The 20th guest on the xMonks Drive podcast is an entrepreneur who was struck by the love for building communities which led him to explore philanthropy. Madhavan Rangaswamy is the name of the beautiful soul in the conversation.

The man went from being a corporate slave to an independent firm owner.He founded Corporate Eco Forum, an organization dedicated to improving the effectiveness of eco-strategies at Global 500 companies. His life is dedicated to civil society,making an impact, building community and human connections.

From Corporate towards Civil Society

M.R. Rangaswamy left the corporate career at 41. The conversation drifted to explore, ‘What was his calling? What was his plan after the corporation?’

“I think I’m an entrepreneur at heart. So you know, when you start one thing, you’re always thinking of other ideas as well. Not in any kind of strategic fashion or anything like that.

That was when I started the first network. But my calling in life hadn’t kind of evolved yet. But I think it started evolving when I started the Corporate Eco Forum, because that was taking on something completely different. But it made so much of an impact on the world. If you could get large corporations to mitigate climate risk by reducing their greenhouse gases, increasing their renewable energy purchases, creating sustainable supply chains that could move the needle much faster than civil society could, or governments could. These were companies that really control the business of the world. That was my calling.”

The Philanthropic Approach towards Making an Impact

Rangaswamy works to create an impact. Serving people is one way to maximise the impact. How did he go from being an entrepreneur to being a philanthropist?

“It came naturally, I don’t think I was looking to be a philanthropist or anything at heart. I’m curious about creating things about being an entrepreneur. I found my passion was to build these networks. So it came upon accidentally, in a way, because I always liked meeting people and keeping in touch with people. It was a natural progression to do this.

The evolution was not just to do it, but do it as a force for good. So that came upon slowly, as I started building these networks, then I started realizing that these networks were doing good things. They were creating impact. They were making progress. That excited me to kind of evolve into looking at things I do. And ask myself, is that going to make an impact? So whatever I do, now, I look at it and say, does that move the needle? Does something make an impact? If I do it? If it does not, you know, I don’t do it. So there’s a very litmus test now that I use with things I do.

My whole thing is to add value and connect people to do good. And don’t expect anything.”

What is the Heart of A Community?

When humans connect, they form a community. A community marching towards a common good. M.R. believes every community has a heart that keeps them alive. Here is what he said-

“I think at the heart of all the networks and communities I’ve started is that 一everybody is committed to giving and sharing, and trusting. That’s a core part of the value system of every network I have. The analogous to that is the second quality, which is no quid pro quo. So you give without any expectation of getting anything back. Pure. If you can instill those values in a community and everyone learns to trust each other, I think you’ve done your job.

When you look at any human being, there are certain qualities we have, that we are good at, and certain things we’re not good at. Right? So inherently you need other people. That’s just how humans are. I think I’m building on that. If you admit to yourself, you’re good at certain things and you’re not good at certain things. You obviously need help. And then if other people do the same thing that then forms a community, right?”