Harish Jain, Founder, Green Rootz

Harish Jain believes in the old adage that - “you can give a man a fish and feed him for a day but teach him how to fish and you feed him for life”. The Young Entrepreneur explained how the journey behind his company “Green Rootz” began saying “The boom in the Indian economy has resulted in tremendous growth across all the industrial/ corporate sectors. Consequently talent acquisition has come to occupy a very critical role in the landscape of future growth. The dilemma of the current situation is that companies are increasingly finding it difficult to reach out to suitable candidates, while the candidates themselves are finding it difficult to keep track of the suitable job opportunities.”

“Thus, as an organization, we work for clients as well as candidates to arrive at a solution that will be mutually beneficial to both the parties concerned. For clients, we search for talent and not just manpower, and for candidates we help them with careers, and not mere job opportunities. Thus the name ‘Green Rootz’”

“Our company is called Green Rootz since Green symbolizes Life and Roots signify Growth. Combining both, we arrive at Growth of Life – on which we wholeheartedly intend to focus all our endeavors. The 'Z' at the end of Rootz stands for our commitment to keep up with the changing times, illustrating our twin focus on modernity and relevance.”

Their extensive professional network along with inexhaustible array of employer and employee databases, enable Green Rootz to provide the entire gamut of Talent. Acquisition services to an entire range of advertising, media & VAS companies. To say that their reach is very long would indeed be an approximate view of their capabilities.

Harish explains how it all works out to the mutual benefit of employers and employees saying “For each and every individual candidate, the company provides an in-depth understanding of the advertising, media & VAS verticals, along with offering various employment options for enhancing their careers by firmly establishing them on the growth curve.”

“Companies that have tied up with us for their manpower recruitment services pay anywhere from one month to 3 month salary to us as fees, depending on the level for which recruitment is happening. We work as Enablers rather than Commission Agents. We believe in providing Careers rather than Jobs. We use new age tools and methods to create awareness about opportunities among the candidate fraternity. For example Linkedin, and Twitter are used effectively to exploit their network potential.

Harish, like his entire ilk, was innately drawn to the life of an entrepreneur; he explains “I always wanted to live my life like a bird and not a kite. Both do fly and can reach amazing heights, but the later often is subjected to various controls. I could have either throughout life chased that 9-to-5 job that would be my dream job, or chase my ambitions and live every dream of mine every single day. I chose the latter.”

He is also the kind of entrepreneur who does not take short cuts to success. He has made a stand as far as the practices he employs are concerned. He says “It is easy to get business models right, make revenues and create a name. What is not easy is to do each of these things with strong ethical practices, business fundamentals and nurturing talent in highly motivated and cultured environment. It has been a constant challenge for us in this fast paced environment not to forget that our revenues grow by placing professionals from one company to another. We have to make sure that for achieving targets and revenues we do not have a myopic view ever and spoil someone’s career by providing ‘just another job’. Very often we have asked candidates not to pursue certain career opportunities and stay with their current job if that means growth in the long run.” 

Harish also reminisces about how he initially began his work saying “When I quit Zapak, I had Rs 65000/- as savings in my bank account. I started with that. I borrowed a laptop from Abhiney Singh who was my batchmate at MICA and colleague at Zapak. I used to work out of one of my friend’s offices since I had started alone. After working for 4 months there, I rented an office in Lower Parel.”

“Greenrootz was started by me two years back. After two years, we have grown to 8 people and have 1 branch. We have done recruited from campuses like Rizvi, K.C. College and Wellingkar as well. Our objective from day one had been to use technology in the best possible manner so that our dependence on human manpower for operational work is lesser. We had been very cautious about the kind of talent we recruit.”

“For any recruitment company, achievement can be measured on various parameters – Reach among candidates, clients affiliated with the company, revenues etc. Considering that we started just two years back, we believe our biggest achievement so far has been the reach. Our initial focus has been to create awareness of career opportunities among the relevant target. If you see, companies are always on the lookout for good candidates and candidates on the lookout for right companies.”

“Unfortunately, bright candidates won’t be publicly listed to be approached and companies find it difficult to advertise those opportunities to them. What we have tried at Green Rootz is to make sure that all the candidates who form the part of relevant TG for the company are approached. Since manually the same may take long time, we created groups on Google for media professionals wherein we post all the opportunities that are there with various media clients of ours thus creating awareness rapidly. We started a Green Rootz channel on Twitter recently and in just a couple of days, we have a few hundred media professionals following us there. The openings are also posted on Linked In which helps us reach out to thousands of eligible candidates.” says Harish.

He also has firm belief in his ideas he says “If one believes in ones dream, there will never come a day when one would give up the entrepreneurial journey.” He is driven by “The ability to make a difference in people’s life. A Desire to better the current state of affairs, be it business process or business model.”

Personally Harish had his faith reaffirmed in his ideas a while back by a candidate who said “You may not find me a job ever, but you have shaped my career forever.”

Harish exemplifies the kind of Entrepreneur who never compromises his core values. Yourstory hopes he continues to aid and guide others and achieves success with his values intact. In parting Harish advises his entrepreneurial brethren saying “Never lose the vision with which you started the business. No obstacle can ever be bigger than the size of the passion within you to sail through. Let the cause be so big that nothing can dampen your spirits. Because wings are to fly.”