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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meet\u00a0the\u00a0founders<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Priti Shah\u00a0:\u00a0<\/strong>With her decade long stint in managing Bright Horizon\u2019s 300-kids daycare for Johnson & Johnson\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nupur Dalal : <\/strong>Behind this twin-mom\u2019s 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\u2019s trust and trust comes from transparency. Nupur ensures centre operations are run on their two important values of Transparency and Integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chirag Shah<\/strong> : 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ProEves got a chance to get in conversation with the founder couple of LBW \u2013 Chirag Shah & Nupur Dalal along with their Chief Learning Officer Priti Mody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Question : Chirag,\u00a0why\u00a0have\u00a0you\u00a0chosen\u00a0to\u00a0remain\u00a0in\u00a0Pune?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chirag: That\u2019s 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 cr\u00e8ches 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Question : How are you seeing corporates react to recent creche mandates?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Question : Priti, Nupur, How difficult is it to replicate quality standards as you scale up?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Priti: Back in the US, I\u2019d have said it\u2019s very simple and process-driven. But in India, it takes a lot of efforts to make people follow processes. Over the years, I\u2019ve 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\u2019ve captured what they\u2019ve learnt. This is also our gold-standard or commitment to parents and HRs with enough audits and checks on assured vs delivered standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s training programme ensures they learn on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n