Season 3 - Episode 5 | Forward-Thinking Entrepreneurship from Industry 5.0: Dr. Viveka Kalidasan (Singapore)

What can we apply from Industry 5.0 to models of forward-thinking Entrepreneurship?

Dr. Ramesh chats with Dr. Viveka Kalidasan,  Founder-CEO of the world's first and only inclusive, industry 5.0 accelerator cum startup studio, River Venture Studio. She's also recognised as MIT 35 Innovators Under 35 and Singapore Top 100 Women in Technology.

Join us to hear about Dr. Viveka's journey from childhood inspiration to her current roles as an entrepreneur and mentor. She emphasises the importance of an entrepreneurial mindset and the crucial role of crisis readiness in navigating setbacks. Her accelerator program focuses on Industry 5.0 and prioritises sustainability, human centricity and resilience in startups.

Tune in to understand the urgency of forward-thinking Entrepreneurship in shaping a sustainable, people-centred future. And especially for young women, Dr. Viveka provides insights and inspiration for growth.

3 Key Insights from this Podcast:

1. Industry 5.0: Reflect on the priorities of sustainability, human centricity and resilience to develop forward-thinking entrepreneurship.
2. Empowerment for Women: Dr. Viveka encourages young women to dream big, despite societal pressures.
3. Crisis Readiness: Sharing her own experiences of overcoming challenges in her entrepreneurial journey, Dr. Viveka encourages us to face setbacks with resilience and positivity.

Host: Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra, Author, Podcast Host, Founder of Talent Leadership Crucible & Founder of Impact Velocity

Guest Speaker: Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, Founder-CEO of River Venture Studio & The Edify Project, Board of Directors of Singapore South Asia Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SSACCI).

Tune in, and together we'll be Thriving in the Age of Disruption. 

Thriving in the Age of Disruption with Dr. Ramesh
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Transcript

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 00:00

We've started the podcast, so this is one of those COVID babies, right? It was created during that time.

Viveka Kalidasan 00:07

Sustaining it, and that's amazing. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 03:06

That's true. And so, for our entrepreneurial mindset, I define that as someone who has got three attributes, and one is you’re being resourceful, which is that you can identify a problem. And you can actually define it correctly. Because if you do that, then half the problem is won. And number two is that you are able to manage risk and uncertainty. And number three, is you're able to create value, not just for yourself, and not just financial, but for all your stakeholders. And the value can be non-financial as well. I wanted to engage with you how this mindset has shown up in your life, whether it's from that small town to Singapore, to what you have accomplished, but more importantly, at each of the turning points, what is it that you saw that had you move forward?

Viveka Kalidasan 03:53

I really liked that you brought it up. I have two companies. One is the River Venture Studio. But there's another one called the Edify Project. If you go to the website, the tagline itself - Entrepreneurship is an attitude, because I believe in it, it is an attitude. You define it with three key words, I define it with a little bit more than three key words, which includes what you said, proactive, hardworking, smart working, it's like all of these traits and competitive, so entrepreneurship is an attitude. It is a trait by itself. So, I live by it. And going back to your question of how this mindset was created, or how we defined who I am. I think it was there because my parents are doctors, they have their own little nursing home. And as I said, they're very different kinds of people, right. So, I really believe that childhood does influence a lot for an adult when I grew up, they took a lot of vacation. So, for me at that time was, oh, if you're your own boss, you can take your own vacation. So, it's all around me friends. They didn't take any vacation because the parents had to ask permission to their bosses, but for my parents, they made the decisions. So really, that was the reason why I wanted to become an independent owner at that time. It was not entrepreneurship, it was like a business owner or something, but I very good academically it went on till the PhD but I always thought I should do something by myself even during my post Doc, whatever I invented, I was trying to commercialize it that brought me all the recognition. This is a class three medical device. 

Viveka Kalidasan 05:15

So, entrepreneurship has always been everything I do. Even during the PhD, I was the only PhD student who was inside NUS Entrepreneurship Society where the other undergrads around me there was always finding an opportunity, more and more nurturing it. So that when I started by myself, it was not a tech startup, it was an accelerator by itself, which is grooming many patents, it’s bigger. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 05:38

So, what I hear is that it's something that you've been nurturing from young. And it was really great that you had an empowering context around it, because entrepreneurship equals lots of holidays. 

Viveka Kalidasan 05:51

Now, it's not that alone. Yeah, It’s not that alone.

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 05:55

But what it means is that it's almost like a freedom to create the life you want. And probably that was really what drew you to that, as you said, you’re someone probably who's willing to take risks, because you could have stayed on the academic path and be a great researcher, and just invent things. But you wanted to commercialize so you're willing to deal with uncertainty, you're willing to take risks. At the end of the day, there is also this notion about creating value, which part of a value excites you in your entrepreneurship, I probably think it is serving the underserved, or some aspect of an unfulfilled need you see in society or in community, right, whether it's now having your current accelerator be focused on women entrepreneurs, even with your medical devices, there was some aspect of a need.  

Viveka Kalidasan 06:47

That's very true Ramesh, because for me, it's very simple. I would have been a good researcher, I have a first rather publication in nature biomedical engineering, which also made it to the cover of nature biomedical engineering and could have made a good researcher, but I know that I'm not good. As a researcher, I'm very good elsewhere. Because what is the use of a very high impact factor journal, it just scattered to a few elite academic people. But if someone is not able to use what I have invented in my lifetime, and that use should be very impactful because my medical device was a platform technology. People told me it takes ages to commercialize you can use the same technology to monitor anything else. It's just a wireless RFID technology. Those are also impactful use cases but if it was only about money. It could have been that, but I don't know I want to save lives create more value, as you rightly said, but okay, I did not end up commercializing, that's a different story. But the thought process is the same. Like I could have just started world's first industry 5.0 accelerator and it is huge by itself. But then I thought industry 5.0 is sustainability, resilience and human centricity. And I believe these are also the traits of women's - Sustainability, resilience and human centricity. 

Viveka Kalidasan 07:57

So, I thought, we have to do it, I have to do it. So, there was always an impact factor around it. Yeah. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 08:03

How many people are you actually mentoring in your accelerator right now? 

Viveka Kalidasan 08:07

So, I only launched it officially on Jan 7th this year. It's very new by our first cohort, we are rolling it out in April. I mean, for the listeners here, you know, if you are doing a taking the industry 5.0 space, we welcome to be a part of our accelerator. It's a common question that I'm asked like how different there are 10,000 other accelerators right. The difference that River produces is that we do a compulsory proof of concept within an MNC. That proof of concept might translate into a purchase order for the startups so that is how big it is. That's what I did in my past life with my industry 4.0 accelerator. I'm not reinventing anything, but the focus is more on sustainability and all of that and global expansion. If it is a Singaporean startup, which wants to go to Vietnam, or a European startup, it wants to come to Southeast Asia or vice versa. We help them with that, too. So yeah, the answer is to wait for the first cohort, very highly talented founders and extremely high-quality startups are in the pipeline ready to roll out. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 09:06

Wonderful. I want to move on to the second mindset and that is a crisis ready mindset. In life, you meet with setbacks, and sometimes even a failure. Some of us can fight and overcome it. Some of us flee or some of us freeze, how do you react to a crisis? And what do you think have been the practices that you have learned over time that has supported you to deal effectively with crisis, whether it's in your personal life or at work? 

Viveka Kalidasan 09:33

I love the question, all because I have met with a lot of crises. It was something to me that I can only have a stable life for probably half a year. It could be anything. It could be a traumatic pregnancy that I had, or it could be when I was doing my PhD. My modules and grades are so bad that I might have been kicked out of NUS. Today. I'm one of NUS Outstanding Young Alumni, but there was a point when I was about to be kicked out when I was doing the medical device and trying to commercialize it, I had very bad days at that time. 

Viveka Kalidasan 10:02

My thing is I don't give up. I'm not the person who freezes for sure. I'm not the person also, who runs away from a crisis. I'm a person who stays and from very young. I always thought if I don't know when else can mindset, that I am the only person who's capable of that's really get overwhelming sometimes. But then I also believe that I am always trying to do something big. If you want to do something problems will be big. And I think we have to embrace it, I would have chosen a simpler lifestyle, but I did not. So, I embrace my problems.

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 10:35

Great. So, what I've heard from you is that you're a fighter, and you're not going to run away. But most importantly, you have a positive affirmation where you say, “If I don't, no one else can.” And really, that keeps you there to make sure that you see to that being successfully launched about the overwhelm that you can have, because sometimes it falls on you to actually bring home that project, right? What have you observed over the years about yourself, in being able to bring others on board to support you? 

Viveka Kalidasan 11:06

I am always into a crisis because I want to do something big. But as much as I am in a crisis, I'm also surrounded by wonderful humans. I'm also that person who doesn't feel shy about reaching out to people, it could be having coffee with a friend, it could be talking to my husband, it could be talking to my parents, my sister, greatest friend, I don't mind reaching out to people, I'm not afraid at all that people will judge me like, oh, you put up such a big face, but you have so many things happening behind you. But that's the reality, what people project, you can be a superstar, but you're a human being, right? 

Viveka Kalidasan 11:38

I am not ashamed at all, to share my story, and said that if people are there they will listen to you. That's enough already. I have really wonderful humans around me during my PhD, but I lost my stipend. So, there are friends who would like cook food for me eat and go study, again, with your modules, different kinds of health. And there are friends who would try to support me financially, even without me asking, that's the most important thing because I don't want to ask for help. The only help that I would ask is, let's meet for coffee and talk. Because I just want to get it out of my system. Like I always have good human beings around me. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 12:10

What we are also taking away from this is that creating a big goal is really good. Because you're up to something, yes, it can be overwhelming. But if you have a good network around you, whereby you can be yourself and you can open up and share your vulnerabilities, your failure, it actually helps you because you can let go of stuff. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 12:32

And get back into the game other than worry about what will people think if this happened, because of this, right? Those are all very positive attitudes like you have described. And I appreciate you actually sharing this with our listeners. I want to also move on to another topic, which is related to what you brought up earlier about your accelerator because it's about Sustainability. I mean, in our consulting, we say that Sustainability is the ongoing thriving of a living system. How do you define Sustainability? 

Viveka Kalidasan 13:02

So, industry 4.0 is robotics, automation, digitalization, but why I chose to do industry 5.0, which is a little bit more into the future is because it has the Sustainability, human centricity and resilience angle to it. Just to focus on Sustainability to it, what makes startups the automated cleaning process inside a semiconductor, just automating is industry 4.0. But by automating it, a lot of water is now saved. Instructional human being washing, just open the tap, we don't know how much water is going to the drain, or chit chatting and cleaning it for a long time. They don't even know how much time they're spending on washing one semiconductor part. But when you automate it, you are now able to understand how much water is being used. How much time is being used, everything is a valuable resource, right? So, Sustainability is in that sense. So, if you ask me, are you going to support the startup because it's in robotics? Yes. I would also look at it by automating it, what are you doing? What is sustainable? The human beings? What happened to them? Did they lose job, or did you upskill them? That's human centricity. Right? And by automating it, what if pandemic comes tomorrow is automated. So, it's a production state going to happen or in the factories, the production going to halt somewhere, it shouldn't stop that kind of angles that we focus on when I work with a startup. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 14:18

That's a great example of industry. 5.0. And you've actually created a very vivid image for me the different aspects of how you're impacting it from Sustainability, resilience and human centric.

Viveka Kalidasan 14:31

Thank you.

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 14:32

Let's move on to another aspect of our podcast and which is to explore what is spirituality, and where you are in the journey. 

Viveka Kalidasan 14:42

Spirituality is something that is not religious or superstitious according to me, to me doing something that I love is the most spiritual thing ever. And what do I love? I love entrepreneurship. When I wake up every day, I don't feel that I shouldn't be going to work or whatever, to me the work and be professional and personal life both are same. I enjoy doing that. And I'm always out there meeting people having a cup of coffee. It's like empowering you from within by doing things that you like and doing things that will keep you sane. I really believe that a spirituality it could be God for a person, it could be reading book for a person, it could be anything travelling around the world doing a bike trip or a person. For me, travel is a very important part of all of that all travel happens once in a while, but on a day-to-day basis, doing things that I love, despite the fact that I'm crazily busy I only sleep three to four hours a day. I'm like, super busy, but I love what I'm doing and that is spirituality for me.

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 15:44

Spirituality for you, it's all about the connections that you make with people and the world around you. And it's also about the opportunity to create we unlike any other being on the in this world, we have the ability to create.

Viveka Kalidasan 16:00

Yeah. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 16:00

And so, if we can create, then it's a spiritual journey. 

Viveka Kalidasan 16:04

For me, it's actually all about connecting with people, talking, having that cup of coffee and doing what I love, which is creating. Yeah, you put it rightly. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 16:12

And do you think it's possible for us to live a simple life?

Viveka Kalidasan 16:15

It depends on what you define as simplicity.

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 16:19

What do you think is a simple life?

Viveka Kalidasan 16:20

Not like a saintly, a strict life. I don't think you that's what you meant. That's not what simple life to me is. I am a simple person in the sense of I just simply but elegantly to me simplicity is something very elite, elegant and sophisticated. In my world. In my mind, which is how I define simplicity. When it is too cluttered or too complex and too obvious and plushy that is not simplicity to me. Simplicity is elegance. It's sophistication of thought of the way you look, the demeanor, it's and the things that you do. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 16:56

And if we had to use three words to describe thriving, how would we describe it? 

Viveka Kalidasan 17:02

I love the word thriving, yes. Life, happiness, purposefulness, to me, these are thriving, you should have a purpose with life. If you want to thrive this difference between existing and living by believing in living and thriving, which means purposeful, 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 17:20

If I asked you whether you had a message for young people, young women leaders, young women, researchers, what's your message for them? 

Viveka Kalidasan 17:27

I think a dream is a luxury that many girls wouldn't get really, they don't even know that they could dream. So, I would say dream, I was always the girl with dreams very young, I always thought I will be the president. Because I come from India, right? I'm in Singapore now. But I come from India, third grade, fourth grade, I would be thinking, I would become the president of India one day, and then there will be followers. So, I was always in a world where I'm the leader, and charismatic leader, that's very important for me. And I always jammed, and I've always wanted to be a leader and not a boss, I think every girl has to dream. My father used to say every girl has to run like 16 times faster than a man to reach where you have to be. And I think that is very true as well. So, if you don't have a dream at all, you're not going to run anywhere you need to dream and run to sustain in this man friendly world,

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 18:16

You're lucky because you're living in a time where the differences between the gender is less. So, the opportunities are available. But at the end of the day, when you look outside the workplace, and you go back home, that's when the old cultural context also comes back. It's having to navigate this transition, which is a big challenge. 

Viveka Kalidasan 18:37

Yeah, that is very true. Because like I said, my parents were so futuristic. So, if it was just my home, like my parents and what I am today, that's a different thing. I wouldn't say, oh, the world is so beautiful. Or in between this this marriage phase where there's an outsider society that's coming in. That's real life to me. And it could happen to a well-educated, empowered woman who is trying to empower other women. I am lucky to be in this and I also believe my daughter was one or half years old is luckier. We are all fighting you have a daughter too. So, we are all fighting for a world which is more inclusive, more respectful of our daughters. And that is why I am doing this. If I am one person in a billion, I don't do this. If you don't do this, and many women like us or men also, like us don't do this. Our daughters will not have a safer place to live. A safe space is what I am aiming for them and other minorities. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 19:30

Thank you very much for sharing that. Now I'm gonna go to ask you a couple of questions and just give me the first answer that pops to mind by the way. Your favorite book?

Viveka Kalidasan 19:40

Okay - Agony and Ecstasy. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 19:42

Oh, yeah.

Viveka Kalidasan 19:43

Biography of Michelangelo? Yeah. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 19:45

And what's your favorite travel destination?

Viveka Kalidasan 19:48

Switzerland. That's the only country I've been twice. Yeah.

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 19:52

And if you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be? 

Viveka Kalidasan 19:54

I think Obama, Michelle Obama and Obama. Yeah, very clearly. It may sound but I have really strong reasons, but yeah. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 20:03

Great. And what's the most unusual food that you have tried?

Viveka Kalidasan 20:07

Venison because I didn't know that it was venison, it tasted very familiar, I probably thought it was mutton or something. I don't mind eating and then I was told it’s venison. It's not strange. But yeah, I wouldn't consciously eat venison. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 20:21

And if you could have any superpower, what would it be? 

Viveka Kalidasan 20:24

Travel the whole world like travel every day. Just travel is in my blood vein. Everything I live for, travelling. Yeah, yeah. My daughter is one and a half years since she's travelled seven countries with me already. I took her passport sized photo when she was five days old. Because I was so deprived of travelling through pregnancy. I wanted to travel. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 20:44

What's the best advice that you've ever received? 

Viveka Kalidasan 20:46

I get a lot of advice. I don't know. Yesterday, my father was telling, “Don't look back, keep going every day.” I have these moments or what am I doing? I didn't even tell this to him, suddenly over the phone he put forward, “Don't look back.” And I told him, “Thanks Appa.” Honestly if the road looks very difficult, but yeah, just go forward. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 21:05

That's right. That's right. We've come to the end of our interview. So, thank you for being candid and lively in this discussion to share your thoughts. 

Viveka Kalidasan 21:15

Oh my god, Ramesh, I am so sad that it has come to an end. You're a wonderful host. You could really psychologically analyze a person, when I met with you, that’s something that really struck me, the kind of person you are. You really can understand the person opposite to you. Thanks for your questions. And thanks for listening patiently my answers, just really lovely talking to you. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 21:34

I was really connected to the different things that you shared because I could see parallels in my own life and an opportunity to relive it in that moment as you brought it up. Yeah so, I was glad that we had this conversation. Yeah, sure. It's a pleasure. 

Viveka Kalidasan 21:50

Thank you for having me on your show. 

Dr Ramesh Ramachandra 21:51

You're welcome, actually. Yeah well, thank you.