Will advise on governance, structure at Byju’s: Kumar

livemint.com:

What’s your brief as an advisory board member? My brief would be to basically advise them on governance matters and organizational structure. We will use our experience in governing large corporations. They know their job of running a startup very well.

But when it comes to governance, and when they (Byju’s) are growing fast, they need help from professionals. These are young entrepreneurs, and I believe they have good intentions. But, somewhere in their (Byju’s) growth journey, certain basics or hygiene factors should have been much stronger.

So, there were issues, I think, and that’s why the advisory council will advise them purely on governance matters. Do you think the problems at Byju’s can be fixed in that sense? Of course, the intention is clear. They need someone to guide them and set their basic philosophy right.

There will be people who will be accountable, particularly around compliance and the local laws of the land. If an accountability framework is created, then they (promoters) can focus on the content part and the teaching. That is where this advisory board comes in.

Byju’s is touted as a unicorn and a huge edtech success story to the rest of the world. Do you think the government was concerned by the recent events and setting up the advisory council came from the government? The government has no role in this. Do you think Byju will listen to the council’s advice? (Laughs..) He is bound to listen.

I’ll put it that way. Did the appointment of the council come from investors? As far as I’m concerned, we didn’t have any direct interaction with investors. This is the initiative taken by Byju and Divya.