Founded in 2012, Little Big World is a chain of corporate childcare centres across Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Baramati and Satara. Catering to 1000+ daycare seats across its onsite and nearsite daycares, Little Big World boasts of a roster of MNC, IT, manufacturing clients for whom they run onsite childcare centres as well as offer bulk seats at their nearsite daycares.

We got chatting with the founders about their journey, focus on corporate childcare, what differentiates them amidst competition and their outlook on the corporate childcare space.

Meet the founders

Priti Shah : With her decade long stint in managing Bright Horizon’s 300-kids daycare for Johnson & Johnson’s HQ, New Brunswick, USA, is also experienced in getting that centre audited on NAEYC.org norms. This experience has helped them convert the art of childcare into a disciplined science with internationally-benchmarked SOPs, policies, audits, trainings and supervision to ensure every staff attends to every centre as per the committed standards.

Nupur Dalal : Behind this twin-mom’s ever-smiling face lies the grit and determination to get the right people to follow standardized processes. In charge of talent, quality control and centre operations, Nupur firmly believes they are in the business of winning a mom’s trust and trust comes from transparency. Nupur ensures centre operations are run on their two important values of Transparency and Integrity.

Chirag Shah : Chirag quit his decade-long banking career to start Little Big World when he saw his female colleagues quit and not return post-maternity. In charge of Business Development, Chirag believes corporate childcare a sensitive service that needs sustainable growth in close collaboration with all stakeholders.

ProEves got a chance to get in conversation with the founder couple of LBW – Chirag Shah & Nupur Dalal along with their Chief Learning Officer Priti Mody.

Question : Chirag, why have you chosen to remain in Pune?

Chirag: That’s not true. We are now operational in Whitefield, Bangalore and DLF Cybercity, Hyderabad, aiming to grow deeper in both cities and we have been managing large onsite factory crèches for Ferrero in Baramati and Phaltan in Satara. But yes, we started off and scaled up in Pune with about 1000 seats and over 10+ centres. It is a great micro-market with large IT parks, factories, offices. We have been piggy-riding the growth of some deep relationships we have with developers and corporates here.

Question : How are you seeing corporates react to recent creche mandates?

Chirag: We are in the midst of several RFPs for onsite/ nearsite daycare contracts across cities. Companies are definitely waking up to the need. For now, most companies seem to be taking the easier route – blocking 10-20-30 seats in the common IT campuses we operate from and increasingly paying 30-100% of the fees for their employees. But yes, we are also sensing many boardroom/ whiteboard discussions for onsite daycares. One of our clients Suzlon, for instance, setup an onsite daycare on 1st July 2017 – the exact implementation date under Maternity Benefits Amendment Act. Cummins, our largest partner, has scaled up its onsite daycares across its offices and factories to almost 300 seats.

Question : Priti, Nupur, How difficult is it to replicate quality standards as you scale up?

Priti: Back in the US, I’d have said it’s very simple and process-driven. But in India, it takes a lot of efforts to make people follow processes. Over the years, I’ve had to improvise our trainings to get the message across. Now, we use a 300-screen e-tutorial with how-to videos in multi-lingual instructions for our caretakers and teachers with enough game-based tests to ensure they’ve captured what they’ve learnt. This is also our gold-standard or commitment to parents and HRs with enough audits and checks on assured vs delivered standards.

Nupur: Finally it boils down to the people who have to follow the processes. So at Little Big World, we hire for Integrity, not Ability. So long as we see the right intent to learn and do good, Priti’s training programme ensures they learn on the job.

Question : Tell us about some of the corporate crèches you manage.

Nupur: Almost half the kids we manage are at onsite crèches, the largest being for Cummins group where we manage almost 300 kids across their factories and offices. It’s a strong symbiotic relationship we’ve nurtured and grown over years, starting with just 3 kids in 2013. For every new crèche contract, Cummins has benchmarked us on quality and price with nationally renowned crèche operators and chosen us for a closer match on mutual organization values of respect, integrity and will to succeed. Over the years, we’ve handled multiple challenges by being on the same side of the table and looking at what’s right for the child versus what’s right for either organization or parents or the staff. Another interesting crèche we run is for Ferrero’s chocolate factory for over 200 kids in Baramati. It’s our most fulfilling work as we’ve overcome some unique challenges around malnourishment, health, lack of focus on education, incorrect hygiene or discipline practices at home. As a parent once said, “we walk 2 inches above the ground back in our village coz our kid goes to this school!”

To know more about the Little Big World Centers, click here.