Enterprise: Brainwonders
CEO: Manish Naidu
Industry: Education
Year it was founded: 2011
Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra

Brainwonders is primarily a career counselling centre focusing on occupational growth, psychosocial grooming and talent maximisation. The brainchild of Manish Naidu, the firm offers comprehensive and bias-free DMIT, IQ, psychometric and aptitude tests.

In conversation with GlobalLinker (GL), Manish shares his business journey.

GL: Manish, what led you to become an entrepreneur?

Manish: I was blessed with a baby girl in 2008. As a father, this happy event brought with it a lot of questions. The initial three years presented themselves with several unknowns—What is her preferred learning style? Her strengths? Which is the right playgroup and school for her? What makes a child happy? In 2011, I embarked on a quest for the secret to a happy child that can empower a child. In 2011, I was introduced to Dermatoglyphics (scientific study of fingerprint patterns) by Professor Lin Ruei Bin and Mr. Henry Lee Yan Fong at the Well Gene Science Lab in Malaysia. Professor Lin Ruei Bin had actively pioneered research in dermatoglyphics and had secured the US patent in 2009. Amazed by the scientific insights provided, I decided that it is time that Indians also reap the benefits of the wonderful scientific report and thus secured the Master Franchise Rights in 2011.

Brainwonders operates its US patented DMIT (Dermatoglyphics Multiple Intelligence Test), IQ test, psychometric test and aptitude test and caters to the age range of 6 months to 70 years with a firm motto of providing quality assessment and counselling services. The Brainwonders counselling team consists of 183 clinical, counselling and career psychologists dedicated to providing quality guidance with their passion and expertise to all clients.

Also read: Vineet Kumar, Founder, Meditantras

GL: What is the USP of Brainwonders?

Manish: Brainwonders is an organisation that has built its reputation based on counselling on the individual genetic traits, which itself are unique. The DMIT test is an extremely unbiased and fair way of testing. The usual psychometric tests—IQ, Aptitude, Interest, Multiple Intelligence and Personality—are based on human responses and the analysis is also supervised by the concerned person. Whereas, DMIT directly taps into the biometric identity and the analysis is also done at the lab. Thus, the results are always unprejudiced and unique to the test-taker.

DMIT caters to requirements all age groups irrespective of any social background.

Toddlers (1-4 years): The DMIT helps parents make decisions on understanding the child’s behaviour, parenting styles, the right preschool and apt teaching methods.

Children (4-12 years): This is the age where children learn and absorb the most. Understanding their learning styles and the overall intelligences profile assists in identifying suitable methods to work on certain areas and explore the strengths.

Students (11 to 17 years): Knowing the strengths and recommendations to work on problem areas helps in understand your intrinsic potential. It highlights the innate primary and secondary learning styles which makes study time more productive.

Career Guidance (16 years and above): One can understand their personality and competencies along with leadership qualities to boost their professional growth and ensure the success on job.

Adult (25 years and above): Understanding the inborn talents and emotional aspects nurtures personal management and fosters social relationships.

Human Resource: It provides complete profile of the individual and thus helps in their assessment in terms of abilities, areas of concern, soft skills and technical skills. The organisation aims to revolutionise the scene of Indian Corporates and many firms have successfully reaped the benefits. There is no dearth of adults using it to boost their career by learning about their workplace behaviour, their interests and competency areas and ways of improvement. This arms them with the best career options and recommendations on how to excel in their chosen field. Hence, it comes as no surprise that many HR professionals are turning to Brainwonders DMIT to recruit and manage the best employees and orient them towards national growth. The DMIT goes beyond the facets of personality, learning style, brain dominance, multiple intelligence profile and career growth to tap into more abstract concepts and gives an unbiased profile for further grooming.

For our noted services, in 2012, Brainwonders was awarded as ‘Best Contribution to Student Counselling’ at the Indian Education Awards and has won several other recognitions in the field of education and career counselling.

GL: What has been the most effective way of raising awareness about your business?

Manish: Our first client base was developed with parents who discussed their queries with me as concerned parents. I shared with them my experience of DMIT and that is how the story started.

Currently, sponsoring academic summits and digital marketing is what we focus on. We get several institutional references too. We acquire a lot of our clients are also through orientation, workshops and school association events such as MISA (Member of International Schools Association) etc. Social and digital media also plays a great role. Our existing clients express a high level of satisfaction with our services and thus, we always value the references they provide.

GL: What is the major challenge you face in your line of work and how do you overcome this?

Manish: Unfortunately, there are a few ‘professionals’ who give assessment a bad name. Assessments like psychometric tests and DMIT are often seen as something which is very intrusive and to be taken only in case there is a problem with the child’s development or behaviour. It often indicates towards labelling and categorisation of certain traits of the child. However, this is far from the truth. A test or an assessment is directed towards further growth and development and is a wholesome and fruitful experience when done right.

It is Brainwonders’ US patented counselling concept with DMIT that has led to a giant leap in assessment and counselling. One scientific assessment for all aspects is extremely beneficial. Also, it is efficiently backed by decades of research by Prof Lin and also has a US patent to add to its name. Brainwonders is well renowned for their team of experienced and certified counsellors to add to the value of the whole DMIT process. The tool uses technology which uses biometric fingerprint to give a wholesome profile of the individual:

Personality - Understanding of the behaviour and thought processes using DMIT helps in better parenting.

Learning Style - The Brainwonders analysis helps in identifying the correct learning styles which makes the study process more productive.

Brain Dominance - The Left or Right Brain dominance through Brainwonders analysis helps in knowing the analytical or creative inclination.

Multiple Intelligence Profile - The Social Skills, Ability to Introspect, Logic and Reasoning, Visual and Spatial Judgement, Control over Body Movements, command over language and Comprehension skills are very important to get the right set of subjects one can benefit from.

Subject Selection - Choosing the right subjects using DMIT is important to get the career decision right on the basis of innate strengths and intelligence.

Career Analysis - The Brainwonders analysis makes helps in making the decision of suitable job profile and work environment ensures success in the chosen career without any social pressure.

Guidance and Recommendations - The DMIT analysis is followed by detailed counselling session which provides unique suggestions for personal and professional development

Thus, the person gets their comprehensive profile without any human error and saves on time too. It in fact is a powerful tool used by corporates and educators alike irrespective of any limitations of age, language, social and economic background and other factors. We at Brainwonders ensure that the process of testing and counselling is an enriching experience to push the growth of all.

Also read: Dipender Singh, Founder, Royal Life Science Pvt Ltd

GL: What is your leadership style?

Manish: My leadership mantra is simple: Always work with people smarter than yourself.

GL: You are a Linker. Which offerings of GlobalLinker have helped you?

Manish: GlobalLinker has offered me various services like events and discussion updates. What I found to be most novel here was the national network of SMEs—this is what will take Indian economy ahead undoubtedly!

GL: What advice would you give to an entrepreneur starting out?

Manish: Celebrate your achievements but never get comfortable with it. You can always do more. You can always do better!

GL: What is the next big thing on your business agenda?

Manish: Brainwonders will soon be launching their psychometric assessment in an online model—all under one umbrella.

The test will be available to all age groups on an individual dashboard. It will include:

• Personality Test
• Multiple Intelligence Test
• Aptitude Test
• Intelligence Quotient Test
• Interest Test
• School-Connect Programmes
• Corporate Assessment and Trainings
• Child-Parent Workshops

GL: We would love to know the person behind the entrepreneur.

• Every day you wake up at - 5.45 am
• The first thing you do when you wake up - Drink water
• Three things you do to unwind are - Reading books, spending time with my daughters, playing soccer
• When you face a big challenge -I smile
• The best piece of advice you’ve ever been given - For all your days prepare and meet them ever alike, when you are the anvil bear & when you are hammer strike
• The one book everyone should read - Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Also read: Sundari Patibandla, Founder-CEO, iSprout Business Centre

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