Footsteps of Successful Entrepreneurs

Rohit Paul 9810269998 i am A Management Graduate from Institute of Management and Technology. With Specialization in Marketing and Advertising. 30 years of experience in the Industry i have A Managerial acumen combined with enterprenuerial spirit, which helps me convert new idea’s into a successful innovation. my mantra The insightful understanding developed of socio cultural dynamics and economics behaviour of people over 25 years is my mantra for achieving sucesses in my business.

my story



Try try till you succeed The Idea Workshop- Rohit Paul Rohit still remembers reporting time and date at IMT campus. 10.40 hrs, 4th April, 1986. The time and date that defined his future. It seems like yesterday when his journey to quest for learning and growth began. He completed his PGDBM in the year 1988 and was looking forward to joining a multinational company through Campus placements. He recalls anxious moments of placement when about 20 of his batch mates were already absorbed by companies with lucrative offers. He had done his summer training with Kelvinator and was hoping to be called for final placement. At this stage he started thinking – “Do I want to work for someone or will I go on my own?” It is easy to take decision of working for someone because your role and progress is defined through systems. Choosing to be on your own however poses following questions- What is it that you want to do? Do you have background or an opportunity to start a business? Will your family/parents support the idea? Where do you get the seed capital? Do you think acquired skills from PGDBM good enough to start a venture? Introspection at this stage on your strength and weakness helps you chose your path. A SWOT analysis of his present circumstances helped him arrive at a clear strategy to move towards his goal. Working for a professional organisation for at least 3-4 years to gain experience and doing small saving for his seed capital looked like a viable option to begin with. Strategy was to work with an attitude of self owned business and to keep a lookout for an opportunity of being self-employed. Job Journey With his strategy clear in his mind he picked up the first job with Kelvinator, which had two product lines - refrigerator and auto. While they had monopoly in the refrigerator division auto division was 5% of the market share. Kelvinator was selling 30 vehicles per month through a dealer network of 32 in state of Haryana. On joining, he was faced with challenge from his supervisor to device a strategy to pick up the average sale of auto to 50 per month. The time given was four months and the reward was to be made independent In-charge of auto division in Haryana.

Well this was the challenge he was looking for and started on the job from day one. With team of two sales executives, five service people, one warehouse in-charge, and an accountant. Apart from this, 32 dealers across the state out of which 70% were refrigerator dealers forced to sell Mopeds. On top of this, he had a backlog of vehicles billed but not delivered. In first instance, he surmised that following were the highlighted weakness. The sales team had overlapping duties for refrigerator and auto, as a result it lead to ambiguity in terms of marketing and sales operations. Weak dealer network because most of the dealers were refrigerator dealers and were not trained to handle auto sales and after sales services. Also poor brand awareness among the target group of buyers, low opinion of the product due lack of spare parts and after sales service, lack of local finance tie-ups for sale of the vehicles, and last but not least high stock of vehicle at the existing dealers and billed but not delivered vehicles at the godown. These were some of the issues which needs to be addressed in next few days to reach to his target. To fight back these problems he started re-vamping the market with new appointment of dealers both in unrepresentative and non performing territories. Target was cycle and moped dealers. Appointment of spare part dealers and service centres to further consolidated the presence of product in the market. In order to establish the brand he started road shows giving trial of the vehicles at the door steps of villages and small towns. The marketing campaign was backed with other collaterals like, flyers wall paintings and hoarding for repeat reminder of the product. He systematically covered territory with service camps at different district levels on a continuous basis. In order to improve the sale of the dealers he did tie up with local financers and banks like Citibank for institutional and individual sale of the vehicles. Hard work of the team and surgical operational of cleaning the market resulted in monthly average sales shooting up to 75 vehicles per month within the targeted time period. This included clearing of back-log. Profit is the applause you get for taking care of your customer and creating a motivating environment for your people. By the end of the 12th month systems were in place his team grew from strength to strength averaging 125 vehicles per month. It was the time for different challenges and newer exposures, so he joined Blue Star Ltd. as branch in charge for sale of appliances in state of Haryana. Blue Star Ltd gave him an exposure to wider of business horizon. Blue Star sold refrigerators in the brand name of Leonard. The refrigerators were procured from Kelvinator and branded as Leonard. He was exposed to the bill of material of the refrigerator and final cost of landing at their godown in Haryana. With clearly defined profit margins /bottom lines and allocation per unit sale for advertisements/ turnover discounts to dealers. This gave a feel of total control to handle finances vis-a-vis market. Not many companies follow such

an open information system and empower their employees to use their discretion in planning their marketing activity. Challenges were quite similar to auto division in Kelvinator. With basic focus on people capability first i.e. team and the dealers, respond to the voice of customer, marketing innovation through discounting and visibility, execution of marketing plan through process and standards and building blocks of execution .By focusing on these issues he could raise the market share of 12% in the territory to 27% by the end of the year. Think like a business man; focus on profitability with long term objective of sustainable growth. Continuing his journey further after working with Blue Star Ltd, he joined Eicher Ltd in Enfield division for the territory of Rajasthan. Enfield India was acquired by Eicher to further enhance their product range. Enfield Bullet was already well established brand with defined users. Other products were the range of mopeds. Challenges in front of him were-; Bullet as a brand with limitation of users. Awareness of moped among the consumer was very low. ROI of dealership was not very high. Availability of duplicate spare part resulted in very poor sale of the original parts. Strategy defined by him was to Increase the presence by new dealership appointment. Appoint local mechanic’s agents to promote use of original parts. Hold service camps to train local mechanics Hold demonstration of mopeds in sub town and appoint sub dealers and re-work the ROI for the dealer. While first four points were standard corrective strategy, ROI was a challenge to convince a dealer. He asked the dealer to list down their revenue model from the business, Resulting figures of the feedback was -Vehicle Sales 20% After sale Service 45% Spare parts 35%. Solution provided - Increase the spare parts sales through appointment of local mechanics as agents, appoint sub dealers of spare parts in nearby small towns. Increase after sales service by holding service camps and service on call. Increase sale of vehicles by appointing sub dealers in near by town and tap institutions for bulk selling. As a CRM activity Enfiled Privilege club was introduced to enrol and benefit the customers. A clear process was given to each dealership to follow. Each dealership translated the process into execution closely monitored by his team which resulted in highly motivated channel partners. Central purpose of a business is to maximise returns from resources employed within the business. With this added success story behind him the inner desire to start on his own grew stronger.

Business Opportunity knocking on the door: In 1991 December, he was invited by his friend to join his business as a partner. This opportunity transformed him into an entrepreneur. Business model of the company was to source buyers for small-time Indian exporters on commission basis. But as usual he analysed the opportunity and found that the business had no previous exposure on International trading, no knowledge on documentations and applicable rules and market base. However, treating it as one more assignment he started his learning a fresh. Incidentally mode of communication at that time was telephones (no mobile) or fax (no email). The venture started by his friend was very young based on networking through social contacts. This needed proper business planning based on assessment of company strengths and weaknesses, external environment and clarification of company objectives. Further an evaluation of alternative course of action has to be ascertained to achieve these objectives and develop a strategic plan. Strategic plan to be further converted into more detailed tactical plans. Finally strategic plan needed to identify specific objective for the units function and individual execution in the business. Business especially in terms of new prospects did not have a very good response in the beginning because of lack of credibility/experience. However, alternative strategy of picking up agency of International exhibition authorities gave them a better response. His module had a larger format with two-pronged strategy. Company provided Indian exporter with the platform of exhibiting their products and also organised meetings with the prospective buyers. This gave company revenue flow from sale of exhibition space and commission on any deal concluded through their contacts. Within a year, business was generating profits and exposed to International trading. Business had a major set back within 16 months of operation due to sudden change in RBI regulation and Policy. Provisions for unforeseen eventualities are a must for the survival of a business. This was a time to diversify and divert their resources to new business venture. Setback had put his confidence on an all time low but spirit to succeed was not dead yet. On introspection of positive learning from this business, an idea emerged for another business venture. Most of the country visited during his business trip, he noticed Laundromats in housing complexes. Concept of Laundromat adapted to Indian market looked like a workable idea. Idea was soon on paper to study the viability of the project. The concept was to provide door-to-door laundry service and the sample market was Vasant Kunj in Delhi where approximately ten thousands families resided. The profile of the customer was at least 60% working couples, shortage of water, logistically more feasible were some of the driving factors. Company in the name of WASHLINE was launched with laundry unit in Mahipalpur. Target subscription in first two months was 1200 families. Concept

door pick up and drop of clothes washed and ironed within 48 hours. They picked up workers from Vasant Kunj for cleaning & pressing, thus eliminating most of the competition with local dhobhi. The USP was lower cost and more hygiene. The factory was equipped with state–of-art machinery. The team comprised of operation/ production department; sales team; logistics team; customer support team; account and finance team. It may sound simple but it involved huge amount of logistics and control on day– to-day operational issues. Within seven months, they were riding high with the membership shooting up to 2000. Washline got noticed by the media and a half page article in Pioneer News was devoted on them with a headline as “Literate Laundrette”. The operation was on with fair amount of glitches since some of the customers started misusing the service and used the service as their side business. In the meantime demand for the service was growing and they started receiving enquiries from as far as Prithviraj Road apartments, Gearter Kailash and Hauzkhas. In enthusiasm of overwhelming response, they overlooked the pressure on the logistics and operations. This was the beginning of their downtrend in terms of services that they had promised to customers. Corrective actions came too late, on one side resulted in losing customer base and on other hand fixed expenses kept increasing which resulted in financial losses. Strategies most often fail because they aren’t executed well. Re Evaluation and the next beginning: Two failures in a row will make anyone question his capabilities to run a business. Looking at his batch-mates from IMT who were already doing well in their career and his parents wanted him to get back to a job, which can play havoc on his determination to move forward. As he was active in extracurricular activities particularly sport gave him the strength and conviction to continue his quest for self-actualisation. One of his colleagues from Eicher approached him with a business proposal. He had developed a car central locking system and wanted him to help market the same. With very little seed capital and production of approximately 100 units in a month, operating from a garage, it looked like an impossible task to achieve success. Again he decided to make this impossible task possible. By then he was married his wife was just at the beginning of her career. He realized things are not going to be as simple as he thought. Armed with skills to handle a dealer network, he began his journey again. Challenges faced- it was a performance based product for which he was not equipped with service backup. Secondly customers were not exposed to the product and did not understand its utility. With limitation of resources the market could be small-time retailers in Delhi. Result - low volumes. Agreement to dealer’s terms of payment “Payable when able”. Financial and production planning became a big question mark.

To combat these problems he planned to penetrate the market through personal contacts and social networking. He reached out to the top executives of automobile manufacturer to introduce the product in their cars. The product was well accepted in the market and demo units were installed in the cars of senior executives of automobile companies. Retailer’s off-take was also good. OEM’s like Pricol and Auto-meters approached them for technology buy back. Their major constraint was production set up for which they needed very high working capital. Most of the financial institutions were asking for collaterals and there was no venture capitalist to provide them finance. In the meantime, their dealer network for the car accessories was expanding to different parts of the country. Knowing their drawbacks in terms of finance, production and service, they took a strategic decision to expand product line into one of the low cost high volume product and strengthen the dealer network. They slowed down the production of the car central locking system to phase out the product in stages. A big side-view mirror range was introduced with a brand name as “Virgin”. This product was instant hit with the dealers. The brand made him establish his identity in the market and he was competing with big suppliers in the market within a span of 6 months. As he grew, the market started asking for more range in products. The success of the brand was more related to quality, handling of dealers professionally, providing with innovative packaging and providing them with value for the money. This was further reflected in the demand from the end user of the product. Soon competition copied suite punch lines like “virgin like mirror” on their packaging which re-enforced product position in the market as the leader. In the meantime, he also introduced three more products to get a better hold of the dealer network. By the end of the year, he had dealers in almost all the key towns of the country. Volumes were high and he was back making profits. In 1996, Rohit was approached by one of his batch-mate from a leading Advertising Company, asking him to design and produce merchandising stand for one of their client. Which Rohit executed successfully. This gave him another opportunity to explore the possibility of developing innovative packaging formats for FMCG companies. In the process, he was introduced to a person who was running a business of graphic designing and printing. With an arrangement of combining knowledge, they explored an idea of providing his FMCG clients with wider gamut of services. In the meantime, his batch-mate from the advertising company also joined them. Operation of car accessories business was handled by his partner. Rohit was trying to sail two boats at same time. This was a strategic error that resulted in collapse of a successful business. Finally, he had to sell the project to one of his competition. Now, Rohits options were limited to the new venture of advertising. This business was totally new and knowledge was limited. It was the second time when he thought

of getting back to working for some one else. But his wife’s positive attitude and confidence gave him the strength to start this new venture. When written in Chinese the word “crisis” is composed of two characters - one represents danger and the other represents opportunity. Family support in such crisis act as a boon. Work was not easy to come in spite of his social networking of friends from IMT. Rohit’s first breakthrough came after six months struggle. He was able to bag an assignment from an International NGO. He perceived it as a beginning of the end. Soon he was back with same confidence and spirit as he felt when he started his first venture. Work started flowing in with more companies coming in as his regular clients. By the end of third year, he was boasting of most priced companies as his clients. As the clients increased, demand for wider platform of services also increased. THE IDEA WORKSHOP, as the company name suggests, gives one window concept to all communication requirements. The business of marketing and advertising is part science, part art – part logic, part creativity. It is harnessing the power of all parts that makes Creative Communication & Design different from other advertising agencies. He believes marketing must be both practical and visionary. It must have purpose and cleverness. Its message must make sense to the right people and make them take notice. What makes Creative Communication & Design different is his ability to work on both sides of the equation, to synthesize smart concepts – from both worlds – into ideas, executions, and results. Ideas are the heart of marketing. They anchor brand development. They get your marketing noticed. They make individual advertising executions special. Mission- “Drive customer success, Make the numbers, Create great place to work, through improved, innovation, productivity and learning.” Take Away: Rohit’s quest for growth and learning is still on. It is clear the future holds great opportunities. It also holds pitfalls. The trick is to avoid pitfalls, seize the opportunities, and get back home by six o’clock. Is he still working towards seeking new business venture? He endorses “I have always found that my view of success has been iconoclastic: success to me is not about money or status or fame, its about finding a livelihood that brings me joy and self-sufficiency and a sense of contributing to the world”.