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SSEMBLY
line production was an idea that laid the foundation of the industrial
era in the US. Unmindful of his detractors and those who ridiculed him,
automobile entrepreneur Henry Ford engineered a model that set the
base for manufacturing in America, and later in other parts of the
world.
Ford's
million-dollar idea not only made cars affordable, but also inspired
other entrepreneurs to adopt a similar mass production strategy, which
helped the industrial revolution gather pace. For sure, an idea can
change the world. Far away from Detroit, a 26-year-old Indian Army recruit,
Nalkur Sripad Rao, was seriously thinking about a business idea, that
he hoped would help him start on his own, once he returned home. The
year was 1946. Rao was posted in the Persian Gulf, and was in charge
of relief supplies to Russia. One of his duties was to keep the wartime
supply chain intact. This was his first brush with the use of pesticides.
He often fumigated supplies with methyl bromide. And many a time, he
also had to dust refugees with '10% DDT' against typhus-causing lice.
Soon
after, Mr Rao returned to India with his savings and decided to start
a pest control business. "I called my firm Good-will Pest Control,"
says the octogenarian Mr Rao from his Mumbai home. "But sadly though,
the firm did not do well and I had to wind up in three months. People
were clueless about pest control those days. Some even thought it was
a taboo to kill pests and rodents then," he reminisces.
Ruined
financially, Mr Rao took up a job with a plantation company as an estate
manager. But he hadn't given up on his start-up dreams. He, along with
his brother, decided to continue pest control, but as part-time vocation.
Soon they got their first contract with the Oil Seeds Trading Company,
where they had to fumigate railway wagons carrying groundnuts for export.
A year later, they bagged a post-construction termite treatment mandate
from Raghuvanshi Mills.
"Encouraged
by these contracts, I gave up my job and rented a tiny office near
Flora Fountain in Mumbai and launched
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a
private limited company in July 1954. My start-up capital was only Rs
3,000. That company grew into what is now the Pest Control of India
(PCI)," says Mr Rao, who is currently the company's chairman emeritus.
PCI is easily one of the largest pest management companies in India.
The company logs a 30% growth year-on-year and claims presence in 150
cities with nearly 3,500 employees on its rolls.
"When
I started, agriculture was the backbone of the country. I had a hunch,
there'd be a need for pest control specialists to protect grain houses
and production mills. Looking back, I can say I made big on my idea,"
Mr Rao says.
Mr
Rao says he has faced many challenges running his business. "Working
capital was the biggest problem. I even had to pledge my wife's jewellery
on three occasions," he says. "The other big problem was
finding unadulterated chemicals. We found it very difficult to implement
quality control standards," he added.
Today,
PCI, which has a turnover of over Rs 150 crore, now plans to expand
to newer product lines. PCI's success shows that an innovative business
initiative is one that addresses an obvious need in the market. But
then, there are also other reasons that drive people to start new successful
ventures. The suicide of a dose friend motivated the 19-year-old Shahnaz
Husain to start a business in ayurvedic cosmetic products and beauty
training.
"While
I was studying in London, this friend, who was also a successful model,
suffered burns on her body after using a sun tan lotion with chemical
base. The girl was so mentally trau-matised that she committed suicide
soon after. That was when I decided, I'd work towards creating cosmetics
out of plants and herbs," Ms Husain says.
Having
majored in cosmetic chemistry, it was quite an effort for Ms Husain
to "unlearn" all that she had leamt from Helena Rubinstein
and Schwarzkopf. "I trashed salon treatment methods and products
of those times and offered a natural alternative based on the good
health of the skin and hair," Ms Husain adds. Ms Husain started
her venture in a very small way, on the verandah of her home in Delhi.
"I borrowed Rs 35,000 from my father to start the business. Subsequently,
I ex-
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panded
it on the franchisee system," adds Ms Husain.
Talwalkars
Better Value is one good example how hobby-tumed-businesses have the
potential to make it big. Popularly known as Talwalkars—it is India's
largest chain of health centres with approximately one lakh members.
Talwalkars Gym's roots can be traced to Vishnu Talwalkar, a wrestler
of local repute, who started the New Physical Gymnasium at Khar, a Mumbai
suburb, in 1939. Soon after, MrTalwalkar'ssonMadhukarjoined him.
Years
later, Madhukar quit his job as a textile engineer and set up the first
Talwalkars Gymnasium in 1965, on Linking Road in Bandra, another Mumbai
suburb. Since then, thousands have sweated their way to health at Talwalkars
at its 50-odd branches across Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Indore and Cochin.
And many of them, like Mr Talwalkar himself, have felt their lives change
for the better. "Physical fitness became a passion. By making it
my profession, I made sure I enjoyed every moment of my working life,"
says Madhukar in one of his interviews. The Rs 50-crore Talwalkars
plans to reach the 100-centre target by this year end.
Opportunities
for growth are everywhere waiting to be tapped. However, we let countless
growth opportunities slip through. Mumbai-based Aeon Software's example
highlights this. Aeon is a privately held company that develops office
management software for professional business people. The partners knew
they could do a lot more with IT, rather than servicing bull-headed
corporate clients. Thus mumbaifish.com was bom. The portal undertakes
to supply freshly caught fish — cleaned and sliced — to Mumbai homes
based on orders that are placed one-day in advance.
"The
portal is just an extension to our core business, but mumbaifish.com
is very well-integrated with its own suppliers. We have friends who
go fishing in boats and trawlers everyday," says Leena Joseph of
Aeon Software. "Mumbai fish is a good brand to sell. Just eight
months into this business, we already have 200-2 50 regular customers.
We have plans to take it on a larger scale, by having our own processing
unit and adding more varieties to our product basket," Ms Joseph
said.
shailesh.menon@timesgroup.com
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