Connect The Dots

by Rashmi Bansal

“The original company was ‘Info Edge’ but last year - in 2008 - we split due to internal differences.

Now the parent company is called NDimensions and the brand is ‘PoliticalEDGE’.”

“Odd hours and sudden travel gets stressful at times.

“Our idea is wherever he is on a scale of 10, he should move towards 10. If he is 2, we will at least make him 2.5.”

plunge.

If you are trying to do something new, first of all you have to believe in it.

For any company the first year or two years will be difficult.

consumer durables.

makhana

it all started with a chance conversation on a flight.

savour

“I took up an agency for BPL products in Bihar and quickly understood what is marketing, what is sales and distribution.

next to him on the flight was one Dr Janardhan.

intrigued.

The entire market was dominated by middlemen.”

Bihar has no mandi system at all.* Satyajit quickly realised that his work would have to start at the very first point in the supply chain - the farmers.

The idea was to train and network the farmers, improve their livelihood.

It’s a question that brings out the best in an entrepreneur.

he started by putting in T 1.5 crore of his own money - surplus from his earlier business - to kickstart the project.

venture

By this time Nitish Kumar had come into power; the investment climate suddenly improved.

procurement

“The problem started with ‘resource mapping’.

We could not trust the government statistics.”

You simply had to go to the grassroots level and work from the bottom-up.

intriguing

70% of my time still goes in the supply-chain management.”

“I will take funding from the marketing phase

So for example in year 1, Shakti Sudha took T 6 crore from the bank and also posted revenues of T 8 crore. The surplus* took care of the promoter contribution; and thus the cycle continues year on year.

reckon

Another recent coup was an order for 1400 tons of makhana from the Vaishnodevi shrine board.

Conquering

This crop has medicinal value; definitely our ancestors who made it part of puja rituals were aware of this value.”

nuances

“I know how to track my salesmen, how to get the distributor to work for me, how to take advance payment… what should be the reporting format.”

Sudha will also have to focus on trade promotions.

“Retailers in urban market want to work on percentage margin whereas we work on per kg margin,”

Sudha will also train makhana farmers to grow herbal plants in the same ponds - during the ‘off season’.

Ek aisa kaam hai jisme mein zindagi ke pachchees tees baras daal sakta hoon…”

“I knew that this project would yield me nothing in the first two years but in time to come it will give me ‘everything

To make the impossible possible; to power our dreams.

When you start something new, initially resistance will be high. Like in our case, middlemen did not want us to go to villages and train farmers.

undeterred

So focus on your project, your mission - not what people will say.

brews

When you know what you want, no one can really stop you.

curdle

thoroughbred

“The only thing was I did not want to work for somebody. I knew that very early.”

Far from the Madding Crowds by Thomas Hardy.