Rather than living on someone else existence, she believes in chasing her own dreams. Lina Ashar, Founder- Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd shares her school’s success story expansion plans…
Ramanjit Kaur (RK): Tell us something about the origin, growth and success of Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd’?
Lina Ashar (LA): Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd. (KKEL) was established in 1993 with a single preschool at Bandra, Mumbai. Since then, Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd. has brought about an alternate system of education across India, which stands out in stark contrast to the traditional outdated learning by remote methods of teaching. Our company aspires to be the leading provider of learning systems and services which are internationally recognised, build shareholder value and contribute positively to the overall Indian social fabric.
RK: What difference have you noticed in the performance of the company after it opted for franchising?
LA: To realise our vision for the education sector, we decided to adopt the franchising business model in 1995. Franchising allows a brand to achieve rapid growth within a short period of time; we have also benefited from the same. We endeavour to continuously innovate and make sure our franchisee is ahead of the competition – thereby fostering strong loyalty towards our brand.
RK: What is the eligibility criterion for taking the franchisee of your company?
LA: We charge a security deposit and a license fee. Land area required is of 2,500 sq. feet for pre-school and a minimum of 2 acres for the high school in an uptown location within your city/town is required. More than the financial and land requirements, we are looking at people who can share our vision of stress free and quality education through innovative teaching methodologies.
RK: How many franchisees do you have and in which cities?
LA: KKEL supports 80 centres (75 franchise and five owned) in India operating across 16 cities such as New Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharasthra, Assam, Chandigarh and so on. It also has an international presence in Dubai and Maldives.
RK: What all training and support do you provide to the franchisees?
LA: It is our pursuit to deliver quality across all our educational solution systems that sets us apart. We provide an in-depth and unparalleled training to our franchisees to ensure they are effectively imbibed into the KKEL value system. To ensure superior quality standards, KKEL also has a School Improvement Team (SIT) that reviews every school’s processes on a regular basis.
RK: What are the company’s future plans in terms of expansion through franchising?
LA: We are in an expansive mode. We are targeting all key metros and tier I and II cities to set up our chain of institutes. We have also expanded internationally with two Kangaroo Kids preschools in Dubai and one high school in Maldives. Various entities have expressed an interest to work with us, internationally; we are evaluating their proposals.
RK: What are the challenges that can be faced by a franchisee in this business? How can they overcome these challenges?
LA: The key challenge is to maintain benchmark standards across the franchisee set up. There may be certain issues of scale but an identified standard set of processes and practices can be implemented across all institutes. It is important to choose a well established brand to affiliate with that follows benchmark processes, will provide quality solutions and marketing assistance.
RK: Share with us any new venture that your company has entered into?
LA: Given the severe shortage of good resources the education industry is facing and as a part of backward integration, we plan to aggressively promote our teacher training institute – KITDR (Kangaroo Kids Institute for Teacher Development and Research).
