THE FRESH BREWChronicles of Business and Freedom

AMIT HARALALKA MBA class at IIM

Lucknow Blogs at

TalkingTalks.in

AMITABH THAKUR Fellow at IIM

Lucknow IPS officer President, National

RTI Forum

RISING FROM THE ASHES

“You don’t need an MBA to shut down a company, you need one to turn it around”

Learning from the master of the trade !

HEMEN RUPAREL: A BACKGROUND

Born in a middle class family in Mumbai Father managed the export division of family

business Dealed mostly in traditional spices

THE REASON

Joined father’s export business at home Realized that existing business wasn’t

sustainable because times were changing 1991: liberalization brought new hopes Explore a different market for the same

product OR Export a different product in the markets

where they already had a stronghold 1993: South Africa’s struggle against

apartheid came to an end => untapped virgin market to explore

Air India, Introductory offer for flights to and from SA

Landed in SA without any contacts Grabbed Yellow Pages in hotel room and

started dialling up businessmen there Met the first prospect and converted him Next client – Robertson – Unilever

THE TRAGEDY

Father got sick Earthquake Warehouse at Kandla, Gujrat was destroyed Loss of facility and lab => lost his biggest

client – Robertson – Unilever Insurance surveyor refused to cooperate Slept in tents, guarding the stocks while pigs

and cattle would come sniffing at their legs Was thinking weather he should take up a

regular job, when he remembered his prof’s words

THE RENAISSANCE

Export green cardamoms High value product, required less storeage

capacity Indian cardamom had a unique fragrance

that gave him a distinct competitive advantage

Used in biryani in middle east market and in Gahwa, a special kind of tea

Banks: “Please settle your debt and go bank elsewhere”

Insurance co. 33 lacs against 1.1 crore – take it or leave it

THE VICTORY !

Established credibility in an alien market Own brand “Emperor Akbar” Third largest exporter of cardamom from

India Doubled profit over preearthquake days

INNOVATION IN PUBLISHING

Adamancy is good !

Take your own decisions

JAYA JHA: BACKGROUND

Schooling at DPS Ranchi B.Tech in CSE at IIT Kanpur Gold Medalist at IIM Lucknow Passionate about reading since a very young

age Inspired by writings of Rahul Sankritiyayan Helped shape her strong sense of

independence “There was lack of development in

certaineras of world history and these were the times when globally people travelled less”

Dropped out of placements An avid blogger, Jaya felt the need and the

lack of self-publishing companies in India Along with Abhaya, her husband, Jaya went

about creating India’s first , and now successful, self-publishing platform, Pothi.com

BREAKING THE STEREOTYPES

Refused to join any committees to gain those cv points

Despite being the batch topper, she chose to major in mark-strat instead of Finance

MID CAREER

Interned at Pepsi Opted out of campus placements, received a

lot of media attention Chose to join a start-up where some of her

friends from IIT Kanpur were working Family was a little hesitant, but gave up to

Jaya’s adamancy Are you sure you want to do this

THE CHANGE

Realized that the IT product wasn’t ready yet and won’t be in another 6 months

Joined APM Program at Google Google was setting up operations in India

and the non-engineering teams were not well-staffed

She took up various responsibilities simultaneously

THE NECESSITY

Absence of self-publishing portals in India Avid blogger Even the 15-20 people who liked her poems

could buy and read her book She setup Pothi.com with her husband

Abhaya Got funding from friends and family Never needed to approach any VC as the

venture didn’t require huge investments

THE LAUNCH

Pothi.com was launched in July 2008 Enable pricing, inventory and distribution via

website Freelance editors available on website Generating employment Currently boasts of 500 authors on their

website who have self published their books

THE BUSINESS OF TASTE

You have to be fair to all the stakeholders of the business – whether your customer, employees or vendor !

If the stakeholders are not making money, you are not making any money either !

Business is all about making the right decision at the righ time

GAURAV AHUJA

Born to a punjabi business family Mom – english teacher, while dad was a

mathematics teacher Dad quit his job and entered into business of

manufacturing bicycle saddles Learned a lot of CRM in his father’s office

during high school Couldn’t crack the JEE in the first go, but

didn’t give up

THE COLLEGE DAYS

He was totally involved in family business and didn’t spend more than 15-20 days in the campus

Met clients regularly – ranging from executives from HERO and Hercules to the grass-root level distributor in tier-II cities

He loved the decision making aspect of business

Realized that HR is the most important aspect of an organization

STINT AT IIM LUCKNOW

Summer internship at Treasury department of Standard Chartered Bank, reported to Asset and Liability Management

Got PPO and joined them on graduation One fine evening, was sitting in HRC and

realized that India lacked something of the sort

Decided to quit, family very unsupportive Came back home, helped grow family

business

THE CULTURES RESTO LOUNGE

Had zero prior knowledge in the restaurant business

Travelled across cities talking to restaurant owners and understanding the business

Established the cultures resto lounge in Fun Republic Mall

Invested a lot of money into the systems, processes and POS and accepted that breaking even will take some time

HR: biggest investment was in people Built a team on trust He shared his vision with his employees and

showed them the potential gains of their association 5 to 10 years down the line

SUCCESS, SUCCESS AND MORE SUCCESS

During the sub-prime crisis, Indian real estate prices went down

Bagged some good deals Opened another restaurant – Madras Mail Established the “Red Ginger” chain of

Restaurants As of Aug, 2010, Red Ginger is in 20 locations

in India

OSPM