors. I have done only one session so far in a college and the response has been fantastic; I am now drawing up plans to do many more sessions in this college itself - which has over 3000 students, and then will take it to other colleges in Mumbai as well.
It is my firm belief that all of us who are connected with the financial services industry owe a duty to our profession to give back to the community from which we have got so much. Becoming a volunteer for One Idiot is a fantastic way to achieve this objective. I would urge each advisor - big or small - to think seriously about this important duty that we all have towards our community and participate in a big way in this wonderful initiative.
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