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“Who is our target group?” And how can one reach that target most efficiently?
“From around 2000 students per day our enrolment was slowly coming down. I was very worried! Am I making a mistake… or has the market changed?”
He too would shift from pure correspondence to ‘direct training centres’.
By 2003, Vivekananda Institute had 60 centres all over south India with a T 14 crore turnover and over 100 employees. But, there was a brand new problem.
All these battles affected the company. Growth became sluggish.
“Then I thought okay, having started this at an early age with our limited knowledge we have done what we have done.
right from the beginning I am an independent guy… I won’t budge or buckle down.”
What about distance education - is it completely dead?
True, but at another level, Ganesh was driven by business potential and not ‘social service’ when he originally targeted those failed students.
I have seen people start a business by just copying. They see someone who is successful and start the same thing. No, you need to be innovative.
You have to do something different, believe in your idea and stick with it.
“What is business? It is common sense!”
It’s in the mind.
feisty
You work hard so you can have a beautiful house, car, servants, every comfort in life.
vague notion
concoction
vengeance.”
spurt
metallurgy
Most importantly, it served a need which was not being met.
“Marketing involved a lot of common sense, a lot of sensitivity.
There was one cream bleach in the market by the brand name Jolen.
nightmare.
indigenous
camouflaged,
A great product is half the battle won.
spawns
imitators;
stinking.
Fem decided it was time to change the rules of the game.
Credit is the oxygen of the business ecosystem.
no cosmetic shelf was complete without our hair removing cream, liquid soap or bleach.
“The first month we had a huge setback - people ordered only what they could sell, not just to fill up their shelves. But after 2-3 months, we again saw orders increasing.”
niche.
endangered.
Maybe fair-skinned Americans or Europeans don’t need bleach.
nurture
But B-class onwards they need to be shown, they need to be convinced before they buy.”
Today, you have to shout out your message…”
Ingenious
The one thing the company did not have was a succession plan.
juggle
“I used to take a one pm to three pm break everyday - whatever happened.
managed the distribution, marketing, sales promotion, the advertising, exports, CSD
It worked beautifully for 27 years, but on 30th June 2009 this chapter ended. And a new one began.
“Fem had a 25% stake in Mitchell Group,
spunky
But everyday we had new experiences, new learnings and we just grew with it.”
The way that leads you where you were meant to be.
