About Us
A Leader in Educational Child Care
A Fast Tortoise
From the beginning, we have known that building YKROK would be an
incremental process. From 2002 through 2007, we opened only one centre.
We knew In order to be truly successful, we cannot sacrifice the quality
of our educational experience to be more profitable, nor can we be
unprofitable in order to offer higher-quality care. We can’t
choose “either/or,” but instead must do “both and more” — great quality and
reasonable economic returns. Many of our teachers and directors come out of
under-resourced programs, both nonprofit or for-profit, and they can attest to
the ways in which chronic budget crises undermine motivation. Likewise, many
come from environments in which a focus solely on profitability has led to the
degradation of quality and, ultimately, economics. Though the margins in the
field are low, we have demonstrated our ability to incrementally improve them by
leveraging overhead more effectively as we grow.
Our centers are relatively small economic units with an average of 150 children
per centre; they each require a great deal of planning, hiring, and faculty
training prior to opening. Each is typically sustained by a client relationship
that requires intense focus and attention. We have achieved our growth through
building new centres from the ground up, we know that organizations with our
quality model and employer-sponsored strategy are few. In the early 2000s, when
0% growth seemed trivial, we followed the Socratic wisdom of “know thyself ” and
stayed true to the basic elements of our strategy. We don’t aspire to be the
hare, just the fastest tortoise we can be. As a result, we have grown
consistently for the last 3 years. We have never had a quarter of declining
growth in this entire period. We continue to grow consistently during the
recessions of 2008-2009, and the early part of 2010. In our 16 quarters
as a private limited company, we have always met or exceeded our earnings goals.
A Better World
We are uniquely positioned to make the world a better place.
Like many companies, we can do this by being a good place for
our employees, by helping our clients be great workplaces, and by
generating returns for our shareholders. In addition, if we do
our work right, we help educate the next generation of scientists, policy
makers, teachers, philanthropists, and artists. If our programs, rich in the
ethnic Indian and Global diversity that comes from our function as a workplace
child care provider, help children overcome racial, religious, and other
divisions, we can help create a more peaceful world. We help children learn from
the earliest age to resolve conflicts, manage their anger, and empathize with
others. We participate in fulfilling the vision of a world of truly equal
opportunity by giving all the children we serve a good start in life.
Milestones
Eight years after the company began, YKROK has achieved many milestones
by which we can measure our progress.
We have the highest percentage of corporate centers in India. Each corporate
gives us International standards to implement which does NOT mean we are NAEYC
accredited from the United States
but atleast the standards are very high and comparable to a premium child care
centre in the US.
With seed funding from IBM, we opened three corporate centres in Bangalore for
IBM, we now are operating in Pune, and Delhi. Our corporate client satisfaction
scores topped
99%. Like the children we serve, we have grown and developed, and our future is
filled with potential.
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Seed Funded by IBM Global Work/Life Fund
To learn more about IBM Global Work/Life Fund go to
http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/global_leaders/ibm_fund.php
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Looking Ahead
With the day-to-day leadership of YKROK in the able hands of Bharat
Kapoor, and Suman Kapoor, and several more operational and project management
leadership staff, We are confident that many good days lie ahead.
We are fortunate to have such a capable team leading the company. YKROK’s
management strength runs deep. Having been able to sustain growth during the
recent economic downturn in 2009, we are positioned extremely well for a
strengthening economy. We have used the weakness in the economy to put more
distance between ourselves and our competition. We have made aggressive
investments even as others have pulled back. We are positioned for more PAN
India growth. We have developed new employer niches among IT and financial
services companies and are beginning to make progress availing ourselves of
Venture Capital funding for early education. We continue to grow and develop our
client services team, our corporate tie up practice, our architectural design
capabilities, and our new-center development proficiency. Most important, as our
core clients’ businesses regain their strength, we are positioned to be their
partner in continuing to promote family-friendly workplaces that attract and
retain the best talent. Our centres have seen increased enrollment, and we have
managed our cost structure. This positions us very well for a strong rebounding
Indian economy as demand for services has strengthen and we are achieving even
higher levels of occupancy.
Over the next five years, we will continue to innovate to find creative ways to
meet the needs of children, employers, and families. And fifteen years from now,
the first YKROK graduates may have children of their own learning, growing, and
discovering at YKROK child care and early education centers.
We deeply appreciate the support and confidence you have placed in us as an
owner of Your Kids ‘R’ Our Kids. We intend to be an organization in which you
would not only invest your capital as we grow to become a public company, but
also to which you would entrust your children. That is our unique calling.
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