Q&A: Ninad Karpe, CEO & MD, Aptech

'Our focus is on the global business'

Aptech, once a leader in computer education programmes and animation courses, today launched its new brand identity. In an interview, Ninad Karpe, CEO and MD of the company, told Piyali Mandal how the new brand identity will help the company get an edge over competitors and connect with the global audience. Edited excerpts: 

Aptech was the leading computer education provider once, but gradually it seems to have lost its way. What went wrong?
IT education is a matured market now. When we started 25-years ago, we were one of the leaders. Even today, we are the leaders in IT education in some of the international markets. In China and Vietnam, we are number one. Even in India we are one of the leading players. We had taken a conscious decision to become a career education company than just an IT education provider. In animation business, we have about 80 per cent market share. However, we will focus more on our computer (IT) education business now. The re-branding will help us connect better with the students and give edge over our competitors.

Is that the only rationale behind the re-branding exercise?
There is a two-fold reason for this exercise. First, we wanted to bring all our sub-brands under one umbrella. Post the re-branding, all the Aptech group companies will be known as Aptech. For example Npower, which offers hardware courses, and Avlon, the aviation academy and English Express, will all be known as Aptech. Secondly, it will give a youthful look to the company. We have already launched a new website for students called Unleashyourpotential.com. But we will not touch the multimedia institutes — Arena and MAAC. They are doing well so we don’t want to rebrand them.

How much have you spent on the branding exercise and what kind of benefits you expect to reap in future?
We have spent close to Rs 2 crore on re-branding. We don’t want to give forward looking statements.

With this new, look are you planning to foray into some new business?
Yes. We want to be the country’s largest global education company. We may start some training programmes. In the short term, we want to focus on our global business.

What are your plans for the global business?
We are looking at all the emerging economies such as Latin America, South East Asia, and East Europe. We will follow a model of joint venture in large countries. We get 80 per cent revenues from retail business and 20 per cent from enterprise. Out of the retail business one-third comes from the global business. We want to get over half of our revenues from the global market by the end of 2015. Our global businesses have been growing by 20 per cent. This year we expect it to grow by more than 30 per cent.