There
was a huge applause and uproar after the great speech that inspired awe on the
faces of every director and business heads present. The strategic meeting of
the top retail company in South India was held at the top floor of the majestic
Le Meridien, Chennai. The feeling after the emphatic speech was so high in the
ever so tranquil mind of the Chief Executive. The eyes were brimming with glory
on the thought of the direction which his company is set to march in the
future. With superordinated ambitions and resplendent expansion plans, it was a
feeling of the same as the Napoleon Bonaparte to conquer the world. Though
unsure of the way his conquest of expanding business empire northwards, it was
a coalesced thought. The imperial outlook in his mind and a glass of fine
Italian wine, the view of the city at night was spectacular. As he was sipping
wine with deep thought, there was a huge smack on the back. Still not
recovering from the anguish caused by the hit, he was staring at the person who
got guts to smack on a Chief executive of the company. Rubbing his eyes, Anbu
saw the same scary face he frequents back at home. It was his father who was
jolting him from sleep on reaching the destined place. He riposted with the
same numbness on his face as every day at home.
It
was a fine Monday afternoon when results of one of the toughest entrance exams
for b-schools had been announced. After heavy lunch, Anbu and Vasu were on
their way back to office. It has been more than two years when Anbu and Vasu
had befriended and got glued well like adhesive. Of course, the contrasting
feature of reticent Anbu and expansive Vasu had made them as thick as thieves. Both
of them had exhibited their brilliance at the work. They joined one of the
biggest outsourcing companies in the country at the same time. It was January 7th
2007, the first batch for the year when they had met. There had been a pernicious
doubt in the mind of Anbu who has been from a mechanical field if he can fare well
in the software industry. He had never learnt any programming language. The
general phobic atmosphere over the strenuous training at the company has spread
out far and wide. Vasu who was from Industrial Engineering background also
exchanged the same thought except that he had some flair for the programming. As
the days progressed in training, they felt that the programming is just a
language to execute your analytical and logical mentation. At the end of the
training period both had emerged as toppers of the batch and they had rewritten
the rule that “Mechanical people fare better than the software guys with their
inherent analytical thought”. The success made them more confident and they joined
the same team working for one of the biggest US banks. It was after a year at
the company, they starting thinking about doing further in their life. They
felt that MBA would be a right choice to give a fillip to the career. Their
plans were strong as the base of the Pyramid and the preparation has been as
sluggish as a snail. Finally the exam date has arrived and the attempt was made
with infallible belief to fail. The one hundred and twenty minutes of rigorous
thinking at the exam hall made it clear that if it had been a five hour exam
they would have cracked. The time had come to clear the hall. With heavy heart
of tragic attempt and blaming on the innocuous time, both strolled to enjoy the
moment with ice-cream. Now, they suddenly remembered about the announcement of
the result from the yesterday’s newspaper on the way back from lunch. They
opened the exam result site and keyed in their registration numbers. The four
eyes were wide open with gaping mouth where a fly could pay a visit, kiss the
tonsil and take its own time to fly back to the refreshing outer environment. The
results had been exceedingly well except that it lost its fuel before reaching
the final leg of the race. Both have scored above eighty percentile and Anbu’s
score was close to ninety percentile. It was a mixed feeling on the eyes of Anbu.
He had neither attended classes nor prepared intensively except for the
intenseness was felt in the planning stage. The score was good enough to land
in one of the top rung B-schools in the country. As Anbu had not expected any
spectacular result on his standing-out attempt, he had not applied for any
colleges prior to the exam.
Trichy
is an historical town and supposedly considered as a venue for the capital of
TamilNadu. Before narrowing down on the college, Anbu had done his preliminary
research on the place as well as the college. Of course, not many options left.
Basically, Anbu was juggling between the three choices. He was not sure of
which one to choose. Mysore, being close to his heart considering the lady he
liked works at Mysore. It was a very embarrassing situation when the lady
turned down his liking for her. It was a death knell as the heart struggled for
a moment having forgotten its function. Eyes gave a darkling glance and mind choked
off at the incessant thought of her which has been shot dead in a minute. The
thought that germinated deep inside had grown strong to be just weeded out. It
was a painful ordeal and Anbu was keen to take sweet revenge. The revenge in
becoming the boss to her, watching her work every day and keeping her at his
sight, was the instant ideation. Trichy on the other hand was close to his home
town and he can travel frequently. Also being in the home land with the local
people is a wonderful thing to happen. Pune was bit of a distant option. Thanks
to TamilNadu politics. At their fervent struggle, the national language has not
been given the importance at the school levels. Neither did they succeed in
promoting Tamil in any way except on those stages of self praise and
immolation. Language might become a problem as Anbu had not known much of
Hindi. But heard more about the beautiful chicks and rattling chill weather.
This was drawing attention to the place. Eventually, Anbu decided on Trichy
owing to financial reasons. Return on Investment is one term which no-one would
ever forget when going for a big investment and this figure was very much
favourable to Trichy. Having made up mind, the form was duly filled and sent to
the institute. Wearing his lucky gray shirt, attended the interview and the
group discussion held at the college. This was a batch which had nearly 30
people from different companies and places. Soon after the process, Anbu was
confident that he had performed well and would be selected. As expected the
result was in line and the time for joining the institution was short.
Resignation was aptly submitted to the reporting manager and a copy was sent to
the HR head. After the exit interview, it was time for celebration. A small
party was thrown with close friends and managers were invited. Memories still
etched up strongly, Anbu packed up the baggage. Getting down the train they
marched to the exit gate. With heavy luggage for the hostel stay, both of them
were using their mitochondrion power plants to pump up the cells and get some
movement up the stairs to the gate.
The
campus was quite far away from the station. The one brownie point about this
college is that it has been started with industry collaboration and has been in
existence for a longer period of time. Boarding a cab they reached the isolated
and dilapidated structure within the industrial zone. The college has been
surrounded by couple of heavy industries and large clusters of small and medium
enterprises catering to these heavy industries. Though the facade is not
impressive the administrative offices and the class rooms were given adequate
window screening to cover up the old rubbles. After going around the campus and
having met few administrative staff, Anbu returned to his so called dormitory where
he is going to live for the next two years.
The
hostel has once been the quarters for the employees of industries located near
the college. As soon as the college has been established the quarters have been
made available for the students. The rooms are little cramped for four members.
The first day has been exciting with new room-mates around and new faces from
different places. First tryst lasts long and that’s where Anbu saw two bright
faces. In fact the faces were too bright to be seen in the dark moon. Arjun and
Mithun had known each other when they attended the interview for the selection
at the same venue. They were walking towards Anbu. After the habitué of
introductions, they were talking some serious stuff. With one saying that I
would want to be a financial analyst while the other saying that he wants to be
a marketing expert. None of them did know that life takes you to different
places. Life is one aspect where you can’t board with any destination. It throws
you surprises and preparedness is important to take the stride with life.
With
the antiquated bathrooms and rusty restrooms, it’s been a different way of life
altogether for many of them. Being the first official day, Anbu woke up pretty
early which has been a practise since his childhood. After crossing the first
hurdle of taking bath in the dungeon, lit by a dull sodium lamp, Anbu dressed
up in his favourite pale blue formal shirt with neatly pressed dark blue pant. The
Mithun is a sleeping giant who is insusceptible to any noise at his sleep. The
bulletproof jacket may sometimes fail and get pierced but not Mithun’s ear
drum. It’s a real hard task in the morning to wake him up. Arjun is relatively
active person who would wake up just 30 minutes before the session. Both got
dressed in neat formals and nicely polished shoes that would glitter under the
bright sunlight. Three went for breakfast. The food was better on initial days
and familiarity breeds distaste which they felt after few days at hostel. After
gulping down few idlis and a glass of coffee, three strode down to the college.
The
orientation programme was attended by Director of B-School, Professors and a
divisional head of a nearby heavy industry. As traditional goes, goes the long
speech on the life at college, learning and host of other draggy stuff. Anbu is
a guy who wants to experience learning whether its pain or a joy rather than to
these discourses. Learning is effective when you do or see it on your own
senses. Of course the learning’s of the past gives you direction but not the
wisdom. After the eliteful internal rumbling with the mind, the time had come
to glorify the speechers with hard hand clasping and thank them with bouquet.
The schedule has already been drawn for the class room sessions. Luckily, Anbu,
Mithun and Arjun were put in the same section at the college.
The
initial days were more broad-based in terms of guidance on how the sessions
will be in the forth coming days, syllabus, case study discussion, presentation
and slew of other assignments. The syllabus is lot of theoretical names or
looks like they haven’t changed in the last few years. Team formation is a big
hurdle in the first few days with no-one knew the other much beyond their names
and places. But then it’s all instantaneous and how well you could cope with
new members in a team. Intellectual discussions rather happen few a times with
most of the times just gossiping around. Anbu, Mithun and Arjun had formed
their own with couple of others. Colleges in TamilNadu fare very badly in terms
of statistics which is cherished by budding youngsters. The good looking
chamakchalo s’ (girls are less) are far less than anticipated. Over the period
of time, the situation has become like the dry broken arid land that ogles for
water. Nevertheless, Life sculptures you to face any kind of situation.
The
college has become a rendezvous for both the genders to fall for infatuation.
The emotional blindness and for some complete blindness is seemingly common for
anyone at the age of twenty plus. The much felt liberty had eluded for pervert
activities. The late night discussions and assignments have sparked lot of fire
in many of the hearts but the resultant effect is not wide spread owing to the
inherent problem in the selection of candidates, the deficit of fairer sex. Anbu
remembers a saying in Tamil, “Beauty and Intelligence doesn’t go together”. The
semester exams were getting closer as do the people.
Deepak is a tall handsome fellow from candour and
cryptic Chennai. Good looking has its own flaw of being trapped by some of the
noble looking women on the street. The anticipated event happened when Deepak
was being proposed by outwardly good looking Smitha. It was a beautiful day for
Deepak as he liked her since the first day he saw her in the college. Both accepted
their liking at the sight of proposal. The other attraction which Deepak
exhibited at college is his flavour for learning. The romancing started when
Smitha had some doubts on CAPM model in finance. Deepak being a fin-freak
explained her in a simple and effective manner. The natural charm of Deepak had
first sowed the seed on the other wet-heart of the lady.
Smitha invited Deepak to join her for lunch after the
session. Smitha started the conversation on Finance which remained a favourite
hunting ground for Deepak. Deepak never did realize that he was being hunted on
his own turf capitalizing on the gentle weakness of man’s heart. The friendly
chat commenced and sprouted broader and deeper on various subjects. They wanted
to be on the same team for the class room assignments. Anbu being a close
companion of Deepak had always teamed up with him.
Anbu
had a strong conviction on the syllabus and the way the teaching has still been
continued at B-Schools. The questions were not really thought provoking in
nature. The questions were not eliciting the analytical and critical thinking
rather testing the brain cells for their exact recital. Much of the class room
sessions are still good old days of teaching style and restricted without
inciting real thoughts and views on the subject. The strong feeling that one
day, the difference should be made to the system has strongly penned in his
mind. Surprisingly, He has made it in the top three in the ranking list in the
first trimester exams. This set a precedent for a good impression among
professors. Impression management is important to score good marks is never
understood and luckily it fell in place for Anbu.
After
a short holiday, the college reopened for its second trimester session. Every
trimester is like a long test match between the students and professors. You
never know who gets bowled out at the end of the trimester. Few professors get
bowled by charming ladies while few on the intellectual level. Of course, for
students the only way to get bowled is on the exam answer sheet. What runs in
the minds of professor while correcting answer sheet is one of life’s greatest mysteries?
The question paper is set for descriptive answers and enthusiastic students
writing whole lot of good, sad, ugly, flimsy and serious stories of their life
and others in the answer sheet, Anbu wondered about the grit exhibited by
professors in skimming through these papers. Maybe the answers would likely
take them back to their student days and a reminiscent of their thought, “I
should never end up as a teacher”. Anyway Anbu appreciated the respect for the
professionalism exhibited whether it is liked by students or not.
Extra-curricular
activities have been life line for many away from those drab lectures and dire
assignments. Formation of various committees including one for entertainment
apart from the others such as placement, sports, IT and Mess is part of the
college for over a decade. Anbu never wished to be part of this committee’s as
he finds engaging with folks and making comments on the people and committees
is real fun. David, Anbu, Arjun, Mithun and couple of other champs would while
away most of their times on running commentary followed by huge laughter. It
was real fun. Anbu prayed for the lovely times like this to stay forever in his
life. Moreover, there will always be strong two people in any committee who are
really committed to the cause and the rest are herd folks.
At
this time, a new professor, Mr. Sekhar has been inducted into the teaching portfolio.
The process would be conducted every now and then to fill the seats and boost
teacher-student ratio. The handsome professor has been taken for handling Brand
Management sessions. Can Brands last forever? Is it just a tactical black magic
thrown in to minds to seize them? You never know. Ten-fifteen years back there
were not much of players but today hundreds of dozens of sorcerers in the
market. But MBA grads should know both sorcery and jargons. Of course, it’s the
ad agency who quests for the insights to strike the gullible people with their
commercials. How much harder and deeper you could hit, the ad is considered
successful to that extent. Anbu gave a stroke on his head and stopped the above
quizzing about brands in his mind. Brilliant is the thought at the end of
wake-up as he considered to have mastered brands within a short slumber. Anyway
as marketing is not his cup of tea he left the thought at that juncture never
knowing that he would develop a strong association with brands.
He
used to greet the brand professor on the way to class when he spots him. He
learnt that he has been in the industry for more than a decade and orchestrated
some of the successful launch of brands in retail industry. The food and baby products
have been his turf in those several years of successful work. He left the vice
president, marketing and sales at one of the largest retailer during his peak
career. Sekhar had natural enchantment for teaching. His parents have been in
the teaching profession and had a strong desire from his childhood. Having
gained sufficiently quantum of money for retirement, Sekhar decided the time
has come to quit from industry as soon as the request from Director of the
college had come. He made his cameo every year for special guest lectures.
Students liked the teaching and insights offered on his live experience on the
field.
Trimesters
came and flew away with no time for students to get grasp of things happening
around them. Time is such a beautiful thing that teaches you past, present and
the future. We were in the fifth trimester and it is the placement season. The
expectations of students after doing an MBA and the ultimate salvation for any
student is to end up in a good job with a good company. Never did I see many
people end up as entrepreneurs straight out of college and neither did college
encouraged much on this aspect. Students were all tensed up and going through
the subjects which they missed during their trimesters for the interview
process. Students have to be groomed with proper suits, glossy shoes and nicely
shaved bright face. Though the thought of starting his own business venture was
lingering in his mind, Anbu had to appear for the placement as he didn’t hit
upon a great idea to delve upon. It was his first company and he went through
comfortably. He was lucky to be involved in the discussion with the interview
on few financial concepts. His close accomplices David, Arjun and Mithun also
got placed on their desired designations of the visited companies.
Final
trimester will be lot fun as most of the students have been placed. Never know
how a sense of security will make you feel joy to the core. Few bunked classes
as they were busy last night drinking strong barley drinks and other yeast
variants. Other sincere people attended sessions with their classic style of
taking down notes for no purpose. Final exam of the MBA was due and students
would finish off soon by filling portions that would fetch them pass marks.
Sometimes the questions would be ridiculous. Text-bookish. May be online
content with questions that evokes thought process should be set up. Anyway,
nothing of his concern, Anbu promptly finished the final paper and handed it
over to the supervisor.
Everyone
was happy on the final day as the biggest hurdle in the form of exams has been
crossed. Time to say good-byes. Some have already packed their things for
travel while others are planning to while away their time in the campus for
couple of days expressing their deepest love for the place. It was quite
different the feeling that evokes strong waves deep inside on looking at the
campus, half-empty with no noise. Anbu wondered how he is going to adjust for
initial few days away from close friends (David, Arjun and Mithun) and the
lovely campus. The question of how the warden and professors are able to cope
up with batches passing every year and staying back home for couple of months
on vacation? Probably, they become old and they become that place.
Having
enjoyed two months at home on long vacation post the MBA degree, an intimation
letter from the company visited his home one fine morning. Anbu quickly grabbed
the letter and read through the reams of paper. He got to know that he has to
join the company within two weeks. It was an ambivalent feeling between the
worlds of freedom to the worlds of responsibility. It’s call for shopping to
fit in certain apparels and cosmetics for the job. Stuffed everything with
couple of suitcases, Anbu is all set to travel to Hyderabad for his new job on
offer. He greeted everyone back at home with a smile and heavy heart within as
he embarked his journey on a train. Anbu could sense the emotions running
between him and his mother. Both know it and both hid it from each other.
In
his entire train journey, mind has been oscillating between the thoughts of his
college days and difficult days ahead. As the train reached its destiny, the
new journey of his life has been waiting at Hyderabad. Caught up with a taxi, Anbu
reached his friends place. Stayed there for couple of days and went to office.
On his first day, He knows that it will be some form of induction program as
usual. Anbu enjoyed couple of days with new joiners alongside his lunch and at
the conference room. Then they were spread out and asked to join different
teams. Anbu worked for one of the research companies that entails on strategy
and market information.
Job
was interesting in the initial years and turned into monotonous as years passed
by. Roles and responsibility has been rising with his recognition among people
in the organization. He has been a top performer all his time at the
organization. Five years went away but the satisfaction from the job has been
waning away as the waxing candle lit by fire. He doesn’t want to miss the spark
before he is completely dried up of his energy. The thought of business venture
has been in his mind for very long time and started to take stronghold in his
mind.
Marriage
happened with sweet lady of his liking. Years have been pleasant with her on
his side. She has been a good support since the marriage. They enjoyed their
life with frequent outings and road trips to nearby holiday sites. As Anbu
likes blogging, this has provided an alternate attraction away from his job. He
used to write about the different places they travelled, good things about the
places and the residents of the place. This has taken two years of his time.
One
thing that appears very vivid in his thought is the path that is set out. The
question on the business venture or something micro-business to start with, has
been bothering his mind. He has mulling this thought for a while and finally
decided that he is gonna do organic farming. Having bought ten acres of land in
Tamilnadu with bountiful of water resources close by, he has given this thought
a deeper look. Discussed with his wife and parents about this, Anbu finally
offered his dream offer letter back to the company. He remembers that “Action
speak louder than words” at this juncture and packed his residence back to the
village.
Initial
days to adjust with slow village life have been difficult. Nevertheless, father
having worked initially as farmer before turning into business man came handy.
He offered sane advice on farming and helped in establishing the farm area for
organic farming. Anbu started using the MBA technique on “Systematic
Investments and Planning”. He started devising harvesting and planting of crops
as well as plantations with an idea on regular income. Started with cows for
his daily income as the co-operatives used to buy and pay them on weekly basis.
This is quick cash and also planted vegetables on half acre for household
consumption. Planted tree sapling such as teak, rosewood, pine all across the
fences in his ten acres and also within the farming areas close to the water
banks that would fetch him income after 3, 5 and 10 years. This is for long
term income. Also coconut trees and arecanut plantation has been carried on
five acres. This gives him annual income. Meanwhile on the other four acres
were used for experimenting with organic farming of rice varieties and
sugarcane.
Organic
farming on the first year itself has resulted in increase in yield by about 5
to 10%. As years went on, the yield has increased by more than half and profit
has increased as the money spent on artificial fertilizers and pesticides has
been curbed. Meanwhile, there has been a different stroke happening on the milk
business. It has become much more profitable with increase in number of cows as
a result of breeding and populating activities. The milk prices also on the
rise as the demand kept on increasing with urban consumption climbing manifold.
That is when Anbu heard about certain government schemes that offered 50%
subsidy on milk equipments. Anbu invested about crore rupees on the milk
production and packaging activities with other one crore came in the form of
subsidies. Investment amount has been
raised from his savings and loans from co-operative banks. The competition
during the period was very low with milkmen delivering it to houses in towns.
The
milk packets were produced with the name “Komadha”, meaning cow. It was
circulated in the southern parts of the state on the initial days. Some big
margin has to be allotted for the retail outlets for stocking his brands and
slowly business started making some profits. The cash has been ploughed back
into the business in terms of immunizing cattle against diseases, milk testing
centers, cold storage units and automation of processes. Milk has been procured
from about 1000 cattle in his 100 acre plot and about 3000 households with 5 to
10 cattle. The supply chain has been studied extensively to save on
transportation and other freight charges.
The
idea of further value addition sparked on his mind. Why don’t we make curd, lassie, buttermilk,
yogurt, milk powder and milk items under the same name? This is the time the
unit has been further extended by another 50 acres with separate units for each
of the items. Company has followed quality techniques and was awarded
certification in his fourth year of operation. The management team also was
expanded with couple of friends from college taking important positions in
marketing and finance functions. Company started spending extensively on
marketing campaign and providing better margins to its retailers. After 8 years
of its business, Komadha became a household brand in the TamilNadu. The path
has been totally difficult with plenty of time, effort and money has been spent
on the business. There were plenty of hiccups in terms of milk quality, low
marketing spend on products and cattle diseases in this long journey. It took tremendous
amount of courage and will to get back to business with further initiatives to
improve and fix on the falling items with long term solution. This was the time
the professor on “Brand Management” at his college came to his help. He has
been mentoring on establishing brand in the minds of people with good marketing
and advertising gimmicks. He also advised on the importance of quality
standards, packaging and display of information.
As
he was addressing the new management which has been destined with tasks for
further expansion, Anbu remembered his dreams when he was going to college and
how reality could make your dreams loftier only when we have persistence and
passion you could accomplish it. He started enjoying his time with villagers
sponsoring for plenty of initiatives such as schools, colleges, and
scholarships, cattle financing, helping SHGS and establishing deep rapport with
the villagers. Blogging became his favourite activity capturing every day events
that brings positive effects on the villagers were updated frequently on the
company’s website. It didn’t stop with one village and it has been spread across
several districts in TamilNadu. Word of mouth spread far and wide. Milk being a
commodity business, differentiating it in terms of value addition such as
enhanced nutrients is vital along with the word of mouth of CSR activities.
With
increasing competition and established players in several states, it has become
a bigger challenge for the company today than it was. The management also
expressed concerns on expansion plans in nearby states. Though the company has
established in terms of supply chain and distribution facilities, the further
scope for expansion in terms of white space opportunities is limited. Economies
of scope have been exploited well enough with the economies of scale. The
bigger diary giants also have entered India with their own brands. The time may
right for selling of the business and continue to focus on farming having
acquired several acres of lands over years along with villagers on various
development initiatives.
One
fine day, on a friendly talk with his mentor and professor, Anbu mentions his
plan to sell off the business and enter into restaurant chain business. Anbu
informs his professor that you had been a mentor and you will remain so. The
world has become so frenetic that people doesn’t find time to share things,
wellness and grief. The path in front of him is becoming clearer day by day. It
doesn’t make a difference if we have or have-not in terms of wealth, people and
happiness. Eventually the life gradient is more skewed towards lonelier as
years pass by...
P.S. Many of the specifics of the business is missing which is understandable. Only hope is to fill the specifics with actuals at some point in my life.
