"In temples, we recall gods, priests, and crowds, yet behind the scenes, unseen guardians manage security, queues, and the intricate details, crafting a seamless divine encounter."
In this episode, we explore the transformative journey of Mr. Giresh Kulkarni, a veteran with 29+ years of shaping temple management. As the founder of ITCX and CEO of Divinity Worldwide, he's dedicated to innovation in administration, operations, and job creation. With brands like Temple Connect and Indian Puja Company, he's redefining the devotional ecosystem. Join us as we dive into his insights on media, events, entrepreneurship, and global business expansion. Mr Kulkarni, the convenor of Vibrant Goa, also shares his vision for making Goa a hub for trade, investment, and tourism. Let's shape the conversation
Discover how this digital platform revolutionizes temple worship, blending ancient spirituality with modern technology. Kulkarni shares his journey from critical observer to pioneering entrepreneur, illustrating the power of passion and resilience in transforming spiritual experiences. Tune in for a fusion of entrepreneurship and devotion, redefining the future of spiritual practice.
Episode Highlight
Digital platform revolutionizing temple worship.
Bridging traditional practices with cutting-edge technology.
Positive impact on personal and professional growth.
Role in documenting and sharing information about global temples
Springworks is a fully-distributed HR technology organisation building tools and products to simplify recruitment, onboarding, employee engagement, and retention. The product stack from Springworks includes: SpringVerify— B2B verification platform EngageWith— employee recognition and rewards platform that enriches company culture
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Springworks prides itself on being an organisation focused on employee well-being and workplace culture, leading to a 4.8 rating on Glassdoor for the 200+ employee strength company.
Speaker 1:
Hello and welcome to the Shape of Work, a podcast series by Springworks. My name is Anoop and I am your host. Each week, we'll be talking to top people managers across the world on the future of work and how it's shaping our workplace. So sit back and get ready to find out more from these movers and shakers, as we have a no-holes bar. Anything goes. Conversation with them about their journey, their insights, their thoughts, most importantly, their ideas and vision for the workplace of the future. Join in on the conversation, leave a comment and don't forget to hit that subscribe button.
Speaker 2:
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Shape of Work podcast and for this episode we have with us Mr Girish Kulkarni, with the founder of Temple Connect. Hello, sir, how are you doing First day all well.
Speaker 3:
It's a pleasure being on your podcast and definitely extremely positive an opportunity for a temple initiative to be present on your podcast.
Speaker 2:
I'm definitely excited to hear more on this from you. So to begin with, could you please take us to your career journey so far?
Speaker 3:
So, largely speaking, I have been into the space of events, media communication and brand strategy for the past 29 years. I want to narrate a quick story of a boy who in his young age 11, standard brand really went to see a fashion event. He went to see a fashion show and it was not a brilliantly organized event. He had got some invite because of his father's reference, or some invitation had come over, and this boy was sitting there and making comments on the fact of saying that he had heek nahi hai wo heek nahi hai. This has not been well organized. That has not been well organized. Then organizers were sitting in the row ahead of him. The organizer said that if you do not have an invite, you should have been caught and thrown out of the row. You are not doing the best job of communicating it in the right spirit. But the boy said that I still believe in this, but this is not the best way that you have organized this. So that man said that if you understand it that well, you can go and do this kind of a program.
Speaker 3:
And there is where this boy next day morning goes, to a company which is called as Thumbs Up. Thumbs Up company is where he goes and directly goes to the reception and says I want sponsorship. So they asked why do you need sponsorship? So they say no, I am organizing a fashion show and for the fashion event I need sponsorship. So, long story short, this boy, just with no knowledge and experience, kept going to these places asking for sponsorship and then eventually someone told him to compile a document, come back and then eventually you know system through which how you can raise sponsorship. It took six months for that boy to compile that data and put his first fashion event in place in the year 1994. There is where a birth of an entrepreneur and an event manager happened and that is how I got into business.
Speaker 2:
So there is where I started my career. That is a very inspiring journey and, must say, and also very unusual one, but, as we say that we tend to learn from the experiences that we face, so it's truly one of anecdotes like that. So now I'm talking about temple connect, so could you please enlighten us a bit more about it and what was your motive behind starting it?
Speaker 3:
So largely born in a typical Maharashtrian Brahmin family. We've been going to temples since our childhood, when there is an open hands and multiple other rituals that we all have seen and gone through it. I've been visiting temples since my childhood. I was fortunate to closely work with events of the Siddhi Venaic temple and interface and a lot of activities with the Siddhi Venaic temple as an agency from 2003 to 2006. And there is where I saw that there is a lot of potential into better management, better coordination, better eventing, intellectual property and multiple other such topics, to put all these things together and how it can be put up in an organized format for a common man. So with all of this, I thought that instead of working with one or two or five temples, let me create something where the temple economy benefits as well, as the digital media was coming up into new space. So I put something together where we document, digitize and distribute content related to the temples and their information in a form of in a digital tool which is called temple connectcom.
Speaker 1:
So there is where we founded temple connect.
Speaker 3:
Temple connect is a platform, which is a content driven initiative to compile content, information, things related to those gods, goddesses and rituals and, along with that, make it available in the most consumable content for people to go online in various social media platforms as well as on the temple connect website and consume that data.
Speaker 2:
It's a very one of a kind initiative. I mean, when I was reading about it. I've never been, I've never come across anything like that, so I was really excited to know more about it. I also want to know about this smart temple mission that has recently been launched, so would you want to put some light on it as well?
Speaker 3:
So I'm going to quickly give you an overview and also to your audience in a big way that when we go to a temple there are only three large things that we remember. When you go to a temple, you remember the god or the goddess or deity that you are visiting.
Speaker 3:
You remember the pujari and the puja of vidhi, which is very important for us to attend, and, at the same time, the crowd where you will all, we all will try, and you know, breakthrough. Use all our yoghards to see to it that we take the darshan as quick as possible. Apart from this, there are so many other things in and around the temple which exist, but we don't remember that. There is a security system in place taking care of the security of the premise. There is a queue management system. There is safety, security, surveillance, crowd management, donation management, kundi or funds management. Then there are areas of sanitization, cleanliness, you know, there are people selling different products, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:
There are multiple things which are existing.
Speaker 3:
So when a temple has…. All these systems over ages. They have been channelized and managed well over the period of time. Everyone has different experiences and they put all these experiences in a better format for people to benefit. As times changed, new Age technology came in picture, as is a generation. I could say that we saw black and white TV, two color TV, two telecom, two New Age data and now AI and AR and VR. So these variances have brought in a lot of impact for consumer experiences and so on, from the temple point of view as well as from the end user point of view. So, bringing all these things together, educating the temple ecosystem so that they can incorporate all of this, because at the end of the day, the consumer who is the pilgrim of the devotee, comes to the temple they are benefiting out of.
Speaker 3:
this is the most important. So temple connect launched during its event, the International Temples Convention and Expo, launched by initiative called as a smart temples mission, where temples are already smart but we are making them more smarter by bridging the gap between the temple ecosystem and the technology or the New Age service providers who can upgrade that for a better convenience of the temple as well as of the people who are in the temple. So that is what smart temples mission is all about.
Speaker 2:
Awesome, I mean, as we say, the technology has literally left no stone unturned when it comes to anything, and now temples also being smart. So, definitely, I think with time everything changes, as this changes definitely come for better. So how do you see temple connect growing in, maybe five years down the line?
Speaker 3:
So, largely speaking, I'm sure temple connect is just not about conducting an activity where there is a commercial format of work that we do and going to which we monetize it and we grow. There is humongous effort that goes into, so let me give you some data. So in India, Bharat Bhumi we have about 30 lakh plus temples small, big and tiny existing. So documenting this content is very important. Making this content, organized is very important.
Speaker 2:
Making it available is very important.
Speaker 3:
And also reaching out to these temples and telling them what are the areas, For example a larger temple, like a Tirupati or a Vaishnav devi or a Siddhi Vinayak or the Golden Temple, gurudwara, and so on. These larger temples can support the smaller temples with their vision, knowledge and areas of learning. When you have a lot of learning experiences, which happen Also, what happens is topic specialists would meet up and exchange their ideas their vision, their innovation with temples so that common man benefits Above all.
Speaker 3:
this economy, or this ecosystem, is a humongous marketplace for a lot of transactions to happen. So temple connect looks at standardizing this as a platform, which is an I to I, which is institution to institution, or B to B, as a format of plugging all the possible requirements for the temple and supporting it with technology, making it consumer friendly or devotee or pilgrim friendly, at the same time adding greater quality and experience for everyone involved as a human to benefit out of this.
Speaker 2:
So, while we do all these things.
Speaker 3:
There are larger areas of IP standardization. There are larger areas of transactions, commercials and initiatives which will help the temple dependent ecosystem in a larger way. So we are doing the job of empowering that. We have reached out to around 8 and a half 9000 temples in about 57 countries and we are in the process of documenting more and more temples across the globe. So in the coming period of time 5 years we are looking at at least reaching 50,000 temples documented with proper details and then making greater content benefits for all.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so is it like the entire work is virtual, or do you have like a team who actually goes to the temple and then so, largely speaking, it is not virtual.
Speaker 3:
Virtual is what you have uploaded on. The system is virtual. There are so many temples, there are so many. When you say temples, it is to do with Hinduism, jainism, sikhism and Buddhism. There are people on the grass root, there are people who are volunteering to support temple connect initiative and, through your platform, I would also want to appeal that people who have temples next to their houses, people who remember temples when they grew up or brought up there, they can reach out to us and share us information of these temples.
Speaker 3:
Also connect us with those temples and there are volunteers or well wishers of people all across the world who are bridging the gap between the temples as well as the information to be combined and largely taking it further. So there is a humongous on ground team which works as volunteers at support team, as people from a ministry of tourism. Different offices collect rates and beyond they contribute content, plus the temple management. Temple pujaris, temple archakas are the kind of people who gather this information and publish this information through our platform, which makes it user friendly for them to benefit. So all these things put in together make the content available to everyone on a daily basis and as technology changes, we will keep upgrading ourselves.
Speaker 2:
Amazing. That is truly, truly an amazing initiative. So my last question to you is, since you're an entrepreneur as well, so what sort of advice would you like to give to the budding entrepreneur maybe who is? Looking forward to enter in such a sort of scenario where they're working on something as unusual as temple connect.
Speaker 3:
As I gave you that example of what I started doing 29 years back. I had no background, I had no experience, I had no polished approach. Only I had is my willpower and my belief that my intent is in place. So, whatever be the industry, the industry of your personal life, your reference, your knowledge and beyond, do not doubt your capability. If your intent is in place, you will achieve what you seek. Do not get carried away by people and people around us demotivating us or challenging us. If you are hungry, you know your neighbor may not come and tell you that you are hungry. So, as you feel, the hunger for your food is the same hunger for your entrepreneurial journey make the most of it, recognize it and maximize it, and grow the world wherever you can.
Speaker 2:
Definitely so. Thank you so for joining in for today's episode and sharing some beautiful insights with us regarding temple connect and your life otherwise.
Speaker 3:
Thank you very much Thank you and a pleasure being here, and I hope that people do work towards their dreams and make their dreams come true, because putting it in reality is a quote which I always share by Bhagawan Gautam Buddha An idea in action is always better than an idea just as an idea. So, on that note, I thank you for having me here and my best wishes to you Likewise, and thanks to our listeners for tuning into this episode.