From Employee To Entrepreneur

Striking Out On His Own

MS Sidhu, MD, Apara Enterprises has come a long way since his short stint as
a salesman for Eureka Forbes. Today, Apara claims to provide-best-in class
solutions and consulting services in enterprise storage, intelligent networking,
enterprise security, secure messaging and application solutions.

Sidhu attributes his ability to run a business involving multiple verticals
to his stint as a salesperson when he began his career. “In my three months in
Eureka Forbes, I had over achieved my targets. I was literally pushed into HCL
since most of my roommates were either working in HCL or some other IT company.
They thought I was wasting my time being an engineer selling vacuum cleaners.”
While in HCL, out of the 120 people who were sent to New Delhi for training,
Sidhu was chosen for the CADCAM program, and that's where he got his first
glimpse of solution selling. In Hyderabad, he was given charge of the defense
solution department and worked with various people who helped him understand the
IT industry better.

MS Sidhu Apara Enterp- rises, Bangalore

After about a year, he moved to Wipro as a marketing executive. “In Wipro, I
was positioned at the lowest level in the middle management. Here too, I
overachieved my targets in providing technical solutions,” he added with a
smile. When asked why he quit and started as an entrepreneur, he explained, “It
was more due to peer pressure than anything else. My friends encouraged me
saying that I'm too good and brilliant and could start my own venture. I gave it
serious thought and since then there has been no looking back.”

One of the major challenges he faced initially was sourcing funds. “For any
entrepreneur, money is very important and the greatest challenge lies in
managing funds,” Sidhu stated. Sidhu stated that getting employees involved in
their work and incentivizing them constantly was very important. “Most companies
that I have worked with initially did not have very good incentive policies for
employees. When there is no limit to bringing business to the company, why
should there be a limit to the employee's incentives?” he questioned.

“At Apara we have a lot of young people and what we look for is attitude and
performance,” he remarked.

Sidhu feels that in today's world one needs to be focused and deliver
according to the responsibilities one has been assigned. He maintains that the
youth need to build up a strong foundation and then maximize on it. “I always
encourage my employees to deliver more and enable incentives as per their
performance.”

All said and done, Sidhu is riding on a high these days with his company and
employees overachieving their targets and maximizing their profits. Sidhu added,
“When I look back, I have absolutely no regrets and I am pleased that I have
made it on my own.”

Unwitting Entrepreneur

Shetty simply followed his gut feeling and got into providing solutions and
services, which was his forte

Born in a family with almost 25 doctors, no one expected Nityanand Shetty to
become an entrepreneur, forget a successful one. He however always nursed a
dream to start something on his own.

But after completing his graduation he took the safe route and joined Minafax
Computers in 1989 as a technical support employee. His job was to install
machines and offer technical support to companies like Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd,
Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, etc.

Nityanand Shetty EssenVision Software, Mumbai

It was around this time that he was introduced to Seema, who later on became
his wife. She invited him to a presentation by Neville Balsara who had written
the first Indian anti-virus code called Red Alert for his company Cosoft. So
great was the inspiration he drew from this presentation that he decided to wing
a company on his own.

He partnered with a colleague, Mahesh Joshi and decided to start his own
company in 1992, which was called Gray Computers. Joshi continued to work in
Minafax to fund this enterprise while Shetty, or Nitya as he is called, tried to
build a clientele.

Slowly, Gray started getting more clients and the first account Nitya bagged
was the Reserve Bank of India, which was no mean feat with other big players
vying for it. Around this time, he also got married to Seema and realized he
wanted to do something on his own without being answerable to anyone else.

He parted ways from Joshi and Gray Computers and in 1995 set up EssenVision
Software with just two employees-his newly wed wife and a peon. “We rented a
small office from my in-laws to run the company. There was only one piece of
furniture in that room which was a round table and we would all sit around it
and pick up the phone and book deals,” Nitya smiled.

Today, the same company has 30 employees, two branch offices, posted a
turnover of Rs 5.5 crore last fiscal and is looking at touching Rs 10 crore in
2007-08. Ask Nitya how he managed to pull this off and he replies that he has no
clue. “I just went by gut feel. Also, I had a wife to look after and I knew that
I had to work or else I would perish. This probably gave me the urge to put
everything I had into this venture and make it a success,” he remarked.

Now that he is the employer instead of the employee, Nitya tries to implement
the best practices possible for his team. Another thing that Nitya has done is
set up hierarchies in his company. He has a country manager and people
overseeing sales and marketing and he lets them make all the critical decisions.
He feels that once you appoint someone, that person should be given the
responsibility to do that job without any interference from his boss. “I always
knew I wanted to create an organization not a proprietor-driven company,” Nitya
stated.

Yet another thing that he has brought into EssenVision from his stint in
Minafax is an onus on service. This is the reason why he has mentioned his
mobile number on his company website.

There is another quirk that he has carried forward as well. He will always
wear a tie no matter when he comes to the office. “It is to remind myself that I
have a business to run and am not here for fun and games,” he smiled.

A Man Of Honor

Mishra believes in taking up challenges even if they seem impossible. He
believes that by harboring good relations with suppliers, customers and
employees, success will come your way

Pramod Mishra, an MBA from Lucknow University, started his career as a sales
representative in Godrej and Boyce in 1991, promoting dot matrix printers.
However, limited product exposure compelled him to quit his job with the MNC and
instead join Acme Digitek Solutions in Lucknow. “There was no job satisfaction
with them and that is why I decided to join Acme instead of working with an MNC,”
Mishra explained.

At Acme Digitek he started humbly with just selling printers, but today the
company has graduated to providing end-to-end solutions for customers. One of
the few successful SIs from Lucknow, Mishra has smoothly climbed the steps of
the value chain, and today Acme Digitek offers innovative technology solutions
to its customers.

The move to Acme Digitek was a big challenge for Mishra. He was initially
entrusted with the task of convincing customers to accept Acme Digitek as a
service provider. “I was given the responsibility of promoting the company. I
wanted to position Digitek as a service provider among the big players, and
promote it similarly,” informed Mishra.

With an aim to venture into the high-end server segment, in 1998 Acme Digitek
partnered with a US-based company called Digital Equipment Corporation. With
this tie-up, the company soon introduced 64-bit servers, laptops and its Alpha
series of servers. “This was the turning point in our journey. The tie-up with
Digital Equipment really helped us in establishing the credibility of our
company in the market,” he explained.

From a modest start to multi-location operations today, Acme Digitak has
indeed traveled a long way. Within Uttar Pradesh itself, the company is present
in seven different locations. Additionally, it has offices in Uttranchal,
Nainital, Dehradun and Indore.

He believes that the IT market is booming and customers today are more
knowledgeable about techno-commercial aspects, products and technologies. On the
down side, he noted that in general, employees' commitment for the organization
has gone down and they expect more facilities and better pay packages in a short
span of time.

Discussing the success mantra that he thinks has made him reach where he is
today, Misra elucidated that in life one must work with all honesty and harbor
pleasant relations with the suppliers, customers and employees and success will
come your way. “I always look ahead in life. I have never cheated my customers
and have always shown commitment towards customers and employees. They share
their problems with me, no matter if it is personal or official. I call them
'Team Digitek',” he said.

Mishra believes that one should never feel satisfied by momentary growth
only. Talking about the future he said, “I want to position Acme Digitek
Solutions on the national map and to provide the best available cost effective
solutions to our customers.”

A Winning Streak

A man with focus and attitude, Garg has taken Progressive to the heights of
success where it has almost all the leading brands in its client list

Progressive Infotech is the fruit of an industry veteran's efforts, who
learnt the best skills of the industry and applied them to his own venture. The
veteran, Prateek Garg, joined Hindustan Computers (now HCL Infosystems), after
completing BE in electronics and telecommunication. It was during his stint at
HCL that Garg realized the unmatched potential of the Indian IT industry and
decided to take the risk of leaving his job and doing something on his own.

Garg and his colleagues from HCL set-up IT&T, a third-party maintenance
vendor in 1990. The company got huge success and became one of the top three
players in its category by 1997. A year later, Garg saw opportunity in
infrastructure management and didn't hesitate to start his own company. He
christened the venture Progressive Infotech, which has many points to its
credit.

Prateek Garg Progressive Infotech, New Delhi

Garg said, “My initial years at HCL gave me the required exposure and
confidence to take a plunge as an entrepreneur in 1990, largely because I felt
that the opportunity in IT would be huge in the coming years.”

Progressive's partnership with HP was an important move in the company's
overall growth.

Rising from the ground up, Garg faced many problems in the initial phase of
starting a business. But he was always able to successfully overcome them. “The
challenges were manifold. Raising capital, getting the right set of people to
work with, route to market and customers, were some of the main challenges in
successful establishing a firm.” The dotcom burst coupled with the recession in
India also emerged as major challenges. But Garg, a true Capricorn with his
sharp thinking and clever strategies, overcame all these issue victorious.

The company pays much focus to the quality of its service offered to
customers and has got ISO 9001:2000, ISO 20000-1:2005 and ISO 27001:2005
certifications.

“Our constant endeavor is to focus on customer experience and continuously
moving up the value chain so that propositions for customers increase over time
and they stick by you,” said Garg.

Speaking about being a boss after having worked as an employee, Garg said,
“From my experience of working as an employee, I have learnt that if your people
are happy they will keep your customers happy.”

Focus, attitude, quality, win, collaborate and innovate are the keywords,
which constitute Garg's success mantra. He gives the credit of his success to
his wife and close associates. “The people behind my strength are my wife and
many associates whom I have worked with and learned from over the years. They
continue to be my strength today,” added Garg.

The Noida-based infrastructure management company is an established player in
this domain and clocked a turnover of Rs 120 crore in the last fiscal. The
company, which started its operations in a 300 sq ft room, has a 10,000 sq ft
remote infrastructure management center in Noida and a 1,500 sq ft office in
Mumbai.

Garg is planning to expand the managed services business by foraying into
global markets. He is targeting revenue of Rs 500 crore by 2010.

A Risk Taker

After a successful stint with Philips and Apple, Chopra started out on his
own and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, he is still raring to take
bigger risks to take Team to greater heights

Ranjan Chopra, or Ranjha, as his friends fondly call him, has spent nearly
two decades in the IT world. It takes guts to do what he did, leave a
well-established job and start his own venture. So what prompted him to branch
out on his own to start Team Computers, after a highly successful stint with
companies like Philips and Apple Computers? “I left Philips because I found the
setup bureaucratic and the work was not very challenging. So I switched to a
smaller company, a branch of Apple Computers. But there too the system was
bureaucratic. I wanted freedom to work and also wanted to create a platform
where everyone was allowed to work independently. This need triggered my
decision to start out on my own,” shared Chopra.

Ranjan Chopra Team Computers,  New Delhi

That is why armed with Rs 18,000 as initial investment, Chopra started Team
Computers, but the company had a lot of teething trouble before it finally
managed to carve a niche for itselves. Elaborating about the hardship that he
faced Chopra said, “Being the first entrepreneur in the family, I didn't have
adequate knowledge about the fundamentals of running a business.” Starting as a
hardware company in January 1988, Team Computers shifted its focus to services
and systems integration in mid-90s. Now Team Computers has expertise in
infrastructure management services, system integration including hardware and
software, custom development, open source solution, ERP and business
intelligence. It also offers enterprise solutions with focus on executive
information systems.

Chopra gives the credit of his success to what he learnt at Phillips and
Apple-that you should value people and processes. He strongly believes that
people should be treated with dignity, and there should be continuous innovation
and improvement of process.

Quitting his job and branching out on his own, is one decision he never
regrets. When asked what are the changes that he has observed and how have
employees and working culture changed since he was an employee he said, “Many
people feel that today's employees have become mercenary, but I don't agree with
them. Employees have fundamentally remained the same-they all look for
meaningful work, challenges and a professional environment that will help them
grow.” And keeping the same in mind he gives full support and independence to
his team also. Prakash Pal, Chopra's Personal Assistant stated, “The work
culture in Team is one of the reasons why employees stick around. The company
maintains a non-hierarchical working environment with transparency, which can
provide ample opportunities to bring out everyone's creativity.”

Chopra's success mantra is a 'never say die attitude'. According to him,
every problem can be solved. Despite having 700 employees and 26 branches all
over the country and with the corporate office in Delhi, Chopra is still not a
satisfied man. Chopra believes that he has not achieved even half of what all he
wants. He is a man in a hurry, aiming to reach the Rs 500 crore mark by 2010 and
to do so, he plans to go global and build partnerships across the world. He
explained, “I am not satisfied. We should have been 10 times bigger than what we
are today.” Here's hoping that Team Chopra gets all that it want!

 

Success On His Terms

Babu believes that success comes to those who honor their commitments, work
hard and establish a good rapport with their team

It feels odd to think that anyone would give up a well paying job with the
country's leading software company, that too just five months into marriage, to
start their own. Call it crazy, but that was exactly what Sanath Babu, Director
of Bangalore-based Sri Durga Computech did 11 years ago when he decided to
pursue his passion of 'being his own boss.'

“I wanted to do something on my own which would let me establish my
identity,” said Babu. In fact, at the time that Babu resigned, he had the option
of going overseas. “Then again I would have to work under someone else. That was
a clear 'no-no' for me,” he added.

Sanath Babu Sri Durga Comp- utech, Bangalore

Babu worked as a field engineer at Wipro for almost nine years before he
decided to resign. So why did he take such a drastic step? “While working in
various capacities on the field and meeting clients, it struck me that if I
could perform the job as an employee, I could deliver the same or even better as
an entrepreneur. Also, I had gathered all the required experience in this field
and thought it was high time to start something of my own and also do well to
others by creating employment opportunities for them,” said Babu while
recounting his decision.

The result was the birth of Sri Durga Computech in 1996. The company began as
a small venture but today has spread its wings across Karnataka, Chennai and
Hyderabad and has the reputation of being a rapidly growing and reliable
distribution house.

The transition from an employee to an entrepreneur is one of the toughest
decisions that one has to take, unless probably they have a strong financial
support or a trade background.

“The opposition from the family apart, I began with a meager Rs 35,000. We
faced lot of difficulties in our initial days and that included challenges from
people who were already established in the market,” Babu said.

Things have changed in the industry since he came into the picture, believes
Babu. He mentioned, “In the initial days, when IT was just emerging in our
country, everybody could measure its potential and see the future growth
prospects. Earning money was easy then. Since it was a new industry, the number
of players were also less. Probably, all these reasons attracted people to start
their own venture in this field. The scenario today is just the opposite. More
players in the arena, growing competition and unfortunately a compromise on
ethics and business standards is what I see today.”

Given the challenges and the changing scenario, what is it that helped Babu
gain from strength to strength? “First of all, a firm decision to honor all
commitments that I make to people, vendors and my staff. Also teamwork is very
important for any entrepreneur. We must create and maintain a good in-house
team, else we cannot achieve what we set out to do,” he stated.

First Among Equals
After having risen steadily as a professional in the echelons of the IT world, Bhavnani quit his safe existence to launch his company. His strong belief and commitment to work saw him through
Among his friends Sanjiv Bhavnani is known for his fun loving ways, always game for anything. Professionally, his risk taking abilities have become something akin to a legend for people in the IT industry. For long, Bhavnani has balanced these two sides of his life very well. Back in 1983 when Bhavnani started out in the IT field with Blue Star, no one would have thought that one day he would be the CEO and MD of Visesh Infotecnics Ltd, a company that has made a mark in the varied IT domains that it keeps foraying in.

Sanjiv Bhavnani
Visesh Infotec-
nics, New Delhi
So what was it that prompted Bhavnani to chuck the 'safe and secure' life of a salaried man and venture out in the unknown realm of starting out his own venture? Recounting that time Bhavnani said, “I started Infotecnics International as a proprietary firm on leaving my last assignment as CEO of Meera Information Technologies, a division of Meera and Co Ltd. The reason for venturing out on my own was largely to create an organization that cared for its employees and their aspirations. I had a dream of creating a successful IT company through total customer satisfaction and employee motivation, which were not exactly practiced in the late 80s and early 90s.”
Infotecnics International was started with a software development project from HP, USA. To be able to bid for a tender that MTNL floated for software and hardware commissioning in 1993, Bhavnani tied up with Digital and Tata Unisys for the supply of hardware and as the adage goes 'there was no looking back'.
However, it was not like the journey was without its fair share of challenges. Reminiscing about the obstacles that he faced in those early days Bhavnani recalled, “Infotecnics merged with Bangalore-based Visesh Infosystems to create Visesh Infotecnics Ltd in 2002, so I merely re-launched Visesh in its new avataar. However, at both these junctures, there were some serious challenges. After our launch in 1991, Infotecnics was on the verge of being awarded two major global tenders by a government enterprise. However, these were finally shelved after we made it to the last three from about 15 to 20 global bidders, thereby resulting in major loss. During that phase it was the not-so-large assignments that helped the company sail through. That experience taught me the advantages of always having a judicious mix in business.”
Talking about his learning's from his various stints with various companies-Blue Star, CMC and Meera Computers-he stated, “Each experience had its own advantages and disadvantages, each company had its own flavor and each left a significant mark on me while tempering me for bigger and better challenges in life.”
On being asked if he ever regretted branching out on his own, Bhavnani quickly replied, “For someone who had never ever thought about going into business, I was never keen on leaving any of my jobs, as I was happily settled in each of my prior assignments. However, call it circumstances or luck, I had to literally be coaxed into each change. But I have never regretted anything that I have done in life, as yet.”
Talking about his success mantra and the road ahead for him and his company, Bhavnani quoted Robert Frost, “I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep.” However, Bhavnani has a strong belief that one person can make a difference and that with his commitment to his work and the strong support of his family and friends he can make anything happen.

Entrepreneur To The Core
A desire to experiment and willingness to take risks and invest in people, enabled Mohan to establish Precision Infomatic as one of the fastest growing system integration companies in the country
V Murali Mohan, Founder Director of Precision Infomatic is among the more successful entrepreneurs in the channel business today. As an individual, Mohan has always tried to experiment with new things ever since his first job, which has given him an early-mover advantage in some cases. Fresh from college, he joined a share broker firm taking care of accounts and administration activities. He quickly realized that this was not his cup of coffee and decided to opt for a job, which would give him more interface with public and people.
A commerce graduate from Madras University, he worked with HCL for seven years, during which time he handled various assignments such as channel management and direct sales team manage­ment. He was involved in business process re-engineering for HCL in West as divisional manager before starting up Precision Group in 1996.

V Murali Mohan
Precision Infomatic,
 Bangalore
So what prompted him to start out as an entrepreneur? “I guess the challenge of entrepreneurship was the biggest driver for me,” said Mohan of his early days. “Also things were very different 11 years ago. At that point in time, the opportunity in the channel was very good and most of us from the IT industry opted to get there. So did I,” he added.
Speaking about the challenges Mohan said, “Organizing finance is the biggest challenge for any entrepreneur. Additionally, to put systems in place and get the right kind of people to be part of the new set-up were among the biggest challenges I faced.”
The right approach towards business is all it takes to keep one going. It is perhaps this very approach that helped Mohan to almost double his company's turnover. The company registered a constant and significant growth despite an economic downslide, financial crunches and high competition.
“When I look back, I recollect the days of frustration when I had to go home with almost no revenues. After being used to a monthly salary. But I guess such things just dimmed out in front of the pleasure that I derived from being an entrepreneur,” Mohan said.
After having consolidated Precision's standing in the IT industry, Mohan now wants it to be the numero uno system integration company in the tier-two level, within the next five years.
(Inputs from: LATA SINGH MANISHA K RASHMI RAVEENDRAN SHIVANGI YADAV SUBBALAKSHMI BM VINITA BHATIA)