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Executive Interviews: Interview with Vivekanadan on Bottom of the Pyramid
November 2008
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By Prema Ramachandran
Vivekanadan Former CEO of South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies 
As far as NDDB was concerned, I had
worked with two of my classmates in
the NDDB to explore the
opportunities to set up fruit and
vegetable coops as part of our
management training project. It was
an exciting project and we really
looked forward to the opportunity to
work in this new sector. However,
our dealings with the NDDB top brass
gave me the feeling that NDDB was
too much rigid in its thinking on
cooperatives andmany of the features
of the Anand Pattern cooperatives
had become articles of faith and one
felt that there will be resistance to
new ideas.Much later, Tushaar Shah
showed how Anand Pattern has
"core" features and "auxiliary"
features and NDDB tended to mix up
the two and treat all the Anand
pattern features as sacrosanct and
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non-negotiable. I thinkmy gut feel has
been proved right and NDDB has
failed to make a success of its coop
intervention in Fruits and Vegetables.
SIFFS was a once-in-a-lifetime kind
of opportunity and I was lucky to
land it. It was not that I was the only
person who sensed this. Many others
in my batch also sensed this. This is
reflected in that at least six of us in a
batch of 41 (who passed the two year
course) applied for the SIFFS job. It
included Sanjoy Ghose who was
later tragically killed by ULFA. It is
not to say that all the six were serious
about the job, but still there was
recognition that SIFFS represented a
special opportunity. Only Suresh
Raghavan and me were actually keen
on the job. Suresh was actually
offered the job and I was wait-listed.
He was somewhat uncertain about
taking it because he was one of the
few married IRMANs and wondered
whether it was a risk. The fact that I
was keen on the job must have also
swayed his decision to decline the
offer and let me have the job. While SIFFS represented a huge
opportunity it was also said to be a
high risk venture as it was a start up
and the promoters were not well
known. However, I did not somehow
think too much of the risks. This was
because Dr.Kurien himself had
recommended the organization to
IRMA for designation and was
reputed to have visited the first coop of
the SIFFS network in the mid 1970s
and was said to be friendly to the
group of organizers behind SIFFS. In
addition, I had the reference of my
friend and classmate Suresh who
knew some of the SIFFS promoters
and had actually encouraged them to
recruit an IRMAN. With respect to risk, a professional
does not necessarily lose if the
organization he chooses to work with
is not successful. It is the learning
and value addition that takes place in
the skills and knowledge of the
professional that is crucial for his
future. So, even if an organization or
venture goes under, the professional
may come out of it with rich
experience and add to his market
value. So, the learning potential of an
organization is of higher importance
than whether its business is likely to
succeed or not. As far as the salary was concerned,
the SIFFS offer was on par with that
of NDDB in Anand. So, even salary
wise it could not be said that I was
making any big sacrifice at that time.
Of course, this was not true
subsequently. Over the years, SIFFS
could not keep up with the
extraordinary inflation in salaries of
professionals, and my salary has been
among the lowest in my batch for
quite sometime. But that is a different
story. Once you are in a leadership
role, then you have to set the example
and you cannot allow personal
interests to be the determinant of all
your decisions. -
Can you briefly sum up the work
done by you in SIFFS for the last 26
years?
I must start with a caveat that it is
difficult to separate out my personal
contribution because: (i) as
administrative head, I have been
involved in almost all activities, but
rarely did anything on my own, (ii)
many professionals have worked in
SIFFS over the years making major
contributions and (iii) a number of
external resource persons were
involved in many of the programs,
especially in the earlier years. So, the
following list indicates what work
SIFFS has done when I was present,
rather than something that I can claim
personal credit for.
- Introduction and commercialization
of marine plywood boats as
alternatives to country boats for
artisanal fishermen on the south west
coast
- Development of a wide range of
boat models in plywood and
fiberglass
- R&D initiatives in artificial reefs,
fishing gear improvements, safety at
sea, etc.
- Development of a network of 18
boat yards manufacturing marine
plywood and fiberglass boats
- Direct import of Out Board Motors
and spares and running of a network
of 25 service stations along the South
Indian coast
- Organizing primary fish marketing
societies and district federations in
many parts of South India
- Running a microcredit program
which is the largest in the fisheries
sector in India with a current
portfolio size of Rs. 7 cr
- Experiments in fish marketing,
export, social labeling of fish, etc.
- Lobbying and advocacy on many
fisheries issues including that of human rights of fishermen in
detention for crossing into
neighboring waters.
- A number of study projects in
fisheries
- Initiating a community-based
fisheries management in
Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu
and Alappad Panchayat of Kerala on
an experimental basis
- Post tsunami relief and
rehabilitation work that includes
construction of 2000 houses in Tamil
Nadu, distribution of over 700 boats,
repair of 1000 boats and 1800 motors.
My role in the above activities vary
quite a lot, but after the first couple of
years in SIFFS, my role has been
largely one of constantly scanning the
environment for opportunities and to
relate them to the objectives and then
to develop programs/activities. I have
also been the main fundraiser and the
one who had the hand on the rudder
of the organization steering it past
various obstructions, both internal
and external
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