The franchise market in India has the potential to grow to $20 billion by 2020 and is already growing at an impressive rate of approximately 30% per year. For the people who are willing to start a business, franchising is a good option available due to the moderate risk and low investment as compared to running their venture. The support provided by franchisers is the major plus point for getting into a franchising business as they help with all the end to end solutions right from consultancy to guidelines for a stress-free setup and operations. For young and first-generation entrepreneurs, it is always beneficial to join hands with an entity or organization that specializes in a specific sector.
One such brand with a positive proven record and a name that resonates across the globe is Zee Learn Limited. The brand owes its beginnings to its hugely popular parent company, Essel Group and that to its Chairman Mr. Subhash Chandra. Zee Learn started with Mr. Chandra’s belief that India’s future can be brighter only if quality education is imparted to its future generation to help prepare them to take on every challenge that tomorrow might throw at them. Started in 1994, Zee Learn Ltd, as a leading educational organization has delivered success, respect, and immense satisfaction to all the associated parents, students, and franchisees. It is a public listed company and addresses educational and learning requirements right from the age of 1.5 years until the child turns into a confident adult ready to take on the world of tomorrow.
Names Built of Hardwork
In the last 25 years, Zee Learn has scaled new heights and spread quality education in more than 800 cities and towns. It’s Preschool brand, Kidzee is today Asia’s largest Preschool network with over 2000 centers. Global learning and research have helped it stay ahead of the curve and its roots in India helped it contextualize it for the Indian audience. This has created a unique learning experience through its trademarked pedagogy – iLLUME. We are also one of the leaders in the K-12 Education segment with over 130 operational schools across India by the name of Mount Litera Zee School.
Zee Learn also offers vocational training in the field of animation, VFX and design through Zee Institute of Creative Art (ZICA). It is India’s first full-fledged Classical and Digital Animation Training Academy that trains youth in classical 2D and modern 3D animation. Zee Institute of Media Art (ZIMA) offers industry-oriented education in the field of film and TV. As part of its commitment to offering the finest quality education across different segments and age groups, the group founded Mount Litera School International (IB School) in Mumbai.
With the recent acquisition of Mahesh Tutorials, Zee Learn has strengthened its position in the supplementary education sector offering coaching for aspirants appearing for entrance exams like IIT, Engineering, MBA, MBBS and ICAI at pan India level with around 160+ centers. Moving ahead with times, it has conceptualized and developed effective Digital Education ecosystems. These ecosystems are designed to improve outcomes with a granular approach using a pedagogically robust engine. Digital forays like Kidzee Learning App, Kidzee Tab, Robomate, R+ notebook, etc. give its students an innovative learning option with an edge.
A Man of Focus
Mr. Debshankar Mukhopadhyay is the Chief Executive Officer of Zee Learn Limited. In his role, Mr. Mukhopadhyay takes full responsibility for identifying the strategic vision of the company and ensuring its execution to achieve growth for Zee Learn and its brands. He is actively involved in overseeing relationships with stakeholders and partners of the business.
He is a strategic thinker who brings deep insights into market needs and helps the organization to scale up by offering superior value to customers. A sensitive leader, he strongly emphasizes a team-based approach in the business to achieve business objectives. With a rich experience of more than 23 years in the education and financial services sector across South Asia, his functional expertise lies in effective business management and network & channel development.
A Relationship built on Trust
For Zee Learn, trust is the basis of its relationship with Business Partners that has kept more and more entrepreneurs wanting to associate with the brand. One of the key factors that build trust is complete transparency with its customers. As Mr. Mukhopadhyay puts it, “This ensures that they have faith in us and don’t see us as someone who just has a plain business relationship with them but they see us as a family where they look up to us as the experts in our respective category and believe in our vision of nurturing talents across the country.”
When entrepreneurs associate with Zee Learn, they stand to get several benefits like:
- A proven business model that delivers a robust ROI.
- Support in catchment analysis, operations, legal, academic, business and enrolments via marketing
- Dedicated key accounts manager at disposal to get a resolution for all queries
- Assistance in developing infrastructure and designing interiors
- Provides time tested books, publications, and other learning resources
- Continuous updates on current educational developments
- Reduced setup cost as a result of being part of a larger group
Partners who believe in the same philosophy are important for mutual growth. To ensure its brand value, Zee Learn follows a standardized procedure before signing any new franchisee, the steps include:
- Business Partner profiling
- Scrutinizing the franchise application
- Location analysis to help the Franchisee open it in a rewarding area
- Signing agreement
- Setting up of the franchisee – operations team works closely to guide this entire process
Through the above pointers, the company gains information about the education qualification, income, social status, inclination towards education, involvement commitment, etc to understand whether the partner is the right fit for a franchise. This evaluation is discussed internally and only after a go-ahead from our senior team, a franchise comes on board.
Building a Future
Zee Learn has always believed in one philosophy which is “What is right for the child”. Anything and everything that makes the child better is something that it focuses on and communicates. Its goal is to respond to the call of creating the emerging leaders of tomorrow. The Team adds, “We are committed to impacting a synergy of skills, knowledge, and values in our children to lend them their inner voice for the 21st century. We envision today’s children as tomorrow’s leadership icons. We have impacted a milestone departure from the teacher-led to the child-centric learning. Our learning environment enables each child to realize their unique learning style, while our MI-aided methodology helps them discover their own creative and aesthetic potential.”
Going further, Zee Learn would strongly continue to expand its footprint and ensure that every Indian child is imparted the best of education to prepare them to prosper and succeed as the future leaders and citizens of a vibrant India.
