Innovation

This was an accidental innovation, when researchers in Japan were trying to find a cure for brain damaged kids. But, when they experimented the same with normal kids, they found that the children had an accelerated learning rate. These experiments were then innovated into classroom teaching methods by making use of -

• Flash Cards
• Teaching of complex theory through songs and poetry
• Learning through parent participation
• Having plain classroom walls to minimise student distraction.

As the founder quotes," We enable thinking in a different format. Most formal education provided in schools and pre-school groups is focused on left brain development and linear thinking. We focus on the right brain stimulation, which helps in lateral and creative thinking."

Inspiration

To quote the founder, "We were multi-activity center for the last nine years, where we conducted all sorts of workshops for kids, like gymnastics, skating, arts, chess, table tennis, etc. But still we were not able to make the children think beyond what they were taught in class. After a point they just consumed what they were taught. They would not play with ideas, innovate, ask questions and modify ideas on their own. We wanted to instill that idea of curiosity in them."

This was the underlying inspiration which led Mr. Pranay to research more in the field of right brain education and finally Tickle Right was born.

Overall impact

The initial impact of the innovation was a big slowdown in the business as the parents had little or no faith in the idea. They were skeptical of such a different approach. The main reason for this was that Tickle Right would not provide any degrees or certificates to the students, as they believed that the child's acumen would speak for it's own.

As Mr. Pranay says,"The effort was way too high because people needed to be convinced, they had to buy what I would tell them. This was very difficult because I did not have any results in India to prove that this form of education did make sense."

But after seeing the performance of the kids from the initial few batches, when the parents started noticing visible developments in the grasping power of the kids, see their children making decisions, differentiating between right and wrong. More and more people started having faith in this form of education and the business of Tickle Right grew exponentially.

Business benefit

The biggest benefit to Tickle Right is that they are offering a type of educational service which is radically different from conventional school learning. And they have identified a niche market for themselves which comprises of parents who desire better quality education for their children.

Apart from this, some clear indications of how this innovation has benefit the business are -

• Currently they have 19 operational centres across different locations in India.
• They are aggressively seeking global opportunities.
• They company's revenues have increased year after year.

Social and environmental benefit

The impact on the society is immense since the kids which will be the leaders and citizens of tomorrow are being brought up the right way.

Tickle Right's pedagogy ensures that the kids get sharper and start to think laterally. This way, they can be good decision makers in the future.

Also, to quote the founder,"The biggest benefit to the society is that, we will be creating individuals that can think. Like twenty years from now, when these four year olds will be in the market, everybody will be qualified. By the kind of efforts the government is making, the purchasing power and the way our economy is growing, I don’t see any child, at least from the urban areas, who would not have formal, decent, quantified education. So, what is it that each person will stand out with? It is their ability to talk, its their ability to innovate. That is what we are focusing on, that is the societal benefit that we are looking at."

Interview

Pranay Dattani, Founder and CEO