Early years
Coming from a Bengali middle class family from Calcutta which veered towards the bureaucracy (my father was in the IAS), I broke with custom and graduated in electronics engineering in 1975. After a stint in a transnational construction company I joined ITI, Bangalore, as an assistant executive engineer for Rs 1,127 per month. A matter of great pride for the security-craving Bengali, which was shaken slightly on the first day when I realised there were 500 other people at the same post! Work was very satisfying but not so the organisation. After a year-and-a-half I was ready to jump the three-year employment bond.
Turning point
In 1978, I joined the research team of a Hyderabad-based weighing machine company, Tulaman. At 24, I was one of the youngest in the ISI committee. Then Gopinath, marketing director, at competitor Avery India, switched over. He persuaded me to quit research for marketing. After two valuable years, I joined DCM Dataproducts and was soon posted to the US. Returning after a year, I had a showdown with my boss: it was either the sack or a transfer to Ahmedabad. I left and enrolled with IIM, Calcutta.
In '84, I joined Nicco as head, western region, but was called to Calcutta to manage the sick Nicco Steel as GM. An unenviable if well-paid task at Rs 4-5 lakh a year, this brush with commodity marketing gave me a real taste of negotiating and striking deals across the table.
But I soon tired of the laidback pace in Calcutta. Then came my most exciting break in 1988. Out of curiosity I applied for the post of a profit centre head to be based in Jaipur, Lucknow and Patna. The company was Times of India but I turned down the offer as none of the places interested me. Luckily, Satish Mehta, director, marketing, TOI, had taught me in IIM. Aware I was a topper but also a bit of a rogue and difficult to handle, he suggested the job of 'brand manager' with a posting in Delhi.
After 48 hours of negotiation, I got the job (but no jump in my salary from Nicco). My first move was to kill the Times Magazine supplement, whose every issue meant a loss of Rs 1.5 crore. In '89 I focussed on their regional offices in the north that were doing badly. Sameer Jain taught me in my two years with TOI, what would otherwise have taken me 10 years to learn.
In 1990, I had my first brush with television when Dalmias' hired me as executive director for their TV venture that was in a mess. I was 36 and it gave me a big kick.
Even as some revenue was generated, in '91 I brought to their notice, Star TV's hunt for an Indian partner. By 92 I, too, was on the look-out for a fresh challenge and a call from Star TV saw me in Hong Kong for three days. I returned with a contract and a pay equivalent to what I would earn in my three-months notice period.
For two years, I worked as an expat in Hong Kong looking after the India, Pakistan and Middle-East operations and being a part of their strategy team. Richard Lee, deputy chairperson, believed in delegating and rewards. For meeting my target in six months, I got eight months of salary as bonus (when I left Star I had made my million earning nearly US$250,000 annually including the bonus.) After Rupert Murdoch took over, the system became centralised, very similar to Sameer Jains and TOIs. I quit in early 1994.
Starting out
It was time to go solo. For professionals this transition to business is always slow and starts with consultancy. Alongwith a colleague from Star, Spa Associates was set up to provide consultation in media and television in February 1994. I owned 51 per cent of the company and she 49 - an equation that still holds. I had plenty of savings, but at 40, I did not want to invest it in a venture that could fail.
We started with a small capital of Rs 10,000 between us and one consulting account for ABN for a retainer of US $ 200,000 divided over 6-12 months. A three-storeyed house in Safdarjang Enclave had been rented at Rs 40,000 a month as my residence. Part of it was converted into our office. We had a staff of six - four in consulting.The first year our profits were around Rs 40 lakh.
Make or break
With prior experience in media, we had acquired a certain brand equity. As clients increased we started expanding and set up five companies for consultancy, aiding acquisitions and mergers, a studio for downlinking and packaging programs for embassies, Doordar-shan, TNT and overseas clients, etc.
Our strategy with DD of targetting only off-peak hours paid off. Last year we made a crore on consultancy and Rs 70 lakh from DD. We now have three offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and two in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. We are certainly not cheap, so nearly 50 per cent of our revenue last year was from overseas clients.
Although we made a sizable profit from the Rs 11 crore turnover this year-end, the target of Rs 500 crore by 2000 needs more diversification and the latest acquisition is an export oriented shoe manufacturing unit. People laugh, but then I started my career with commodity marketing.
Rules to play
In today's world, core-competency simply refers to functional competency. All our strategies are based on this. The priority has been pure multiplication of wealth, no sentimentality is involved. If a venture doesn't turn cash positive in 12 months, we pull out.
A successful company needs skillful staff that is quite hard to find. I have adopted some of Lee's policies that has helped us retain all but one. All our key people own upto 20 per cent shares in the subsidiary companies. Plus there is a quarterly performance-based incentive. Achieve more than 100 per cent target, you can easily double your salary.
As consultants we never take more than six clients at a time, that too if the chemistry matches. We are often called arrogant when we tell a client to his face if his ideas are idiotic but then more often than not we have been right. You see, knowledge has a huge premium today.
(As told to Sarika Dandona)
