consider every employee as a communication touch point to our customers. And while operating a chain of retail outlets it gets difficult to gauge if the mission, vision and ethics laid down by the top management reaches every employee across outlets and cities. We have laid down an exhaustive training mechanism for this. A training mechanism is important, also because every now and then we introduce new technologies and every employee at all our outlets has to first understand the technology in order to service end customers.
Are there any major life lessons that you have learned about business relationships through your personal experiences?
Not able to recall any such incident.
What is the biggest mistake you’ ve made as an entrepreneur?
Making mistakes and learning is an ongoing process. I have always taken every mistake as a paid tutor. The most important of the mistakes was undermining the importance of technology security. There have been incidences where our software has been pirated and our business suffered huge monetary losses due to it. Owing to which we had to do various litigations. On further investigation, we realized that we mainly lacked in not making timely investments in technology security. It is imperative to pay attention to technology security in a fast growing technology company.
What do you do to recharge when you’ re feeling drained?
Spending quality time with family and friends and indulging into sports activities has always been like an instant energy booster for me. Being an avid lover of sports, I enjoy playing cricket & football regularly. Also, cycling is something that I enjoy with a group of friends and maybe do some intercity rides. Apart from sports, I like to read – currently reading on Hindu mythology. Sleeping without gazing at my kindle for at least sometime seems impossible. Reading, to me is a great stress buster.
How did you overcome the biggest hurdles in building your business?
To most of us even a smallest change is a big hurdle. It is imperative that to bring about a major change the change agent has to be strong and compelling enough to be able to counter the resistance of all change bearers. The biggest change / hurdle was to give the business the shape of a chain of outlets from a single outlet. Even though the expansion was always a plan, it was quite challenging to expand a technology centric outlet to various cities where I could not reach out personally. The distant employees had to deliver the products / services to customers at SOPs which were scripted at our head office. Every employee is a customer touch point and needs continuous training on various skills which is a huge challenge. We are still evolving and this remains a huge challenge that every customer touch point completely understands the company’ s core values to be able to deliver to our customers efficiently.
Your Message to Entrepreneurs?
There are actually a couple of them to pen down: There is no alternative to hard work and there are no nonworking hours. Once a business grows it is necessary to delegate and keep yourself free. There’ s definitely a cost associated with delegation but it keeps you free and enables you to think and see beyond your business. A vision is necessary and without a vision you do not know what to do next and what after the next. Most importantly do consider the exit plan before starting up a business. Be practical and understand the life of business you are getting into.
TRILL 7D rides to enjoy with your friends and family
HELLOBIZ NOV 2017 | 31