Kenneth Hartley Blanchard, the renowned American author once quoted “There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you do it only when it is convenient. When you are committed to something, you accept no excuses; only results”. Padmaja Reddy, Founder & MD, Spandana Sphoorty Financial Limited (SSFL), is one such leader who truly manifests the aforementioned quote as well as its context.

An ace leader, Padmaja is a self-made and first-generation entrepreneur who started her venture – SSFL in 1998, with a noble aim of helping underserved low-income women workers from rural and semi-urban areas of India, offering them unsecured income generation loans, micro-enterprise loans, and much more. Today, under her aegis, SSFL has emerged as the country’s leading provider of microfinance services and etched a name for itself as one of the trusted microfinance institutions (MFIs) amongst its clients.

In the Andhra Pradesh microfinance crisis (AP crisis 2010), many MFIs were severely impacted, including SSFL. As a worst-case scenario, the organization was even referred to as Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) by its lenders in 2011. But, it was Padmaja, who never lost her faith. She worked harder, with greater dedication and didn’t just pulled her organization out from the edge of bankruptcy, but nurtured and led SSFL to regain the title of ‘top microfinance players’ in India. Isn’t it enough to realize why Padmaja stands as the epitome of ‘commitment’?

Padmaja, in an exclusive conversation with Women Entrepreneur India, reminisces about her journey and delineates about SSFL’s offerings.

Walk Us Through The Inception Story Of Your Brainchild – Spandana, Along With Your Journey So Far.

The journey has been full of ups & downs, but I feel fortunate that I got a supportive family. I am the first woman in my village to go to college. Talking about my educational background, I did my Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Degree in Communication and Journalism, and completed MBA from Nagarjuna University. I have also attained a number of certifications such as training in Credit and Micro Enterprise Development from Durham University Business School (UK), training in Strategic Microfinance from Harvard Business School (US) and training on Micro Finance from Naropa University (US).

I started my professional journey with an NGO that was dedicated to helping rural people in Andhra Pradesh by raising grants from different funding agencies. One fine day, I met a rag picker and started a conversation with her. There I got to know that how she was losing her hard-earned money by paying rent for her cart and interest on the loan. I decided to help her by providing a small loan of just Rs. 2,000, which she used to buy a cart for herself and to discontinue her deal with the moneylender. It made a huge impact on her daily earnings increasing it around three times from Rs. 20 to Rs. 60 per day. Immediately after that incident, 300-odd small traders and workers came knocking at my door, and that was when I realized that there is a gap in the society, which was needed to be filled. So, I decided to quit my job and start my own venture SSFL, with an aim to scale the funding & financing work and help people with their financial challenge.

“At SSFL our vision is to transform lives through microcredit and create economic stability while fulfilling the aspirations of our clients”

What Are The Various Services That You Offer? Also, Tell Us What Do You Consider As The Strength Of SSFL?

We offer different loan products customized to the requirements of our customers. Our offerings include Abhilasha Group loans, in which we don't take any collateral (replaced with a group guarantee), and the loan size is up to Rs. 80,000. We also offer loans of Rs. 5 lacs to 50 lacs to small and mid-sized business. Apart from that we also offer interim loans and gold loans. Recently we launched a two-wheeler loan for our customers.

At SSFL our vision is to transform lives through microcredit and create economic stability while fulfilling the aspirations of our clients. In order to do that, we adhere to stringent values like transparency, responsiveness, integrity, commitment and team spirit. These values are our greatest strength and also the reason that enable SSFL to achieve its business objective.

What Are The Kind Of Milestones That You Have Achieved? Can You Share Some With US?

There are many, but I would like to narrow it down to some prominent ones. As a business owner, I would say, taking SSFL to a new heights in just five years of starting is one of the major milestones of ours. By 2006, we were renowned as the largest MFIs in India and the 6th largest across the world. That’s another milestone. Apart from that exiting CDR (2017) and getting SSFL listed in the stock exchanges (2019) are a couple of major milestones, which makes me proud and about which I can boast without hesitation.

Do You Have Any Suggestion For Your Budding Entrepreneurs?

Get into an entrepreneurship role, if you have passion and commitment in you. When you become an entrepreneur, a number of people rely on you, and it’s your job to fulfil their goals along with yours. Apart from that, whatever the situation is, never give up. Challenges are temporary, face them and you’ll rise again stronger than ever.

Padmaja Reddy, Founder & MD, Spandana Sphoorty Financial

A dedicated professional with more than two decades of experience in the microfinance industry, Padmaja is renowned for her amazing personality, out of the box thinking and leadership quality.