What do you do when you meet someone who sets up an innovative business to fund a movement to bring alive a dying river, and makes it a global brand in 5 years flat? You sit with a smile on your face and mind full of intrigue and having a firm belief that all is really well in this world! Its exactly what I felt when I finally met my cyber friend of many weeks, Gopinath Parayil, the man behind the Nila Foundation that was set up to raise awareness among local communities and the general public alike about the devastation that a dried up river system can cause. Because in India, as is true in many other parts of the world, the river and other water bodies are not merely a source of water. They are the thread around which history has been written, people lives have been intertwined and where the ecosystem draws its energy from. To build a sustainable movement around NIla Foundation, Gopinath set up a responsible tourism company called the Blue Yonder that is a credible global brand name today in the responsible tourism world.

It’s an incredible story. His. One of dogged passion and a survival instinct that only the bitten can possess. And an amazing case study in the power of word of mouth marketing and the business impact right market segmentation and positioning can have. But its different from any other case studies that I have read or come across, because it’s the first time a social project was the cause of the establishment of a commercial global brand, and not vice versa. It’s a story that inspires one to believe that you can be the cause of change, however daunting the cause might be.

And I came away truly inspired and hungry for more…..