Published work
Guide + websiteBoth are linked above so readers can inspect the actual work.A student-made guide for the next cohort
PGP Bharat C2 Field Companion
A guide to help the next cohort arrive at a business visit knowing what to look for and what to ask.
Result so far
I published a field guide and a live companion website for the next cohort. They give students a place to prepare, find resources and take questions into a visit. Reader uptake and learning outcomes have not yet been measured.
My contribution
I researched, wrote, designed and built an independent field companion for Cohort 2, using AI to help develop the material. The work includes a digital guide and a mobile-friendly website with organisation pre-reads and programme resources.
01 / The problem
Where it started.
I was part of PGP Bharat’s founding cohort at Masters’ Union from January to June 2026. Afterwards, I wanted to turn that experience into something useful for the students going next. Being present at a visit is only the start; understanding the business beforehand gives you better questions to ask while you are there.
The decision
Make preparation short enough to use before a visit, then help students investigate one real process. Keep changing logistics in the live resource layer.
Start with something familiar
The guide uses a chai stall to explain the model. A cup has a selling price, ingredients and packaging have a cost, and rent has to be covered whether the stall is busy or quiet. Unsold milk makes the cost of getting demand wrong easy to see.
Then the reader takes the same questions into a larger business: who pays, what needs to happen before delivery, and where time or money gets stuck. The numbers in the example are teaching assumptions, not a claim about a particular stall.
Make the visit easier to learn from
A pre-read should help a student notice something specific. The Nivia brief, for example, asks how a new sports product is tested before it scales. The notes pages ask students to separate what they observed from what someone told them, and to record what remains unproven.
I made this resource for Cohort 2 after taking part in Cohort 1. The next group’s route and company list belong to their programme; the case here is about the resource I built for them.
02 / The approach
How I worked through it.
- 01
Start with business basics: revenue, contribution, cash flow and the people involved in a business.
- 02
Use a worked chai-stall example before applying the same questions to unfamiliar organisations.
- 03
Create organisation briefs explaining who pays, how work moves and where the business could be vulnerable.
- 04
Add prompts to observe the work, follow one order or decision, compare accounts and record what changed the reader’s mind.
- 05
Provide a website alongside the guide for quick access on a phone and for information that changes.
Workflow
How it works
- 01Before
Understand the business and choose a question.
- 02During
Follow one process and speak to the people doing the work.
- 03After
Record the evidence that changed your view.
03 / The evidence
What the work produced.
Designed for
Cohort 2Built after my own January–June 2026 experience in Cohort 1.A concrete example
A chai stallIntroduces contribution, break-even and waste before the organisation briefs.Field method
Follow one processPrompts readers to trace an order, customer, document or decision through its stages.The July 2026 focused edition contains business basics, the worked chai-stall example, organisation briefs, source references and reusable field notes. The folder also contains longer editions and editorial work; those versions are not separate products or evidence of adoption.
04 / Looking back
What I took away.
I wanted to leave the next cohort something they could use. The useful part of the work was deciding what a student needs before entering an unfamiliar business, then making that information easy to find.
- A simple worked example makes business vocabulary easier to use during a real conversation.
- A company overview becomes more useful when it leads to something the reader can observe or ask about.
What I would measure next
Ask students which briefs they opened, which questions they used and where the guide was wrong or too detailed. Use those accounts to shorten and correct the next edition.
Scope & confidentiality
This is an independent student-made resource, not an official Masters’ Union publication. Cohort 2 organisations and dates describe the guide’s intended audience and itinerary; they are not a record of places I personally visited. Business examples are illustrative unless attributed to a source.