Beyond Profit Series: Women in Social Enterprise

The following is the third in a series of posts in which Beyond Profit will feature strong and successful women in social enterprise. Joanna Harries, a former Acumen Fund Fellow at Dial 1298 for Ambulance, based in Mumbai, reports.

A Conversation with Sweta Mangal

CEO: “Dial 1298/108 for Ambulance”

Never one to back down from a challenge, this woman thrives on it.

Sweta Mangal, CEO of ‘Dial 1298/108 for Ambulance,’ an Indian emergency service, left a solid corporate career track a few years back to run a start-up social enterprise. What motivated her to take this risk? Speaking with Sweta makes it evident that her views have been strongly shaped by her experiences growing up as part of a socially-oriented and entrepreneurial family.

Sweta’s mother runs a foundation in their home state of Rajasthan. The family also supports the Mangal-Newton school, where poorer students from surrounding villages learn alongside students from more affluent backgrounds. Her brother is the school’s principal, and Sweta visits often to oversee operations.

From an early age Sweta recalls her mother integrating social values into their daily life. For example, older clothes were often collected and dispersed to those less fortunate. So when the time came to ask her family for the financial and emotional support to leave her secure, well-paying job to become the CEO of a start-up ambulance service, Sweta’s parents did not hesitate to offer support. Their response is perhaps not what one would expect from an Indian family, where high salaries and corporate titles are often valued, as well as early marriages for girls. However, Sweta’s family has a history of embracing non-traditional values. Sweta herself is part of the first generation to hold a conventional job – for most of her relatives the entrepreneurial spirit hit early and she recalls a series of family businesses starting and failing and starting again. In this way, Sweta received an early education in the process of trial and error.

Leaving a secure job and financial independence for the unknown was not an easy choice for Sweta. It was not only the diminished finances that worried her, but also a less certain career path. Despite the personal and professional obstacles, Sweta admits she has always thrived on challenges. Her strength is in grasping a vision and working tirelessly towards it to exceed all expectations. She describes it as taking an idea from ‘position one to ten.’ Clearly the social entrepreneurial drive present in her family also runs in her blood.

The opportunity to become CEO of ‘Dial 1298/108 for Ambulance’ came through a good friend. Shaffi Mather, like Sweta, received his post-secondary education abroad. Upon his return to India, Shaffi experienced a personal medical emergency that highlighted for him the need for a universal access number for a high-quality ambulance service in India, much like ‘911’in the US and Canada. Shaffi, and some friends with a similar outlook, came together in 2001 to launch ‘Dial 1298/108 for Ambulance’. The service launched in Mumbai with 10 ambulances in 2005, and today operates in Mumbai, Kerala and now Patna, with more than 90 ambulances. Sweta came on as full-time CEO in 2007 and has been instrumental in the growth of the organization’s vision.

From a managerial perspective, there were many early challenges. One of the first was dealing with the corruption involved in getting the four-digit number registered. Initially, they applied with the number ‘1299,’ but refusing to pay a bribe to hasten the process meant receiving the number ‘1298.’ Instead of fretting, however, the organization began to advertise the number, ‘1298.’

How has running a growing social enterprise changed her? Sweta says she has stopped making concrete plans for the future. Instead she has learned to seize and build upon opportunity when it knocks, even when it means entering unchartered waters. The future for this social enterprise looks especially bright with Sweta at the helm.