Is that why you created Kanchi? Yes. I realised there was a business model around disability that I hadn’t seen until that point. If we’re to change thinking and behaviour around disability, we should start by changing the mindset of the most prolific force on earth: business. It doesn’t matter if you’re a


hairdresser or Microsoft – business is everywhere. If we can create an inclusive business community, then we can create an inclusive society.


Where do you start with such a big task? I started with conferences, simple awareness and education, and went on to create a quality assurance scheme – similar to ISO 9000 – offering tools, methodologies and standards that companies could work towards. Things that would really benefit their bottom line. We also created a competition to


incentivise businesses and reward best practice: The Ability Awards launched in 2005. It’s a year-long, nine-stage process with seven categories [recruitment, customer service, etc], open to all sizes of business. We select 75 to visit and work with, and from there we create 50 Ability companies each year. We gained sponsorship from O2,


and within three cycles in Ireland they became the most sought-after business award schemes, giving winners a real competitive advantage.


Can you cite a success story? Aura Sports and Leisure Management won the overall private sector award in 2007, beating massive multi-national companies. What happened then was that other medium-sized Irish companies became interested. Aura also started to have managers


from other leisure companies wanting to work with them because of the


june 2012 © cybertrek 2012


Casey named her company, Kanchi, after the elephant she rode solo for three months around southern India


value they placed on individuality and difference. So it started a ripple effect.


So where do you take Kanchi from here? I’ve recently stepped down as CEO, because I believe founders can be very limiting on a company. I’ve also pledged to shut Kanchi down in 2020, because putting a limit on our time and life ensures that we’re urgent about what we do. We can’t hope to fix the issue of inclusion and disability in eight years, but we shouldn’t pretend we have a lifetime to do it either. All our projects – domestic and


international – have a revenue- generating aspect so that, as a not-for- profit organisation, we’re not always putting our hands out for money. We’ve also recently created Kanchi


International, a licensed partnership model where we plan to work with different organisations around the world, promoting the disability business model.


What, in your opinion, is the greatest challenge around disability? I believe it’s the eight inches between people’s ears: their attitude towards disability. But they shouldn’t be blamed for that – it’s the way that disability is portrayed in society. For many businesses, disability is


seen as a problem, not an opportunity, and that’s what we have to change. Companies may be thinking ‘do we really want these customers or do we want to employ such people – won’t they always be sick or wanting to take me to court?’


What are the opportunities? The number of disabled people globally equates roughly to the population of China, and the spending power in the UK alone is £80bn. In addition, because of an ageing population, 16 per cent of people in Europe now have a disability and that will grow to 20 per cent by 2020.


Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 43


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