Ajit Isaac, Chairman, Quess Corp
Image: Selvaprakash Lakshmanan for Forbes India
In 2014, Smitha Srinivas was working in the Corporate Social Responsibility arm at Toyota Kirloskar when she got a call from IKYA Human Capital Solutions, now Quess Corp, for a job interview. At the time the company was not as big, and barely profitable. When she was asked to head the CSR arm of the company—Careworks Foundation (CWF), she jumped at the opportunity. The foundation works to empower students in various government schools, focusing both on education and health care.
Soon after she was hired, when she sat down with Ajit Isaac, chairman, Quess Corp, for a meeting, she recalls, “He gave me a list of 14 goals he hopes to achieve for the Careworks Foundation.” The list included everything from programme creation to how to make the model sustainable and replicable. Isaac had a clear vision for the foundation back then, even when it was barely existent, considering it had just been set up. “I still have that piece of paper, and we have crossed six of those goals already,” she says with a smile.
(This story appears in the 10 March, 2023 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)