Inc. India 500

The Magazine for Growing Companies

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September/October 2011 | `150 | Volume 02 | Issue 08A 9.9 Media Publication

...and the SuperstarWho Run Them

plus... Why we’re just getting started... (Our No. 1 on mega growth plans) Page 42

My rags to riches story Page 50

How I paved rough paths Page 54

My ambition doesn’t allow me to sleep Page 67

Mid-sized Companies...Meet India’s Fastest-Growing

Entrepreneurs

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September/October 2011

on the cover3-D 500 created by Tommy McCall. Cover design by Sristi Maurya.

This ediTion of inc. magazine is published under license from mansueto Ventures LLc, new York, new York. editorial items appearing on pages 5, 22-23 and 25-28 were all originally published in the United states edition of inc. magazine and are the copyright property of mansueto Ventures, LLc, which reserves all rights. copyright © 2009 and 2010 mansueto Ventures, LLc. The following are trademarks of mansueto Ventures, LLc: inc., inc. 500.

The Meticulous Planner manav garg has coded delivery excellence into eka software solutions. it’s the only path to a $100-million business.

Mr High-Growthhis father’s advice to him is to slow down. But, the md of Vikas global one, our no.1, doesn’t know how to.

32 This Is BigThe 3rd annual Inc. India 500 ranking—India’s fastest-growing, mid-sized companies. Also, a peek into our methodology

37 The Class of 2011Our complete list of 500 honourees

42 No. 1His company grew by 631% in the last three years—but Vikas Garg, MD, Vikas Global One, thinks he’s just getting started

45 Top 6 Business CitiesThe hubs with the most action

By the Numbersa look at the top 500, categorised by four revenue bands. And, our pick of interesting entrepreneurs within these bands 48 Below `100 crore

satheesh Kumar K.R. enzen global

50 ̀ 101 crore - `500 crore Vijay shekhar sharma one97 communications

54 ̀ 501 crore - `1,000 crore g.R.K. Reddy maRg

57 ̀ 1,001 crore - `1,500 crore arun Kumar Jagatramka gujarat nRe coke

Making ItA photo-feature of everyday products by our winners 46 Tara Health Foods58 Macleods Pharma86 Relaxo Footwears

60 Fastest-Growing Private Companies A look at the top 10 fastest-growing private companies

64 Public Wealth CreatorsTen companies that have created the maximum wealth for their shareholders

67 Top IPOsA look at an important entrepreneurial milestone—going public. A list of companies that fared well at the stock market in 2010

71 On Our RadarCompanies to look out for—they are poised for superstardom

78 A Top ViewGet to know our top 100 better

79/81 A Rapid Fire We gave pop quizzes to our MDs, CEOs and founders—on how they hire and who they wish to be. Here are some of the best answers

My STORyEight company builders on their twists and turns 60 n.m. Kejriwal

Kejriwal Bee care india64 Jayadev galla

amara Raja Batteries67 Rajesh agarwal

Bs Transcomm71 B. Venkataramana

Vuppalamritha magnetic components

75 sudhir sethsudhir gensets

88 manav gargeka software solutions

92 sukumar subramanian sanraa media

94 daya K. goyal and ajay K. goyal, angelique international

96 Publisher’s Note

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07 Editor’s letter

08 Behind the ScenesCompanies that help Delhi’s TC stay hip and cool

11 Launch It’s smart to be nice Research Corner: When to tackle stretch goals and when to play it safe

The Ticker The business of uniforms

14 The Scuba SutrasBy Guhesh Ramanathan The joy is also in the little moments, not just in meeting targets

16 Innovation A super-glue for the skin

18 Passions Why Varun Agarwal is devoted to filmmaking—it feeds his passion and funds his ventures

21 The Goods High-end gaming laptops that help you swipe, swoop and splurge Google Chrome apps—we pick out some fun ones you should try out Stay backup-wise with these websites Tag Heuer’s new time machine Tech Wise: Smartphones or tablets—figure out your type Some outdoorsy fun Things Rimy Oberoi cannot live without

Guidebook, No. 8How to improve sales forecasts. Find the guidebook after Page 24

STRATeGy25 SALeS & MARkeTING using referrals to turn customers into salespeople

27 MANAGING Why some companies are rethinking how they honour top employees

29 SALeS & MARkeTING Experts on how a storage company can stack up clients

30 eLeVATOR PITCH Twtbuck helps brands advertise smartly. Can 4 crore give it the wings it needs?

CONTeNTS September/October 2011

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contentsInc.com

What has changed since the first BlogWorld conference?The first year, Twitter didn’t exist. The second year, people said we should change the name to TwitterWorld. Then, social media became the busi-ness buzzword, so we created a track called the Social Media Business Summit. This year will be the first time the conference will have a track on mobile media. We are all going to be consuming more and more con-

tent on our mobile devices. That is definitely the future.

Given that, do businesses even need blogs anymore?The blog is the hub and all these other things—Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube—are spokes that lead back to the centre. The blog is the centre of the social-media universe. Do you want your company to be at the centre of the conversation, or do you want to be out in the rest of the galaxy? If you want to be a leader, you still need a blog.

How can mastering the social media help small companies compete?Big companies have the problem of being out of touch with their customers. Small companies have the problem of not being able to reach all their potential customers. Social media helps small companies become bigger and big companies act smaller.

I always tell people that social media is just a new way for people to do business the old- fashioned way. If your product sucks or your company is bad, social media is your worst enemy. If your product is great, social media is your best friend.

Lots of businesses either hand their social-media efforts to young employees or outsource it altogether. Good idea?You have to do this yourself. You can’t hire someone to do it for you. Would you take a kid out of college or an intern and make him your CMO? Social media can have the impact of a major advertising campaign. Do you put an intern in charge of that? Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media says, “You are not too old to learn social media; you’re just lazy.” That’s the truth.

How else do you see social media and blogging changing? Today, social media is a job. In the future, social media will be seen as a skill, like typing. But if most people don’t know how the internet works today, how can they know how blogs work; how can they know how Twitter works? You want to take this leap from “I’m still using e-mail” to Quora? That’s a wide gap in between. The only way you can get there is start doing it yourself.

The next BlogWorld & New Media Expo takes place November 3–5 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Go to blogworld.com for more information.

In 2007, Rick Calvert (above, left) and Dave Cynkin (above, right) created the BlogWorld & New Media Expo to help attendees capitalise on a novel technology—blogs. Now, of course, blogs are just a small part of a burgeoning social-media universe—and BlogWorld has become a twice-annual must-attend event for people seeking to navigate that world. Calvert recently spoke with Inc.com’s Tiffany Black about why businesses can no longer ignore social media.

Q&A

navigating the new online Universe

SEpTEMBER 2011:

SpOTLIghT ON

social Media

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Meenakshi KumarMeenakshi Kumar is an independent journalist who has spent more than a decade in the action-packed newsrooms of leading English newspapers. Even after so many years, nothing is more satisfying to her than chasing a good human-interest story and seeing it printed. She has written on subjects as varied as women, environment, books, travel, culture, health and entrepreneurship. When not writing for a living, she is busy bringing up her two hyper-active daughters. In between, she squeezes out time to pursue her love for reading and music.

Charu Bahri Charu Bahri would like to say that she writes for

the sheer love of it. But, in truth, she earns her living as a freelance writer. She enjoys writing on subjects as diverse as business and spirituality. She likes talking to people to learn more about how things work, almost as much as arranging

words in a way that benefits readers the most. In the past five years, she has written 500-plus articles for a medley of Indian and overseas

publications and websites. Bahri lives in Mount Abu with her parents and her dog.

Tejeesh N.S. BehlAn ‘accidental journalist’, Behl considers himself a drifter. Some 11 years ago, after bagging a degree and working in the hospitality sector, Behl deliberately lost his moorings. Since then, he’s been suffered gladly by ANI/Reuters TV, Business Today, Mint and The Financial Chronicle. Behl has covered travel, hospitality, foreign affairs, politics, real estate, sports, wines and lately, telecom, with all its attendant paraphernalia of scams and spams. He considers the opportunity to work as a journalist a blessing, for having bestowed upon him his two ‘real’ achievements—the opportunity to walk on fire and the chance to drive a truck.

CONTRIBUTORS

MANAGING DIRECTOR: Dr Pramath raj SinhaPRINTER & PublIshER: anuraDha DaS mathur

EditorialMANAGING EDITOR: ShreyaSi SinghCONsulTANT fEATuREs EDITOR: Payel mukherjeeAssIsTANT fEATuREs EDITOR: rohini banerjee fEATuRE wRITER: ira SwaSti

Copy dEskMANAGING EDITOR: Sangita thakur Varma

iNC. iNdia 500 rEsEarChhEAD: john khiangteMANAGER: aman Shukla ANAlysT: anurag SikDer

dEsigNsR CREATIvE DIRECTOR: jayan k narayananART DIRECTORs: bineSh SreeDharan & anil VkAssOCIATE ART DIRECTOR: PC anooPvIsuAlIsERs: PraSanth tr & anil tsR DEsIGNERs: joffy joSe, nV baiju ChanDer Dange & SriSti maurya DEsIGNERs: SuneeSh k, Shigil n & Charu DwiVeDi

ChIEf PhOTOGRAPhER: Subhojit PaulPhOTOGRAPhER: jiten ganDhi

CommuNity tEamPRODuCT MANAGER: maheSh raViAssIsTANT PRODuCT MANAGER: rajat guPta AssOCIATE: DeePika Sharma

salEs & markEtiNgNATIONAl MANAGER (EvENTs AND sPECIAl PROjECTs): mahanteSh goDiREGIONAl MANAGER (sOuTh & wEsT)VinoDh k (+ 91 97407 14817)NATIONAl sAlEs MANAGER (INC. INDIA)PranaV Saran (+ 91 98117 77113)MANAGER (KOlKATA)jayanta bhattaCharya (+91 93318 29284)

produCtioN & logistiCssR GENERAl MANAGER (OPERATIONs)ShiVShankar m hiremathMANAGER OPERATIONs: rakeSh uPaDhyay AssT. MANAGER - lOGIsTICs: Vijay menon ExECuTIvE lOGIsTICs: nileSh ShiraVaDekarPRODuCTION ExECuTIvE: VilaS mhatre

logistiCsmP Singh, mohD. anSari

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for any querieS, PleaSe ContaCt uS at [email protected]

PubliSheD, PrinteD anD owneD bynine Dot nine meDiaworx PriVate limiteD.PubliSheD anD PrinteD on their behalf by anuraDha DaS mathur. PubliSheD at a-262, DefenCe Colony, new Delhi–110 024PrinteD at tara art PrinterS PVt ltD.a-46-47, SeCtor-5, noiDa (u.P.) 201301EDITOR: anuraDha DaS mathur

6 | INC. | SepteMBer/oCtoBer 2011

Yet, I have to admit, putting together this issue—our annual ranking of India’s fastest-growing, mid-sized enterprises—was almost a refresher course in ambition.

For one, a billion-dollar turnover seems to be the de rigueur milestone for many company owners we met. But the entrepre-

neurs who laid out these robust plans did so without much drama. It was tough not to marvel at their self-confidence and overwhelming can-do spirit. Even the younger set and those lower down the revenue slab were driven; if not by blockbuster numbers then by the aspiration to stand out globally as best-of-breed solution providers.

Business confidence in India hasn’t been at its peak in the past few quarters. Inflation, rising input costs, lower foreign investment and scams have threatened to take away some of its sheen. Well, not so much for all of us at Inc. India, thanks to the

sprightly business owners we’ve had the priv-ilege to speak with over the past eight weeks.

Because we tweaked our methodology for the 2011 ranking—our third consecu-tive—to include more private and unlisted companies, we were treated to some real hid-den gems. These are companies that you may not have heard of but we guarantee that you will sit up and notice them in the not-so-dis-

tant future. It’s hard to ignore this savvy set. Another aspect that drew our attention—and certainly

occupies our winners’ thoughts—is the intense focus on peo-ple. Entrepreneurs told us that being able to “achieve” wasn’t a function of opportunity or capital any longer; it was simply about having the best team. Many of them talked passionately about making their companies responsive and fair work-places. They know cracking the “people code” will not be easy. So, we look forward to tracking the creative HR policies and smart people practices they’ll experiment with as they build organisational cultures that can power growth. Putting together a double-issue has certainly reinforced for us that you cannot do much without a great team.

I sincerely hope you enjoy our special package. We’ll see you next in November. Till then, do keep up the winning act. Your successes make our pages come alive.

When you edit a magazine like Inc. India, it’s easy to become accustomed to great stories. The entrepreneurs we profile spoil us with their fascinating tales of grit and acumen.

Many Billion Dreams

Shreyasi [email protected]

Things i LearnT in This issue

There’s a new “worry pecking order” for Indian businesses—employees, clients and capital

Companies that don’t make it, run out of ambition not opportunities. Point taken, B. Venkataramana

A rags-to-riches journey is still the best kind of story. Take Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s tale, for starters

eDiTor’S leTTer

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Sound systemTC’s clearly not just another restaurant with a liquor licence. The pub-cum-music hotspot has been kept loudly melodious by White Eagle Entertainment. Established in 2009, this professional audio company was started by Arun Kalra, a veteran, who’s been in the business of keeping pubs, parks, auditoriums and even temples in tune for the past 18 years. Today, White Eagle considers Lap, Hard Rock Cafe and Haze as part of its loyal customer base. The 5-crore firm is run by a 20-member staff team and has a pan-India presence.

BEHIND THE SCENES Companies at the Heart of Everyday Life

Refrigeration systemFourteen years ago, TC may have been called something else, but it has always been a cool spot to hang out in. Old-timers fondly remember it as ‘the pub’ to nurse a decent night cap. Keeping the hang-out still chilled and cool is ANS Temp Control Engineering, an 80-member firm headed by Sanjeev Lal. The company that began a good 14 years ago, today provides refrigeration solutions to leading players in the Indian healthcare and hospitality sectors.

8 | INC. | september/october 2011

Floor tiles Come Friday night, the young and the young-at-heart flock the pub for a drink and a dance. Taking all that traffic and the related stress is this mandana stone floor. The easy to clean, hardy and pretty stone was sourced from Asian Granito India Limited. The leading tile manufacturing firm was started by three business partners. The 550-crore company is a big-league player employing nearly 2,000 people and providing material to leading corporates, hotels, hospitals and government institutions.

02.08.11 7:30 pmTC, Delhi

pHOTOgRApH by SuBHojIT PAuL REpORTEd by RoHINI BANERjEE

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launch News, Ideas & Trends in Brief

Be nice, Be attrition-Free Employees rate respect as the top happiness quotient in the workplace

Polite Path to happiness Industry survey reveals ‘niceness’ to be one of the key influencers in rating a company’s culture.

continued on the next page

needless to say, attracting the right talent and retaining happy employees are the key challenges for Indian companies. Sustained inflation and high aspirations have added to employers’ woes, as employees look out for higher salaries and exciting opportuni-ties. A recent survey by Regus, a global flex-ible workspace provider, finds that satisfied workers and positive workspaces aren’t always a function of money though. The survey, which spoke to over 17,000

respondents from more than 80 countries, is a must-read for bosses out there looking to decipher the attrition puzzle. When asked what factors help them to create a happy work atmosphere, 66 per cent of Indian workers said respect for col-leagues is the key ingredient. Another 51 per cent said encouraging skills and knowledge-sharing was important. Vocally acknowledging the work of others

september/october 2011 | Inc. | 11

research corNer

When it’s OK to take a risk

The study: The Paradox of Stretch Goals: Organisations in Pursuit of the Seemingly Impossible by sim B. sitkin, Duke University; Kelly e. see, New York University; c. chet Miller, University of houston; Michael W. Lawless, University of Maryland; and andrew M. carton, Duke University; published in Academy of Management Review

The thesis: setting stretch goals or ambitious objectives, can make companies more innovative. But those best positioned to benefit from such goals rarely pursue them. Weaker companies though, often reach for unrealistic solu-tions out of desperation.

The method: The researchers reviewed case studies, such as southwest airlines’ campaign to turn around flights in 10 minutes. They then studied what compels some companies to reach for overly ambitious goals.

Intriguing finding: ambitious goals at companies with strong financial resources tend to free up employee creativity, but those resources also lessen the urgency to make big changes.

illustration by shigil n

launch

(44 per cent), and actively cele-brating colleagues’ success (36 per cent) were voted the third and fourth most important factors.

Madhusudan Thakur, regional vice president, South Asia, Regus, said, “The results

should serve as a wake-up call for managers who may be over-looking simple and cost-free measures they can take to make sure the staff don’t resign.”

The survey asked a bouquet of questions to figure out the top tips to help employers create a thriving workplace. Apart from vocally acknowledging the work of others, actively celebrating colleagues’ success, questions like always greeting colleagues when they enter or leave the office, always being on time for meetings, treating suppliers courteously and fairly, regularly enquiring about the happiness of colleagues’ family members, making way for colleagues in doorways and corridors, and remembering people’s birthdays were the other things asked.

Thakur adds that as work pressures and hours expand fur-ther into people’s personal lives, employees in India are aware of the link between job satisfaction and the people they work with.

“Aside from salary increases and material bonuses, these sim-ple steps contribute to creating a

Be Nice, Be Attrition-Free continued...

more human and wholesome environment that the staff are not easily tempted to abandon.”

Interestingly, there are slight, but insightful differences between global responses and those of Indian employees, as

shown in the chart. Within India, the study found regional variations. In Chennai, for example, being respectful to everybody, including junior col-leagues, was voted as the top fac-tor by more than 75 per cent of respondents, as compared to the 56 per cent in Hyderabad. While in Mumbai, half the respon-dents said vocally acknowledg-ing others’ achievements was important; in Pune, only 26 per cent of respondents found it important.

Whatever may be the variation, higher salaries and chal-lenging job descriptions aren’t the only mea-sures of a great workplace. Employers can channel the findings to churn out a pleasant office, with no addi-tional cost.

—Inc. India

The monsoons may have receded but it’s now raining monies. First up on the news is TVs capital. It’s planning to raise `500 crore for its top-up fund, an add-on via a parallel scheme, the TVS Shriram Growth Fund-IB. spon-

sors TVs and shriram Groups will put in `50 crore with friends chipping in another `50 crore, says Gopal srinivasa, MD, TVs capital Funds... Matrix Partners India made its sec-ond healthcare investment of `45 crore in Bengaluru-based Kids Clinic India, a maternity and infant care brand... Mohandas Pai, former hr director of Infosys and ranjan Pai, ceo, Manipal Group have joined hands to start a $100-million private equity fund focusing on healthcare and technol-ogy....Taking a similar route is Vivek Mathur,

who’s joined saIF Partners, a growth capital firm, as its cFo and partner. Before saIF Partners, Mathur was the head of the India contact cen-tres for Dell...Investment firm Future Ventures has struck a twin deal to re-invest in its portfolio

firms, capital Foods exports and aadhaar retailing...also feel-

ing drenched is Vayavya Labs, a software firm, after the Indian angel Network decided to invest in it...Now, some delicious news. India equity Part-ners is reportedly investing `180 crore and buying a majority stake in

restaurant chain Sagar Ratna, founded and run by Jayaram

Banan.—Inc. India

The Ticker

srinivasa

Banan

fund flush

Top Staff PleasersIndia Global

Being respectful, even to junior members of staff 66% 61%

encouraging knowledge and skills sharing among staff 51% 49%

Vocally acknowledging the work of others 44% 49%

actively celebrating colleagues’ successes 36% 33%

12 | Inc. | september/october 2011

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Why did you focus on uniforms for your entrepreneurial venture? YFM has a great market opportunity because right now there is not even a single pan-India player present in this vertical. The market is growing annually at a rate of 20 per cent. That’s on a huge current base of `10,000 crore. We want to create the country’s first pan-India chain of in-school uniform shops. Right now, quality is a major victim as far as school uniforms are concerned. Vendors get away with giving low-quality products, most of which use 100 per cent polyester fabrics made from harmful dyes at low-price points. We don’t want to compete with them on pricing. YFM wants to focus on offering high-quality, eco-friendly and skin-friendly products to health-conscious schools. Parents and school managements are now becoming much more aware about these issues. We are confident that the demand for high-quality uniforms will increase. What has been the response like in schools? Do you think you have gone beyond the proof of concept stage? We are happy with the response. In Delhi and NCR especially, we have signed up with several reputed schools. Similarly, we have also tied up with a few schools in Bengaluru, Udaipur, Pune and Indore. We have 20 schools on our roster now. Of course, it’s been tough so far. As a group, school administrators are not prone to changing things quickly. Decisions take time to come. Business development is time consuming, as can be expected with institutional sales.

Perfectly attired The business of uniforms Sachin Sahni, co-founder and CEO of Youniform (YFM), a uniform solutions provider, believes he is (as they say) the right person at the right time. Gurgaon-based YFM is focused on providing uniform solutions to schools, institutions, corporates and industries in sectors such as hospitality, healthcare, retail and manufacturing. Founded in 2010, YFM has already managed to receive contracts from 20 schools in NCR, Bengaluru and Udaipur. There’s a need for a professionally managed uniforms company, says Sahni, because it is a whopping `10,000-crore business. Stitching mega-success from clothes is something Sahni is demonstrably good at. Before turning entrepreneur with YFM, he was the CEO of Cotton County, a garment chain of 600 stores across 400 towns. When he joined Cotton County in 2004, it was a one-store company. Not surprisingly, his ambitious threads for YFM are woven with calm self-confidence. —Shreyasi Singh

 What are your ramping-up projections? how quickly will this grow over the next few years? We are confident of stepping on the gas with YFM. In the first year itself, we touched reve-nues of over ̀ 1 crore. We’ll triple that by next year. By 2014-2015, our target is to touch a minimum of ̀ 50 crore. Looking at the huge market size, and the growth rate, we don’t expect any major obstacle in getting to these milestones. We’ll need to change a few things, of course. We currently outsource production. But we are exploring setting up our own production units. It’ll help us scale-up and maintain quality.

We are now beyond the proof of the con-cept stage. YFM is now looking for aggressive expansion, especially during the summer season.

We have launched our other verticals also. Our Uniform Supply Management System (USMS) caters to organised retail-ers. In USMS, we take care of the company’s whole process of uniforms—starting from designing the uniform to supplying it. It’s a hassle-free solution for companies. We’ve already signed up New U, a chain of beauty stores owned by the Dabur Group. Soon, we’ll ink contracts with major players in mobile retailing and consumer durables.

september/october 2011 | Inc. | 13

The Right Threads sachin sahni wants to tailor a thriving business in the ̀ 10,000-crore uniforms market.

The Scuba SuTraS BY Guhesh Ramanathan

I will enjoy the dive, not just the fishDon’t get trapped by tasks, details and deadlines. Sometimes, allow yourself to enjoy your environment

as a regular diver, every now and then, you come across a bad dive. Nothing goes right in these. All you can do is curse your lot for that day—low visibility, not enough marine life, strong currents that sweep you and nothing worth seeing. After all, one dives for pleasure and to see that elu-sive shark, or that manta ray zooming over you. When you get to see nothing because of silt in the water, or other reasons, isn’t it natural to write-off that dive as a wasted effort?

Among all the locations I’ve dived in, Goa tops the terrible visibility charts. I remember the time I dived there. I kitted up, checked my equip-ment and back-rolled off the boat. I still vividly remember the panic that struck me when I could see absolutely nothing. I couldn’t figure out which way was up or down. I cursed under my breath. What could one hope to see with that visibility, I grumbled.

There were three of us that day. We started the dive and stuck close to each other. In these waters, if anyone drifted away, there was little chance that the group would be able to find them. Our dive master told us to stay as close as possi-ble, and in case we separated, to spend just about two minutes looking for the others. If you don’t find others in that time, surface slowly, he instructed us.

So, we stuck close, literally inches from each other. I don’t know how the dive master could navigate where we were going but somehow he led

us to a reef in the middle of nowhere. We stopped at the reef for a minute.

Then, the dive master signalled that we were to go for a nice, slow circle around the reef, ascending from about 22 metres to approximately 10 metres by which time we’d be back at the same place where we

Immerse Yourself Let yourself enjoy the little moments and small joys.

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descended. In diving sign language, he told us to rank up one behind the other and stay close to the reef. He would lead, my buddy would follow and I’d be the tail end.

Usually when I dive against a reef, I look at the far side or what divers affectionately call The Blue. That’s where you see the big fish and the bright, colourful schools. But that day the water was a murky brown, occasionally even turning to black. At best, visibility was a couple of feet.

I was sure we wouldn’t see much. But I resigned myself to our 50 minutes under water. I was prepared for this dive to be my worst ever. Still, I kept one eye on the reef, at my left shoulder, just so that I wouldn’t bang against it by mistake. Sud-denly, something flickered on the reef. It was a quick move and then it just froze. Curious, I moved closer to check it out. When I saw what I was looking at, I blinked a couple of times in disbelief. It was a perfectly camouflaged scorpion fish. Clearly, my buddy and the dive mas-ter had missed it.

I reached out and tapped my buddy on his leg. He turned to look at where I was pointing and froze too when he saw it. Real-ising that we had spotted something, the dive master drifted back to us to get a look too. For a good five minutes, we literally stayed suspended there, watching the scor-pion fish as it merged into the surrounding reef. We watched its eyes open slowly as it looked around for prey. We saw it burrow back into the reef, and we thanked our stars for sighting one of the rarest of rare fishes in the murky waters of Goa.

We saw other fish too on that dive—colourful sea anemones with clown fish darting about, a clump of fire coral, a beautiful starfish, all at very close quarters. When we surfaced, only because our tanks were almost empty, I still remember the look of awe on my buddy’s face. That’s got to be one of my best dives, he gasped excit-edly. I couldn’t agree more. And to think that I’d almost written off this dive even before it had started.

At work, too, we often write off days as terrible. Last December, I met an old friend who is now very senior in his

organisation. Given that Christmas and New Year were just around the corner, I expected to see him relaxed and in great spirits. But when I asked him how things had been, his wasn’t a voice of cheer. “Nothing is happening,” he said by way of explanation.

I looked around his office. There were lots of relaxed people, lots of good humour, even a tree in the corner with folks dropping off gifts for each other in

true Christmas spirit. In every way, it was a great environment. So, what was bugging my friend?

Well, he was under great pressure. The quarter was coming to a close. With every-one around him slowing down for the hol-iday season, including his customers, he was tense. He’d met most of his targets for that quarter in the first two months itself but the last few loose ends were taking lon-ger than expected to tie-up neatly.

Plus, beneath the happy cheer, his team was stressed out. On my way out, I chatted up his assistant to find out more about what was eating up the boss. She grimaced but said matter-of-factly, “He’s always like that toward the end of the year. Just ignore him. He’ll be fine at the begin-ning of the next year.”

I decided to take my friend out for coffee and prompted him to vent, which he soon did. It bugged him, he said, to see his team horse around at work even when there was a lot of stuff to close for the quarter. I dug deeper—what were the outstanding tasks, I wondered, especially when the sales num-bers were closed by November itself.

There were reports to do and several

quarter analysis sheets, he said. The team wasn’t serious about these, he grumbled. I gently asked what the damage would be if these were sent out in the first few days of January instead of on December 31. He shrugged and said probably not much other than an unnecessary stinker mail from a ‘bonehead’ at the head office.

I asked him to consider if that was how his team probably saw him those days—that the boss will probably scream but in

the bigger scheme of things it wasn’t an important issue. That point hit home. For a few minutes, he went totally quiet. As our coffee finished, I suggested he better get back to his office. He suddenly grinned and said we should extend our meeting to lunch.

“Let me get a couple of others from the office and ask if they’d like to join us too. You can tell us your Scuba Sutra stories,” he said excitedly.

So here’s my two bits of feel-good holi-day advice (well before the season) for those of you who always focus just on the big sightings—the reports, the analysis, the workaholic kicks. Don’t forget to take the time out to enjoy the dive. Take in the things around you. Let me assure you, these are the moments you’ll remember fondly many years later.

Take in the things around you. They are probably the ones you’ll remember fondly years later.

Guhesh Ramanathan is a mentor at the entrepre-neurship cells of IIM Bangalore and IIM Ahmed-abad. He serves on the boards of several companies, and is an advanced certified scuba diver.

september/october 2011 | InC. | 15

innovation Companies on the Cutting Edge

Sticky Cure Some 14 years ago, Jagannath Yedida of Reevax Pharma found himself getting super-psyched. He had witnessed the miracle of “cyanoacrylate”—a super glue—in a surgery. He’d discovered that the glue-like fluid could be used as a tissue adhesive to treat a wound. But, there was a downside to this near perfect product. It was hyper-sensitive to changing temperature and atmospheric moisture. So, storing it was a total nightmare. Like the adhesive, Yedida’s attention stayed fixed. Cut to 2006, he found a smarter alternative with XION which has all the abilities of the old product minus the ultra-sensitivity. It’s also been packaged smartly. Its syringe container enables surgeons to administer controlled amounts of the product. It can also be stored easily outside the freezer. Once its process patent comes through, Yedida plans to aggressively market it globally.

Did you know?Cyanoacrylate was acciden-tally invented in 1942 by American scientists Harry Coover and Fred Joyner of Kodak Laboratories. While trying to make a transparent plastic suitable for gun sights, the two found “cya-noacrylate” which could glue together materials with great strength. From that, Kodak developed Eastman #910—the “super glue”.

How it works Cyanoacrylate gets polymerised (hardens) quickly and becomes inef-fective when in contact with moisture and room temper-ature. The stabler XION stays in its clear-blue fluid state even when exposed to room temperature, dust and moisture because it’s packed in a “hermetically-sealed”, crushable glass ampule. As the glass walls are impermeable to mois-ture, the product remains in its liquid form.

16 | inC. | september/october 2011

reevax pharmaXion

PHOTOgrAPH COurTEsy COmPANy rEPOrTEd by RoHini BaneRjee

“XION can be used anywhere, even in

ears and eyes, which are sensitive areas.”

—Jagannath Yedida, CEO, Reevax Pharma

18 | INC. | september/october 2011

PASSIONS Life Outside the Office

“Film-making helped me set up

Alma Mater.”

Location courtesy pVr cinemas, bengaLuru

FilmmakingVarun Agarwal

phOtOgraph by S. rAdhAkrIShNA repOrted by rOhINI bANerjee

his mum’s first mistake: taking him for his first film in Bengaluru’s Galaxy Theatre. Varun Agarwal, founder and CEO of school and college memorabilia outlet, Alma Mater, has been hooked since. “By Class VIII, I was watching three films a week,” says the 24-year-old. Mum’s second mistake: buying him his first video camera. Agarwal used it to document a school trip to Shimla. The footage remained on his desktop till he discovered an online editing software to turn it into his maiden documentary. “My friends loved it and I knew I wanted to go to film school,” he recalls. That’s when all hell broke loose. His mother put her foot down and Agarwal was packed off to engineering school. But he stuck on till he eventually won his camera back from his mother. He went on to direct several documentaries, and viral and music videos. “My passion got me a stint at Phat Phish, a production firm. That money helped me start Alma Mater.” Now the ̀ 9-crore firm is feeding his next venture, Reticular.

Favourite Flicks Shawshank Redemption

Requiem For A Dream

Citizen Kane

Apu Trilogy

Trainspotting

Desi hits Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron

Chashme Baddoor

Deewar

Gulaal

Andaaz Apna Apna

his Weapon Canon 5d with multiple lenses

AD

Gaming laptops are the new it machines, and more and more gamers are ditching their desktops to get one. We take a look at some great options in this category. —www.thinkdigit.com

MSI GT680rThe GT680R is a high-end gaming machine in MSI’s books and it tries to live up to its reputation. A quad core; Core i7 2630QM; 8GB of DDR3 1333 MHz RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX460M make it a potent machine on paper. Having said that, it would’ve been nice to get a faster graphics solution. It does compromise the picture a bit but gamers want speed and the GT680r gives us that. The perfor-mance comes at a price though. People spending a bomb might get turned off by its rather mediocre fin-ish. If looks aren’t a must-have, this is a good machine to play new games and classics. cost: 1,19,999

Your Business Toolbox The GoodS

MSI GX780r The GX780R is MSI’s latest offering. It’s a top-of-the-line gaming series notebook that is both handsome and powerful. The sturdily-built lid slims out towards the front, giving an impression of a forward sloping, aggressive design. The GX780R has nicely spaced keys. It doesn’t have back-lit indicators around the track-pad, but looks more suave for it. It has a massive 16GB of RAM. The Core i7 2630QM and NVIDIA GeForce GT555M are impressive but given its price, a more powerful GPU would’ve been nicer. The uber gamer might not appreciate this lack of power. cost: 1,19,999

Fun and Games Machines that help you swipe, swoop and splurge

AlIenwAre M17XAlienware’s M17x is a colossal lap-top outweighing even the prodigious G74SX. Large is lovely in this case. The rubberised finish looks slick. The inside body also has the rub-berised finish except for the bezel around the keypad that’s brushed aluminium. The keys are well-spaced and have just the right

amount of feedback. They are also beautifully backlit. The track-pad has accuracy but a dedicated mouse is called for. The M17x has a nice display—bright colours and contrast. It’s a good buy for those who are bling-happy and have deep pockets. cost: 1,59,000

ASUS G74SX This notebook is built like a tank. It doesn’t have fancy back lighting like Alienware notebooks but the G74SX is made of quality plastic and has beautiful finishing. It has a huge trackpad that’s accurate, but gamers might prefer an even higher precision. The mouse keys are also soft and have a deep travel. The keypad is backlit—a huge

help when gaming in darkness. It’s packed with best specifications—support for 3D stereovision, a 120Hz display and Core i7 2630QM that most gaming notebooks have. A 16GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX560M makes the machine more potent. The flipside is the steep price. cost: 1,24,990

september/october 2011 | InC. | 21IllustratIon by shIgIl n

pow

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The GoodS Products + Services

PHoNe FASHIoN

An iconic watchmaker dials in new plans Luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer’s foray into mobile phones might take you by surprise. Christened the LINK smartphone, the phone’s made

of alligator skin and stainless steel. It’s shock-resistant and sports a 3.5-inch Gorilla glass screen with 800x480 resolution. The LINK

smartphone runs on Android 2.2 Froyo and contains a 5-megapixel camera and a 256MB internal memory. Its best feature: undoubtedly the uber stylish, high-quality look. price: 3,50,000

Chromed To PerfectionSome cool Google Chrome apps What’s quirky and useful—certainly, some of the new Google Chrome apps are. Go ahead and shop for these great pick-me-ups to make office fun.—www.thinkdigit.com

evernoTe:It’s one of the most handy apps used to save a web page or parts of it. It helps the user save a variety of data (think pictures and voice memos). With evernote, one can tag, sort in folders and comment on the notes saved, and access them from anywhere using a login and password.

ChIMPoo: Like its quirky name, Chimpoo is a fun online virtual universe, mainly for kids and kids-at-heart. There’s an online chat enabled inside the browser making the game interactive. The engagement time of the game (approxi-mately 15 minutes) in India is high.

SPrInGPAd:It’s one of the most strikingly beautiful apps in the Chrome store. With Springpad one can save notes, bookmarks, recipes and movies sched-ules. one can also access notes from any browser via offline support from Chrome.

AvIAry IMAGe edITor: Some might argue that the browser-based interface of Aviary image editor is power-ful enough to replace its desktop counter-part. However, the image editor not only offers essential image editing tools, but it’s also fun to play around with and simple to handle. All you need is basic editing skills.

hobnoX AUdIoTool: If music is what you live for, then you need to install Audiotool from the Chrome web-store. The app contains almost all the music editing tools and effects that one can think of inside a browser.

The CrICInFo:The app is an advanced HTML5 application which uses some of the most cut-ting-edge technology to provide a fresh, exciting way of con-suming eSPNcricinfo, the world’s largest, oldest and favourite cricket site.

SAFeGUARDS

website backup made simpleUntil recently, there was no simple way to back up content on a website. These new, easy-to-use tools automatically archive content regularly. To test them, we set up mock websites and deleted files to see how easily we could retrieve them. —J.B.

vAUlTPreSSThis web-based service works only with sites that run on the WordPress publishing platform. Setup is easy: simply create a VaultPress account and tap in a domain name. Anytime you add new content, including blog posts, comments, media files and photos, the service will back it up automatically on VaultPress servers in real-time. You can also log on to your account to perform manual backups, get status updates, and retrieve lost content. During our test, we retrieved a deleted WordPress file in less than a minute. cost: Starts at $15 a month per website

CodeGUArdCodeGuard works with publish-ing platforms and hosting ser-vices. After creating an account and adding a domain name, you can choose to back-up content to CodeGuard servers either hourly, daily or weekly. When we deleted a file, it took an hour for the archived version to appear on CodeGuard.com, much longer than it took with VaultPress. cost: Starts at $10 a month for one website with up to 250MB of storage

2 2 | InC. | september/october 2011

pow

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Products + Services The GoodS

decisions, decisions. A high-end smart-phone or a tablet? With smartphones get-ting bigger screens and the tablet segment heating up, there are some tempting offer-ings although there is a considerable over-lap between smart tablets and high-end smartphones. Both have their advantages. It’s important to figure out your typical usage pattern to make the right decision. Here’s a checklist that might help you zero-in on the right device.

Who should buy a tablet?The heavy internet user (browsing, apps, e-books etc.): tablets are more suited for browsing, especially if you are reading a lot online. Web pages fit better on a tablet and the app experience is also richer. With apps being developed specifically for tab-lets, there will be more features that will allow greater productivity. 

Those who do long hours of voice calling everyday. Despite latest hardware and high-resolution screens, smartphones still have battery life limitations. If you are a heavy voice user, your phone is probably running out of juice in a day. We suggest you keep the phone strictly for voice and SMSes and get yourself a tablet to ensure that both have enough life.  

The frequent traveller: the tablet is the best replacement for a laptop. Whether you are in an aircraft or airport, tablets are more convenient than note-books and offer a lot more than smart-phones. Once you become comfortable with the tablet, you can ditch your laptop for meetings and short business trips, if all that you need to do is browse, check e-mails and play games.

The heavy consumer of multimedia content (photos, videos and YouTube): A big screen makes for much better enter-tainment. Smartphones cannot match tablets when it comes to watching full-length movies. The strain of watching a

movie on a 4.2-inch smartphone is some-thing that’s best avoided by all.

The gadget happy and tech-savvy: If you are a gadget freak, then a tablet is a must have. Period. Who should buy a high-end smartphone? One who carries sensitive data: Tablets don’t enjoy the same privacy and are less personal compared to smartphones. The family will want to tinker around with the tablet and it will, inevitably, become a family gadget. For mission critical, sensitive data, high-end smartphones make much more sense.

The creator of heavy multimedia content (videos and pictures): While tab-lets may be suited for consumption of heavy multimedia, creation of media is a totally different ball game. Shooting pic-tures or recording videos isn’t comfortable with tablets—face it, they aren’t portable at all. Smartphones today offer higher-qual-ity optics and are portable.

One who needs to access data 24x7: Tablets can’t fit your pocket and hence are less portable compared to mobile phones.

The big screen buff: Hardcore movie buffs and gaming enthusiasts will not enjoy movies or gaming on the tablet.

The not-tuned to tech: If managing multiple gadgets does not come naturally to you, the smartphone is your weapon of choice. It will potentially combine phone, internet browsing device, camera and per-sonal media player in one single device.

Finally, if you refuse to get yourself into the tablets vs smartphone dilemma, just buy both. The most ideal state of nirvana would be to have an android smart-phone—the Samsung Galaxy S2 is highly recommended—and get an Apple iPad.It’s by far the best tablet in the market today.

—Write to Tech Wise at [email protected]

Are you a Tablet or Smartphone Type?Figure out your best bet

tech wise soham raninga

september/october 2011 | InC. | 2 3

oFF DUTY

Apps for the great outdoors

Now that summer is in full swing, you have permission to use your smartphone for things other than checking e-mail and calling clients. Here are three apps to get you started. —Lindsay Silberman

FreeCAddIe Pro This app displays the distances to greens, bunkers and hazards at some 23,000 golf courses worldwide. You can enter your scores and statis-tics as you play, then log on to FreeCaddie.com to analyse them. The app works on a variety of phones, including iPhones, BlackBerrys,and Android models. cost: $9.95

STeeP And CheAP every day, this iPhone app offers dozens of deals on outdoor apparel, including tents and backpacks. A recent offer featured a pair of Sole Sport sandals for $29.99, a 55 per cent discount off the retail price. You can check the app for deals during the day or have push notifications sent to your phone. cost: Free

oh, rAnGer! PArkFInderAfter you enter your zip code or city and select an activity—say bird watching or boating—this app will direct you to nearby national and state parks or national forests that suit your needs. The app, which works on iPads and iPhones, also pro-vides directions, forecasts and lodging suggestions. cost: Free

FoUNDeR AND Ceo, oYSTeR LeARNING

visual aid I am long-sighted

and stranded without my glasses.

rimy oberoiIn Class vIII, Rimy Oberoi knew she need not be yet another doctor in a family of medical special-ists to do something great. Today, the founder of Oyster Learning is happy to have struck a com-promise. She’s changing the lives of students and making her life more meaningful: “I am an old-fashioned person. I knew I couldn’t just hold a job which had no purpose.” Oberoi’s old-fash-ioned indeed. She still writes her important notes in a notebook and tells time by a watch. “There’s a reason for that. It’s the only feminine and pretty piece I wear all the time.” Still, of all her posses-sions, it’s the motley collection of passport photo-graphs—of her parents, kids and husband—that are most precious. “As I see them smiling, every-thing falls into place. My priorities are clearer and I de-stress immediately.”—Rohini Banerjee

...is to live to see the day that oyster Learning becomes an internationally renowned brand.

Scribble queen Where would I be without my notepad?

Things I Cannotlive without...

...and whatI Covet

The GoodS Beyond Business

Chic-time I would be invariably late to meetings without my watch.

never without my phone My mobile phone doubles up as my address book. I

am lost without it.

2 4 | InC. | september/october 2011 photograph by subhojIt paul

Remove booklet along dotted line

08

Improve SaleS ForecaStS

Everything you need to know to run your business in today’s economy

: : : : : : : : : : : A monthly guide to policies, procedures And prActices

When it comes to measuring business well-being, there’s no better indicator than sales. Profit, after all, is an outcome of how much is sold, so higher sales mostly spell greater success. But, a company needs to plan for sales and forecast spurts or other trends in their sales cycle to make sure that the company’s processes are aligned to achieve its targets.

It might sound like crystal-gazing or wishful thinking. But to borrow a cliché, sales forecasting isn’t rocket science. Simply put, sales forecasts are educated guesses of future sales made in advance of the business year. It’s a useful planning tool, says Shrikanth S., team leader, business and financial services, Frost & Sullivan. “It forces business heads to study how parameters affecting sales are likely to move in the coming months. Sales estimates are then drawn up after leaving room for contingency factors.” These forecasts set the standards for expenses and are used by functional heads to plan minutely. During the year, comparisons between actual sales and forecasts help chart the progress of a business. Forecasts can then be tweaked mid-term to work in changed business realities.

While comparisons may be made weekly or monthly, sales trends become clearer by mid-year. That helps business heads sit down, take stock of where things stand and decide what to do next. Read on to see how you can do this right. —Charu Bahri

Vol. 02 No. 08 | Inc. guIdebook

ForecaSt well

improve sAles forecAsts : : : : : : : : : : : : :

Define the parameters: First, decide how far ahead you need to forecast. Ideally, sales forecasts should show sales by month for the coming year, and at least quarterly sales for the fol-lowing two years. If that seems too dis-tant, then stick to an annual forecast by the month.

Next, break down the consoli-dated sales forecast into estimates for each product line. If your sales are spread over more than one geo-graphical area, tot up the projected product sales in each, to come up with a detailed area-wise forecast. Sales forecasts should be comprehen-sive but not too complicated.

Often, business models dictate the kind of sales forecasting taken up. “OEM suppliers base their long-term sales forecast on their clients’ macro planning. Immediate forecasts depend on customers’ short-term production plans,” shares Pankaj Mital, COO of Motherson Sumi Systems.

Base it right: Sales forecasts are often misunderstood. Projections don’t always have to be based on past sales. Forecasting isn’t limited to coming up with a percentage to show expected growth from the previous year. “It’s fine to rely on past sales when the mar-ket dynamics are predicted to remain constant. But work external factors that you know may impact future sales into the estimate,” says Rohit Anand, managing director, Value Edge Research Services, an analytics firm.

For instance, if market research reveals that a competitor’s coming out with a new product, you will have to factor that in the expected impact of the launch. Also, when a new product is being introduced, you have no previ-

ous sales data. “Forecasters must then make a ‘bottom-up’ forecast involving a target population estimate in the addressable market,” explains Anand.

Get everyone onboard: Marketing and sales departments can be valu-able in giving you information

about prevailing business condi-tions. “For mature products, fore-casters must work closely with sales affiliates because they ‘own’ their sales numbers. For new product launches, interact closely with the marketing team,” suggests Anand.

Industry research can also mini-mise the measure of uncertainty asso-ciated with sales forecasts. According to Anand, industry inputs are more relevant to firms that are pitching in for a larger share of the pie. “New-age technology or internet-related spaces have no traditional boundaries. Google created the industry and its sales forecasts drove a category rather than the other way around.”

Sometimes, corporate strategy and manufacturing teams may be asked to participate in the process. Involving all helps ensure that functional heads use and trust the forecast.

Forecasts should be vetted by departmental heads before being taken as final. Even if the production head doesn’t have a say in the forecast, his stamp of approval should confirm that production can be adjusted to meet estimated sales.

review forecastsCompare and review: Forecasts provide benchmarks to compare with actual sales made: thus keep tabs on business. Types of businesses will dictate the fre-quency of reviews. Sales of commodi-ties, i.e., packaged products sold off-the-shelf, are tracked more fre-

quently than value-driven solu-tions for which one needs to create a demand. “Commodity sale forecasts are compared with actual sales volumes per day. In contrast, sales of conceptual solutions are more complex,”

says Sanjay Rao, vice president (sales and alliances) at AppPoint, a software solutions firm. Rao suggests tracking solution sales activities on a daily basis, and closures on a week-on-week basis. Though number crunching takes pre-cedence, sales analysis should go beyond tracking revenues.

Analyse variations: Understanding variations between planned and actual sales is vital to remedial action, espe-cially when volumes fall short of esti-mates. “Solution providers should check whether they missed any opportunity to convert client needs into sales, and why. Also, sales burn rate should match cus-tomers’ appetite,” says Rao. That involves determining if you estimated selling more than the client can consume. Sales analysis should also focus on “non-dol-lar” aspects—to what extent one was able to convince customers that the product would add value to their business. Con-sumer perspective is an essential part of sales analysis. You must also find out if you sold less because if an internal mismatch (say when production levels couldn’t keep up with sales causing under-delivery).

Forecasting isn’t limited to projections based on past sales.

08

Inc. guIdebook | Vol. 02 No. 08

Get the overall picture: Since no business operates in isolation, compare your estimated and actual growth with industry performances. “Market fac-tors should be analysed in context with a company’s portfolio and public image to understand its prospects,” says Shrikanth. This suggests that some companies may remain attrac-tive propositions even if the overall trend is recessionary. For instance, though petrol and diesel car sales usu-ally fall when fuel prices rise, sales of electric cars may increase in such con-ditions. So, electric vehicle makers may gain an edge in an otherwise reces-sionary car market because of a shift in demand in their favour. At Parle, industry comparisons are worked into

the annual sales forecasts by estimating market shares as well as volumes. Some-times, volumes may grow as estimated but a product may fall short on market share—that indicates that the competi-tion has grown faster than the brand. “We track the progress of each product by quarter. A shortfall in market share calls for measures in the 4Ps or at the trade level,” shares Pravin Kulkarnii, GM of marketing at Parle Products.

revise forecastsSince you can never fully comprehend the impact of business parameters, no forecast is perfect. Still, Shrikanth sug-gests making comprehensive forecasts by taking into account all the possible realities. “Rope in all the parameters that

may impact sales in two extreme situa-tions—an optimistic and a pessimistic scenario.” That way, you reduce the chances of needing to revise the forecast. Unpredictable situations sometimes necessitate mid-term reviews. Raw material prices may suddenly shoot up or a competitor may launch a new ad campaign. “Such situations necessitate corrective action if they have a long-term impact. If input prices rise, prod-uct prices are hiked to sustain profitability—this may impact sales forecasts for the remaining period,” says Kulkarnii.

Even so, don’t expend too much energy on refining your forecast. Focus on identifying the big excep-tions. That’s what calls for action.

noteS:

improve sAles forecAsts : : : : : : : : : : : : :

resources[Learn more] Show trends and forecast sales with charts http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/show-trends-and-forecast-sales-with-charts-Ha001087785.aspx

[Read more] Conduct a sales forecast, http://www.va-interactive.com/inbusiness/editorial/sales/ibt/sales_fo.html#3

[Understand better] Learn about different sales ratios, http://www.bizwiz.ca/sales_ratio_calculation_formulas/sales_ratios.html

ForecaStIng: practIce makeS perFect Forecasts are inexact by nature and practice does make it perfect. Don’t get discouraged by not-so-accurate first forecasts. Motivate yourself to continue the exercise. These are a few practical tips to get you started:

begin by drawing up short-range forecasts, that is estimating the sales for the next few months. Work your way to intermediate forecasts for

the year ahead. Then take on long range forecasts.

the more often you forecast, the better you get at making an accurate estimate. It’s not about getting more practice but frequent forecasts

are usually made for the short-term. Since you are better informed with the immediate business situation, the estimates tend to be accurate.

apply one forecasting model consistently over business periods and for all the forecasts you create. That standardises the format and

makes it easier to review year after year.

draw up multIple ForecaStSWhy should you prepare multiple forecasts? Because a single forecast may not represent the needs of all departments. Draw up multiple fore-casts that represent the needs of dif-ferent business elements (say for instance: industries dealing with sales and after-sales services could use two kinds of sales forecasts—licence reve-nue and income from services). Ser-vice resources may be further categorised as resource types, loca-tion, skills, rates and industry that help draw up staffing plans.

Prepare more effective forecasts: Software solutions available on cloud computing can help you manage sales forecasts more effectively. Solutions are usually integrated with in-house ERP implementations managing employee master data (for instance, tools like AppPoint’s CRM may be integrated with an in-house imple-mentation of SAP or PeopleSoft in a hybrid model.

08

Inc. guIdebook | Vol. 02 No. 08

Roku was one of the first companies to bring online movies to people’s living rooms. Three years ago, the Saratoga, California-based company started selling remote-controlled devices that can stream online media content, such as Netflix movies and Pandora radio, to TV sets. When competitors began to emerge, they were formidable: Microsoft, Apple and Google. Unlike those giants, Roku, which has about 100 employees, didn’t have deep pock-ets for advertising campaigns.

What Roku did have was fans. Through surveys, the company had learnt that about a quarter of its one million customers were so smitten with their Roku players that they had encouraged friends to buy one.

“We knew we had an engaged customer base that was passionate about the product, and we wanted to tap into that,” says Lomit Patel, Roku’s senior director of direct marketing.

Last year, Roku launched a refer-a-friend marketing campaign, which rewards custom-ers for recommending the company’s video players to people they know.

Word-of-mouth marketers have long

Sales & MarketingTell your friends about usTurning customers into pitchmen

sTRaTegy

Sales & Marketing The persuasive power of friendship and why it works better than conventional

marketing campaigns this page Managing Awards for disastrous ideas, positive mentors and

brainwaves—no prizes for guessing this: some companies are rethinking how they honour their

top employees page 27 Elevator Pitch Twtbuck helps companies soar on social media. Will investors

give it `4 crore to help it fly? page 30

How Would You Sell That? Experts on how a storage company can fill up orders. page 29

sEpTEmbEr/ocTobEr 2011 | INC. | 2 5IllusTraTIon by pc anoop

sTRaTegy

touted the power of customer referrals. Recommendations from friends are among the top influences of purchases, according to a recent study by ForeSee Results, a market research firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Now that sites such as Facebook and Twitter have made it easier than ever to tap one’s entire social circle, companies like Roku are experimenting with new tools and incentives to get customers chatting about their products.

To get the conversation started, Roku hired Extole, a San Francisco-based company that specialises in refer-a-friend marketing campaigns.

Roku now sends an automated e-mail to customers 45 days after a purchase, offering them one month of free Netflix services if someone they refer purchases a Roku player.

Each customer who participates gets a unique web link, created by Extole, to share with friends via e-mail, Twitter, or Facebook.

In the first three months, 15,000 customers recommended Roku to their friends using Extole’s system, and 1,500 customers bought Roku players after clicking on links sent to them by pals.

The refer-a-friend marketing cam-paign has already proved to be more effective than online banner ads or paid search ads, says Patel.

People who were referred by friends were three times more likely to purchase than visitors who clicked on online ads. “It has that implied endorsement before they even come to the site,” he says.

Between the Netflix giveaway and

Extole’s monthly fee of $1,500 (an intro-ductory rate for being an early cus-tomer), Roku spends about $12 to acquire each customer, who, in turn, spends an average of $97.

Other companies aren’t waiting as long as 45 days to get customers talking to their friends.

Abe’s Market, a Chicago-based online retailer of food, clothing, and other products made from natural materials, wants its shoppers to spread

the word before they even make a purchase. Last year, Abe’s Market added a “share it” feature to its website. The feature offers shoppers 10 per cent off on their orders if they agree to tell three friends about the products in their online shopping carts.

After a customer enters three e-mail addresses, her buddies get a message that she is “shopping for natural products on AbesMarket.com, and wants to share some great finds.”

The e-mail includes photos of the products in the customer’s cart as well as a coupon code that lets the friends save 10 per cent on any order.

It took two of the company’s programmers just a few days to create the feature.

Because the project was done in-house, Abe’s Market can easily make changes like tweaking the amount of the discount, says Jon Polin, the company’s co-founder. So far, the strategy is paying off. About half of Abe’s Market customers use Share It, and those who use it spend about 30 per cent more than those who don’t.

Polin says Abe’s Market is on track to hit $1.5 million in sales this year, thanks in part to customers who found out about the site from their pals. Eventually, Polin wants customers to be able to share their purchases with their friends on Twitter and Facebook, too.

Other companies are making Face-book their primary focus. The Step2 Company, a Streetsboro, Ohio-based maker of children’s playhouses and fur-niture, recently added tools to its website

that make it easy for customers to tell their Facebook friends about the company’s products.

Step2 uses software from Power-Reviews, a San Fran-cisco-based company, to man-age customer reviews on its website. The application, which starts at about $3,000 a month, makes it possible for shoppers to log in to Step2’s website using their Facebook accounts. It also lets Step2 add Facebook “like”

buttons to each of its product pages. When Step2 shoppers log in through

Facebook, they can see which Step2 products their friends “liked”.

And reviews those customers write will also be posted on Facebook.

So far, about 7 per cent of Step2’s cus-tomers have registered on the company’s website with their Facebook IDs, and of those who have, more than half of them have shared product reviews with their Facebook friends.

In the past year, traffic from Facebook has increased 135 per cent and revenue from Facebook visitors has nearly tripled.

And Step2 wants to keep people com-ing back. When someone writes a review, Step2 sends a coupon for 10 per cent off on the next purchase. But the company waits until after reviews have been writ-ten to let customers know about the dis-count. Otherwise, says Tena Crock, Step2’s online marketing director, they might see it as a bribe.

“We want them to have their own voice,” she says, “without forcing them.” —Jennifer Alsever

People who were referred by friends were three times more likely to purchase than visitors who clicked on online ads.

2 6 | INC. | sEpTEmbEr/ocTobEr 2011

Managingand the award goes to... Rethinking annual honours

The academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honours the year’s finest film. The PEN/Faulkner Foundation honours the year’s best fiction. SurePayroll honours the year’s most impressive screw-up.

Winning Best New Mistake is a signal distinction at SurePayroll, a $23-million, online payroll-processing company based in Glenview, Illinois. The company, which was recently acquired by Paychex, celebrates the end of its busy season with a ceremony called the SureChoice Awards, of which Best New Mistake is the breathlessly-awaited culmination. Employees nominate themselves; management receives about 40 proud admissions of error each year. There are three winners (gold, silver and bronze), and the perpetrator of the gold gaffe receives $400—twice as much as do winners of the company’s other, more traditional awards.

“We underline the new part,” says SurePayroll’s president, Michael Alter. “There’s no award for making the same mis-take twice.” Last year’s winner tried to streamline a process for cus-tomers and ended up frustrating them instead.

Alter dreamed up Best New Mistake to remind staff that, in a culture of innovation, failure is always an option. “If you don’t encourage people to take risks, then you end up with incremental-ism forever,” says Alter. “Mistakes are the tuition you pay for success.”

Best New Mistake is one example of the effort to inject relevance and excitement into what, at many companies, are staid and sym-bolically sterile artifacts: annual awards. Over the years, the Presi-dent’s Award, the Leadership Award, the Customer Service Award, and their ilk tend to come unmoored from a company’s mission. And employees start to forget what those awards were meant to recognise—if their significance was spelt out in the first place.

A few companies are trying to invigorate this creaky tradition by rethinking what they honour and how they honour it. The Dis-ruption Award sounds like all those innovation prizes that became ubiquitous in the ’90s, when everyone started reading Clayton Christensen. But at ADG Creative, a $6-million marketing firm in Columbia, Maryland, the Disruption Award goes to the person whose personal life was most disrupted by his or her job that year. “We give it to the person who is relentless, not because we expect

them to kill themselves but in the spirit of sacrificial leadership,” says ADG’s founder and chief creative officer, Jeff Antkowiak.

Typically, the recipient is someone who volunteers for an ambi-tious project that keeps her at the office late at night and on week-ends. The winner receives a bag of espresso beans, a neck pillow, and—more substantively—a five-day weekend and $2,000. Last year, three employees won for overseeing the transition to a new office space while keeping the old one running.

Most annual awards are meant to encourage desirable behaviour by spotlighting role models. But that relegates a company’s best employees to a passive role: people who have already proved themselves and are now held up as objects of emulation. Bob Nelson, a consultant and motivational speaker and the author of 1001 Ways to Reward Employees, argues that awards should instead propel recipients into new roles with greater responsibility. “If it’s the Leadership Award, don’t just give them a check and send them to Hawaii,” advises Nelson. “Say part of the honour is to become a mentor. Or if it’s the Innovator Award, give them a budget to develop one of their ideas.” Nelson also recommends ditching the one-award-one-winner formula—which forces leaders to draw artificial distinctions among high

sTRaTegy

sEpTEmbEr/ocTobEr 2011 | INC. | 2 7

performers—and instead, honouring all the brightest stars in a company’s constellation.

That largess is feasible if the award is a call to service rather than a fat check. I Love Rewards, a San Francisco-based company that helps human-resources departments implement staff-recognition programmes, inducts about 10 employees into its president’s club every year. And yes, they do get a trip (last year, it was four days in the Bahamas). But once back home, the honourees become part of the CEO Insiders’ Circle. The Circle, which consists of staff members of various departments and employment levels, meets quarterly to help CEO Razor Suleman evaluate big questions. “When you ask your best employees what you need to do, they know,” says Suleman. “And when other employees see that top

spell out the criteria. Write down what each award recognises, including examples of past winners and why they won. That way, the honour remains consistent. Says author and motiva-tional speaker Bob Nelson, “You don’t want people saying, ‘wait a min-ute. Isn’t that what he’s paid to do?’”

Customise prizes. Find out whether individual winners would prefer money, time off, a trip, or something else. At ADG Creative, managers discreetly ask imminent winners about their prefer-ences. “We want to make sure we give them something they actually want,”

says ADG’s founder, Jeff Antkowiak.

Recognise multiple top performers. Don’t place arbitrary limits. If several employees have had bang-up years, hon-our them all. “Why put a quota on excel-lence?” says Nelson. “You don’t have to give them all $1,000.”

Limit the kinds of awards. It’s tempting to create awards recognising every accomplishment. But don’t create so many that they’re meaningless. “There’s this great line from The Incredibles,” says Antkowiak. “When everybody is extraor-dinary, nobody is extraordinary.”

at least people are learning from it.” Ideally, the mention of a particular award will conjure the image not of a trophy or a check but of the honouree busy doing whatever makes him valuable to the business. “We give away trips, but we don’t want people thinking about trips,” says Antkowiak. “We want them thinking about what’s so amazing about their co-workers.” —Leigh Buchanan

advts.indd 56 12/22/2009 3:02:47 PM

performers helped develop the strategy, you get amazing buy-in.”More important than what awards consist of is what they signify.

Award ceremonies are great opportunities to remind employees of the company’s core values. “Someone gets the President’s Award—well, what the hell is that?” says Nelson. “The CEO should state what that person did and tie it back to the mission and strategic goals. Now,

Polishing the TrophiesEmployee awards don’t have to be stale gestures. Here’s how to put meaning back into the plaques.

sTRaTegy

Sales & MarketingHoard More with storeMoreWill customer requests stack up?

Finding space for all your so-called sentimental clutter that we accumulate over life can be tough if you live in small city apartments. Still, parting with your first-born’s wardrobe, childhood comic collection and report cards can be even more painful. To help space-

cramped city folks scuttle this pain, a former investment banker and consultant Amit David Wilson, and Nitin Dha-wan, have launched StoreMore. An offshoot of their maiden entrepreneurial venture, Reliable Records, a document storage company for corporations, StoreMore wants to make ‘hanging on’ easy. Their offering is simple—sort out the stuff that you don’t need at home but don’t wish to throw away either. Dump them into a carton and send it to Store-More. Lack of space shouldn’t necessitate difficult choices—throw or keep—Wilson says. StoreMore, which launched in June 2011, charges its customers a storage fee of `60 per month per box. There are also annual charges (`365 or a rupee a day) and a special `999 package for three years. Orders have started trickling in and monthly revenues are moving towards `1 lakh. But StoreMore wants to stack up fast. Four experts suggest ways to do more. —Charu Bahri

PITCH No. 1: Pack it with trust Abhilash Nair, regional manager, Crown Worldwide Movers In this business, trust should be key because storemore plans to deal with emotional valuables. my concern is that storemore’s web-site doesn’t reveal enough—just a telephone listing isn’t enough to win confidence. you need to show your facility and location clearly. The approach should be personal. There’s the need to demonstrate how much you care by describing the facility and maintenance activi-ties in detail.

PITCH No. 3: a challengeArvind Mahtani, CEO, Settlers India, real estate services provider any business looking to store goods of “sentimental value” will need to surmount cultural barriers. Indians traditionally make space for objects they value and give away stuff they can do without. The fact that the Indian recycling industry is so well-established goes against the concept of accumulating too much clutter—people see value in parting with old stuff. so storemore may only find takers among the young who are open to new ideas. It would help to offer more realistic price points.

PITCH No. 2: adjust pricePrateek Chandra, CEO, Avenues Consult, marketing consulting firm Team storemore needs to refine its business model. at present, its pricing is unrealistic. The company should explore offering multiple pricing plans. also allow clients to use their own packing material. Deliveries and pick-ups should be made complimentary—that’s the least the company can do for its customers. once the business model is refined, other marketing steps can be brought in: introduc-ing referral plans (referring cus-tomers get one month’s rent waived off or free additional stor-age) and tie-up with a good logis-tics company to get ground support and negotiate sponsorships.

PITCH No. 4: Cheaper deliveriesMohit Khattar, Director, Equips Con-sultants, a marketing company storemore is a unique idea though it needs to work on its business model. They should consider more cost-effective ways of serving those customers who demand their stored goods frequently. This could help open up a new class of clients who are really hard pressed for space but need regular access to their stuff. maybe entering into tie-ups with logistics companies would help. also, the price to store goods should be lower than the cost of goods else, it will not attract a large customer base.

FeedbaCk oN THe FeedbaCkGreat points have been made on the strategic level—that store-more’s an emotional pitch and that storage costs need to be a fraction of the cost of that which is being stored. on the tactical level, we like the idea of showing more to cli-ents—using the site, video, referral programmes and tie-ups with logistics companies. We are a little surprised that experts feel testimo-nials will not help. some of the suggestions on the business-model are challenging.

How would you sell that?

emotional baggage Will storemore sort out its profit plan and help customers?

sTRaTegy

sEpTEmbEr/ocTobEr 2011 | INC. | 2 9

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3 0 | INC. | september/october 2011

Tweeting Profits Gaurav sharma wants to spread his wings wider.

photoGraph by subhojit paul

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september/october 2011 | INC. | 31

The Pitch “We help companies advertise on social media platforms. Social media marketing is now a $2-4 billion market in India. Companies can’t ignore social media. By creating Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn marketing campaigns with us, brands can save up to 70 per cent of their online advertising costs. We’re effective because we connect ad campaigns with potential customers on the basis of geographical proximity, keyword-match and real-time social media data. Because our advertisers pay us per click, we work hard for our targeting to be effi-cient. We don’t get paid if we don’t increase site and page visits. The revenue model is simple—the publisher gets a cut from what an advertiser pays per click and the rest comes to Twtbuck. We already work with 450 companies including Standard Chartered, Ford, Fiat and MakeMyTrip.”—As told to Inc. India

Investors Weigh In

FouNder: Gaurav sharma

ComPaNy: twtbuck

LauNChed: 2010

LoCaTIoN: Delhi

reveNue: 50 lakh

reveNue modeL: pay per click, pay per lead, pay per job

CLIeNTs: 450 advertisers

FuNdINg soughT: 4 crore

FuNds soughT For: hiring sales team, marketing and scaling up operations in usa and singapore

FoCus oN TeChNoLogy twitter and Facebook are getting advertiser traction because of a very large user adoption. For example, Facebook has more than 20 million users in india. in addition to the large reach, these platforms can be used in a more targeted manner than the conventional mass media approach. so twtbuck has a strong value proposition and a large market to play in. but the company must create a strong technology platform for targeting. this market will see global competition. right now, the average spend per brand is very low on twtbuck. brands are still experimenting and aren’t able to scale up on the platform. Mukul Singhal, vice president, SaiF Partners, Delhi

a good Idea Given the proliferation and explosion of social media globally, and the engagement that consumers have with publishers and their online social networks, this is a great idea. there are several questions though—why don’t Google, twitter or Facebook do this themselves? having said that, advertisers follow engaged eyeballs, and consumers are moving in droves to their online social worlds and spending more time there. Now that companies like twitter and Facebook are clearly focused on monetisation, twtbuck may just be the partner that can create the overall ecosystem—publishers, advertisers and analytics. Mohanjit jolly, managing director, DFj india, bengaluru

Work ouT a sTraTegy it’s a very interesting model. it can be disruptive if it develops as pure play or a self-serving and self-learning platform which grows virally. technology will be key to success and failure. historically, indian companies have found it difficult to create world-class products. also the market size mentioned is a global estimate. if he wants to tap the global market, being based out of india may prove to be a strategic disadvantage. it will be important to know how many such businesses already exist in the us because if this is a clone, then the possibility of it creating a global disruption is much lower than if it is a unique business model. hariSh Bahl, founder and CEo, Smile group, Gurgaon

elevator PitchTwtbuck helps brands soar online. Can 4 crore give the business more chirp?

3 2 | INC. | september/october 2011 3-D 500 createD by tommy mccall

ThIs Is bIg

september/october 2011 | INC. | 3 3

ThIs Is bIg

This isIntroducing the definitive list of India’s fastest-growing, mid-sized enterprisesbig

3 4 | INC. | september/october 2011

The global giant was jolted to its very core by twin assaults on its economic health—the protracted debt crisis and Standard & Poor’s subsequent downgrad-ing of its 70-year-old AAA rating. That US Treasury bonds would ever cease to be the safest investment in the world wasn’t an eventuality any economic forecast would’ve possibly put forward. Meanwhile, European countries contin-ued their downward spiral.

Fortunately, India continued to grow amid this gloom, albeit at a slower pace. In fact, it seems global conditions have only made our entrepreneurs smarter. There’s still a latent positivity, but one that has ben-efited from the realisation that obstacles do exist and established success paths can go wrong. There’s also the understanding that Indian businesses are incredibly well-placed to take advantage of global condi-tions. Ask the honourees who make up our list of the fastest-growing mid-sized com-panies in India. Many of them might not be on any public radar but they are silently and effectively scripting our coun-try’s next chapters of growth. Even as Indian GDP grew by 8.5 per cent, the top 50 companies on our list clocked a healthy upswing of 187 per cent in turn-over in the past three years.

seCTor profIle

our third annual ranking is finally out.

heroes as

It took us months to get here—

but what arewardingjourneyit’s been.We hope you find our

as we do. It’s been a year of intense economic

impressive

Inc. India launched its annual 500 ranking of mid-sized companies in 2009. With each year, we’ve added value to our rankings. Encouraged by the feedback, in our third annual edition, we’ve really pushed the envelope. This ranking is our bravest yet, mainly because it includes a much larger chunk of privately-held, unlisted companies. In our survey last year, a few more than 400 of the 500 companies on our list were listed entities. We’ve dra-matically changed that composition. By putting in the filter that subsidiary compa-nies of groups larger than `1,500 crore should not be considered, we brought down the number of listed companies to 200 this year. The remaining 300 are public unlisted and privately-held companies, gleaned from our database of more than 3,500 companies. It’s certainly added that zing of freshness to our list. Take the No. 1, 2 and 3 companies on our list. Between them, they’ve grown 530 per cent in three

upheaval. Undoubtedly, 2011 will be remembered in economic and political history as a time when seemingly-impossible and unimaginable events occurred. Take the United States of America, for example.

seCTor IT&ITes

No. of companies 58

Share in Inc. India 500 11.6%

Sales in 2010 `16,097 cr

Sales in 2007 `5,852 cr

3-year CAGR 40.11%

Average size of company `277.54 cr

Top Player ICsA (India)

seCTor fMCg

No. of companies 41

Share in Inc. India 500 8.2%

Sales in 2010 `17,333 cr

Sales in 2007 `7,332 cr

3-year CAGR 33.21%

Average size of company `422.75 cr

Top PlayerDhunseri petrochem & Tea

seCTor sTeel

No. of companies 41

Share in Inc. India 500 8.2%

Sales in 2010 `13,691 cr

Sales in 2007 `5,336 cr

3-year CAGR 36.9%

Average size of company `333.92 cr

Top Player prime Impex

500INC.INDIA

september/october 2011 | INC. | 3 5

ThIs Is bIg

years, but in all likelihood few of us had ever heard of them before. Vikas Global One, our No. 1 this year, is more than an Inc. India debutante. For Vikas Garg, the company’s 38-year-old MD, this was also his first full-fledged media interview.

This is what drives us at Inc. India—navigating through uncharted territory to discover centres of excellence. On paper, there are around 850,000 registered compa-nies in India. Yet, other than the top 100—the ones that regularly inhabit the pages of our mainstream business press— precious little is known about the huge ocean of enterprises. By law, Indian private compa-nies aren’t mandated to share their finan-cials. That made the task of unearthing audited data even more challenging. But our efforts have been rewarding. For start-ers, this year’s list is definitely more diverse. Similar to the previous two rankings, IT&ITeS continues to be the top sector with 11.6 per cent of the total companies. But, several chemical, oil and gas and FMCG companies have found their way into the list this year. In fact, FMCG accounts for 8 per cent of the total companies.

Amid the excitement, there are also improvement areas. As mid-sized enter-prises chase growth, issues like standardi-sation and best-practices, especially in financial governance are definite to-dos our companies might want to take a look at. Our team went through thousands of balance sheets and found many of them to be outdated templates. Alignment with global financial reporting standards will undoubtedly help these companies pres-ent a better business case when they go out to bid for international contracts or seek out capital.

The Inc. India 500 holds a mirror to the future of Indian business. It’s gratify-ing to see the rise of mid-sized enterprises beyond the “more popular” IT&ITeS. The emergence of many “old-new” firms (in the steel, gas and FMCG sectors) could be a pointer to the strengths of Indian enter-prises and an opportunity to establish new outposts. Our stories with these entrepreneurs also reveal a quiet confi-dence that their time has arrived and they’re ready to lead the charge.

44.6%18% 18.8%

8.4%

Splitting Numbers We take a closer look at the distribution of firms categorised by their turnover. See if you can spot a trend

`1001-1500 crore`50-100 crore `101-500 crore `501-1000 crore

Top 10 SectorsA stack-up of the most prominent sectors in our survey

IT&ITes11.6%

fMCg8.2%

steel8.2%

pharmaceuticals7%

engineering7%

Construction & real estate

6.4%Capital goods

6%Textiles5.8%

Infrastructure5%

Chemicals4.8%

seCTor phArMA

No. of companies 35

Share in Inc. India 500 7%

Sales in 2010 `17,269 cr

Sales in 2007 `8,459 cr

3-year CAGR 26.89%

Average size of company `493.41 cr

Top Player Micro labs

seCTor eNgINeerINg

No. of companies 35

Share in Inc. India 500 7%

Sales in 2010 `11,647 cr

Sales in 2007 `3,758 cr

3-year CAGR 45.79%

Average size of company `332.76 cr

Top Player hbl power systems

seCTor CoNsTruCTIoN & reAl esTATe

No. of companies 32

Share in Inc. India 500 6.4%

Sales in 2010 `14,060 cr

Sales in 2007 `3,526 cr

3-year CAGR 58.57%

Average size of company `439.38 cr

Top Player Madhucon projects

3 6 | INC. | september/october 2011

ThIs Is bIg

When we at Inc. India decided to wade into the uncharted waters recognis-ing business excellence among mid-sized enterprises in India, we were faced with a dilemma. Should we look at sales growth over a period of time? Or, should we look at the overall performance of a company?

Over the last two years, we opted for the latter. But we realised that assessing the overall financial performance of these companies—mostly unlisted and largely family owned—was far more difficult than the common job of covering listed companies and our approach filtered out many deserving entities for lack of data.

Hence this year we have decided to look at sales growth alone, mainly to allow a wider coverage of unlisted and privately-held businesses. While there are more than 8.5 lakh registered companies in the country, we only get to hear about the 7000-odd listed companies. So we changed our approach to identify future winners in India’s rapidly transitioning mid-size space.

We began by creating three “master lists” of more than 3,500 companies across 35 sectors—one each for public listed companies, public unlisted compa-nies and privately-held businesses. We excluded BFSIs (revenue is difficult to define), PSUs (not really independent) and companies whose group turnover exceeds `1,500 crore. These companies were then assessed by Inc. India’s research team on the following:

1. Digital presence: Each company was subjectively assessed on a scale of 1 to 5 on company website and availability of company information online.

2. Leadership: The leadership was assessed on information available online. In this digital world, absence of information on top management is regarded as ‘‘not keeping up with the Joneses”, and hence penalised.

3. Year of incorporation and line of business.After this subjective assessment, we assessed net sales data of the last four

financial years. Where annual data was not available, relevant quarterly data was tabulated to arrive at this information. Finally, to rank the companies under each master-list, we calculated the compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of net sales. The final Inc. India 500 consists of 200 listed companies, 200 unlisted public companies and 100 privately held businesses.

The Methodology

The process schematic

1. Unlisted Public Limited companies are Public Limited companies that are not listed on any stock exchange, but can have unlimited number of shareholders. 2. Information available as on April 1, 2011.

seCTor CApITAl gooDs

No. of companies 30

Share in Inc. India 500 6%

Sales in 2010 `9,370 cr

Sales in 2007 `4,361 cr

3-year CAGR 29.03%

Average size of company `312.32 cr

Top Player Chettinad Cement

seCTor INfrAsTruCTure

No. of companies 25

Share in Inc. India 500 5%

Sales in 2010 `16,876 cr

Sales in 2007 `4,622 cr

3-year CAGR 53.99%

Average size of company `675.04 cr

Top Player Tecpro systems

seCTor CheMICAls

No. of companies 24

Share in Inc. India 500 4.8%

Sales in 2010 `5,649 cr

Sales in 2007 `2,367 cr

3-year CAGR 33.63%

Average size of company `235.38 cr

Top Player Jayant Agro organics

Listed Public Companies

Unlisted Public Companies

Privately held businesses

Subjective assessment

on three parameters

Sales CAGR

(%)

seCTor TexTIles

No. of companies 29

Share in Inc. India 500 5.8%

Sales in 2010 `10,662 cr

Sales in 2007 `4,257 cr

3-year CAGR 35.80%

Average size of company `367.66 cr

Top Playershri lakshmi Cotsyn

september/october 2011 | INC. | 3 7

21 Aseem Global

22 protech Galvanisers & Fabricators

23 Asahi Infrastructure & projects

24 cura technologies

25 Dhunseri petrochem & tea

26 trinethra Infra

27 Vuppalamritha magnetic components

28 orbit corporation

29 Horizon Infrastructure

30 balaji coke Industry

31 brandhouse retails

32 Linkson International

33 Aradhya Wire ropes

34 VHcL Industries

35 mittal corp

36 Jp Infrastructure

37 Driplex Water engineering

38 Nila Infrastructures

39 bartronics India

40 Armtech (India)

41 Aravali Infrapower

42 Angelique International

43 econix Hi-tech components

44 manthan software services

45 b4s solutions

46 baba Arts

47 UpL environmental engineers

48 educomp solutions

49 one97 communications

50 Arss Infrastructure projects

51 AQUA logistics

52 Goenka Diamond & Jewels

53 rainox Wires

54 Kwality Dairy (India)

55 confidence petroleum India

56 eKa software solutions

57 everonn education

58 J Kumar Infraprojects

59 Deep Industries

60 sandhar Locking Devices

1 Vikas Global one

2 edserv softsystems

3 tirupati Inks

4 srs real Infrastructure

5 sreepathi Lab

6 excel entertainment

7 rmp Infotech

8 Kejriwal bee care India

9 Vikas Granaries

10 bhanot construction & Housing

11 FAtpipe Networks India

12 sai service spares & Accessories

13 tara Health Foods

14 Arcotech

15 IbI chematur (engineering & consultancy)

16 mynah Industries

17 sanraa media

18 enzen Global

19 Kalpataru

20 Amr constructions

For details on the ranking methodology, please refer to Page 36.Source: Capitaline and online registration

OUR CLASS OF 2011—The HonoureesWelcome to the most comprehensive ranking of India’s fastest-growing mid-sized companies. Meet our bright bunch.

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3010 50

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3 8 | INC. | september/october 2011

THE CLASS OF 2011

151 shilpa medicare

152 parabolic Drugs

153 brIGADe Hospitality services

154 Apollo Industrial products

155 onmobile Global

156 euro Decor

157 parekh Aluminex

158 simplex engineering & Foundry Works

159 ozone overseas

160 saipem triune projects

161 Nitin Fire protection Industries

162 Impex Ferro tech

163 oberoi realty

164 secure meters

165 WearWell India

166 midi extrusions

167 Accentia technologies

168 technofab engineering

169 Gee

170 Ankit metal & power

171 Genesys International corporation

172 sumeet Industries

173 Gpt Infraprojects

174 resurgere mines & minerals India

175 bharati shipyard

176 tops security

177 titanium tantalum products

178 Ganesh polytex

179 pratibha Industries

180 Ashoka buildcon

181 maithan Alloys

182 satra properties (India)

183 Axiom Impex

184 rajputana stainless

185 Aarvi encon

186 Financial technologies (India)

187 UIc Udyog

188 miot Hospitals

189 KG Fabriks

190 chemtrols engineering

191 North eastern carrying corporation

192 Hanung toys and textiles

193 radiant Info systems

194 Allied Digital

195 Arshiya International

196 Astral poly technik

61 seQuent

62 Vishwa Infrastructure and services

63 champalal motilal steel company

64 tecpro systems

65 Veena Industries

66 A2Z maintenance & engineering services

67 totem Infrastructure

68 mArG

69 core education & technologies

70 sb & t Designs

71 sterling & Wilson

72 clinigene International

73 supreme Infrastructure India

74 Gala equipment

75 electrical manufacturing company

76 man Infraconstruction

77 credit Analysis & research (cAre)

78 First steps babywear

79 Diamond power Infrastructure

80 enmas Gb power systems projects

81 NKG Infrastructure

82 coastal projects

83 Nexxoft Infotel

84 Glodyne technoserve

85 LGs Global

86 Karuturi Global

87 shiv-Vani oil & Gas exploration services

88 max Flex & Imaging systems

89 sunil Hitech engineers

90 Gravita India

91 Dm corporation

92 UsHer Agro

93 Jaihind projects

94 som Datt builders

95 paladion Networks

96 caliber point business solutions

97 Gemini engi-Fab

98 bVG India

99 camson bio technologies

100 cantabil retail India

101 compact Disc India

102 Dempo mining corporation

103 symphony

104 concast Ispat

105 Vrs Foods

106 simplex projects

107 Kilitch Drugs (India)

108 Kemrock Industries & exports

109 opto circuits (India)

110 shirdi Industries

111 continental carriers

112 tcG Lifesciences

113 modern India

114 Hindustan Dorr-oliver

115 rt outsourcing services

116 KND engineering technologies

117 Valley Iron & steel company

118 rohit Ferro tech

119 Anugraha construction equipment services & support

120 Kavveri telecom products

121 Vanaz engineers

122 solar Industries India

123 tilaknagar Industries

124 raj oil mills

125 ess Dee Aluminium

126 mantri Developers

127 Kumar Urban Development

128 technical Associates

129 man b&W Diesel (India)

130 synoprene

131 Acropetal technologies

132 Ankita Knit Wear

133 mbL Infrastructures

134 Indofil organic Industries

135 cheema boilers

136 Jotindra steel & tubes

137 compuage Infocom

138 toshbro medicals

139 Harish chandra (India)

140 Jocil

141 Astec Lifesciences

142 c & c constructions

143 shree Ashtavinayak cine Vision

144 Vakrangee softwares

145 K L rathi steels

146 premium paper & board Industries

147 Jollyboard

148 Goyal mG Gases

149 oil Field Instrumentation India

150 b.e.billimoria

110

120

160

170

180

190

130

140

150

70

80

90

100

september/october 2011 | INC. | 3 9

THE CLASS OF 2011

197 Dharma productions

198 sven Genetech

199 eros International media

200 Koutons retail India

201 eclerx services

202 Avon corporation

203 credit Information bureau (India)

204 Geodesic

205 pNc Infratech

206 Lifetree convergence

207 media Industries

208 corporate media men Advertising

209 Geno pharmaceuticals

210 sharon bio-medicine

211 prakash steelage

212 coral Hub

213 pearl Global

214 Ankur Drugs & pharma

215 Neo corp International

216 IDmc

217 Vinati organics

218 Arch pharmalabs

219 Asian tiles

220 madhu silica

221 Ganges International

222 richa Industries

223 omnitech Infosolutions

224 prime Impex

225 sabero organics Gujarat

226 International print-o-pac

227 shashi cables

228 spANco

229 Gujarat Nre coke

230 span Healthcare

231 madhucon projects

232 KIc metaliks

233 Genus paper products

234 bliss Gvs pharma

235 Frigerio conserva Allana

236 VeesoNs energy systems

237 origin It & Facility solutions

238 KNr constructions

239 penna cement Indutries

240 rithwik projects

241 bs transcomm

242 ramdev Food products

243 Dt cinemas

244 craftsman Automation

245 Gss Infotech

246 mandhana Industries

247 Grabal Alok Impex

248 Heritage Foods (India)

249 Dolphin offshore enterprises (India)

250 Dorf Ketal chemicals India

251 Arihant Industrial corporation

252 sadbhav engineering

253 Fichtner consulting engineers (India)

254 bilcare

255 mauria Udyog

256 m sons enterprises

257 Ihsedu Agrochem

258 Kiri Industries

259 tricolite

260 DQ entertainment (International)

261 softcell technologies

262 p c I

263 sanwaria Agro oils

264 Gujarat polybutenes

265 Hoysala projects

266 page Industries

267 Gayatri projects

268 bharat Insulation company (India)

269 Gujarat multi Gas base chemicals

270 twilight Litaka pharma

271 Amira Foods India

272 Ackruti city

273 sudhir Gensets

274 responsive Industries

275 Kaveri seed company

276 Amara raja batteries

277 Wim plast

278 rHYDbUrG pharmaceuticals

279 Insecticides (India)

280 merino Industries

281 base corporation

282 sGs tekniks

283 Nirmal Lifestyle

284 Neoteric Informatique

285 pennar Industries

286 Vaswani Industries

287 shri Lakshmi cotsyn

288 piccadily Agro Industries

289 Associated stone Industries (Kotah)

290 Globus spirits

291 Fabindia

292 Kalpena Industries

293 Zen technologies

294 relaxo Footwears

295 Akshar chemicals

296 Amar remedies India

297 bscpL Infrastructure

298 paharpur cooling towers

299 seeD Infotech

300 proseal closures

301 GeI Industrial systems

302 Development consultants

303 Hikal

304 tantia constructions

305 Nakoda

306 shingar

307 Indian cable Net company

308 path Infotech

309 prestige estates projects

310 Ind-swift Laboratories

311 Widex India

312 tolani shipping company

313 riddhi siddhi Gluco biols

314 microland

315 pioneer Alloy castings

316 Ganesh Housing corporation

317 Nilkamal

318 elin electronics

319 transformers & rectifiers India

320 Greenply Industries

321 macleods pharmaceuticals

322 Indian Immunologicals

323 Nandan biomatrix

324 Ls mills

325 milton cycle Industries

326 HbL power systems

327 Firepro systems

328 career point Infosystems

For details on the ranking methodology, please refer to Page 36.Source: Capitaline and online registration

250

260

270

280

320

310

300

290

200

240

210

220

230

4 0 | INC. | september/october 2011

THE CLASS OF 2011

329 tirumala milk products

330 manjushree technopack

331 catwalk Worldwide

332 mohan breweries & Distilleries

333 bcH electric

334 Virgo engineers

335 Granules India

336 roop telsonic Ultrasonix

337 Asbesco (India)

338 bedmutha Industries

339 sun tV Network

340 Ginza Industries

341 Unimark remedies

342 trinity India

343 commtel Network

344 V-Guard

345 emI transmission

346 technico Industries

347 e4e Healthcare business services

348 mazda colours

349 Innoventive Industries

350 Iris computers

351 Dhanuka Agritech

352 AIA engineering

353 thangamayil Jewellery

354 Konkan speciality poly products

355 provogue

356 emami

357 Nectar Lifescience

358 parenteral Drugs (India)

359 cox & Kings

360 titagarh Wagons

361 Fedders Lloyd corporation

362 mN Dastur & co

363 Jayant Agro organics

364 Zylog systems

365 best It World India

366 ram ratna Wires

367 Vikas Wsp

368 Aries Agro

369 Haldiram bhujiawala

370 ApL Apollo tubes

371 chettinad cement

372 Laxmi publications

373 time technoplast

374 sanghvi movers

375 rainbow papers

376 Gujarat Infrapipes

377 photon Infotech

378 IcsA (India)

379 msp steel & power

Aditya Auto products & engineering (India)

381 mayur Uniquoters

382 Anjani portland cement

383 Infinite computer solutions India

384 century plyboards (India)

385 thermodyne technologies

386 tricom India

387 micro technologies (India)

388 Kunj Forgings

389 Gupta cables

390 Vipul Impex & Infrabuild

391 Vallabhdas Kanji

392 A G Aerovision electronics

393 Khanna paper mills

394 sogo computers

395 transasia bio-medicals

396 suprajit engineering

397 cavinKare

398 Allied strips

399 subhasri pigments

400 Avon cycles

401 ANNIK

402 menon and menon

403 persistent systems

404 Dinshaws Dairy Foods

405 tirupati Udyog

406 Dantal Hydraulics

407 Intercontinental consultants and technocrats

408 cotmac private

409 Vijay tanks & Vessels

410 Ab Hotels

411 Agrocel Industries

412 machino polymers

413 Integra software services private

414 UsV

415 consulting engineering services India

416 Alkem Laboratories

417 Amalgamated bean coffee trading company

418 Go Go International

419 maneesh pharmaceuticals

420 Apara enterprise solutions

421 sumitron exports

422 surya Food & Agro

423 Indo Alusys Industries

424 Autometers Alliance

425 VrL Logistics

426 micro Labs

427 rosvar steels

428 stewart Holl (India)

429 bansal Wire Industries

430 cross-tab marketing services

431 cms computers

432 eland International

433 Almonard

434 Kancor Ingredients

435 om Logistics

436 bIc Logistics

437 Hetero Drugs

438 Lohia starlinger

439 Kaytee corporation

440 bharat serums And Vaccines

441 ring plus Aqua

442 carrier Airconditioning & refrigeration

443 Ankit Ispat

444 U p telelinks

445 stumpp, schuele & somappa

446 Forace polymers

447 Aparajitha corporate services

448 mackintosh burn

449 parle Agro

450 ravi organics

451 sakal papers

452 contract Advertising (India)

453 Aristo pharmaceuticals

454 sVec construction

455 phoenix overseas

456 swastik pipes

457 Uniproducts (India)

458 sargam metals

459 Hind Agro Industries

460 Fibcom India

461 ZcL chemicals

462 Up twiga Fiber Glass

463 ralson

464 cochin International Airport

330

340

350

360

370

410

400

390

380

450

460

430

440

420

THE CLASS OF 2011

465 stp Limited

466 sai service station

467 m&m machine craft

468 Gitanjali exports corporation

469 Narayan organics

470 Gujarat Insecticides

471 rushil Décor

472 mathrubhumi printing & publishing company

473 Indus tubes

474 malayala manorama company

475 synthite Industrial chemicals

476 elgi Ultra Industries

477 DtDc courier & cargo

478 Gordon Woodroffe Logistics

479 param Dairy

east India pharmaceutical Works

481 cethar Vessels

482 blue cross Laboratories

483 Deys medical stores manufacturing

484 sindhu cargo services

485 saraya Industries

486 Federal brands

487 International tractors

488 Alufit India

489 biological e

490 msource India

491 sKs Ispat & power

492 Wolkem India

493 thermax engineering construction

494 saraswati sugar mills

495 taximens services

496 estel technologies

497 Auto Ignition

498 savani carrying

499 eurotech cylinders

500 Indo shell cast

For details on the ranking methodology, please refer to Page 36.Source: Capitaline and online registration

470

480

490

500

RANK

1We’ve grown upwards of 500 per cent in the past few years. In the next five years, we’ll grow by five or even six folds and be a `800-crore company, and that growth rate will continue. The foundation that we had set up is finally showing results, as we near the end of our first stage in 2011.

Vikas Global One was founded in 1984 by my father. Till eight years ago, we were an NBFC (Non Banking Financial Com-pany). Along the way, we understood that this wasn’t a business for the future. My father had a Masters in Chemistry and

For 38-year-old Vikas Garg, August was quite a remarkable month. After 17 years as a director with Vikas Global One, the Delhi-based petroleum and petrochemical products company founded by his father, Nand Kishore Garg, young Garg was catapulted as the firm’s managing director. Over the last three years, Vikas Global One has grown exponentially—moving away from merely trading to actually manufacturing high-end chemical products used in plastics, pipes, rubber and packaging units. But, Garg has little time to celebrate his new position or his company’s top-rank in our survey. With plans that require the company to grow 5X in the next four years, there isn’t a moment to rest, insists Garg.

getting just We’re

started

Vikas GarG | Vikas Global oneThree Year Growth 631% | 2010 Revenue ̀ 63 crore

as Told To ShReyASi SiNGhphoToGRaphs bY SuBhOjit PAul

some contacts in the chemicals business so he got into the specialty chemicals and polymers business.

last month, I formally took over as the managing director. It was my father’s decision to pass on the reins. Things were changing fast and he wanted to slow down. If you compare us, I think he had an easier style. I am much more ambi-tious. It isn’t just about making money. I want the whole hog—fame, money and the fulfilment that comes from creating something beyond just shareholder value.

4 2 | iNC. | sepTembeR/ocTobeR 2011

sepTembeR/ocTobeR 2011 | iNC. | 4 3

iNC. iNDiA 500

We trade in specialty chemicals. These are catalysts and additives needed for plastic for-mulations such as wireless cable, agricultural pipes and auto parts. When my father started his business, India was far behind Asian, European and American countries. Now, there are enough opportunities in the spe-cialty chemicals business. Across the globe, it’s one of the fastest-growing segments, and our focus has to be global, as we are a multi-product company. Merely adding on volumes won’t do for us. Beyond a threshold, volumes actually decrease your per unit profit.

in india, the per capita consumption of polymer is negligible as compared to devel-oped nations. We will grow by inorganic methods and by adding new capacity. We have two plants in Jammu and two in Raja-

sthan. They all have the capacity for further enhancement. In fact, we can double-up capacity when need be. We’ve also been granted land in Gujarat and are working on a greenfield manufacturing unit there. This is a critical project. It will help us cater to the industrial hubs in western India and the exports market. We are also actively on the lookout for buying available technol-ogy from Korea, Taiwan and China.

As far as acquisitions are concerned, we are in advance stages of discussion with two companies—it might happen in Sep-tember and December. We’ve also estab-lished an export division though currently our exports are negligible. Although our focus is on the SAARC countries, we’ve also employed external agencies to scope

out opportunities in Europe and America. Capital isn’t going to be a roadblock. We are funding plans with internal accruals and pro-moter contributions. That should see us through the next few years. We are open to private equity funds if we get good valuations. But we aren’t actively scouting. Some HNIs did show interest but we’re not interested. Money is always welcome, of course, but our plans won’t stop if we don’t get it right now.

My other priority is to build a good team. I don’t want to work with every kind of person. They shouldn’t be those who only wait for the seventh of the month for a salary. I need peo-ple who share my dreams. That said, I can’t be a preacher who just gives gyaan. I can com-mand respect only if I perform myself. So, come what may, I’m in the office by 9am even

if I’ve got off an international flight at 5am. I’m constantly trying to adapt. The boss has to live the changes in a growing organisation.

i feel guilty if I don’t work hard. I take work home every day. I constantly feel the pres-sure to perform and achieve. Having said that, it’s not that someone would haul me up if I don’t reach the ̀ 800-crore mark. But I’m answerable to myself, and that’s good enough. My father always asks me to calm down and go slow. On his face, I agree. However, without aggression, without that something extra, one cannot achieve.

i don’t get distracted or dis-heartened easily though. Short-term problems and challenges shouldn’t get one down. My perspective is not limited to a six or 12-month

goal. It’s a long journey and I have to keep myself focused on the larger picture. I really believe that if you just play with a straight bat, the mission will be reached. It might be a year here and there from the deadline, but you will get there.

“i’m constantly trying to adapt. the boss

has to live the changes in a growing organisation.” —Vikas GaRG

4 4 | iNC. | sepTembeR/ocTobeR 2011

INC. INDIA 500

126Mumbai

34Bengaluru

29Hyderabad

NCR

100

Kolkata

426TopBusinessCities

Chennai

26

How they stack up These six cities account for 357 of the 500 companies on our list. A closer look at the break-up of cities by %age

25

Mumbai NCR

20

Kolkata

8

Bengaluru

7

Chennai

6

Hyderabad

5

Here’s a geographical distribution of Inc. India 500

honourees. More than 50 per cent of our rankers have

corporate offices in the usual suspects—the four metros and

hubs like Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

* NCR denotes National Capital Region

september/october 2011 | INC. | 4 5INFoGrApHIcs by srIstI mAuryA

4 6 | INC. | September/october 2011

MAKING IT

It’s a long way to go—from fodder to fashionably healthy food options. Tara Health Foods may have started its business with the production and distribution of compounded cattle feed, however, it soon saw sense in diversifying into commercial production of nutritive, healthy edible oil to cater to health-conscious Indian consumers. A leading player in northern India, the company has established a strong distribution network in Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and the National Capital Region.

Tara Health Foods rank no. 13

photograph by subHojIT pAul reported by rAjAT GupTA

SatheeSh Kumar K.r. | enzen GlobalRevenue Category: Below `100 crore

Energy may be life but the smart use of it is strictly business for Satheesh Kumar K.R. His Bengaluru-based company, Enzen Global, doesn’t tally wealth by net profits, but by the resources they help clients save. As they make companies more energy-efficient, they are also powering their $1-billion dream.

My BAcKGRound Mother’s occupation: retired government employeeFather’s occupation: retired government employeePrevious jobs: Worked previously with C-DOT, AT&T, NCR and Wipro. My coMPAny Its origins: I believe it was Gautam Buddha who supposedly said, “We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think.” At Enzen Global, we believe in the power of conviction. When we began, our goal was to eradicate inefficiencies in the power, water, gas and environmen-tal sectors to the best of our abilities. We aim to main-tain a sense of humility, a passion for delivery and an obsession for ethics and values.

We began from Millers Road (Bengaluru) in 2006. And in March 2011, the firm completed five years. Currently, we are a 2,000-plus family of committed “knowledge practitioners” working with approxi-mately 90 energy and utility companies across 10 countries, from 19 locations. The team’s driven by a

Wherenextis now

4 8 | Inc. | septembeR/oCtobeR 2011

Our 500 honourees constitute a vast pool of data. It’s easy to

overlook interesting companies in this universe of winners. Here’s

another look at our list—this time, categorised by a certain

band of turnover.

By THE nuMBERS

THEFouR BAndSBelow ̀ 100 crore | pg 48`101-500 crore | pg 50`501-1000 crore| pg 54 `1000-1500 crore| pg 57

500Inc.IndIA

By THE nuMBERS

combined vision: to become partners to global markets and drive out at least $1- billion worth of inefficiencies by 2016.

What keeps us ticking is our employees’ energy. When we hire we go about seek-ing talented individuals who can set stretch targets for us and work round-the-clock with clients to implement sus-tainable improvements in their business models. Our goal is to be one of India’s top consultants.

Why it’s growing: we measure ourselves on business-to-business, business-to-con-sumer and business-to-society parameters. Everything that we do falls into one of these categories. We call this focus “Enzenera-tion”. It makes us relevant to our customers.

challenges. My team and I firmly believe that energy is an elixir, it is life. When we see leakages in the energy-value chain, we feel pulled to correct it.

What I lost sleep over: indifference to wastage and loss of energy especially when this waste is created by people who can other-wise make a difference. It bothers me deeply to see energy being inefficiently utilised and wasted.

The best part of my job:unquestionably, it’s my team. Each one of them is passionate about our cause. Their drive and purpose gives me the belief to work and progress.

The worst part of my job:it’s the inertia to change of large energy and utility com-panies that we’re up against. Their reluctance to adopt contemporary efficiency improvement technology and processes because of a compulsive obsession with

We don’t do broad-spectrum advertising or road shows. We let our values, culture and spirit get us business. This belief has stood us in good stead. Enzen’s growth has been fuelled as much by our customers’ desire to see us grow as our own. Our teams, investors and customers have trusted our spirit. Strategically, the energy and utilities space needs specialists: people who are aware of both local and global needs. There are few such specialists. We have kept our focus bigger. That has worked to our advantage and helped us to win industry recognition. HoW I WoRK Where I get my inspiration: the world around me is my inspiration. I am inspired by life. Impediments to growth are my

archaic internal bureaucratic processes is irri-tating. The country pays for their successes through depletion of resources. WHAT’S nExT At Enzen, we believe that “next is now”. What we do now shapes our next wave. Being relevant to more customers and consumers continues to drive us. In the future, we will continue to bring in easy-to-deploy, affordable and sustainable technology, processes, policies and models across the energy and utility value chain. We will continue to explore newer forms of energy sources appropriate for underprivileged and remote areas of the globe. With the use of clean technology, we want to see people’s lives change substantially.

Energy Saver satheesh Kumar K.R. believes in the positive power of smart resources.

RAnK

18

septembeR/oCtobeR 2011 | Inc. | 49

By THE nuMBERS

The Restless nerd For Vijay shekhar sharma, business is more than just money; it’s about ideas.

RAnK

495 0 | Inc. | septembeR/oCtobeR 2011

I believe success comes about in two ways—one, when you have nothing to lose and two, when you have everything to lose. In my case, it was a mixture of both. I come from Aligarh, from a not very well-to-do family. I was a bright student throughout school. Because my schooling was in Hindi medium, my early years at Delhi College of Engineering were spent translating the technical jargon of my pro-fessors from English to Hindi.

In that sense, I over achieved by just being an engineer. I was the first in my family to be one. Whatever I did after that—starting a dotcom venture, Indiasite.net, a search engine, that I later sold off, or working with a telecom solutions company where I was paid a very handsome salary (which became the seed fund for One97), were big jumps forward. I was always moving from

nothing to something more. But, given my background, becoming an entrepreneur meant losing other things like a stable gov-ernment job with its many social benefits, and being seen as an eligible bachelor.

People think I’m a man in a rush. I wouldn’t deny that charge. I was 15 when I entered engineering college. Most of my other classmates were 18. I ran my first business for two years, between 1997-99, before I cashed out. At my next company, Lotus Interworks in New Jersey, I bailed out just two weeks before completing a year. Being with the organisation for a year would have enabled me to get stock options. But I didn’t really care about that. I felt I had saved enough capital for my seed fund.

I launched One97 in 2000 with that money. We started as a people search com-

septembeR/oCtobeR 2011 | Inc. | 51

Time was when, says the rather boyish-looking Vijay Shekhar Sharma, chairman and managing director of one97, a mobile value-added services (VAS) company, when he didn’t even have money to buy a bus ticket. He just walked to his destination. From a small town in uttar Pradesh, with nothing more than modest means to boast about, he says he had little to lose then, and has little to lose now as the owner of a `250-crore company. That includes time—which probably explains why he doesn’t wear a watch.

rags toMy

storyrichesVijay SheKhar Sharma | one97 CommuniCationsRevenue Category: `100-500 crore

as told to TEjEESH n. S. BEHl photoGRaphs by SuBHojIT PAul

By THE nuMBERS

pany. India’s early telecom years saw the birth of the missed-call phenomenon to save on talk-time costs. I had a mobile phone and used to get missed calls, but had no clue about the caller’s identity. So I started One97 to enable consumers to find the name of the person who was calling by simply messaging the number to 197. Over the years, we’ve diversified into offering services to consumers such as music, enabling better network utilisation through services such as customer analyt-ics, and offering cost reduction in enter-prise delivery systems.

A business is supposedly about making money, but actually, a business is about ideas. Businesses flow from great ideas. I realised early on that compared to the internet, there’s much more opportunity in telecom. Its eco-system is far bigger than the internet market in India. There are many applications of it, and many peo-ple are impacted. It’s exciting and a chal-lenge to cater to these different needs. For example, when we built applications for the rural market, we consciously decided to offer it in the local dialect. For that, we selected village leaders or the sarpanch to record the content.

I’m a total nerd when it comes to the inter-net. What I want to do is to make sure that whatever is there on the internet should have a mobile phone application as well. I realised during my start-up years that technology was ransomed by a few large companies. Since I come from an internet background, I know what consumers really want, and how to help them consume from a cloud platform.

Things have been good. In this fiscal year, we’re looking to clock `250 crore in reve-nues. Hopefully by 2015, we should be making a billion dollars annually. There’s so much buzz around valuations. But these don’t excite me. For me, the thrill lies in achieving revenues. Our only focus right now is the billion-dollar mark.

But, of course, it’s not going to be easy. Doing business in India is very tough. I really feel if you can run a company and

make profits in this country, you can probably do it anywhere in the world. We want to build m-commerce and digital commerce in India but there is a trust deficit about transactions on the mobile platform. You need to build trust first and m-commerce will follow.

We’ve also started the One97 Mobility Fund to help fund start-ups. First generation entrepreneurs do not have access to capital or the experience of running a company. All of us who have done so know that in the first two years of your business, you don’t make money. So we have invested in early stage companies which VCs don’t typically look at.

I know first-hand how important venture capital is. One97 raised its first round only as late as in 2007. I feared that taking some-body else’s money came with its set of cave-ats, and that it would limit what I could or

could not do with my own company. But that’s more of a myth.

For us, there’s also a tactical advantage in investing small amounts in early stage com-panies—much before the valuations rise exponentially. Our sweet spot is usually $1 million (the fund is worth $100 million). We invest in complementary technologies. An early stage company gets the advantage of our expertise and we get a head start. Our investments enable us to invest in companies that we could possibly buy out though we do not restrict the entrepreneur from selling if he gets a good offer. A case in point is Singa-pore’s Tencube, a mobile security solutions company which we invested in, and that was later acquired by McAfee.

I enjoy working on the fund and our port-folio companies. Yes, my attention does get divided between One97 and the fund but

“When a founder is at the helm, things move fast. Also, the thrill is in building the business.

I never want to be just an investor.”

—Vijay sheKhaR shaRma

5 2 | Inc. | septembeR/oCtobeR 2011

By THE nuMBERS

fortunately, we have a great team in both places. I always say that a great company is about having great company. We are a young company (most of the directors on the board are in their thirties and forties). There’s a rush of adrenaline in our office. These are exciting days of growth. I have a big fear, that one day I’ll grow old or worse, senile. What if I have ideas, but am not be able to communicate them?

Because of where I come from and the way I was brought up, money wasn’t a big

deal for me. I’m not a voracious shopper. I don’t have too many avenues to spend money on. My objective is to create some-thing worthwhile in my lifetime.

Having said that, if somebody were to offer me a billion dollars today, I’ll defi-nitely be tempted. But seriously, that’s very far ahead. I’ve had some offers over the years but like most founders of busi-nesses, I’m very emotionally attached to my company. I’d like to remain hands-on for as long as I can.

When a founder is at the helm, things move fast. You just can’t expect an outsider to run the company the way you imagined it. It’s not fair to them. Anyway, the thrill is in building the business. I certainly don’t want to live just an investor’s life. Which is why, I admire people like Steve Jobs, Sunil Bharti Mittal and Rupert Murdoch (but not for the recent phone-hacking controversy!) for still being actively involved in operations.

Vikas Global One

EdServ Softsystems

Sreepathi Lab

Excel Entertainment

Kejriwal Bee Care India

FATPipe Networks India

Sai Service Spares & Accessories

Acrotech

IBI Chematur

Sanraa Media

Enzen Global Solutions

Protech Galvanisers & Fabricators

Cura Technologies

Aradhya Wire Ropes

VHCL Industries

JP Infrastructure

Nila Infrastructure

Armtech (India)

Econix Hi-Tech Components

Manthan Software Services

b4S Solutions

Rainox Wires

eka Software Solutions

Deep Industries

SB&T Designs

631.0

561.6

314.2

310.0

268.2

228

215.4

200.8

198.9

196

191.4

167.7

162.2

121.2

117.6

114.5

111.8

107.9

106.8

106.7

105.4

93.1

90.5

88.5

81.5

Companies: Below ̀ 100 cr

Sales caGr%

331.6

287.3

253.7

235.9

203.4

197.5

183.3

176.1

162.2

158.4

150.8

143

134

124.5

117.2

113.1

103.8

103.8

98.2

95.6

90.7

89.8

88.2

86.8

86.4

SRS Real Infrastructure

RMP Infotech

Vikas Granaries

Bhanot Construction & Housing

Tara Health Foods

Mynah Industries

Kalpataru

ASEEM Global

Asahi Infrastructure & Projects

Trinethra Infra

Orbit Corporation

Horizon Infrastructure

Balaji Coke Industry

Linkson International

Mittal Corp

Driplex Water Engineering

Baba Arts

UPL Environmental Engineers

One97 Communications

AQUA logistics

Confidence Petroleum India

Everonn Education

SeQuent

Vishwa Infrastructure and Services

Champalal Motilal Steel Company

Companies: `101 cr to ̀ 500 cr

Sales caGr%

It’s tough to get a lot of information on

companies in this band of turnover. Which is exactly why these two

lists make for such good reading. They point to

the future, and to emerging companies

that are poised for more.

In The Right Space

septembeR/oCtobeR 2011 | Inc. | 5 3

learn and meet new people. I worked my way up. Within a year, I was the assistant manager.

I moved on to CIFCO, a premier merchant banking firm. In 1987-88, I was entrusted with opening up their office in Delhi. My work involved liaising with the govern-ment—the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Finance Ministry in par-ticular—for all the IPOs and FD issues. The stint taught me a lot of things—how to value a company, read between the lines and really go deep into an organisation.

In the late 1980s, my younger brother died in a scooter accident. I moved back

Pradesh. Because most schools were far from project sites, I walked a few kilome-tres every day. Still, I have very fond memo-ries of climbing up trees and diving into the village pond with friends.

I spent my teenage years in Vijayawada, the commercial capital of Andhra. It was a big change for me, from a rustic life to an urban setting. I learnt a lot of things. In 1980, I completed my undergrad in com-merce and moved to Delhi for a Masters.

My first job was as an assistant with Sarin Consultants, a boutique investment bank-ing firm in Delhi. Though the pay was not good, it was a great opportunity to observe,

I was born in 1961 in the coastal town of Tenali in Andhra Pradesh. My family owned a lot of land in the region. My father was a civil engineer and when I was born, he was involved in the historic Nagarjuna Sagar Dam Project. We were three broth-ers, a year separating each of us, quite a handful for my mother. So, I often accom-panied my father to work.

Much of my childhood was spent at con-struction sites my father supervised. I played among earthmovers and construc-tion equipment. I’d make my own dams and canals using concrete slabs. Because of my father’s job, we moved a lot. I studied in several schools in remote areas in Andhra

5 4 | Inc. | septembeR/oCtobeR 2011

How I

rough paths paved

G.R.K. Reddy or simply GRK went from being a merchant banker to a real estate mogul in 15 years. Success came to Reddy, chairman and Md of MARG Group, by quite literally walking through rough terrain. In 1994, he shuttered his ailing financial securities firm and forayed into construction. The project that set him on the road to riches, winded through far-flung naxal-dominated rural areas. But that didn’t stop this first-generation entrepreneur from building wind farms in Andhra Pradesh’s forested wastelands. From windmills, to residential hubs, IT corridors and ports, MARG has today done it all.

G.r.K. reddy | maRGRevenue Category: `500-`1,000 crore

as told to IlA uPAdHyAyA

By THE nuMBERS

to Chennai to look after my parents. By then, CIFCO had become one of the largest merchant banking firms. They asked me to head their Hyderabad office and I said yes.

I soon got bored of the work. I was used to being at the centre of action in Delhi. After that, Hyderabad seemed dull. I started getting restless. That’s when I thought of quitting and striking it out on my own. My first venture in 1991 was a

stockbroking firm—MS Reddy & Co—at Coimbatore. With all the action in stock markets then, we did brisk business.

I also started a merchant banking firm, MARG Securities, in Chennai in 1993. The next year we came up with a public issue—`90 lakh—which was oversub-scribed by 65 times. It was a big milestone and the capital was utilised in developing the foundations of the business that stands today.

Multi-dimensional Creating wealth is just one aspect of what G.R.K. Reddy does; his real business is of “change”.

177.9

128.0

109.1

106.9

106.9

98.4

93.9

89.3

88.4

83.7

81.8

79.6

77.8

76.8

74.5

74.0

70.9

68.9

65.1

64.7

64.7

63.5

60.6

60

60

Companies: `501 cr to `1000 cr

Sales caGr%

Table Continued...

AMR Constructions

Brandhouse Retails

Bartronics India

Aravali Infrapower

Angelique International

Educomp Solutions

Goenka Diamond & Jewels

J Kumar Infraprojects

Sandhar Locking Devices

Totem Infrastructure

MARG

Supreme Infrastructure India

Electrical Manufacturing

Company

Diamond Power Infrastructure

Glodyne Technoserve

Karuturi Global

Sunil Hitech Engineers

Som Datt Builders

Concast Ispat

VRS Foods

Simplex Projects

Kemrock Industries & Exports

Hindustan Dorr-Oliver

Valley Iron & Steel Company

Rohit Ferro Tech

By THE nuMBERS

RAnK

68

septembeR/oCtobeR 2011 | Inc. | 5 5

PH

OTO

GR

AP

H C

OU

RTE

Sy S

UB

JEC

T

By THE nuMBERS

The economy started going out of steam in 1993-94. MARG was in the middle of a rights issue when the crash happened in 1995. It was under-subscribed by `1 crore, an amount that MARG had to bridge. MARG had taken another `1 crore from the public by way of fixed deposits. Put together, we were saddled with a liability of `2 crore.

overnight the dream morphed into a nightmare. All our hundred employees left the company. The capital markets went into a tailspin and revival seemed bleak. This was my first strong lesson as an entrepreneur. The failure of MARG Securities taught me the difference between an executive and an entrepreneur. I found that the biggest challenge is to keep relationships going—with stakeholders, bankers, governments, etc.

I was under immense pressure to liquidate. But my survival instincts didn’t let me suc-cumb. After some soul searching and mar-ket research, I decided to focus on the construction business with Marg Con-struction. Within a year, real estate crashed in Chennai. Several leading players went bust. Sai Subhodaya, my first residential project, did not take off as expected. I des-perately needed projects that would give me positive cash flows. I had to pay off a whole pack of creditors.

luckily, I got a challenging offer to build a four-storey, 20,000 sq ft property in Chennai. However, there was a catch. We had to do it in 110 days flat. The money from the project took care of our pressing creditors. I worked round-the-clock, living at the site. We completed it at 3am on the 110th day in April 1998.

The customer was impressed. He asked us to build three wind farms for him—at Chittradurga (Karnataka), Satara (Maha-rashtra) and Tadipatri (Andhra Pradesh).

The last area lay in the heart of Naxal-infested interiors. But this was an impor-tant client. If we did well, we would be asked to build 200 wind farms over the

We employed more than a 100 local people on the project. Every day brought a new challenge that had to be dealt with. But we managed to commission the Tadipatri wind farm in time in September 2000. We were actually an hour ahead of deadline.

By now, we had a surplus of ̀ 4 crore. So after repaying all our creditors, I contemplated retiring. The prospect of making money for the sake of it, did not interest me then and it doesn’t interest me even today. But I realised I had a special privilege—to make a difference to rural India. In fact, it was my duty to do so.

I forayed into other infrastructure verti-cals. I bought a sizeable chunk of land on the Old Mahabalipuram Road. It was close to the city and yet to be developed. We were among the early movers in the devel-opment of residential and commercial complexes on the OMR, now the bustling IT corridor of Chennai.

In october 2002, MARG got its first IT park project called Digital Zone I from Tata Consultancy Services. I sensed an opportunity for creating more space for the IT sector. We went ahead to build more IT parks for TCS and Satyam Computers.

We also took a bold step and entered port development by bidding for the Karaikal Port. As a company, MARG’s value was a mere fraction of the project cost at the time. But we did it. We built one of India’s finest private ports.

In 2007, I did a management programme at the Kellogg School of Management in the US. My wife, Rajini, also a first generation entrepreneur, inspired me to take this up. The course gave me an opportunity to measure myself against global peers. It was also intense, challenging and fun. As I interacted with people there, I realised we weren’t doing badly at all. MARG was on the right track.

Today, wealth creation is only one dimen-sion of achievement for me. What makes me most proud is that we have ushered in regional prosperity in all our projects.

Companies: `1000 cr to

`1500 crSales caGr%

Dhunseri Petrochem & Tea

Vuppalamritha Magnetic

Components

ARSS Infrastructure Projects

Kwality Dairy (India)

Tecpro Systems

A2Z Maintenance & Engineering

Services

Sterling & Wilson

NKG Infrastructure

Coastal Projects

Shiv-Vani Oil & Gas Exploration Services

Opto Circuits (India)

Compuage Infocom

C & C Constructions

Bharati Shipyard

Ashoka Buildcon

Koutons Retail India

Ankur Drugs & Pharma

Arch Pharmalabs

Prime Impex

SPANCO

Gujarat NRE Coke

Madhucon Projects

Sadbhav Engineering

Bilcare

Sanwaria Agro Oils

158.5

157.8

95.9

91.8

84.9

83.9

80.9

76.2

75.7

73.5

62.4

53.3

52.4

47.3

46.5

44.1

41.9

41.3

40.8

40.5

39.6

37

37

35.9

35.6

Table Continued...

next few years. I headed to the thick for-ested wastelands of Tadipatri, where 120 of those 200 windmills were to come up. I didn’t have more than a painfully small team of believers with me.

5 6 | Inc. | septembeR/oCtobeR 2011

My BAcKGRound: Father’s occupation: Founder, Gujarat NRE Coke LtdMother’s occupation: Housewife

Previous jobs: I’m a Chartered Accoun-tant. I topped in the all-India exam and I am a gold medallist. I began my career as a CA, progressed to become a merchant banker and then took over the reins of Gujarat NRE Coke in 1997.

My coMPAny:Its origins: it had humble beginnings. In 1994-95 the first manufacturing facility near Jamnagar had a production capacity of 0.1 million tonnes per annum.

I took over as the managing director in 1997. Today, we’ve grown beyond our expectations. We have an installed met coke-making capacity of 1.43MTPA spread across Khambhaliya and Bhachau in Gujarat and Dharwad in Karnataka. We’re

also the only Indian firm to own and oper-ate coking coal mines in Australia.

Why it’s growing: we’ve always managed to take advantage of every opportunity that came our way. We have not let ourselves be confined by defined targets. We have even grown during every downturn. Every time prices were down, we used the time to invest in capacities and expand our pro-duction facilities.

HoW I WoRK:Where I get my inspiration: that’s easy. My vision of Gujarat NRE becoming one of the premier global resource players some day is good enough to keep me motivated and inspired.

What I lose sleep over: it really bothers me that even after 64 years of freedom, there are several Indians who remain slaves in their own country. Also, why do we accept corruption as a way of life?

The best part of my job: I really believe that everything I do, I give it my best. The worst part of my job:  There’s nothing about what I do that I don’t like.

What’s next: we’re on the right track. For us, execution is the next step. We are steadily increasing the production from our coking coal mines. From the current level of 1.55MTPA, we should be around 6MTPA by 2015. That will make us one of the top 10 hard-coking coal producers in the world.

In India, we are in the process of setting up 60MW power plants. These will run on the waste heat emanating from the coke mak-ing process. In the next few years, we should generate 240MW of waste-heat based power. We’ve also ventured into green power through wind energy. A lot needs to be done. Like the poem goes, “The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep...”

septembeR/oCtobeR 2011 | Inc. | 5 7

InspiredGujarat nRE coke prides itself on being low-key. Founded in 1995, the Kolkata-based company is today the largest independent producer of met coke in India. Its corporate presentation might sell the word ‘undiscovered’ but with such ambitious plans in place, that’s unlikely to continue. By 2015, the company wants to be among the top 10 hard-coking coal producers in the world.

by a vision

arun Kumar jaGatramKa | GujaRat nRe CoKe | RAnK 229Revenue Category: `1,000-1,500 crore

5 8 | INC. | september/october 2011

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photograph by SubhojIT PAul reported by rAjAT GuPTA

Macleods Pharma rank No. 321

Trustis key

As told to Rohini BaneRjee PHotoGRAPHs BY SuBhojiT Paul

Right after his high school exams, n.M. Kejriwal’s stockbroker father posed him the big question—do you want to be a stockbroker like me, or something else altogether? The young man was stumped. But his teacher’s father planted an idea in his head by handing him a tender form. “Start your own business and be your own boss” was his advice. Since then, Kejriwal has lived an exciting entrepreneurial life—first with a printing press supplying paper, then food products such as sugar, rice and fruit pulp, and finally honey, with which he’s struck the proverbial pot of gold. Kejriwal Bee Care is a pioneer in the production, marketing and export of honey. Today, business at the `80.2-crore company is buzzing with growth with its new bosses—Kejriwal’s son and nephew—at the helm. Kejriwal senior is happy to take a back seat. But if you think the veteran wants to hang up his boots, think again.

in life &in business

They are racing towards greater glory. Here are the country’s fastest-growing

private companies.

inSiDelist of India’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies | Page 62Interview with N.M. Kejriwal | this Page

500inC.inDia

FaSTeST GRowinG

CoMPanieS

N.M. Kejriwal | KejRiwAl Bee CARe indiAthree Year Growth 268.2% | 2010 Revenue ̀ 22 crore

My day begins as the dawn breaks. Ever since I can remem-ber, I’ve woken up at 4am sharp. It’s a habit I inherited from my mother. On a usual day, she would be up and about by 3.30am. I would be wide awake a few moments later. Strangely, I was the only one; my brothers would snore on peacefully. My mother was also a devout woman and I learnt the value of spirituality from her. My 45-minute morning

6 0 | inC. | sePtemBeR/oCtoBeR 2011

RanK8

exciting entrepreneur N.M. Kejriwal believes in the power of

honesty—in business and life.

sePtemBeR/oCtoBeR 2011 | inC. | 61

FaSTeST GRowinG CoMPanieS

prayer helps me focus on my day. It’s only after my prayers are done, at around 6.15am, that I feel ready to take on the world.

This discipline has taught me to recognise my priorities and know what and when to let go of—both professionally and personally. I didn’t second guess myself when I passed the baton on to my son. Similarly, I don’t feel guilty in taking things slow in the early part of my day; it’s my time, not business time. I relish the routine, the silence and even the effort of the hour-long yoga session that starts at 7am. An hour’s rigorous routine in the morning after my morning walk and another 30-minute session in the evening take care of my body just as my prayers take care of my soul. I leave the rest to fate.

i then read the newspaper for an hour between 8am and 9am, and am then ready for breakfast. I’ve always been a frugal eater; give me fruits any day but my family disagrees that one can live on fruits alone, so it’s either coffee and toast,

or anything home-made like poha. Finally, at 9.40am, I’m ready to enter office—which basically means climbing down the stairs to the basement from the upstairs living quarters.

i like being the first one in office; I find it simpler to organise my day. It’s peaceful and the quiet helps me work. At the risk of sounding like a relic, I admit that I still rely on my pocket-sized scribbling pad and gel pen to put down a to-do list. By the time I’ve organised my thoughts and schedule, everyone’s in. Then it’s time to strategise and talk business with my son and my nephew (the CEO of Kejriwal Bee Care). I am increasingly disengaging from all the hands-on jobs; let the young ones handle it because they’re doing it well. Of course, they didn’t inherit the responsibility. Both of them had to work towards it.

This is an exciting time for our business. We’re trying to come up with new ideas every day. The Kejriwal Group has always

been keen on R&D. When I began, I thought honey was a sweet substance—nothing more. Today, we see it as a dietary substitute—nutritious yet delicious. Our teams are constantly innovating products that capture our customers’ imagination—Honey Chew being the latest in line. It was the brainchild of my son, Prakash. It’s a healthy treat that has won the “Top Innovation Award” at the ANUGA (the world’s leading food fair for the retail trade and the food service and catering market) in Germany. It’s also won awards from the AIFPA (All India Food Processors Association) and the iTQi Superior Taste Award (International Taste and Quality Institute) in Brussels. Honey Chew doesn’t spoil the teeth and is meant especially for children. I am a granddad, so it’s extra special for me.

introducing new products is a high. It’s what makes business fun. That you get to learn every day is the real beauty of busi-ness. But you have to be willing to learn, to pick up new things, to improvise. I’ve lived my life like that. In fact, Kejriwal Bee Care was founded on a chance remark by an owner of an American firm. He told me I should go down the honey trail by market-ing and supplying Indian honey as food supplements to the US in 1995. I didn’t know much about honey then. I knew it was an ayurvedic medicine that people took when they had a cold.

By noon, the meetings outside the office take over. I am on the boards of several business platforms and groups, and have to constantly interact with ministries. I usu-ally attend eight to 10 meetings every week, sometimes more, and these take me all over the NCR. I couldn’t have achieved all of this without my trusted chauffeur. The man’s as good as any GPS—I tell him where to go and he figures out the shortest route. He’s been with us for 15 years. His father was my first chauffeur and was with the family for 40 years.

loyalty is important to me. It has to work both ways though—he trusts me enough to

Fastest Growing Private Companies%age growth of sales over last four financial years

CiTY

Hyderabad

Mumbai

Chennai

Delhi

Chennai

Bengaluru

Delhi

Kolkata

Davangere

Bengaluru

seCTor

Pharmaceuticals

Media/Entertainment

IT&ITes

FMCG

Telecom

Energy

Electrical Equipment

Energy

Steel

IT&ITes

CoMPaNY NaMe

Sreepathi lab

Excel Entertainment

RMP Infotech

Kejriwal Bee Care India

FATPipe Networks India

enzen Global Solutions

Protech Galvanisers & Fabricators

Balaji Coke Industry

Aradhya Wire Ropes

Manthan Software Services

314.2

310

287.3

268.2

228

191.4

167.7

134

121. 2

106.7

sales CaGr %

6 2 | inC. | sePtemBeR/oCtoBeR 2011

FaSTeST GRowinG CoMPanieS

stay employed with me and I trust him with my routine and my time. Trust is a key word—both in life and in business. It’s important to me that my clients and employees trust me just as much as I trust them. This isn’t some clever management speak, I know. It’s the simplest, age-old idea. But it has worked for my company. Other companies that began operations around the same time as us and used our model, soon sank without a trace. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have these business oppor-tunities. But what’s worked for us is hard work and honesty. It makes everything worth the while for us and for our clients.

other than my business, my grandchil-dren are what I cherish the most in life. I can’t stay away from them for too long. After my meetings, I’m back at the office by 3pm. My family, that is my wife, son, daughter-in-law and grand kids, stay together. It was only after he got married that my nephew shifted home. For the first two years of his stint here, he was also liv-ing in the upstairs family quarters. After three gruelling hours of meetings, it’s time to be with the grand kids. Usually families have a dinner routine. In ours, we all sit down for evening snacks together at around 6pm. These thirty minutes of fam-ily time are precious. Because the children sleep early, I get to talk to them then and ask them about their school, friends and how they are.

it’s also a good transition from work to begin wrapping up my day. For years, I’ve put in an hour of yoga in the evening. I am a news junkie. I make sure I watch at least an hour of news on the television in the evening. Of course, the evenings aren’t sac-rosanct. When you travel for work, your evening schedule is the one that gets most disturbed. I’ve travelled quite a bit for work and pleasure, but it’s Kolkata that I enjoy visiting the most. I was born there and one of our largest offices is located there as well.

Most members of my family are settled there. I have friends who played a huge role in my business and personal lives there. The city, despite being labelled as unprofes-

sional, has left its indelible mark on me; I read Bengali literature, listen to Bengali music and even watch Bengali movies when I’m there. It’s part of my DNA now.

i like travelling on holiday as well espe-cially with my entire family. We take vaca-tions together. My son is an avid traveller. My daughter-in-law and he went on a cruise recently, and now they want all of us to go on the same cruise when the chil-dren’s vacations come. I’m looking forward to that. It’s quite a family motto for us—work hard, travel harder. The motto’s appli-cable to my staff too. Till a few years ago, I would take all my employees within the Kejriwal Group and two members of their family on short trips. They were more like office picnics. It’s important to strike a rap-

port with the staff. Again, it’s a question of loyalty. I am loyal to my staff. Sadly, the pic-nics have become rarer. It’s my health and the company growth rate that’s making everyone busy.

after a light dinner of soup and a slice of bread, I’m usually in bed by 10.15pm. I sleep very well. I’ve reached a point in my career and life where I realise what’s important—my family and my employees. Kejriwal is what it is because of them. So, it’s natural that they are on my mind as I drift off to sleep. Your company never leaves you. A child and a business are very similar. Just as one never stops being a par-ent, a company owner doesn’t stop being the one who began it all. If I can help it, I’ll go on forever.

“in fact, Kejriwal Bee Care was founded

on a chance remark by the owner of an american firm.” —n.m. KejRiwAl

sePtemBeR/oCtoBeR 2011 | inC. | 6 3

cog inthe wheel

The Amara Raja Group of Companies has lofty plans—most of which come from business patriarch Ramachandra Galla. Proud son and current MD, Jayadev Galla, calls his father a ‘tireless worker’. However, as you speak to the son, the workaholic in him emerges too. Their energy seems unstoppable. Their battery business, under the flagship firm Amara Raja Batteries, has grown robustly. Now, the father-son duo is scouting for other sectors like food-processing and metal sheet fabrication.

Why I’m another

My BACkGRouND:Father’s occupation: Chairman, Amara Raja Group Mother’s occupation: Minister, Government of Andhra PradeshPrevious occupation: Chyrsler Corp.

My CoMPANy:Its origins: my parents decided to shift back to India from the US while I was still

in college. I sort of hung around, com-pleted my course and worked around a bit before I shifted as well. My father was edu-cated in the US. He worked as a consultant engineer in the nuclear power industry there. In the mid-1980s, when the Indian markets were not open yet, my parents decided it was time to make the move. There were two catalysts to this decision—one, they felt it was time to be home, and

two, because several of his projects in the US were getting delayed or shelved. He was frustrated about that.

In India back then, the economy was a scene of growth. Central and state gov-ernments were becoming proactive and inviting the Indian diaspora to come back home and begin ventures. This was a decade before the start of liberalisation. In

PuBlIC WeAlTH CReAToRs A look at the companies that have made their shareholders rich despite the many turbulent phases on the stock exchange

in the last few years. Here are our top 10 wealth creators—calculated on the basis of net change in market capitalisation.

500INC.INDIA

jayadev galla | amara raja batteries | RANk 276three Year Growth 35.1% | 2010 revenue ̀ 1465.2 crore

6 4 | INC. | september/october 2011

PuBlIC WeAlTH CReAToRs

Top Public Wealth Creators evaluated on the net change in market capitalisation from april 2007-march 2010

CITy

Bhopal

Bengaluru

Delhi

Gurgaon

Mumbai

Kolkata

Mumbai

Bengaluru

Ahmedabad

Hyderabad

seCTor

FMCG

Electrical Equipment

FMCG

IT&ITeS

IT&ITeS

Energy

IT&ITeS

Textiles

Infrastructure

Auto Ancillaries

CoMPaNy NaMe

Sanwaria Agro Oils

Opto Circuits (India)

Kwality Dairy (India)

Educomp Solutions

CORE Projects & Technologies

Gujarat NRE Coke

Glodyne Technoserve

Page Industries

Sadbhav Engineering

Amara Raja Batteries

4183

3360

2660

2464

2413

1809

1761

1493

1433

1242

WealTh CreaTed ̀crore

1985, the foundation stone for the Amara Raja Group was laid. My father had always wanted to work for himself and do something worthwhile. He zeroed in on a project (Amara Raja Power Systems) and applied for a licence. The project got underway just a week before the “licence raj” came into being. You could say we missed that regime by a whisker. In the meantime, my mother joined politics in India. She is now the Minister for Mines and Geology in Andhra Pradesh.

WHy IT GRoWs: some decisions we took early on have held us in good stead. Right off the bat, we decided customer delivery has to be at the core of what we do. Our mission has been to bring world-class technology to our cli-ents, and to do so at a competent price. We’ve constantly worked to match global standards. We deal with several sectors of the Indian economy, including railways, telecom and power, our three key verticals. We’re not worried about growth. We’ll keep growing as these crucial sectors of the economy grow. Today, our focus is on R&D. It’s what drives us now.

A key strength for us is our team. It’s a healthy mix of old and new. When I mean old, I mean experienced people, for sure, but certainly not those who are compla-cent. Young and fresh talent keeps every-one on their toes. It’s exactly how my father and I work. He represents transfor-mation and I represent innovation. We are both cogs of the wheel. Together, we make a pretty cool team. I wouldn’t say there are no conflicts. But, they’ve helped us under-stand each other better, and define our individual domains.

As we grow, we are trying to get more organised. In the past decade, we have focused on systems and processes. And worked hard to streamline them. Our vision statement reads: “To transform our spheres of influence and improve quality of life by building institutions that provide better access to opportunities, goods and services.” It’s not only a goal, it’s one of our work principles.

HoW I WoRk: Where I get my inspiration: definitely, from my father. Every time I try to take things off his plate, he goes on and starts something entirely different. Now he’s ventured into sheet metal and food pro-cessing industries. His indomitable spirit is something everyone can learn from. Even though the new companies are now reaching the `100-crore mark, he’s far from being content. He has big plans for each one of them. What I lose sleep over: growth. In this age of high demand, I don’t want to be caught unprepared. I’d rather be six months early than six months late as far as capacity building goes.

What I like about my job: innovation excites me. I love the process of product development. I also enjoy enhancing con-sumer experiences through brand build-ing. That’s what is exciting about business—managing these varying roles.

What I don’t like about my job: reviews. Weekly, quarterly or annual, whichever variety they may be. Also, I find meet-ings tedious.

WHAT’s NexT?We’re targeting a compound annual growth rate of 30 per cent. However, business is unpredictable. Between my medium and long-term goals, I’d rather prioritise long-term ones. It’s where we envision ourselves to be in the future that makes a difference. Unfortunately, in business, profit and ‘‘growth’’ often clash. It’s a dynamic world. And, both our environment and our needs can radically change at any time.

We are trying to get deeper into the market of alternative power sources. We also want to penetrate faster in IT, data centres, railways and automotive markets. We are looking at both medium and high-growth markets over the next five years.

september/october 2011 | INC. | 6 5

AD

My ambitiondoesn’t

me tosleepallowRajesh agaRwal | BS TranSCommThree Year Growth 38.1% | 2010 revenue ̀ 521 crore

When we launched the issue on October 6 last year, JM Financial, our merchant bankers, had a very strong commitment from the funds. But what happened was that there was a rally of issues in September. All of them listed in the first week of October. In fact, there were five IPOs in three days. None of those issues did well. The people who had com-mitted to us suddenly felt the valuations were very high. Till the eve-ning of October 7, we had commitments. Next morning, those who

Going public is a big milestone for a business. The year 2010 was a hectic

year for our honourees with 24 companies going in for an IPO. Our

pick of some popular listings.

INSIDEPopular Listings in 2010 | Page 68List of top 3 IPOs | Page 70

500INC.INDIA

TOP IPOs

Rajesh Agarwal’s apprenticeship began early. As a 15-year-old, Agarwal split his days between school and his family’s steel plant in Nagpur. The happy balance didn’t last long. Two years later, after his father expired, Agarwal dropped out of college, enrolled into a correspondence commerce degree, and shadowed his uncles to learn the business inside out. But his wings couldn’t be accommodated in a tightly-knit family concern. In 2003, along with his two younger brothers, he opted out to voyage alone. With a few lakh rupees, they launched a steel trading business and an IT firm. Since then, Agarwal has dabbled in multiple businesses. He’s hit the big league with BS TransComm, his four-year-old company. Hyderabad-based BS TransComm manufactures telecom and power towers and offers end-to-end turnkey solutions to manage this infrastructure for nearly 6,000 towers across India. In October 2010, it also went public. Contrary to their targets though, the listing wasn’t the stuff of breezy business dreams. Agarwal talks about those interesting days and much more here.

aS Told To SHREyASI SINgH

SePTemBer/oCToBer 2011 | INC. | 67

TOP IPOs

committed had stopped taking calls from our merchant bankers. We weren’t able to push them. So, we extended the issue by three working days, and lowered our price band to `248 to `257 per share, from `257 to `266 per share.

It was stressful but I was very optimistic that things would be just fine. They’ll end well. In fact, I had a good time in Mum-bai because my wife had travelled with me, and my brother had come from Nag-pur. We went out for dinner with friends every night and watched movies in the evening. During such stressful times, you have to detach yourself from the prob-lem. Taking a break also helps your mind think up fresher ideas. There wasn’t much I could do anyway. When the issue was extended by three working days, a week-end fell in between. Nothing could be done then, in any case. Obviously detach-ing yourself isn’t all that easy. You have to try hard to make it happen.

The stock market is the craziest phenom-enon possible. Things change very fast at the bourse. You can’t blame your mer-chant bankers or start pointing fingers. Nobody can absolutely time this perfectly. Till the meter doesn’t show, it doesn’t show. Like I said, this didn’t give me sleep-less nights. I had faith things would end well. And they did. We raised `190 crore from our listing.

yes, the listing has taught me one thing—you cannot just outsource this to your mer-chant bankers, or anybody else; you really have to lead yourself. There are no regrets but I feel we could’ve done more. Before the listing, people would call me to say they’ll subscribe and we would say a straight no because we were so confident. We had just left it to our merchant bankers.

getting listed felt good. It’s like we have climbed another step. We had tried to list our family firm in 1993 but had to abandon

RANK241

POPULAR LISTINgS These are some of the most prominent IPos from last year. They successfully

navigated the stock markets. Between them, these 10 companies have increased their market capitalisation by `1,285 crore since their listing.

COMPANY NAME SECTOr LISTING DATE

OVErSUBSCrIPTION

Persistent Systems IT&ITeS 4/6/2010 92.91

DQ Entertainment (International)

Media & Entertainment 3/29/2010 69.8

Man Infraconstruction Infrastructure 3/11/2010 62.84

ArSS Infrastructure Projects

Construction & real Estate 3/3/2010 51.32

Gravita India Engineering 11/16/2010 42.24

Career Point Infosystems Education 10/6/2010 41.24

Infinite Computer Solutions India IT&ITeS 2/3/2010 36.05

Eros International Media

Media & Entertainment 10/6/2010 24.52

Tecpro Systems Infrastructure 10/12/2010 20.26

Ashoka Buildcon Engineering 10/14/2010 14.65

6 8 | INC. | SePTemBer/oCToBer 2011

TOP IPOs

those plans because of the Harshad Mehta scam. Today, I know going public is an important step but that’s all it is, one more step. There’s still a very long way to go.

I’ve also made sure that I monitor stock prices only once a day after 4pm. It’s not like I have CNBC on all day. I’ll only switch it on once a day for 15 minutes to get the news. It’s important to keep this discipline because the stock market is the biggest distraction. One of my brothers is quite interested in it. But I tell him to stay away from the panel. I’ve told him to leave the company if stocks is what he wants to do. If you get too involved in the market, you won’t be able to do anything else.

A Rare Contentment Going public is big, says rajesh agarwal. But it isn’t

really a leap, it’s just one step forward.

At BS TransComm, I’m not just driven by growth in numbers—manufacturing volume or wealth creation. We want to really add value to the industry we’re in. We made a recent acquisition of Sugan Automatics, a company which creates technology solutions for tele-com, power and infrastructure, our main ver-ticals. With Sugan Automatics coming into our fold, our R&D has got a fillip. My technol-ogy people are working very hard on solutions that will reduce distribution wastage in the power sector. Few people know that the tele-com sector is India’s second-largest consumer of diesel. There are 400,000 telecom towers in

A ComparisonWe journey back to track the IPO action over the last four years, for Inc. India honourees and India Inc, at large

Inc. India 500India

22

2007 2009 20102008

106

11

38

6

21 24

92

SePTemBer/oCToBer 2011 | INC. | 69PHoToGraPHS BY a. PraBHakar rao

TOP IPOs

I created my first e-mail account in 2004. That’s also when I learnt how to use the computer. Till then, I was a steel trader. We only needed phones for our business. My environment changed 360 degrees. I had to adapt quickly.

I firmly believe that being on the learn-ing curve is great. I tell my human resource people all the time—look for people with passion, not skill, when you interview. Yes, supposedly untrained peo-ple might not give you great deliverables in the first three to six months, but even-tually you’ll see the results. Somebody who thinks he/she knows it all, doesn’t want to learn.

I think my restlessness helps when I’m in a new situation. I can’t sit idle. I am made like that. A famous tarot card reader once told me that I’m somebody who’ll make up a problem to create activity. I need action. I just enrolled in a Yoga Kriya course for oneand-a-half months and my energy levels have just shot up. People in my office are wondering how they’ll handle more of me. Luckily for them, I’m not involved with operations any more. I only help in strategy, finance, relationships or looking at the future. If I get back into opera-tions now, my team will run away.

I’m not afraid to follow my ambitions. Life will throw you ups and downs. But eventu-ally, if you let it, it will take you forward. In 2006, after transitioning very successfully from i-Vantage, the IT firm I’d set up with my friend, I lost a huge amount of money in an iron shore shipment. I almost lost it all. But, I learnt again. I’m not afraid. I’ve seen a lot in the last six years.

TOP 3 PUBLIC LISTINgS From the 200 listed companies on the Inc. India 500 list, these are the top

three blockbuster IPos since 2007, our base year for company financials for this year’s ranking.

COMPANY NAME SECTOr OPEN DATE OVEr SUBSCrIPTION

Everonn Education Education July 2007 145.57

Persistent Systems IT&ITeS March 2010 92.91

Simplex Projects Construction July 2007 83.96

India. We manage 6,000 of them. We are working on a green and fixed energy solution for these towers. Once we have it, we will be able to reduce costs by 10-15 per cent. We’ve also tied up with a solar cell company in Sin-gapore. Trials with them are on right now.

I want BS group, the main holding com-pany for all my businesses, to grow to a bil-lion dollars by 2013. I know it’s just two years away but we’ll get there. Last year, we did `871 crores of business. We are looking at over 40 per cent growth.

I might have built profitable companies in IT, steel, power and telecom but I’m actu-ally just a Class XII graduate. I have a

Bachelor’s by correspondence. But that wasn’t real education. It’s just a piece of paper. In business though, you don’t need domain expertise. When we launched i-Vantage, I didn’t even have an e-mail id.

—rajeSH aGarwal

“I think

my restlessness helps in new situations. I can’t sit idle. I’m made like that. I need constant action.”

7 0 | INC. | SePTemBer/oCToBer 2011

Meet some exciting companies that we think are in the proverbial

right place at the right time . Inc. India puts a spotlight on them.

On Our radar

InSIdEB. VenkataraMana, VMC India | This Page SudhIr Seth, Sudhir Gensets | Page 75

500InC.IndIa

Vuppalamritha Magnetic Components (VMC) might make telecom and power products (think transmission equipment and power supply switchers) in its state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Hyderabad. But what it really fabricates best is pure entrepreneurial excitement. It certainly isn’t usual for companies to grow at this pace. Sample this: VMC began commercial production in 2003. Sales totalled `2 crore in that fiscal. Within a year, they rocketed to `12 crore. Two years later, the company hit the `400-crore mark. By 2009, VMC was hitting big league numbers with `700 crore in turnover. Today, it is a `1,000-crore plus, telecommunications and power products powerhouse. Behind these numbers is an equally fascinating people story. Its three figureheads— V. rama rao, B. Hima Hindu and B. Venkataramana are father, daughter and son-in-law respectively. B. Venkataramana, the company’s executive director, and its operational chief, gives us glimpses into how these dynamics have built a company that is wired to go places.

Imagination

costmoneydoesn’t

B. Venkataramana | VuPPalamriTha magneTic comPonenTs Three Year growth 157.8% | 2010 revenue 1,011 crore

as Told To SHrEyaSI SIngH

It was my wife who started the company with 3 lakhs. She had a Masters in physics from IIT Madras. At the height of the software boom in the late 1990s, she said she hated software. She didn’t want to work in that sector, so she began designing transformers. She set up a small manufacturing unit and started building magnetic electrical transformers for power. This was her area of specialisation. If she hadn’t married me, she would have gone and got a doc-torate degree in magnetics. She had to give up her doctorate after marrying me. I never hear the end of it.

sePTember/ocTober 2011 | InC. | 71

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Staring Success in the Eye B. Venkataramana is driven by his dream of making his company a global player.

7 2 | InC. | sePTember/ocTober 2011 PhoTograPh bY a. Prabhakar rao

On Our radar

The telecom revolution changed every-thing in 2003. I was then running a soft-ware company. These were the post-dotcom-bust days. Before that, you couldn’t do anything wrong in software. Even the dumb ideas worked. But the 9/11 killed all that. It brought in the first real slowdown in software and I took quite a hit. As I grappled with these challenges, VMC took on big time. I kind of got sucked into it by the virtue of being married to her. I became the problem solver, especially on technology. My wife would keep reminding me that I had an electronics degree from IIT. Finally, I dived in. Right then, I had no idea whether I was in it full-time, long-term or what. I just thought I’d discover some-thing I hadn’t while I was doing my engi-neering degree. I started reading up on stuff I hadn’t in over 20 years.

after a lot of heated arguments, between my wife and me (she thought her system was better, I thought mine was), we man-aged to put together an embedded switch mode battery charger that worked. Then, everything just took off. Within a year, we were market leaders in a particular prod-uct. We had never expected that.

The orders started flowing in so quickly that I had to exit technology and get into finance, to manage capital, to see how we could keep manufacturing and expand-ing our production capacity. It was time to use my IIM degree. In the first few years, we grew by hundreds of per cent. It was a sense of déjà vu from my software days, because that’s how I grew in the 1990s. But this time round I was more careful. I had learnt the need to acquire a cushion, in case of a fall.

We work with a very wide range of prod-ucts today, from a price point of 50 to 3 crore a piece. We’re into two verticals right now, telecom and power supply (every day adaptors to DC power plants). Telecom is by far the bigger proportion right now. But power is growing. Within a couple of years, these verticals will be evenly matched. Power supply has an even larger spectrum of applications than telecom.

Strategy is one thing but more than anything else, the segment we’ve been in gave us the opportunity to grow at this pace. We just made sure we latched on tight. The telecom marketplace is huge. We got our timing right. When people ask me the secret of our success, I say luck had a role to play. You have to get your timing right in business.

In no stage in our business journey has the market been a problem. Finance isn’t a constraint anymore. Ambition is more the constraining factor than capital. Six years ago, we said we wanted to be a

1,000-crore company. Now, we want to be a billion-dollar company. That shouldn’t take more than five years. It can take less, not more.

My father-in-law is responsible for these ambitions. He’s our guiding force. People ask me how it is to work with your wife and father-in-law. Well, he is certainly the scarier of the two. He’s somebody who’s just not

afraid to dream. He’s the man who first articulated the thousand-crore dream. He’s now the man who has the billion-dollar dream and is not afraid to say it to the world. He relentlessly keeps telling us to dream global. He is fascinated by what it takes to be a global company. Today, I believe every suc-cessful team needs a great dreamer and a great executer. Also, dreamers shouldn’t get bogged down by too many details.

Today, India is the largest marketplace. SAARC is the next boundary for us. We do have plans to enter Africa and South Amer-ica. We understand what’s happening there. Over the next couple of years, we want to be in many developing markets. Going global is the real test. Do you have it in you to suc-ceed in non-home-protected markets—that’s the test we have to take. We want to show that an Indian company can compete with the best anywhere in the world.

Telecom in India has already shown that it’s changed global conventions. Look at what

Sector

telecom

electrical equipment

Security equipment

real estate

It&IteS

Pharmaceuticals

Integrated Services

In the Spotlight some of them have billion dollar aspirations, others want to redefine urban spaces. What they have in common though is a real potential to stand out.

comPanY name

Vuppalamritha Magnetic Components

Sudhir Gensets

Firepro Systems

Mantri developers

eka Software Solutions

tCG LifeSciences

BVG India

157.8

35.3

28.7

56.5

90.5

61.3

66.4

SalescaGr%

sePTember/ocTober 2011 | InC. | 7 3

On Our radar

some Indian mobile companies are already doing. People believed European and American brands cannot be challenged. But Indian companies are providing ser-vices and products at price points that are unimaginable anywhere in the world. We’ve adapted the technology to suit our needs. Nowhere else do mobile phones have FM radio. Here, phones won’t sell without FM radio.

The controversy around the telecom sector doesn’t bother us. These things come and go. Where there are licence issues, such issues will come up. But it doesn’t affect the industry overall. Moreover, we are equipment suppliers. We look beyond these events to ask whether the demand for handsets will go

up, and the answer is yes. Will people be asking for access to faster data and the answer is yes. Will they be looking for entertainment to be streamed into their homes, yes they will. Whatever happens to the regulatory framework, sooner or later, you’ll get there. If your vision is focused on the overall picture, there’s no need to get too entangled in the situational issues. Our passion is to be part of the transformation in the way people interact and communicate.

The only challenge in a growing segment is getting people. Part of the problem is finding the right skill. India doesn’t have an ecosystem of electronics manufacturing. It’s tough finding experienced people. You constantly have to mentor them and let

them learn on the fly. We’re often working with people who are only partially ready, but the good thing is Indians have great adaptability skills. We can overcome the learning curve. So, you find bright people and match them to tasks.

In the last couple of years, it has become easier for us to attract talent. We are better known now. And once people see scale and vision, they’re excited to be a part of it. I think those who work for us can sense that this could be a game-changing opportunity for them to be a part of something bigger. We’re fortunate people feel that way about us. It’s wonderful when people are excited about working with you. On our part, we encourage our employees to be entrepreneurial.

In any case, the acid test of growth is whether business owners can delegate and let go of a lot of things somebody else can do. Often businesses that level off, do so because they lack management bandwidth, not because they don’t have market opportunity or access to capital. You have to get people better than you on board, to free you from some tasks. My wife and I’ve recognised that we have taken the company this far on our steam. Now we need a talented team to take us that much further.

That’s a core issue we both agree on. Otherwise, of course, we have a lot of debates. Typically, these are scientist, which is her, versus business person, that’s I, debates. They are very stimulating although she often wins. Unlike others who can leave their boss at work, I have the same boss at home. I report to her in both places. Even at home, we’re constantly talking work. But now, our son shuts us up. He tells us that if we want to talk shop, we should just go back to office.

as with any company, we eventually will have to go public; when and in what time-frame is still to be decided. Our investors, Fidelity International, who infused 1,100 million in 2008, are in no hurry. They’re quite happy to be investing in us.

74 | InC. | sePTember/ocTober 2011

“The acid test of growth is

whether owners can delegate and let go of things somebody else can do.” —b. VenkaTramana

The perfect match B. Venkataramana says his wife, B.

hima hindu are a good team—he’s the “biz” guy, she’s the r&d geek.

I grew up in delhi. We are originally from Lahore but we settled here after the Partition. My father ran an electrical trading business in appliances like pump sets. I wasn’t really involved with my father’s business but I did pick up some early lessons here. I’d see my father per-sonally attend to a complaint for even a small pump set. One day, I asked him why he had to do it himself. He told me to imagine how difficult it would be for my mom without water in the house, and for I as a kid if I didn’t have water to drink. I have now moulded my after-sales around that conversation.

Frankly, I didn’t want to live in India. I studied economics at the Shri Ram Col-lege of Commerce in Delhi University.

And I remember thinking that as Indians we tended to kind of lie more than we needed to. I went to Canada for my MBA. I liked it there. I thought I’d settle down there. But my parents weren’t happy about the idea at all. They told me they had not spent all that money on my edu-cation to lose me to a foreign country. So I came back after my MBA.

By that time, my father had grown to become the biggest distributor of pump sets to Crompton Greaves in India. But I wanted to start out on my own. Thank-fully, he was fine with that. In 1973, I got into the power generation business. Cum-mins was looking for a partner in India. We entered into an association with them. They are our global partners till today.

Our journey has been beautiful. They’ve been a real guiding factor for us. We were very small when we entered into this rela-tionship. We learnt a lot from them.

When we began our power generation business, we were up against big, estab-lished companies like Escorts and Voltas. With time, we saw them exiting and people like us taking over almost from nowhere. In the earlier days, the “big fish” tried to derail our progress. I remember a customer meet-ing once where I found out that some com-panies had bad-mouthed us. I was very disillusioned. We used to work with a com-pany then called Kirloskar Electricals. There was a senior manager there who liked me a lot. I asked him why a large company should feel threatened. He told me some-

Famous last names are common. But Sudhir Seth’s first name powers a brand. His eponymous gurgaon-based company, Sudhir gensets, is a leading manufacturer of diesel gensets and sub-stations. The `1,100-crore company’s trademark bright green gensets are ubiquitous across delhi. Much of the city’s best-known buildings and infrastructure—Medanta Medicity, delhi Metro stations, Commonwealth games stadium—have been powered by them. Still, 58-year-old Seth believes he’s just scratching the surface yet. Even as many people his age begin to think of slowing down, Seth is revving up for high-voltage business growth.

happycustomer

The bestpublicity is a

SudhIr Seth | sudhir genseTsThree Year growth 35.3% | 2010 revenue 752 crore

as Told To SHrEyaSI SIngH

sePTember/ocTober 2011 | InC. | 7 5

On Our radar

thing I haven’t forgotten even now. People can try and divert a winning horse. But they can never stop a winning horse. So if you have it in you, you’ll win, he told me.

Today, we are a 1,100-crore company. We have over 1,500 people. We have a wide range of products like silent diesel gensets, packaged sub stations, transformers and electrical panels. We sell more than 10,000 gensets a year. Just a few days back, I was at the Ministry of Health Affairs. They are taking AIIMS to every part of the country. They have a tender and we are bidding for two of the new AIIMS. While we were waiting at the reception, a gentleman wanted to know what my secret formula to

enquiry into an order is the best in busi-ness. In fact, people in Cummins tell me this is what they value most about us.

It might sound strange but I don’t think I can remember a really rough phase in busi-ness. Of course, there are always some sticky issues and things go wrong all the time. But there have been no major threats. We’ve been very lucky with money also. When I was a young man starting out, there were no private banks or growth capital options. We banked with the Syndicate Bank. We had to go to Manipal every time we needed loans. I hated that. From then itself, I was determined to be financially strong. Having reserves is very important. We are a cash-rich organisation.

In 2007, a consortium of Goldman Sachs and GE invested in us. They have 10 per cent equity now. We didn’t bring them on because we needed the money, but we thought it will be good for us to align our-selves with them and learn from the best practices they will bring to our financial systems. We’ve gained a lot of exposure while working with them.

Even now, manufacturing gives me the biggest high. I still absolutely love to set up a plant. When I walk into any of our five plants—Jammu, Bengaluru, Manesar, Gur-gaon and Silvasa—I get a huge kick. To walk into a factory, see the machines you’ve set up work in a process, and people fol-lowing quality standards like Kaizen and Six Sigma is absolutely fantastic.

More recently, working with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has been incredi-ble. They are demanding, disciplined and dedicated, unlike any other government organisation. They have world-class work

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success was. I told him, the formula was pure and simple—it was hard work. All you need to do is ensure that at the end of the day, your client is the happiest man.

That’s exactly what happened with Delhi Metro. When we first began going there, we found they weren’t willing to give Indian companies a chance. I went to them at least 20 times to tell them to give us a chance. But, their first contract went to Sie-mens and ABB who sub-contracted it to us. Now, for all their electrical and power back-up, DMRC only looks at Sudhir Gensets. We’ve done business worth 700-800 crore with them already. We are also doing the metro project in Rajasthan. Word-of-mouth endorsement is a big thing. That’s what I tell my people. Brand-ing and marketing is fine, but the best mode of publicity is a happy customer.

another reason for our success is that we are very aggressive. We’ve been like that for 30 years. Our ratio of converting an

“I firmly believe you can leave the company to your children only if they can deliver.”—sudhir seTh

76 | InC. | sePTember/ocTober 2011

On Our radar

ethics. Working with them is like learning for free. If you can cope with them, you can work with anybody, anywhere.

Still, there can be no room for complacency, no matter what size your company is. I remind my son Rahul, who joined us 10 years back and now leads our marketing, that we must always learn from history. Just like the big companies which came and went, we could also get displaced if we are not consistently at it. There are lots of people with the hunger to succeed. If you don’t stay hungry, and slip up, they’ll be ready to snatch it away.

I’m now confident that Rahul has the ability to make the organisation grow. That he was my son was never enough gratification for him to lead the com-pany. He has to deliver. A few months ago, I was in Italy to ink a JV for some special transformers we want to manu-facture. The founder was a 70-year-old man. Like all Indians do, I too began asking about his family. This gentleman has a son and a daughter. When I asked him whether his son came to the office, he said no. According to him, his son didn’t have the qualities to lead the com-pany so he would have to appoint some-one else to succeed him at the company. I really liked that. It’s the correct approach. There are 1,500 families who depend on Sudhir Gensets today. I have no right to give it to somebody who can’t make it grow. All industrialists must be conscious of this. Give it to your children only if they can deliver.

People tell me I’ve done very well; but if you ask me, I think I’ve just done okay. During our golf games, when my friends talk about wanting to shut shop, I find it strange. I don’t tell them but while they’re thinking about taking a backseat, I am thinking about how to grow faster. People like Dhirubhai Ambani inspire me. Like him, I think it’s important to think of scaling up and to aim at being global leaders. On that, Sudhir Gensets has just scratched the surface.

Just getting Started sudhir seth finds it strange that others his age

want to slow down.

sePTember/ocTober 2011 | InC. | 7 7PhoTograPh bY subhojiT Paul

7 8 | INC. | september/october 2011

Let's get to know the best of the best on our list better.

Who are they? What they do? And, how have they grown in

the past years?

topFuN CEo SurvEyS The Hot Seat | page 79Alter Ego | page 81

500INC.INDIA

1rank vikas Global oneNet Sales: `62.51 Founded: 1984What it does: the firm manufactures and distributes high-end petroleum and petroleum-related products for use in the plastic, rubber and packaging industries.

2rankEdServ SoftsystemsNet Sales: `52.12Founded: 2001What it does: edserv provides job-linked, next generation education through the "Integrated Learning model". the firm works with higher education institutions.

3rank tirupati Inks Net Sales: `70.88Founded: 1984What it does: tirupati Inks, based in kanpur, manufactures and sells printing inks and cylinders. It also provides water-based inks for absorbent and non-absorbent surfaces, and for film series.

4rankSrS real InfrastructureNet Sales: `307.98Founded: 1990What it does: srs real Infrastructure is the flagship firm of the srs Group. It constructs group housing societies, townships, commercial towers, hotels, motels and farmhouses.

5rankSreepathi LabNet Sales: `27.72Founded: 2004What it does: the Hyderabad-based firm is a research organisation that provides expertise and resources to develop "active pharmaceutical ingredients".

6rankExcel EntertainmentNet Sales: `62.7Founded: 1999What it does: excel entertainment is a production house started by Farhan akhtar and ritesh sidhwani. It has produced hits like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Rock On.

7rankrMp InfotechNet Sales: `475.82Founded: 2001What it does: rmp is a network marketing company that specialises in providing innovative products to the public.

8rankKejriwal Bee Care IndiaNet Sales: `22.46Founded: 2002What it does: the company is an export-oriented producer of honey. It has become a market leader in the production and export of honey and related products, both in India and abroad, through its focus on quality.

9rankvikas GranariesNet Sales: `115.92Founded: 1994What it does: Vikas Granaries specialises in the production of "Guar Gum powder". It caters mainly to the international markets including the Us, europe, brazil, Japan, china, australia and south africa.

100

top 100

september/october 2011 | INC. | 7 9

10rankBhanot Construction & HousingNet Sales: `105.02Founded: 1976What it does: bcHL began with the construction of smaller residential and commercial complexes. It diversified into civil construction in 2009-2010. In 2008-09, its management merged bhanot Infrastructure and Hospitalities, trishul Industries and Fair properties to form bcHL.

11rankFAtpipe Networks IndiaNet Sales: `41.99Founded: 2002What it does: the firm is the manufacturer and marketer of highest-level Wan solutions for organisations. It is mainly focused on the overseas market, and has several offices across the world.

12rankSai Service Spares & AccessoriesNet Sales: `24.48Founded: 1991What it does: It is a chain of service stations with presence in maharashtra, Goa, kerala and andhra pradesh. sai services is also the official, authorised dealer of maruti suzuki and bajaj auto across Indian states.

13ranktara Health FoodsNet Sales: `195.17Founded: 1977What it does: the firm specialises in production of compounded cattle feed and edible oils. besides exporting, tara is now focused on establishing itself as a strong domestic player.

14rankArcotechNet Sales: `93.09Founded: 1981What it does: arcotech uses the latest technology to manufacture "non-ferrous metal semis". It has several fully-integrated, manufacturing facilities across India that melts, casts and produces non-ferrous metal semis.

the Hot Seat Finding smart employees is the top challenge for any fast-growing company. Here are some questions Inc.

India 500 ceos ask to get the right person.

“Do you know enough about us to join us?”

– pankaj ratra, path Infotech

“Are you a team player?  Can you create and grow a team so that you can pursue greater

responsibilities?” – tapaas chakravarti, DQ entertainment

“Why should I hire you from outside when I can promote

someone from within?”– amarjit singh, aG aerovision

“Even if your salary was cut by 50%, what job would you still want to continue doing?”

– arvind rao, onmobile

“What has been your greatest professional failure? What did you learn from it?

– Vimal kedia, manjushree technopak

“What motivates you when you are in the throes of failure?

– Jitendra Dugar, Go Go International

top 100

8 0 | INC. | september/october 2011

15rankIBI Chematur (Engineering & Consultancy)Net Sales: `21.62Founded: 1976What it does: they offer a complete range of services including technology search, pre-feasibility studies, site selection, project monitoring and detailed design to clients in the engineering space.

16rankMynah IndustriesNet Sales: `166.73Founded: 1985What it does: mynah is a textile firm specialising in the production of combed cotton and blended fabrics. It also works with chrome ore and ferro alloys.

17rankSanraa MediaNet Sales: `66.66Founded: 1995What it does: sanraa produces animated features both for television and the big screen. It has also recently ventured into the education sector through animation and design.

18rankEnzen GlobalNet Sales: `99Founded: 2001What it does: enzen, based in bengaluru, is involved in providing consultancy services to the energy and utilities market. the firm operates mainly across India and Uk.

19rankKalpataru net sales: `374.98Founded: 1988What it does: kalpataru is a real estate development company involved in commercial, retail and residential constructions. It has completed 27 projects till date including townships and larger office spaces.

20rankAMr ConstructionsNet Sales: `542.1Founded: 2001What it does: amr is one of India’spremier mining companies. amr

constructions uses latest global mining technology for the extraction of minerals. the company aims to become a global player in the natural resources industry in the next few years.

21rankASEEM GlobalNet Sales: `365.73Founded: 1983What it does: It is a distributor of non-ferrous and ferrous metals in India. It has one of the highest turnovers and capacities in the entire industry.

22rankprotech Galvanizers and FabricatorsNet Sales: `35.88Founded: 2004What it does: It is a one-stop shop for all solutions required in the fields of power distribution and telecommunication. a new venture of the protech group, the company is fully-equipped to handle a wide range of hardware and fittings requirements for its clients.

23rankAsahi Infrastructure & projectsNet Sales: `366.77Founded: 1988What it does: asahi Infrastructure & projects is involved in urban infrastructure development. the 22-year-old firm provides services such as construction and maintenance of infrastructure.

24rankCura technologiesNet Sales: `52.97Founded: 1991What it does: cura is an embedded-technology solutions provider, mainly working with the energy sector. It is a market leader in providing governance, risk and compliance enterprise applications to sectors.

25rankDhunseri petrochem & teaNet Sales: `1140.11Founded: 1916What it does: Dhunseri was engaged in the production and marketing of tea exclusively till 2009. In that year, it also

ventured into the business of It infrastructure development. the firm has a gross revenue of `1,200 crore and is headquartered in kolkata.

26ranktrinethra InfraNet Sales: `100.98Founded: 1992What it does: trinethra is one of the fastest-growing real estate companies in the south of India. It is a family-run firm that is headquartered in andhra pradesh.

27rankvuppalamritha Magnetic ComponentsNet Sales: `1011.34Founded: 1972What it does: Vmc is an original equipment manufacturer of a range of telecom, networking and power conversion products. Vmc designs, develops and manufactures its products for domestic and international customers.

28rankorbit Corporation Net Sales: `487.11Founded: 2000What it does: orbit is a real estate firm working primarily in the southern parts of mumbai. It is one of the top 10 Indian developers listed on the bombay stock exchange and the national stock exchange.

29rankHorizon InfrastructureNet Sales: `144.86Founded: 1983What it does: Horizon is an infrastructure firm that mainly works with India's ports, tourism and urban sectors. over the next decade, it plans to invest `15,000 crore in projects.

30rankBalaji Coke IndustryNet Sales: `205Founded: 1991What it does: a coking coal trading company, balaji operates mainly in australia and the Us. It handles more than 1 million tonnes of coal.

top 100

31rankBrandhouse retailsNet Sales: `657.46Founded: 2004What it does: brandhouse is a retail garment company that established itself with the reid&taylor brand. since then, it has spread its wings across brands.

32rankLinkson InternationalNet Sales: `163.12Founded: 1984What it does: It is a coal extraction and trading company. Linkson plans to expand its base to the foreign markets and work in clean and sustainable energy.

33rankAradhya Wire ropesNet Sales: `61.08Founded: 1992What it does: aradhya manufactures wire ropes for industrial buyers in India and abroad. With two manufacturing plants, it has a production capacity of 44,000 metric tonnes of wire per year.

34rankvHCL IndustriesNet Sales: `88.71Founded: 1978What it does: VHcL Industries, based in silvassa, manufactures re-processed and re-cycled plastic granules. 

35rankMittal CorpNet Sales: `278.37Founded: 1985What it does: mittal corp is a manufacturer of stainless steel intermediaries. the firm operates in central India and has factories in Indore, ahmedabad, Jodhpur and Delhi.

36rankJp InfrastructureNet Sales: `80.39Founded: 2004What it does: a real estate company, Jp Infrastructure focuses on building affordable residential accommodations. It's one of the the fastest-growing players in the affordable living solutions space.

Alter EgosIf you could be anyone in the world, whom would you be?

most people answered “me”. but entrepreneurial superstars like Dhirubhai ambani and steve Jobs are definite icons.

september/october 2011 | INC. | 81

“I admire Ratan Tata for his focus on quality, steadfastness and the ability to take positive decisions in

spite of adverse situations.” – c e Fernandes, GeI Industrial systems

“I would love to be Steve Jobs–the ultimate

entrepreneur”– p.D. mundhra, eclerx

“I want Mahatama Gandhi’s values, Dhirubhai Ambani’s vision, Warren Buffet’s investment

acumen and Bill Gates’ philanthropy.” – atul Hemani, omnitech Infosolutions

“If I could be anyone in the world, I’d still like to be me. I want to do my bit to make India a great country.”

– suresh Vazirani, transasia bio medicals

“I want to be the Anna Hazare in my sector and eradicate power scarcity.”

- Harjinder singh cheema, cheema boilers

“I'd like to have the innovative spirit of Steve Jobs, the humility of Ratan Tata, the

integrity of Narayan Murthy and the wisdom of Swami Vivekanand.”

—a.V.Hiremath, astec Lifesciences

top 100

8 2 | INC. | september/october 2011

37rankDriplex Water EngineeringNet Sales: `183.88Founded: 1974What it does: Driplex provides water treatment facilities and turnkey water supply solutions. It's one of the only companies to provide water treatment facilities to power companies in India.

38rankNila InfrastructuresNet Sales: `62.08Founded: 1990What it does: It is a construction company that focuses on providing affordable housing solutions in Gujarat.

39rankBartronics IndiaNet Sales: `580.11 Founded: 1990What it does: bartronics began by providing solutions based on "bar coding". In the past two decades, it has introduced newer technologies and solutions based on biometrics, rFID, pos, eas and smart cards.

40rankArmtech (India)Net Sales: `39.36Founded: 2003What it does: a civil aviation company, it has more than 30 successfully completed projects to its credit. It's worked with several state governments and private organisations.

41rankAravali InfrapowerNet Sales: `560.55Founded: 2002What it does: It provides engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services, mostly to the power sector.

42rankAngelique InternationalNet Sales: `732.43Founded: 1996What it does: a project engineering, procurement and construction company with global operations, angelique has recently grown its network across India.

43rankEconix Hi-tech ComponentsNet Sales: `24.16Founded: 1992What it does: based in Vadodra, econix is a manufacturer of terminals, connectors, adaptors, interface modules, accessories, lighting pole terminals, smps, plugs, sockets, terminals and connectors.

44rankManthan Software ServicesNet Sales: `37.18Founded: 2003What it does: manthan is a market analytics company catering especifically to the retail, cpG, food services, pharma and manufacturing industries. It provides and develops specific, analytics-based solutions to each of the sectors.

45rankb4s SolutionsNet Sales: `71.09Founded: 1999What it does: b4s provides security services, staff outsourcing, contract labour, and operation and maintenance services to the telecom industry.

46rankBaba ArtsNet Sales: `157.73Founded: 1999What it does: baba arts is a production company that specialises in post-production facilities—especially in the trade of Iprs.

47rankupL Environmental EngineersNet Sales: `106.56Founded: 1987What it does: one of the fastest-growing environmental epc management companies, UpL executes a range of turnkey projects. It's built a reputation for handling complex problems in the field of treatment, recycling and re-use of waste water.

48rankEducomp IndiaNet Sales: `832.22Founded: 1994What it does: a globally-diversified education solutions provider and the largest education

company in India, educomp reaches out to over 26,000 schools and 15 million learners and educators across the world.

49rankone97 CommunicationsNet Sales: `115.4Founded: 2000What it does: a mobile internet service provider for many telecom operators, one97 also invests in early stage mobile companies.

50rankArSS Infrastructure projectsNet Sales: `1000.59Founded: 2000What it does: one of the fastest-growing construction companies in India, arss has a focus on building highways and railways.

51rankAqua LogisticsNet Sales: `322.01Founded: 1999What it does: It is a logistics company with clients spread across the globe. they provide consultancy services in supply chain management and logistics services.

52rankGoenka Diamond & Jewels Net Sales: `536.84Founded: 1990What it does: a diamond trading company, Goenka is an established player in the jewellery market. the company is now backward-integrated for all its operations.

53rankrainox Wires Net Sales: `35.19Founded: 2001What it does: ahmedabad-based rainox Wires produces stainless steel nails and fine wires.

54rankKwality Dairy (India)Net Sales: `1054.09Founded: 1992What it does: one of the biggest dairy companies in India, kwality Dairy offers a huge range of products.

“Good colleagues are like wine—the longer they stay, the more valuable they become” —sukumar subramanian, sanraa media

top 100

september/october 2011 | INC. | 8 3

55rankConfidence petroleum IndiaNet Sales: `353.3Founded: 1994What it does: a leading player in the LpG and allied business sectors, confidence is the largest cylinder manufacturer in the country. It's also the largest private LpG bottler in the country.  

56rankEka Software SolutionsNet Sales: `36.79Founded: 2004What it does: a software solutions provider, eka is a market leader in software for global commodity markets. Its risk management software enables trading firms to run efficient operations and minimise exposure to transactional and financial risks.

57rankEveronn EducationNet Sales: `294Founded: 2000What it does: a software solutions provider for the education industry, everonn is a pioneer in using technological breakthroughs to make quality education a reality.

58rankJ Kumar InfraprojectsNet Sales: `764.24Founded: 1999What it does: J kumar is an infrastructure company based out of mumbai. It focuses on the civil aviation sector and in public infrastructure projects.

59rankDeep IndustriesNet Sales: `55.34Founded: 1991What it does: a diversified oil and gas

company with interests in different forms of energy, Deep has laid out an ambitious mission for itself—expansion in the overseas market and a vision to be recognised as a socially responsible organisation.

60rankSandhar Locking DevicesNet Sales: `550.21Founded: 1987What it does: It is a company that produces a mass range of locking systems for different industries. It’s one of the few locking system companies that provides clients such a large variation of offerings.

61rankSeQuent Net Sales: `246.34Founded: 1985What it does: seQuent is a research-oriented pharmaceutical company. It's developed considerable expertise in the pharmaceutical and life sciences products too.

62rankvishwa Infrastructure and ServicesNet Sales: `406.2Founded: 1992What it does: It is an infrastructure company specialising in providing engineering, procurement and construction activities for infrastructure projects on a turnkey basis. It specialises in executing water supply and sewerage infrastructure projects.

63rankChampalal Motilal Steel CompanyNet Sales: `446.07Founded: 2000What it does: champalal motilal steel company engages in the business of trading of "hot rolled" and "cold rolled" sheets and coils, mild steel sheets and plates, and colour-coated sheets.

64ranktecpro SystemsNet Sales: `1455Founded: 1990What it does: tecpro systems is an established epc company which engages in providing turnkey solutions to bulk material and ash handling systems. It also helps in the balance of thermal power plants, captive power plants and pollution control systems.

65rankveena IndustriesNet Sales: `366.29Founded: 1996What it does: Veena Industries pioneered the manufacture of canopies of gensets, compressors and under-carriages. their clients span across the globe.

66rankA2Z Maintenance & Engineering ServicesNet Sales: `1122.78Founded: 2002What it does: the company provides integrated design, testing, installation, construction and commissioning services on a turnkey basis to clients in the Indian power sector.

67ranktotem InfrastructureNet Sales: `596.43Founded: 1997What it does: totem is an infrastructure company operating in four major segments of infrastructure—transportation, irrigation, power and urban.

68rankMArGNet Sales: `745Founded: 1994What it does: marG is one of the fastest-growing infrastructure companies in the country. today, it has projects worth more than `5,000 crore under execution.

69rankCore Education and technologiesNet Sales: `417.95Founded: 1985What it does: one of India’s largest global

“Good colleagues are like wine—the longer they stay, the more valuable they become” —sukumar subramanian, sanraa media

top 100

8 4 | INC. | september/october 2011

education companies, core has a presence in several countries outside India. It provides educational products for all stages of education from k12 to vocational training courses.

70rankSB&t DesignsNet Sales: `39.56Founded: 2004What it does: sb&t Designs manufactures and exports diamond and precious-stone-studded, platinum and palladium jewellery products. the company operates out of mumbai.

71rankSterling & WilsonNet Sales: `1082.57Founded: 1974What it does: It is one of the country’s leading MEP companies catering to the hospitality, IT and telecom industries. Sterling & Wilson also enjoys a presence in the overseas markets.

72rankClinigene InternationalNet Sales: `33.05Founded: 2000What it does: It is a full-service clinical research organisation that partners with global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. It also has India’s first cap-accredited central laboratory.

73rankSupreme Infrastructure IndiaNet Sales: `533.26Founded: 1983What it does: one of the most promising infrastructure companies in the country, supreme has completed several projects

for the government, public and private bodies, and international organisations.

74rankGala EquipmentNet Sales: `22.17Founded: 1980What it does: Gala equipment is an Iso/ts 16949:2009 certified organisation with a high-level of engineering competency. Its clientele spans across continents—from asia to europe and across america. 

75rankElectrical Manufacturing CompanyNet Sales: `653.23Founded: 1953What it does: electrical manufacturing is a power systems company offering total turnkey solutions in the fields of transmission line projects, eHV sub-stations and power distribution projects.

76rankMan InfraconstructionNet Sales: `478.01Founded: 2002What it does: It is one of India's leading construction companies, and has worked for some of the most significant port projects in the country.

77rankCredit Analysis & research Net Sales: `137.88Founded: 1993What it does: credit analysis & research, better known as care, is a full-service rating company which offers a wide range of rating and grading services across sectors to companies in India.  

78rankFirst Steps BabywearNet Sales: `98.34Founded: 2001What it does: First steps is a garment manufacturer that specialises in infant apparel. It also deals with high-end designer and cotton garments.

79rankDiamond power InfrastructureNet Sales: `724.28Founded: 1992What it does: Diamond power Infrastructure is India’s largest and only integrated manufacturer of power transmission equipment.

80rankEnmas GB power Systems projectsNet Sales: `36.86Founded: 1995What it does: It handles the power boiler business of the resurgent Group. It offers state-of-the-art, high pressure boilers for burning fuel.

81rankNKG InfrastructureNet Sales: `1025.81Founded: 1989What it does: nkG is an infrastructure company that specialises in the execution and construction of roads, bridges, buildings, electric transmissions, distribution networks, and sewer and water works.

82rankCoastal projectsNet Sales: `1330.08Founded: 1995What it does: coastal projects is a construction company that primarily engages in developing infrastructural projects across the country.

83rankNexxoft InfotelNet Sales: `70.59Founded: 1991What it does: nexxoft is a software development firm which specialises in building innovative applications using 3D technology for clients.

“For us, next is now. What we do now shapes our next wave.”—satheesh kumar k.r., enzen Global

top 100

september/october 2011 | INC. | 8 5

84rankGlodyne technoserveNet Sales: `707.31Founded: 1997What it does: a leading It services company, Glodyne, headquartered in mumbai, offers technology-led business solutions across several verticals.

85rankLGS GlobalNet Sales: `240.75Founded: 1999What it does: LGs Global is an information technology implementation and outsourcing services provider which mainly works in the cloud computing segment.

86rankKaruturi GlobalNet Sales: `533.82Founded: 1994What it does: karuturi is one of the main producers of cut roses across the world. the company grows roses over 292 hectares of land. karuturi has an annual production capacity of 555 million stems.

87rankShiv-vani oil & Gas Exploration ServicesNet Sales: `1071.8Founded: 1989What it does: the company is a premier service provider catering to the upstream segment of the oil and gas industry. It is a globally-recognised firm known for its expertise in exploration, production and allied services.

88rankMax Flex & Imaging SystemsNet Sales: `310.78Founded: 2002What it does: the firm is involved in the manufacturing and marketing of digital and offset printing consumables in India.

89rankSunil Hitech EngineersNet Sales: `722.68Founded: 1998What it does: sunil Hitech works on fabrication and commissioning projects for the power industry.

90rankGravita IndiaNet Sales: `104.9Founded: 1992What it does: Gravita is one of India’s leading lead producing companies, It provides pure lead, lead metal, alloy and other related products.

91rankDM CorporationNet Sales: `70.63Founded: 2002What it does: Dm is a core construction company that constructs dams, tunnels, canals and power projects.

92rankuSHEr AgroNet Sales: `342Founded: 1996What it does: one of the leading agri-business houses in the country, UsHer aims to meet the domestic demand for basic food. However, it also focuses on export markets. It is a Iso9001:2000 and Haccp-certified firm.

93rankJaihind projectsNet Sales: `409.28Founded: 1985What it does: Jaihind projects is an engineering, procurement and construction company that focuses on the hydrocarbon, water and infrastructure sectors.

94rankSom Datt BuildersNet Sales: `573.96Founded: 1965What it does: som Datt builders is a global infrastructure company with projects across the globe. It was one of the first Indian construction companies with international projects, as early as 1976.

95rankpaladion NetworksNet Sales: `41.66Founded: 2000What it does: paladion networks is a global, full-service and managed security provider that is committed to delivering

technology-based solutions to clients across asia, europe and the Us.

96rankCaliber point Business SolutionNet Sales: `87.17Founded: 2004What it does: caliber is the independent bpo arm of Hexaware technologies, a leading global It and bpo services firm.

97rankGemini Engi-FabNet Sales: `21.06Founded: 1998What it does: Gemini is an engineering, procurement and construction company for custom-built critical process equipment. the firm has been growing 100 per cent year-on-year since 2007.

98rankBvG IndiaNet Sales: `139.89Founded: 2002What it does: bVG India provides facilities management services in India. It serves industrial premises, airports, shopping malls, hospitals, railways, commercial buildings and educational institutions.

99rankCamson Bio technologiesNet Sales: `79.98Founded: 1993What it does: camson bio technologies is a leading agricultural biotechnology company.

100rankCantabil retail IndiaNet Sales: `201.83Founded: 1989What it does: cantabil is a retail garment chain that owns 279 exclusive stores across the country. the company deals in designer, formal, party and casual dresses for men, women and children.

8 6 | INC. | september/october 2011

MAKING IT

photograph by SubhojIT PAul reported by IrA SwASTI

rank No. 294relaxo Footwears

Does comfort always come at a price? Delhi-based Relaxo Footwears has twisted this trade (or should we say ‘tread’) truth. The company, founded in 1976, sells its low-priced and comfortable chappals, fancy sandals and school shoes in rural and semi-urban pockets of India. That’s roughly 70 per cent of India’s population. Little wonder then that Relaxo clocks in sales of more than 100 million pairs per annum under its brands—Sparx, Flite and Schoolmate. The company also manufactures for premium brands like Nike and Dunlop, and exports footwear to New Zealand, the US and UK.

THE WAY I WORK

I grew up in a small middle-class town called Moga in Punjab. You don’t get every-thing you want in such places. That’s a good thing sometimes, because it teaches you a thing or two. It taught me the need to be disciplined. On school days, I would be up by 4.30am. The early morning habit has stuck on. Now I wake up by 6.15am. The first thing I do is get up and switch on my BlackBerry. I don’t feel the need for any cof-fee or tea to kick-start my day. It is business from the word go.

Since Eka Software has offices across conti-nents, my team and I work according to various time zones. On usual days, I talk to the head of production, based out of Lon-don, in the mornings. That’s his time to turn in. It makes sense to have a quick chat about his day and plan mine accordingly. The quick chat lasts about 15 minutes. After the call, it is time to exercise—

If you try to describe Manav Garg, CEO of Eka Software, don’t use words. Try numbers instead. Garg is all of 37 years. He began with a million-dollar seed fund. It took him five minutes to convince his then boss to invest. Today, he wants five more years from his investors, most of them worth a billion dollars. If they give the nod, Garg will take his $10-million firm to a new height—the $100-million mark. Eka Software may have conquered UK and the US, but Garg’s primary target is India. He wants to be the country’s largest product software company.

There areno stupidManav GarG | Eka SoftwarE SolutionSthree Year Growth 90.5 % | 2010 revenue ̀ 37 crore

aS tolD to ROHInI BAnERjEEphotoGraphS bY S. RAdHAKRISHnA

Everyoneshould pitch inideas.

another childhood habit. I believe in the wholesome benefit of a quick jog, a round of lawn tennis or badminton.

Breakfast means cereals, milk shakes or home-cooked poha or idli. I love cooking elaborate dinners for my friends and fam-ily on weekends. On weekdays, I like to stick to light food.

My son and daughter are six and three respectively. My schedule allows me to spend a little time with them in the morn-ing. I make it a point to either drop my daughter or son to their schools. I com-mute 40 minutes to reach my office. The school detour takes me 20 minutes. The rest of the journey is spent on calls or lis-tening to classical music.

I am one of the first five to arrive in office. The rest of the office is in by 11am. I am

strict about discipline, but that’s only as far as delivery is concerned. I believe that promises should be kept. Eka is, otherwise, a relaxed space to work in. Our office is an open, quirky, boomerang-shaped place. We don’t have cubicles. The design and culture of the office go hand-in-hand. We have tried to establish a sense of space and har-mony. Everyone’s allowed to be individual-istic and bounce ideas off each other. But, in the end, everyone is part of a larger whole. We are all passionate about R&D. My man-tra is—there are no stupid ideas. I believe everyone has the right to make errors. Eka works on certain principles. We call them the ‘seven senses’. They are innovation, team work, discipline, growth, fun, com-munity and environment.

I began with a five-member team. Today, Eka has 220-odd people working for it. I have a massive pre-sales team. In a fast-

8 8 | InC. | SEptEmbEr/octobEr 2011

RAnK56

Mr discipline manav Garg believes in sticking to his promises—

especially those made to his clients.

SEptEmbEr/octobEr 2011 | InC. | 8 9

THE WAY I WORK

moving industry like ours, it’s important to constantly innovate and interact with clients. On a usual month, our pre-sales team engages with nearly 90 customers. They are an important part of my team as they know the pulse of the folks on the ground. I spend an hour with that team every day, trying to think long-term and looking at key aspects as product differen-tiation. The idea is not to intervene. I just help them brainstorm.

When we had a smaller team, I used to involve myself in every nitty-gritty. I have learnt to let go now and let senior folks

handle all that. My main task is to manage talent and strategise.

We are also trying to fortify Eka’s market-ing and business strategy. We want A-list clients and for that you have to constantly travel, network and meet people. Meetings take up a pretty large chunk of my time. I usually call CIOs or CEOs of client compa-nies every week, or go and meet people whenever I can. It’s a great way to receive feedback and keep tabs on the ground real-ity. Connectivity is very important and we have been looking at LinkedIn and Twitter to improve our web presence.

We all break for lunch around 1pm. I am famished by then. That half an hour is dedicated to food, sports and political news. Post-lunch hours are usually packed with work so we make the most of this time. Usually, the UK office begins work after we’re done with lunch. From 2pm, we start making calls both to the US and the UK. By 7.30pm, I am ready to call it quits for the day.

I try to be home by 8.15pm to tuck in my daughter. By nine, I am at the dinner table for a light meal of soup and sandwich with my wife. Then it’s me and book time. Right now, I am reading the Swedish crime thriller called The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I hardly watch films or TV. Of course, everything depends on business calls. If there’s one, this evening routine goes for a toss.

I love unwinding after a fully-packed work week. Two days every week, I sit down with my daughter to learn Hindustani classical music from our guruji. I absolutely love this session. It’s something I had wanted to do for a long time. My wife and son are exempted from the classes.

I am usually in bed by 11pm. However, what man proposes, work disposes. At this phase of Eka, I have to travel to our offices in London, NYC, Venezuela and Australia. And, there’s no way you can faithfully stick to a regime when you are travelling.

My business trips are special to me. The idea for Eka had sprung up during one such trip. I mustered up the courage to tell the chairman of GP Groups, where I was working then, of my plans. He agreed to loan me $5 million. Promptly, I spent a large chunk into launching Eka. That was one milestone crossed. Whether the next one will be an acquisi-tion or reaching the $100-million mark or being known as the leader of the verti-cal, I still don’t know. But these don’t seem like wishful dreams anymore. They are achievable plans. When I go off to sleep, they’re all I can think of.

“I don’t need coffee or tea to kickstart

my day. It’s business from the word go.” —manav GarG

9 0 | InC. | SEptEmbEr/octobEr 2011

AD

My life is full of happy accidents. I come from a family of businessmen and always knew that I would run my own company some day. I was brought up to be independent. Like any other south Indian family, mine too wanted me to follow the traditional path. Great emphasis was laid on education and knowledge. I did my engineering in computer science in 1996.

After graduation, I worked as a networking programmer with a software firm in Bengal-uru but soon realised that it was not my cup of tea. I was looking for something more cre-ative. I gave up the job and moved to Chen-nai to join Pentafour Software.

Sukumar Subramanian is a computer science engineer who gave up the American dream to pursue one of his own. Today, he’s the CEO of one of the most successful animation studios in India—Sanraa Media. His journey hasn’t been fun and games though. Initially, he set up PixAlaya Studios, an entertainment company, but almost called it quits when a client defaulted on a massive pay-up. Subramanian’s never-say-die spirit kept him afloat. Things changed after he met his business partner A. Venkatramani. Together, the duo bought a bankrupt entertainment company, Sanraa Media. Not unlike the animation series the company produces, Subramanian has scripted an exciting, fast-paced story for himself.

Life is all about

that firstSUKUMAR SUBRAMANIAN | Sanraa MediaThree Year Growth 196.4% | 2010 revenue ̀ 67 crore

aS TOLd TO MEENAkSHI kuMAr

opportunity

Working for Pentafour’s multimedia division worked out for me. As a programmer, I wrote tools for animation. It helped me gain an insight into the world of animation, some-thing I loved. I learnt a lot in the two years there. But soon enough restlessness kicked in.

In 1999, I joined a gaming and media com-pany as their gaming division head. I hadn’t done gaming, so this was new. I was instru-mental in developing a game called Spooky Races. After that, I moved to Jadooworks, an animation company, as a consultant.

After six years in the business of anima-tion and gaming, I’d gained a vast amount of knowledge. I had my own ideas. I’d get

frustrated that they couldn’t be imple-mented the way I wanted. I was passionate about entertainment and wanted to launch my own company. In the 1990s, entrepre-neurship still wasn’t cool. It was a huge decision to give up a regular job and start out on your own. A computer engineer was much sought after those days. The IT industry was booming and there were lucrative jobs in the US and elsewhere.

In February 2002, I launched PixAalaya Studios. I’d invested `20 lakhs into the com-pany. I was only 27 then. We started with just three people in a tiny office in Chennai, and made mobile games for Nokia and some Singapore-based companies.

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HOW I DID IT

The animation industry was growing at the time. India was being looked at as a great outsourcing destination. It was a good time to set up shop. Soon, we got a hugely ambi-tious project—a 135-minute interactive animation DVD called Steel League for Blue Monkey Studio, a UK-based firm. This set the stage for us and we soon started getting other good projects.

We were riding high on our success when a rude shock hit us hard. In 2005, a client didn’t pay us a `85 lakh outstanding. We were badly hit. I found myself reeling

under a huge debt of `1.5 crore. I had to sell my car and reduce my staff strength from 100 to only two. I worked 18 hours a day to repay a bank loan of `45 lakh. Later, I suc-cessfully sued the client but it was a long and lonely legal battle.

Contracts, paperwork and stability must be put in place—it was my moment of epiphany. Fortunately, in 2006, I met A. Venkatramani, a leading advocate. He had considerable management experience and had worked for blue-chip firms like Hin-dustan Unilever and HCL. He took over

75 per cent of the company and turned it around into an aggressive new media technology company. Within a few months, we acquired Sanraa Media, a publicly listed company which had gone bankrupt. Venkatramani was clear. He wanted Sanraa to be a full-fledged enter-tainment company. It wouldn’t focus on just one vertical.

After taking over Sanraa, we bounced back. In 2006 itself, we made `30-40 lakh. Today, we are worth `70 crore. We have 500-plus people working with us in our offices in Bengaluru, Chennai, New Jersey and Singapore. We will soon set up a marketing office in Los Angeles and London. We aim at high-quality projects. Our clients—Endemol UK, Action Syntheses, France and Newtrickompany, Germany—trust us. It’s very gratifying that we are known as a creative and innovative company.

We are people-focused. It’s been said enough times but good employees really are a compa-ny’s assets. Colleagues are like wine, the longer they stay, the more valuable they become.

In the last two years, we’ve entered a new league. In 2009, we landed a co-produc-tion deal with Endemol UK for the ani-mated TV series, The 99. The entire production for the 3D animated series was done by us. The 99 is a fantastic story about 99 superhero characters who embody the global values of tolerance, wisdom, mercy and other heroic charac-terestics. In fact, US President Barack Obama had praised the series at a summit on entrepreneurship last year. In the next few years, we want to be a ̀ 400-crore company. It’s not going to be easy. But it’s important to not give up on your dreams. I knew I wanted to be in the entertainment business and despite the ups and downs, I never stopped trying. I’ve bounced back from several low periods. Life and business are both like that. You need to take your chances. It’s all about that first opportunity and the people who make it possible like my father and my brothers who were my first investors.

“It’s necessary to keep dreaming.

Don’t ever give up your dreams.”

—SukuMar SubraManian

rANk17

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Daya Krishna Goyal: I worked with Cimmco Birla for 30 years. In 1993, I quit to start out on my own. It seemed natural to do so in the infrastructure sector as I was a mechanical engineer by qualification. And my experience of executing infrastructure projects at Birla gave me the confidence that I could do this on my own. Angelique was formed in 1996.

DKG: The early years were quite tough. The shift from a professional heading a team to single-handedly managing things was challenging. There was little capital, apart from some personal assets and I was alone at that point as Sanjay, my younger son, was studying in the US. Ajay (my eldest son) was running his garment manufacturing unit, having qualified as a textile engineer.

I asked Sanjay to join me as soon as he fin-ished studies. He worked with me for a few years. In 2000, he wanted to strike out on his own and started his own telecom VAS (value-added service) company, ACL Wireless. It was then that I asked Ajay to shut down his garment manufacturing business and join me. It was becoming tough for me to manage.

Ajay Krishna Goyal: Raising capital was a big challenge then. Banking policies were strin-gent and it was only because of my father’s rapport with the bankers that banks started lending money.

AKG: Sanjay’s parting ways with Angelique was amicable. He’s still on the board of direc-tors, though not actively involved. We do foresee a role for him at Angelique in the

future. Initially, it was difficult for me to let go I’d built up over the years. There was also a lit-tle heartburn because when I shut my unit, my company wasn’t doing too well. I wasn’t making great profits. In fact, today I feel I should have joined Angelique earlier.

There are areas where my father and I have differences. But we settle it amicably—he looks after project implementation and I take care of new businesses and marketing. It’s great that he has the ability to adapt to change.

DKG: While there have been no major differ-ences between us, it’s natural that each gen-eration will have a different approach. My sons, whether Sanjay or Ajay, have taken advantage of technology in a better manner to run the business.

Entrepreneurship courses through the family tree at Angelique International with both generations of the founding Goyal family dabbling in various ventures. Those insights have obviously come in handy for Angelique International, the family’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company. The family touch is an intrinsic part of the company, starting from its very name, which has been inspired by founder-chairman Daya Krishna Goyal’s daughter, Anjali. Both of Goyal’s sons have also worked in the company at different times. Clearly, the gene pool has been effective. Today, after building success internationally, the Noida-based company, is focused on creating an even larger wealth in India.

Where family isalwaysD.K. Goyal & a.K. Goyal | Angelique internAtionAlthree Year growth 106.9% | 2010 revenue Rs. 732 crore

firstAs told to TEjEESh N.S. BEhlphotogrAph BY SuBhojIT PAul

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hoW I DID IT

AKG: We are conservative and have deliber-ately eschewed temptations to diversify in the early years. We wanted to be well-established before we spread. We let go of opportunities in commodities trading. Despite being a low-margin business, it’s profitable. But we didn’t want to grow erratically. We like being under the radar. We don’t brand ourselves on social media. We’ve never felt the need to do that.

That doesn’t mean we won’t explore new areas. Agriculture and mining are two growth areas for us especially in Africa. We

are in the process of acquiring agricultural land and gold mines. We’re also thinking of a public issue but that will happen after we have created value with our expansion plan.

DKG: Most Indian EPC companies found their calling overseas especially in the west Asian and north-African countries due to the oil boom in the 1970s. The size of the con-struction contracts and the margins were also very big in those times. Moreover, these countries lacked the expertise required for executing large EPC projects. My experience at Cimmco enabled me to build a personal

equation with the governments there. That helped us get projects.

AKG: our attention to focus on India came a few years ago when we saw an increasing opportunity in the domestic market for EPC. Admittedly, we’ve not been very suc-cessful in India yet. It has forced us to rethink our domestic operations and con-tracts that need a different orientation and plan because margins are razor thin. We were operating the way we did with interna-tional contracts—we didn’t minimise costs enough. However, we’ve learnt now and intend to concentrate on specific sectors such as steel and railways. Fortunately, the EPC business hasn’t been impacted by the global economic crises.

AKG: In our kind of business, you just have to be patient—that’s the only way to stay in busi-ness. Growth is slow because individual proj-ects take approximately three years to execute. Our first project came in 2001, five years after we began. The first five years were very slow. Sometimes work would be held up because we didn’t get our letters of credit.

At such times, what comes in handy is the trust of suppliers and credit-worthiness of the company; they make your reputation.

overseas operations are always challenging as governments there are slower in their response time. With technical and manage-rial skills not abundantly available in coun-tries where we operate, especially west Asia, training and teaching takes time. You can’t be impatient. You cannot overbook yourself.

AKG: In the next few years, we plan to get into towers and cable manufacturing to expand our product range and at the same time, get into agriculture and min-ing. We intend to finish 2011 with reve-nues close to $250 million (approximately `1,125 crore).

My father is 71 years old. But he hasn’t made any plans for retirement. Work is his reason for living. He’s still actively involved in all operations. We are trying to gradually take the load off him.

RANK

42

Slow and Steady the father-son team of goyals has learnt the

business value of patience.

septemBer/octoBer 2011 | INC. | 9 5

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Anuradha Das MathurPublisher, Inc. India

Newspapers are full of worrisome news these days—whether it is politics, or society or indeed, the economy and the environment. Inflation is the highest it’s been in recent years while foreign direct investment is at its lowest. Margins are under pressure, yet employ-ees are done with salary freezes and are demanding “boom-time” hikes. Mid-sized companies are willing to borrow money to finance their growth, but interest rates climb every quarter.

Problems abound, but—thank God—so do opportunities. That’s what our readers always manage to see and that’s precisely what makes watching and writing for Inc. India an energising experience.

This “never-say-die” spirit is what attracted me, personally, to India’s entrepreneurs. Ten years ago, there wasn’t an obvious, “equal and opposite” positive to every “more-than-obvious” down-side. Yet the all-pervasive entrepreneurial spirit charged on and wrote India’s growth story, often against all odds. And left me wondering about what makes them tick—day after day.

At that time, my day job required me to work with large, estab-lished corporations. Intuitively, I knew there was a difference in what I saw in management behaviour versus entrepreneurial style. But without enough evidence to back my gut, it remained just that. I had no framework to assess the difference. Today, as an entrepre-neur, I understand and live that distinction.

Which is why I was delighted when I read an article in the Feb-ruary 2011 edition of Inc. titled How Great Entrepreneurs Think. The article is based on research carried out by Saras Sarasvathy, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. She carried out an experiment with a group that had at least 15 years of experience starting multiple companies, and had taken at least one company public. She asked the same questions of senior management in corporations like Nestle, Philip Morris and Shell to hypothesise the big differences. Saras has some insightful findings. Briefly, she says, and I rephrase below basis my own experiences:

1. Entrepreneurs rely on “effectual reasoning”. Being outstand-ing improvisers, they often don’t start out with concrete goals. Instead, they use their strengths and available resources to develop goals and react creatively as they progress. If I look back at 9.9 Media’s (the parent company for Inc. India) four entrepreneurial

years, we reflect this completely. By contrast, corporate execu-tives—also enormously successful in their chosen field—use causal reasoning. They set a goal and diligently seek the best ways to achieve it. I suspect they avoid the troughs, but also the peaks.

2. That is not to say entrepreneurs don’t have goals, only they are in a hurry to get to market as quickly and cheaply as possible, a principle Sarasvathy calls “affordable loss”. Don’t wait for the perfect, else you may wait forever. The attitude is rooted in their belief that no one can really predict the future and by the time detailed research gets done, the reality has changed. In Saras’s words, the careful forecast is the enemy of the fortuitous surprise.

3. Expert entrepreneurs learn the hard way that “having even one real customer on board with you is better than knowing in a hands-off way 10 things about a thousand customers”. They invest in getting started with that one and view him as their top salesman.

4. Finally, they “sweat competitors later”. I agree. As entrepre-neurs , we often see ourselves not in the thick of a market but on the fringe of one, or as creating a new market entirely. Like farmers, we care about our own little patch of ground. We just don’t have the time to worry about someone else. The focus is on continuously watching out for opportunities. In fact, we set out on a path almost expecting it to become bigger and broader as we tread it.

But it’s not always “ready, fire, aim”. Planning, research and worrying about competitors gain in importance as you scale up. What stays rooted amongst us is an “eternal optimism”. It’s on this enduring quality that I want to focus. Business cycles, changing luck and attrition are a reality. We have to take it in our stride. The only ingredient that will ensure we stay in the game, and hopefully win is our ability to dip into our reserves of eternal optimism.

Congratulations to all of you on another great year. Here’s to a future full of hope and winning...

Optimism: the most enduring ingredient of them all...

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