Hometown: Albany, NY
Title: VP Product Development and Strategy
Company: GlobalSpec Inc.
Sarabjit Singh
My Story About Me
I talked to so many classmates who pulled in resources from their own companies to help me — that's an amazing amount of collaboration.
More often than not, mention Wharton and people think of investment banking, Wall Street and titans of industry. But that picture is incomplete. Some Wharton students see the rigorous MBA program as preparation for nonprofit and development work, sharpening their business skills for careers that focus on eliminating social, and economic inequality in our world. Included in that group is Sarabjit Singh.
The entrepreneur entered Wharton's executive MBA program with a well-defined goal: to develop a profitable business plan that would benefit consumers at the "bottom of the pyramid," the world's poorest people. Sarabjit maximized every second of his time in the program-both in and out of class-to fine tune his proposal. He also created a Bottom of the Pyramid club, which served as forum for him and his fellow classmates to gather information about this segment and share insight into what did and didn't work with his proposal. Tapping into the professional experience of his fellow classmates, professors and alumni, Sarabjit began laying the foundation for a fund that would invest in innovative businesses that target this market — all while starting a family.
Well on his way to reaching his career goals, Sarabjit explains how the Wharton Executive MBA program propelled his vision.
Why Wharton?
About three years ago, I became interested in what's termed "the Base of the Pyramid market." That's composed of consumers who earn less than $2 a day — essentially poor people — and there are about 4 billion people on this planet who fall into that category. C.K. Prahalad from the University of Michigan was one of the first people to really put a sharp focus on this segment as a business opportunity. His whole thesis is that these are consumers buying things from the market, it's just that the market is very inefficient. The term which is quite often used is the "poverty penalty," which says if you are poor, you are paying more per unit than people who are higher up in the pyramid. I wanted to fine tune a business plan focusing on this market, and that's the reason I came to Wharton. I used pretty much every course to build certain aspects of the business. And I'm happy to say that, after two years, I have a business plan and a partner — two of us in the class have collaborated to put a business plan together.
Social change through for-profit businesses
When I read more about this marketplace, it seemed to me that this was a place where for-profit businesses could really make a sustainable social change, and at the same time, earn a reasonable return on capital and leave infrastructure behind. For example, as part of our coursework, we did a due diligence on a health care company in Latin America that is providing health care solutions to the Base of the Pyramid market, and they are on their way to profitability. We know they will make money, but we also know that at the end of the day, they will provide infrastructure for health care delivery to this segment, which is very exciting for us.
Bottom of the Pyramid club
One of the first things that I did when I came here was start a Bottom of the Pyramid club, which quickly included more than half of the class. We brought in outside speakers who helped us learn about this market, find some of the people doing early work on it, and learn about business aspects of this market — what works, what doesn't. One of the things that was very clear was that this market operates very differently than any others. You need a lot of innovation and rethinking of structures of business in this marketplace.
Building the business
We are in the process of creating a fund that will find and invest in businesses providing goods and services to the Base of the Pyramid market. We will operate primarily as a venture capital firm, where we will help these businesses grow, providing them with management and expertise, and then connecting them with other players in the marketplace.
10-year goal
In 10 years, we should have proven that this market is a very profitable segment. There are already signs of innovation in this market, and we have the opportunity to scale it to the next level.
Amazing collaboration
One aspet of Wharton that stands out is the collaboration between students and faculty — especially for me. Because I had this idea, I took every possible opportunity to talk to faculty or students, formally or informally, in class and out of class. And classmates would open up their time for me during the work week — finding time late night, early morning. I talked to so many classmates who pulled in resources from their own companies to help me — that's an amazing amount of collaboration.
Wharton value
It was a wonderful experience. I came to Wharton with the intention of writing this business plan and I'm leaving Wharton with this business plan in hand. I am very confident that, over the coming years, we will be able to make a very stable business out of this plan.
