With the mission of developing leaders of high calibre, imbued with values of entrepreneurship, ethics and social responsibility, Focus Group launched Focus Edu Care to meet the rising demand for better educational courses in India. In an interview, V. Gopalkrishnan, Associate Vice President, Focus Edu Care shares the vision and mission of the company.
Ramanjit Kaur (RK): What made Focus Group to launch Focus Edu Care in India?
V.Gopalkrishnan (VG): After doing a thorough research on the education sector in India, we understood the need of spoken English classes in India along with the need to have education as a product to serve the society. This division was launched, keeping in mind the growing need for education across the Globe. Focus Edu Care is an off shoot of the Focus Group of Companies which have operations in key business segments such as Financial Services, Healthcare Staffing and Placement, Software Consultancy Services, and Education Services across many countries such as US, Europe, Canada, Middle East, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
RK: In what ways Focus Edu Care is different from other educational institutes? What is the USP?
VG: Unlike other educational institutes, our centres offer a bouquet of courses that encompass Test preparation (CAT, IITJEE), CA-(CPT/IPCC), Capital Market courses, Pharma Clinical Research courses, spoken English classes, IELTS and other vocational courses. Besides courses, our delivery of content is done via video conferencing. It helps us to build a network with our faculty across the country and which helps to deliver the best content to all our students. In turn, students also get the best training and learning experience through our advance technology.
RK: How many centres do you have presently? What are you future target locations to expand?
VG: Presently, we have 10 centres across all the major metropolitan cities of the country. These all are company owned centres but we have appointed our franchisees in South India, which will be operationalised by the mid of January. Moreover, we are looking at expanding across tier I and II cities.
RK: What kind of training and support a franchisee would get when partnering with you?
VG: Predominantly, our franchisee gets training and counselling on how to counsel the students. We help our franchisees on day-to-day marketing operation plans. With the help of our advance technology, our franchisees can efficiently counsel the weak students.
RK: What are the challenges that can be faced by the franchisees?
VG: The biggest challenge a franchisee can face is the competition at the local level. The rest is handled by the company itself.
RK: What kind of background is necessary for securing a franchise of your company?
VG: We usually seek for franchisees with following eligibilities:
- S/he should be a graduate
- S/he must be of 40 years of age
- S/he should be in a position to invest between seven to ten lakh, and
- S/he should be capable enough to devote at least four hours to this business on daily basis.
