August 1, 2019
Long before workplace inclusion was a slogan or came to be mandated,
V G Siddhartha, Founder and Managing Director of Café Coffee Day, was a
champion of the cause. By hiring people with disabilities in visible,
client-facing roles, he underlined the ability in disability, setting a
benchmark for many Indian corporates.
“A lot can happen over coffee”. The famous Café Coffee Day (CCD)
tagline is being widely quoted in the countless tributes pouring in for its
late founder V G Siddhartha whose death has come as a shock
to all.
Called the Coffee King Mr Siddhartha made Indian coffee a
global brand, establishing outlets in virtually every corner of India and
many parts of the world. He was also the first to hire people with
disabilities in the workforce and made a genuine effort to promote workplace
inclusion. Efforts that won CCD the NCPEDP–Shell Helen Keller
Award by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for
Disabled People (NCPEDP) in 2013 in the Role Model
Companies category. The award recognised CCD’s contribution towards
the improvement of lives of persons with disabilities by encouraging change
in recruitment attitude.
Dr Som Mittal, Former Chairman, NCPEDP, who
knew Mr Siddhartha for over 25 years, says that he was always looking for
opportunities to provide employment to people with disabilities.
Siddhartha always had his heart in the right place and when he started CCD
he realised that this was one big opportunity to create jobs because the
outlets were so spread out. He never did this for any award, in fact he was
quite shy. He did a wonderful job building inclusion at CCD. Many of us
don’t know how to interact with people with disabilities and restaurants
like CCD offered an ideal milieu to facilitate that and created an
interface between disabled and non-disabled people. Siddhartha’s death is
a huge loss. – Dr Som Mittal, Former Chairman, National Centre for
Promotion of Employment for Disabled People
“Siddhartha was a man way ahead of his time”, points out Arman Ali,
Executive Director, NCPEDP. “Finding employment for deaf people
comes with many challenges, both for the employer and employee and at a time
when disability was seen as an eyesore, a hazard, Siddhartha saw it as an
opportunity. And working in a CCD at the time was a cool, ‘in’ thing to do”.
In 2005 CCD set up a vocational training college at Chikmagalur, Karnataka to
give quality education to youth from less privileged backgrounds. These youth
were then placed across CCD outlets. During this initiative a need was felt
to focus on disabled people.
CCD started actively hiring people with disabilities, creating a
special induction program for people who are deaf and hard of
hearing. The programme was designed such that it made use of their enhanced
sense of smell, vision and taste effectively. Over the years CCD’s
Silent Brewmasters became a familiar sight across outlets.
“There were some CCD outlets manned exclusively by people with disabilities”,
says Rati Misra, Advisor, NCPEDP, “and employees with
disabilities had the same career progression opportunities as all others!”.
This success , she believes set a trend. “It inspired many others in the
hospitality space to replicate this practice of recruiting people with
disabilities”.
This rock-solid commitment to inclusion, believes P
Rajashekharan, Co-founder, v-shesh came directly
from the top. v-shesh has placed many deaf and hard of hearing candidates at
CCD outlets in Bhubaneshwar, Indore and Delhi.
“The organisation’s DNA had inclusion and this came from the confidence
the founder had. CCD was the first major brand to hire people with
disabilities, others in the retail/hospitality sector came after them. It was
CCD that had the idea of providing opportunities to weaker sections,
including disabled people, and equipping them with the skills needed to deal
with customers coming from different social strata. They are absolute
pioneers in that sense”.
Shanti Raghavan, Founder, Enable India, agrees. “The
organisation had the openness to include anyone with disability and this was
way back in 2005 when few employers understood that ability can be found
anywhere”. Enable India works closely with CCD in conducting training
programmes for people with disabilities. “More importantly, CCD was willing
to work in a structured fashion to enable this with trainings conducted year
on year. Initially it started with deaf people and now we have been working
on hiring people with intellectual disabilities”.
Calling Siddhartha a “fantastic, phenomenal man”, Arman says he had ideas
which even people in the disability sector hd not thought of. “Creating
almost 50, 000 jobs is not a small thing. He started something which everyone
follows now. He will be missed”.
For Hatti Kappi Founder U S Mahendar it was efforts like
these that make Mr Siddhartha an inspiration. 30% of the workforce at Hatti
Kaapi, among the big coffee chains today, is made up of disabled people and
senior citizens.
“He gave life to Indian coffee. Those days only Mr Siddhartha had the
courage to bring the westernised lifestyle to cafes in India and that is a
legacy that will remain for life. We took courage from him to create a
successful brand and he will forever remain our King”.
