Connect The Dots

by Rashmi Bansal

hoe

patron

Samar’s story tells me that whether you are born with a wooden, silver or platinum spoon, life is about finding ‘meaning’.

Samar was never ‘academically inclined’; he loved reading but was definitely not the kind of guy who would mug the night before the exams. And neither was there any pressure from the family to do so.

At the age of 35, he set up his own agency - Trikaya.

religion

I am too outspoken, hate reporting to someone, don’t work well within structures!”

An opportunity to benchmark yourself - against yourself.

hop

When you are young you have a lot of energy!” he grins. Lekin usey karne ke liye motivation chahiye.

Samar said to his dad, “I don’t see why I should generate profit and take a salary of T 5000 a month. I want the business for myself.” Dad replied, “Son, it’s a family business.”

huff.

sulking.

crap

‘Ceasefire’

maverick

opulent farmhouse

My dad was absolutely into that life and I got the hang of it too!

“If I had any other partner I would have fought with them. Now whatever mistakes I made were entirely my fault… and I made a lot of them!”

The entire operation was trial and error, learning and unlearning.

dabbling

Liberalisation

Ravi Gupta was taking money out of one successful business - the advertising agency - and pumping it into a basket case. Agriculture.

Samar said, “Why don’t you just invest in the market, build yo...

Sensing the pain point, Samar agreed to step in and handle the marketing side.

“I went and met all the five star hotels and very passionately told them, ‘We can give you broccoli, we can give you iceberg lettuce.

Four out of five crops were still failing, so how could he guarantee supply?

What was the point of marketing two tons of Chinese cabbage when ultimately, you produced only 20 kgs? Why bother to hardsell to clients?

Kishore had been lying through his teeth. “We looked at each other and said, ‘This is what we are up against’!”

“When I took loans from the market at 32% interest, I was told, ‘Yeh Dawood bhai ka paisa hai.’ Just to let me know I had to give it back.”

love-thy-neighbour style.

In late 1996, Ravi Gupta was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He passed away in May 1997, at the age of 59.

She kept 2/5th of my father’s estate and divided the rest equally among the three of us.”

Samar could sense the potential, the light at the end of the tunnel.

The very first thing Samar had to do was simple: stop bleeding.

“Dad was a bit of a dreamer. He said, ‘I am sick of the Indian market, I want to export.’ So we were exporting snow peas to Australia.”

I flew to Perth and met the buyer. He was lying to us, claiming to receive spoiled goods.” There are crooks in any kind of business, and more in some trades than others.

The reality was that in winter, there were many suppliers and vendors simply bought from whoever sold the cheapest.

People whispered, “Ravi Gupta was a great man… this fellow will destroy everything.” Samar took it in his stride. This was no popularity contest; it was a battle for survival. And it had to be fought on many fronts.

slacking,

“The pressure of actually running a business and keeping your cashflows positive sank in. It was a huge dose of reality for me.”

“I got lucky, I was in the right place at the right time,” he shrugs.

Samar leased a stall at Crawford market and it did brisk sales.

The star attractions were broccoli and iceberg lettuce.

“Ice...

What was the secret?

“It’s always tempting to cut corners, buy cheap quality trays. But if you take shortcuts, you will fail. We learnt that lesson early on!”

never put all your eggs in one basket. Scatter your seeds, hedge your risk. And you can do that in many ways.

That’s why Trikaya agriculture grows not 5, not 10, but 80 different kinds of vegetables.

“Our niche is in items which are delicate, which cannot just be stuffed into a bori. We store vegetables at 2 to 4 degrees centigrade soon after harvesting, and transport them in refrigerated vans.