M Krishna,
Managing Director,
KAM-AVIDA ENVIRO ENGINEERS.

Business: Manufacture and maintenance of sewage cleaning equipment Based: Hinjawadi, Pune Year of inception: 1994 Big break: World Bank-aided five-year contract for Navi Mumbai 5-6 years ago Employees: 70 Captial: About Rs 8.5 crore Revenues: Rs 25 crore (2007-08) Plans: Rs 100 crore revenues by 2012 Fifteen years ago, M Krishna lost his job when the cleaning equipment marketing company he was employed in shut shop. That led him and a partner, Pankaj Malhotra, to set up KAM-Avida Enviro Engineers, now a Rs 25-crore company that makes and maintains sewage cleaning equipment. Krishna, who is on the verge of closing a deal for Rs 25-30 crore in private equity investment from a US-based firm, aims to hit Rs 100 crore in revenues by 2012. "Our growth in the next three to four years will be powered by four lines of business: drain cleaning equipment, compacting garbage disposal trucks, industrial vacuuming machines and street sweepers," says Krishna, seated in his no-frills office at Hinjawadi, Pune. The company’s factory premises, which need urgent expansion, are an oddity in the otherwise snazzy neighbourhood dominated by IT/ITES companies, including Infosys. "We’re going to acquire more land in this area to expand our manufacturing capacity," says Krishna. His expansion plans are based on a spurt in growth that is expected in each of the markets that his four business lines address. Garbage trucks currently constitute the largest chunk of his revenues—Rs 20 crore—and this market, currently estimated at Rs 25 crore, is expected to grow to Rs 200 crore in five years. "This segment is getting privatised very fast. About 70% of our buyers are private contractors," he says. The company’s second largest business is drain-cleaning equipment, which is what it began with originally. KAM-Avida started out as a marketing outfit for a Chennai-based company called Southern Powertech, which used to manufacture the drain cleaning machines. It subsequently diversified into other businesses and reduced its focus on sewage cleaning equipment, leading Krishna and his partner to start manufacturing their own machines. "The company I worked for earlier shut down because it didn’t have manufacturing capabilities. We couldn’t make that mistake," he says. But getting into manufacturing was not easy given that neither Krishna nor Malhotra had relevant experience. Fortunately, a common acquaintance introduced them to Porus Dadachandji, an engineer who worked at Varun Shipping and was looking for an onshore job. Dadachandji became the third partner in KAM-Avida and now leads its engineering operations. Once manufacturing capabilities were in place, KAM-Avida’s next challenge was to create a market for drain-cleaning machines in India. Krishna recalls that even five years ago, most people (municipal corporations) did not see the need to use machines, as the job could be done inexpensively using human labour. Krishna and his team were eventually able to sell the machines on the efficiency plank—over a period of time, using machines was actually more economical. In the initial years, business was also slower because of bureaucratic slowness in municipal corporations. Much of it is still controlled directly by the civic authorities, but processes have become relatively smoother now, and this will improve further with contracts now being given out to private companies. Bright future Today, the market for drain cleaning equipment, which essentially consists of tankers fitted with suction pipes that eliminate the need for human labour, is estimated to be worth Rs 12-15 crore. This market is expected to grow to Rs 50-100 crore in five years, and much of this growth will come from the sewage rehabilitation projects being undertaken in tier-I and tier-II cities. Sewage rehabilitation simply means that drainage networks are cleaned and cased with silt-resistant material, which is the only solution, because building new sewage lines would mean breaking down overlying road networks. Unlike the garbage disposal business, which is led by the private sector, drain cleaning is government (municipality)-led. The industrial vaccuming and street sweeping business are relatively new ones for KAM-Avida. The company has sold 10 street sweeping machines, for which it has a technology tie-up with US-based Johnston, in the last 12 months. It expects business to expand with the NHAI’s Golden Quadrilateral project nearing completion. "With 10,000 km of road to sweep, machines are inevitable," says Krishna. This apart, city municipal corporations are also prime customers, and again this market, now at just Rs 5 crore, is expected to grow to at least Rs 100 crore in five years. Industrial vacuuming (machines that vacuum spillage such as cement and oil), which is already a Rs 100 crore market, is the company’s newest business and it has deployed a couple of machines so far. M Krishna, Managing Director, KAM-Avida Krishna plans to fund the expansion required to address these growing markets with private equity money, for which, the company will dilute 48% equity. So far, about Rs 5-6 crore in bank loans and Rs 2.5 crore in borrowings from friends and family have gone into financing the business. "Part of the PE money will also go towards repaying debt," he says. The company got its first break from the World Bank-funded drain cleaning project for Navi Mumbai about six to seven years ago, which included a five-year maintenance contract. Today, 10-15% of its revenues come from operation and maintenance contracts, while the balance comes from selling equipment. Yet, raising money has never been their biggest problem. "In India, cleaning is considered taboo. When we started out, a lot of our work was educating people, convincing them that machines were necessary. It required, and continues to require, a big change in mindsets. I think of myself as a cleaner who has dignity," says Krishna, though even after over 15 years in the business he is not sure if mindsets have changed enough to transform a Mumbai into a Singapore or a Shanghai.

Business: Manufacturing, exporting egg powder

Based: Erode, Tamil Nadu

Year of inception :1995

Clients: Food companies in Japan, Europe

Big break: Being accepted by Japanese customers at a time when indian agri -products were shunned due to the pesticide problem.

Revenues: About Rs 100 cr (2007-08)

Profitability indicator: Net profit of Rs 10 cr

Employees: 140 regular (plus 100 contracted)

Plans :Triple revenues by 2011-12, start selling branded eggs

Conventional wisdom need not always work. At a factory at Cholangapalayam village, 20 km from Erode, Tamil Nadu, SKM Egg Products has all its eggs in one basket, in a manner of speaking. The firm produces 1.1 million eggs daily at the Erode unit. It doesn’t stop there—the eggs are then broken. After removing the eggshells, SKM workers, using machines, ensure that the mixture is processed and undergoes treatment from a high-pressure spray before making its way out as egg powder, ready to be exported to 24 countries.

Customers, a proud CEO SKM Shree Shivkumar says, include Kraft, Heinz and an arm of Unilever. The multinationals use egg powder as an ingredient in their food products. Shivkumar’s father SKM Mailenandhan started SKM, the group that runs SKM Egg Products. Mailenandhan started his career as a general store merchant. In time, he became a poultry feed dealer, and then, a manufacturer too. His modus operandi was to not only sell feed to farmers, but also collect eggs from them for further trade. By 1993, when Shivkumar joined his father’s business, SKM was making money in the feed business, but losing it in egg trading. That was despite SKM being a major player, with daily volumes of 1.5 million eggs. "I got involved to set the business right," recalls Shivkumar. "Some improvements happened, nothing dramatic. The fact is, we were competing with small companies."

The shift

That was when a new window of opportunity opened up for SKM. The Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (Tidco) sought a co-promoter for a venture thatwould export eggs in processed form. SKM applied, and was chosen. SKM Egg Products was set up in 1995 in technical collaboration with Belgium’s Belovo. Tidco took an 11% stake (currently 7.6%). The plant at Cholangapalayam was set up in 1997, with a breaking capacity of 1 million eggs a day, capable of processing 3,500 tonnes of egg powder a year. This has since been upgraded to 4,600 tonnes.

The egg-powder exports segment is indeed a niche. Three players—SKM, Venkateshwara Hatcheries and Ovobel—constitute a market worth about Rs 230 crore. Venkateshwara has a capacity similar to SKM’s; it can process about a million eggs every day.

The ease with which SKM Egg moved into the processing space couldn’t, however, be sustained when the business was up and running. Trouble hit almost immediately. The problem was pesticide residue. It was an issue that shook the whole Indian agri-products industry, and SKM took time to beat the negative perception about the country’s products. After over three years, things started looking good.

Shivkumar attributes the turnaround to a seminar that SKM conducted for potential suppliers and distributors from across the globe ("there were guests from 27 countries") in December 1999. "Seeing is believing," says Shivkumar, "and all of them could see our processes for themselves." In 2001, when SKM Egg broke even, all the high-interest debt had been done away with.

The breakthrough had come from Japanese customers. It didn’t take long for others to sign on. About 40% of the company’s Rs 100 crore revenues (for the year ended March 2008) came from Japan, another 40% came from Europe and the rest from other countries. SKM hasn’t tried the US market despite it being a big egg-powder user. That’s because, Shivkumar points out, the cost of hosting full-time US inspectors at its factory, as also incurring the duties, is not something SKM is keen on now.

At the other end of the business process are suppliers. They form the most important part of the SKM business. That’s because one of the parameters that the company prides itself on is quality. And, in an egg powder business, quality hinges mostly on the input supplier. SKM has tie-ups with farmers across 16 farms who, together, supply 1.1 million eggs daily. To ensure product quality, SKM has its own supervisors and veterinary professionals at the venues.

SKM is now tweaking the model a bit by investing in its own farm. The target is to produce 600,000 eggs daily. Simultaneously, the company will set up a feed mill and also increase its egg-powder processing capacity to 6,000 tonnes a year. All this would entail an investment of Rs 58 crore (the outlay for this year). About 1.5 million eggs a day would be needed to make those 6,000 tonnes of egg powder a year. That leaves 200,000 eggs in its bag. And that’s the starting point for SKM Egg’s debut in the domestic market.

Branding eggs

The plan is to float branded eggs in India. Market research done, the idea will enter its test-marketing phase by October 2008. It might not be easy for SKM to taste immediate success in branded eggs, a nascent market where the likes of Suguna Poultry already have a presence. But SKM could take heart from the fact that egg

SKM Shree Shivkumar, CEO, SKM Egg Products

consumption is often propped up by strong economic growth, and a branded egg typically fetches at least a 50% premium over a normal one. Shivkumar says: "Five years back, the per capita consumption of eggs in the country was 38 per year. Now, it’s over 50." SKM could also have numerous variants in this business, including protein-enriched ones. Of course, a product targeted at the domestic market has another use: it won’t be hurt by currency fluctuations.

The plan, then, is to hard-sell branded eggs in India and consolidate the egg-powder business overseas. India, Shivkumar says, isn’t a market for egg powder. There would be an opportunity only when bakeries gain in size, or institutional users are mandated by law to use pasteurised eggs. Increasingly, SKM is looking to market value-added products, like mayonnaise mixes, overseas. This strategy is expected to up SKM’s net margin to 15% (from 10% currently). The company is targeting revenues of Rs 300 crore by 2011-12. One-third of that could be from branded eggs.

There could be better opportunities if the world market is opened up, says Shivkumar. For instance, egg-powder makers have for years been lobbying with the government to make Russia open up, but in vain, he says. The threats are from diseases like bird flu, which could hit its eggs business. But, Shivkumar believes SKM’s accent on quality could help tide over such crises. For the time being though, SKM is happy breaking eggs. And lots of them!

V.G. SIDDHARTHA,
49, COFFEE RETAILER
CHAIRMAN,AMALGAMATED BEAN COFFEE TRADING COMPANY
TURN OVER: IN 1993 Rs 10 crore
CURRENT TURNOVER: Rs 700 crore
SUCCESS MANTRA:Have the willpower to persist and simply refuse to give up.
OBJECT OF ADMIRATION:Infosys and its team’s success which achieved its target of $1 billion sales.
BIGGEST OBSTACLE:Spiralling real estate prices which have made it difficult to get retail locations.

EARLY LIFE:
The interesting twist to the Coffee Day story is that it almost didn’t happen. V.G. Siddhartha, the man behind the chain, comes from a family that has a 135-year history of growing coffee. Despite this, he was a reluctant entrant into this industry, Siddhartha started out in life as a research analyst at JM Financial, a financial services group, back in 1983 now J M Morgan Stanley -- in Bombay after completing his Master’s degree in Economics from Mangalore University .


At that time, all he dreamt of was earning Rs 2.5 lakh a year. While researching stocks, he discovered that Indian farmers used to get 35 cents for 1 kg of coffee, while their overseas counterparts were getting $1.27. Seeing an opportunity, even though coffee trading was a government monopoly in those days, Siddhartha started buying coffee plantations with the money he had earned in the stock market in the hope that one day the market would be liberalised. After a two-year stint with J M Financial Services, when Siddhartha returned to Bangalore, his father gave him a good amount of money to start any business of his choice. Siddhartha promptly bought a stock market card for Rs 30,000 with it, along with a company called Sivan, as well as a site in the city, in 1984 and turned it into a highly successful investment banking and stock broking company. Thus began Sivan Securities, which is now a major player in the South Indian capital market, which is now featured among the top 12 investment brokers in the country."I was a very smart trader," says Siddhartha with an endearing kind of self pride. "I made money almost every day on the stock market. And with whatever money I made, I kept buying coffee plantations in Chikmagalur. My family background was such that I had a mindset that the new economy might not be the greatest, and that solid, tangible, physical assets like land were the best to own." By 1985, he was a full-time proprietary investor in the stock market and owner of 10,000 acre of coffee farms.

POLITICAL CONNECTION:
A family connection that seems to embarrass Siddhartha a little bit now is that he is the son-in-law of S M Krishna, the Chief Minister of Karnataka. The media never fails to focus attention on this when writing about his business interests. Thus, Siddhartha often prefers to avoid contact with the media. He prefers so much to remain just a low-profile businessman, that he refuses to even pose for photographs. Vernacular media even wrote that Siddhartha made his money with the help of political favours. "I had already bought most of my coffee plantations before my marriage, which took place in 1989," says Siddhartha, debunking all speculation right away.

"Krishna became a minister only in 1992. What major favours could he have done for me to help me buy my plantations before that? Actually, it works the other way around. Businessmen all over the country fund both political parties and individual politicians. This happens in other countries too, but there its all legal, above board and organised, that's the only difference."

ABCTL:
When the coffee business was opened up due to liberalisation in 1993, and government restrictions compelling planters to hand over most of their produce to the Coffee Board were eliminated, Siddhartha was one of the earliest beneficiaries. He admits to having actually facilitated the process by lobbying actively for this removal of restrictions. He started his coffee trading company ABCTCL in 1993, with a Rs 60 million turnover. His company grew gradually. He bought a sick coffee curing unit in Hassan for Rs 40 million and turned it around.He says, “When coffee trading was liberalised in the ’90s, I doubled the money I had invested in the plantations within a year.” Thus, was born ABCTCL in 1993, a company focused on coffee exports. While his plantations produced 3,000 tonnes of coffee, ABCTCL would trade 20,000 tonnes. In two years, the company became the second largest exporter from India. ABCTL is now India's largest exporter of green coffee.

ABC is privately held, and as such does not disclose its financial results. Competitors estimate the company's revenues last year to be around Rs 600 crore ($140 million), of which half, they say, came from a café business that they believe turned profitable a few years ago. The rest of ABC's revenues come from its other business groups, all of which operate under the Coffee Day brand.

CAFE COFFEE DAY:
In 1996, the first CCD store opened on Bangalore’s crowded Brigade Road, where a coffee and an hour of Internet surfing cost Rs 100. When Siddhartha opened the first Café Coffee Day outlet in Bangalore, India's silicon capital, it was positioned more as an Internet café. This was the very early days of the Internet in India, and customers trooped in to Coffee Day to experience the Internet. Coffee was just an extra.In doing this, Siddhartha and his team went against the better judgement of his MBA friends. The café was a runaway success. By 2000, there were 14 Coffee Day stores across southern India. While Coffee Day was taking its time in expansion, other rival chains came along and took the concept national.GTV LTD:
He also founded Global Technology Ventures Ltd. in may 2000, a company that identifies, invests and mentors Indian companies engaged in cutting edge technologies, along with its promoting company Sivan Securities, already has stakes in 24 young companies, including high profile start-ups like Sabeer Bhatia's Arzoo!.com, Ashok Soota's MindTree Consulting, Ramana Gogula's Liqwid Krystal and B V Jagadeesh's NetMagic.

Siddhartha's company Sivan holds 80 per cent in GTV, while Bank of America Equity Partners (BAEP), which provides private equity capital to the Bank of America Corp, has the remaining 20 per cent. GTV has now set up a global technology village on a 59-acre technology incubator park in Bangalore, which will provide its companies office space, communication links, recreational facilities and even a commercial centre. GTV has been valued by BankAm at $100 million last year, and is expected to have doubled its valuation this year. It is poised to grow on the lines of Softbank of Japan.

OTHER BUISNESS GROUPS:
ABC's revenues come from its other business groups, all of which operate under the Coffee Day brand. These include
Coffee Day Exports
ABC has invested well into a Research and development on coffee quality that supports our domestic promotion of various blends of coffee and augments our export activities.

Coffee Day Xpress (fast food and beverage outlets that are much smaller than the cafés and are franchised)
Coffee Day Xpress is a unique concept of convenient cafe, an idea that feeds a world that's continuously in transit.

The Coffee Day Xpress kiosk is a sanctuary where the harried urbanite can pause for refreshment before getting on with life. Retail custom-made for the 21st century. Catering to a world that needs coffee on the go! At high-traffic locations. With hot and cold beverages and a variety of ready-to-eat snacks.

Coffee Day Take Away (coffee vending machines)

The Coffee Day Take Away initiative is a virtual revolution in dispensing coffee. For the first time, it makes freshness a part of the vending machine proposition. Only the freshest ingredients are used and strict control is maintained to ensure that every cup delivers the satisfaction of a freshly brewed cup of coffee. The vending machines also dispenses Tea Day tea.

Coffee Day Fresh 'n Ground (ground coffee retail outlets)
Fresh 'n Ground started in 1996. has a chain of over 400 exclusive outlets in the States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Presently Fresh 'n Ground has over 22 exquisite blends of coffee on offer across all Fresh 'n Ground outlets, and is one of the fastest growing filter coffee brands in India. these outlets have been converted into one stop shop for Tea and Coffee beverage, varieties of coffee and Tea powder, Speciality Coffee, accessories like coffee filters, mugs, etc.

Coffee Day FMCG (packaged filter coffee powder)
This FMCG aims to enter the mass in home consumption segment where filter coffee is consumed everyday.its sheer convenience & avalability in every possible retail outlet ensures reaching out to more and more consumers everyday.


In 2001, recalls Siddhartha, “We decided we could not be number two in our business so we began expanding.” In its new strategy, CCD would open its store right next to its rival, Barista. The cafe in Vienna is 300 m away from Starbucks. Its aggressive pricing and youthful ambience attracts youngsters by the droves. However, a modest Siddhartha attributes it to being in the right place at the right time. Says he, “If you had asked me in 1997, how many CCDs would a city like Bangalore take, I’d have said three but now we have 135 cafes.”
The advantage that Coffee Day has over its rivals in India and overseas is that the company can cut costs significantly compared to its rivals. In Europe for instance, while CCD’s rivals have to spend 12 euros (Rs 768) for 1 kg of coffee, Coffee Day sources it from its plantations for two euros (Rs 128). Siddhartha explains: “From farm to the cup, there are no middlemen.” Having captured a loyal base, the company is now looking at multiple formats.
NOW:
It has 775 Xpress outlets, 7,000 vending machines in diverse locations such as railway stations, hospitals, gas stations and office campuses, and 400 Fresh 'n Ground outlets. Operating across this spectrum has allowed Siddhartha to expand his brand presence rapidly.Currently he also holds Board Seats in Mindtree, Liqwid Krystal, Way2Wealth and Ittiam.

Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd. today is the largest exporter of green coffee from India and perhaps one of the two fully integrated coffee companies of Asia, involved in all sectors of Coffee from plantations to retailing to exports. ‘Coffee Day Group’ today is the only fully integrated and largest coffee conglomerate in India and is attributed with creating the ‘coffee revolution’ in India - acknowledged by the Coffee Board of India Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd. – (ABCTCL) is India’s largest coffee conglomerate and coffee exporter, pioneering India’s first concept café’s ‘Café Coffee Day’, a chain of youth hangout coffee parlors. From a handful of cafés in six cites in the first 5 years, ‘Café Coffee Day’ has today become India’s largest and premier retail chain of cafes with 700 cafes in 105 cities around the country.enthused by the success in india coffee day spread its wings to Austria(three in Vienna) and two in Pakistan(both in karachi)

FUTURE:
For the coffee connoisseur, soon there will be single estate coffees available at Coffee Day Squares, while the Coffee Day Lounges will focus on providing a relaxed atmosphere to its consumers at airports and highways. Siddhartha wants to see Coffee Day among the world’s top three coffee chains in the next 10 years. he plans to have 1000 cafes by 2010. He’s not unduly concerned about the downturn because he’s in the market to buy an international coffee chain. That’s called brewing success.

SUSHIL KANUBHAI SHAH
60,HEALTH CARE PROVIDER,
CHAIRMAN, M E T R O P O L I S
H E A LT H   S E R V I C E S.
TURN OVER: IN 1981 Rs 2 lakh
CURRENT TURNOVER :Rs 150 crore

SUCCESS MANTRA: Never make the same mistake twice and never compromise on being the best in the field.
BIGGEST OBSTACLE: "I once relied on partners for expansion. But they were only interested in local business."

FIRST BLOOD: Metropolis is credited with introducing HIV drug resistance tests in India for the first time.

BANGARUSWAMI SOUNDARAJAN
44,POULTRY FARMER,
MD,SUGUNA  POULTRY.
TURNOVER: IN1997 Rs 7 crore.
CURRENT TURNOVER: Rs 3,000 crore.

SUCCESS MANTRA: Fairness, transparency and an ethical working style is the key to making it.
BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: Suguna is a leading integrator of poultry products in India today.
GROWTH PATH: Suguna has a presence in 12 states with a network of 15,000 farmers.

Year	Achievement
1986	Suguna Group Was Founded by M/s.B.Soundararajan and G.B.Sundararajan. The Company Began Trading Layer Eggs.
1991	Introduced New Concept of Franchise Farming in India
1992	First Hatchery Was Started
1993	First Breeder Operation
1995	Hatchery and Breeder Operations Expansion
1998	Extruder Plant to Produce Full Fat Soya
1998	Semi Automatic Meat Processing Unit with Cold Storage
1999	Fully Automatic, Micro Processor Controlled Feed Mill
2000	Inclusion of Grand Parents
2001	Expansion of Operations into other States
2004	Soya Unit Operation in Nagpur
2006	Foundation for Asia's Biggest Feed mill Laid at Hoskote, Karnataka
2006	Successful implementation of Oracle ERP
2007	Layer Launch

Suguna, two decade old Poultry integrators, Currently operating in 11 states with the business value of 20,180 millions INR. It touches base with more than 15,000 farmers. The success of Suguna Poultry lies on its strategic move of contract farming.
Suguna Poultry Farm Limited is the brain child of the two innovative entrepreneurs and visionaries in the field of Poultry Industry, managing director B.Soundarajan and joint  managing director G.B.soundarajan.
 Without any backup force the self propelled Dynamic Duo foresaw the possible growth in Poultry Industry in India. The Balls were rolled back decades ago in the form of Integration or otherwise known as Contract Farming.
The target community is from Rural India. Presently covered in 8000 villages of 11 Indian states embracing more than 15,000 farmers and the effort is relentless. No place in India is considered to be unfit for Poultry activity. Mostly by invitation from each state Government Suguna makes its expansion. The model has attracted the people from across the border also to visit Suguna facility and observe the activities, only to be adopted in their place.For B.Soundarajan , son of schoolteacher parents, it’s almost blasphemy to undermine the value of education and attribute his success to attitude. But then, Bangaruswami Soundarajan, the managing director of the Rs 3,000-crore Suguna Poultry Farm, has always taken the road less travelled. Born in a village near Udumalpet, 130 km from Coimbatore, Soundarajan decided to do business immediately after completing school.
In 1990, with an initial investment of Rs 5,000, he followed his dream by setting up a poultry farm. What started as a small-scale venture today has grown to become a leading integrator of poultry products in the country with an increasing global presence. For Soundarajan, his biggest achievement has been the acceptance and appreciation of his management skills by people outside his state. “On realising that poultry can give regular incomes to farmers, even in droughts, N. Chandrababu Naidu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya invited me to invest in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal respectively,” says Soundarajan.
The turning point came in 1997, when Soundarajan decided to introduce innovative contract farming for the first time in the country and within a year, the company managed to record a turnover of Rs 7 crore. Suguna invests by helping farmers in the daily management of the chicks. Its employees closely monitor the growth of the birds and provide farmers with feed and free medicines.
Today, his poultry business has a presence in 11 states and provides assistance to around 15,000 farmers nationwide. For Soundarajan, management has been the key to success. In 2000, he introduced professional management in the company to augment growth. Recently, Suguna implemented a Rs 9-crore Enterprise Resource Planning solution supported by Oracle. “This will help us in setting up a robust information system to support our current growth,” says Soundarajan. Indeed, for the 44-year-old managing director, the dream has hatched. The two brothers hailing from a village and born in a teachers family have reached the business zenith with the zeal to excel.

"We do charge a premium. It’s for delivering good workmanship and taking full responsibility for our work"          Porus Irani Director, Handiman

RAVINDRA KISHORE SINHA
57,SECURITY PROVIDER,
CHAIRMAN, SECURITYAND INTELLIGENCE SERVICES.
INITIAL INVESTMENT: IN 1974 Rs 250.
CURRENT TURNOVER: Rs 1,600 crore.

            Ravindra Kishore Sinha, 57, Chairman of Security and Intelligence Services has a current
                                                      turnover  of   Rs 1,600 crore
Conceptualization Stage (1974 to 1978):

Mr. Ravindra Kishore Sinha, a graduate of Political Science and Law who started his career as a journalist and was a leading investigative reporter and writer, particularly as a war correspondent during 1971 war.
As a first generation entrepreneur, he initiated the security service business by taking up the first security service contract in 1974 when it was decided to be outsourced by an industrialist at Ramgarh near Ranchi. It was a small contract of 11 guards in Eastern India. SIS was born!

It was coincidental that SIS was the first security service providing company started by a non Ex-serviceman and a first generation entrepreneur professional in an era when venture capital was not even conceptualized!
Formative Years (1978 to 1992):

While the guarding business grew gradually, the primary focus for Mr. Sinha, continued to be investigative journalism and detective services. It was during the late 70s - early 80s when rapid industrial growth led to an increased demand for contracted security services. This was the time when the `private security guard' started replacing the `company employed chowkidaars' that consequently gave rise to the private security business in India. SIS also benefited from this trend and started developing into a full scale guarding company to meet the growing demand.

In 1981-82, SIS, which was so far operating exclusively with ex-army personnel, felt the need of recruitment of civilian manpower due to increased business requirements. There was also a pressure to have the manpower specially trained in industrial security duties. This led to establishment of the first fully residential training facility in the Indian private security industry by SIS which was developed on the lines of Police Training Academies and located at Palamu District Jharkhand (formarly Bihar). This was the first of the many visionary and pioneering steps taken by Mr. R K Sinha and even today remains a unique feature of SIS amidst private security service providers in India.


During the period 1985-90, the company experienced exponential growth in Bihar, Jharkhand,Orrisa and West Bengal primarily due to the fact that it received recognition as the only security service company providing trained, regimented and disciplined manpower. This brand equity sets SIS apart from its competitors even today. This was also the time when SIS ventured into new territories and commenced operations in the Northern, Central and Southern India. Thus, in 14 years from inception, SIS had become a major player in the private security business.

After creating a reliable supply chain for trained security guards, the next challenge was to induct young individuals to form the managerial cadres of the company. To meet this requirement, Mr. R K Sinha took yet another visionary step by launching the GTO (Graduate Trainee Officer) program that aimed at inducting young graduates and training them in every aspect of private security. It was envisaged that these young trained officers in course of time would graduate into middle level managers.

Today such officers are leading SIS business at the divisional,regional and branch levels. This is one of the core strengths of SIS, envied by its competitors. Needless to say that SIS has several welfare and retention schemes in place to retain its valuable managerial team.

These pioneering steps propelled Mr. R K Sinha to the center stage of industry leadership and earned him recognition and respect of hundreds of security service providing companies in India. To meet the expectations of the industry, Mr. Sinha established "International Institute of Security and Safety Management" (IISSM) in 1991 in line with the American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS International) with the primary objective of creating the first ever industry forum of users, providers and consultants in the Indian security industry. The forum focused on experience sharing through conducting seminars, workshops and chapter meeting. It also aimed at industry representation and conducting development programs for security professionals.

Expansion and Consolidation Phase (1992 to 2002):

In 1990s, the entry of multinational security companies in India led to several fundamental changes in business dynamics. The most significant amongst them was larger acceptance of outsourced guarding as a service.
This development also altered the market qualitatively and in commercial terms. While on one hand, these developments led to the recognition of the industry, on the other hand, it enhanced competition, customer expectations and pressure on the Indian owned security companies. Under the changed market dynamics, SIS initiated several measures to face the new challenges of the business. Major initiatives were taken towards re-engineering the organization and amending the processes of recruitment, training, communication, quality assurance and customer relationship management.

Accordingly, as a first step, the company registered itself as the first public limited company in the Indian Security Industry on 29 th July 1993. Another landmark step implemented by Mr. R K Sinha in 1995 was company made implementation of the international standard ISO 9001. SIS, today is certified to ISO 9001:2000 standards for design, development and delivery of its security services. In order to further refine the business processes, in 1996, SIS undertook implementation of the British Standards, BS 7499 and BS 7858, and got itself certified by the International Professional Security Association (IPSA) of UK. This standardization added significant value to the selection, recruitment and training processes in the company and wide scale acceptance by discerning multinational customers who required security service providers to be of international standard. The Company thereafter, launched its operation in Western India in 1997 and became one of the few nationwide operators in the country.

Three more training academies were added in northern and southern regions of the country, which together with the first academy in the east covered recruitment on all India basis and subsequent training of personnel to provide quality security services.  The size of guarding force increased manifold and in order to maintain non-unionized status and retention of manpower, several welfare measures including grievance redresser process were implemented. These have been very effective and have prevented formation of a union till today. SIS, in the category of leading national or multinational security service providers in India, remains the only non-unionized workforce.


Exponential Growth Phase (2002 onwards):

The attack at the WTC in New York on 9/11 had a considerable impact on the global security industry. The Indian market was no exception and overnight security became a top priority concern for most customers. This was also accompanied with a radical change in focus and thrust of the customers towards sophisticated and integrated security solutions.  In the changed scenario, SIS promptly mapped its present business processes and service offerings to meet the growth opportunities. Accordingly, a major change process was planned. In true tradition of taking visionary decisions all through, Mr. R K Sinha, as the Chairman & Managing Director of the company, decided to induct professional management team to act as catalyst for the change process. Top professionals with experience in different industry were drawn into the company's fold and the Board was restructured to induct eminent, professional and independent directors. This coincided with the induction of the second generation of the promoter family into business.


With the thrust on decentralization of decision-making and empowerment of middle level management, the Company was restructured to respond to rapidly changing customer demands. The cornerstone of the change process was to shift from individual driven organization to a system driven organization.  A major branding exercise was also undertaken to recreate SIS as a "total security solution provider". This exercise was backed up by creation of independent non-guarding business divisions like C&I (Consulting and Investigation), CS (Cash Services), ESS (Electronic Security Systems) and R & T (Recruitment and Training). Towards meeting the business objectives of these verticals, a divisional bifurcation of the business was done and the organization was restructured into corporate, regional and branch levels.Over the last few years ,SIS has emerged as the fastest growing companies in india (CAGR 51%) with industry best margins and an enviable customer retention record (92%-2007).

SIS :

S. RAMAKRISHNA KARUTURI

43, EXPORTER,
MD, KARUTURI GLOBAL.
INITIAL INVESTMENT:IN 1996 Rs 1.14 lakh.
CURRENT TURNOVER :Rs 400 crore.



SUCCESS MANTRA: Never faced an obstacle. The big challenge is your own imagination.
ROLE MODEL: Ratan Tata for daring to dream of the Indica and now the Nano.
GREATEST MOMENT: When he brought a chartered 757 to Bangalore in 2000 to export
his roses.
HISTORY:

• 1995: Incorporated Karuturi Floritech - a 100% EOU unit for floriculture.
• 1996: Established first production facility near Bangalore
• 1999: Set up an Internet Auction Portal by the name Rose Bazaar.com to derive benefits of disintermediation through use of Internet. Set up second production facility for roses near Bangalore taking the total size of rose farms to 10 hectares.
• 2000: In keeping with the changing focus, the Company changed its name from Karuturi Floritech Ltd., to Karuturi.com Ltd.
• 2001: Invested in a private Satellite Gateway and an IDC as a part of the Rose Bazaar initiative. The Company also got Class .B. ISP licence from the Department of telecom as a statutory requirement for a private Internet Satellite Gateway and has since been renamed Karuturi Global Ltd. To use surplus bandwidth capacity, the Company started selling VPN circuits and leased line circuits to quality conscious corporates with Ultimate selling point (USP) of near IPLC quality with 640 ms latency non shared bandwidth.
• 2003: Emerged as the lowest cost rose grower and the largest rose producer in the country.
• 2004: Conceptualised the Ethiopian initiative and set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Ethiopia, Africa, called Ethiopian Meadows Plc to produce HT cut roses.
• 2005: Conceptualised the synergistic foray into processed foods . gherkins.
• 2006: Received the largest order for roses in its history from the latest retail chain in UK. Embarked on setting up a gherkins bottling plant.

The company was initially set up as Karuturi Floritech in Doddaballapur, near Bangalore with an annual capacity to process 12 million premium cut roses at its state-of-the-art facilities. The company has set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Ethiopia, Africa – Ethiopian Meadows Plc - to produce roses with a special focus on HT roses. And today with the combined production capacities of India and Ethiopia, Karuturi ranks amongst one the largest cut rose producers in the world with a strong global presence. In addition to cut roses, the company also supplies cut rose products such as rose plants, coco peat and coco cups to customers across over 15 countries including Holland, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan, Bahrain, Muscat, Dubai, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Brunei and across North America.

With its latest acquisition—Sher Agencies, Kenya, in the last financial year—Karuturi Global
Limited (KGL) became the first fully integrated Indian MNC in the field of agriculture. Taking the world’s largest producer and exporter of cut roses towards an even rosier future is its managing director, Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi, 43. The story goes that in 1995 he was looking to buy flowers for his wife on Valentine’s Day and found an acute shortage of good roses in Bangalore. This was when he decided to get into the business himself.
Incorporated in 1994-95, Karuturi Global Limited is engaged in three businesses now: floriculture, processing foods – gherkins, and information technology. “I was influenced by management guru Michael Porter’s model of sustainable competitive advantage,” says Karuturi of his journey on the flower carpet. “I identified high value horticulture as an area with immense potential.” With rose farms on 298 hectares (not including 40 hectares in India under contract farming) spread over India, Kenya and Ethiopia, Karuturi is a globetrotting flower merchant. His global empire of roses started “with a shoestring budget, out of a room in my flat. But those were great days,” he reminisces. What started with 3.2 hectares on the outskirts of Bangalore, today has operations spread across three countries and marketing offices in Dubai and The Netherlands.
Growing at over 30% annually, the company acquired one lakh acres of land in May this year, and will soon add 6.5 lakh acres on long lease in Ethiopia for which he has garnered $250 million through debt and equity. This addition will put Karuturi on the fast track as a horticulture major. Here he plans to grow paddy, palm and sugarcane for both sugar and ethanol, while other crops such as sorghum and vegetables would be rotated to take advantage of the growing global demand for these commodities.
Schooled at the Sri Rama Krishna Vidyashala, Mysore, followed by post-graduation from Bangalore University, Karuturi got his MBA from the Case Western Reserve University where he made it to the Dean’s Honour’s List. He came back to take over his family business of cables and transmission towers. Wife Anita is the finance director of KGL and the couple has three daughters. He lives in Bangalore and is “at home by 7 p.m. to spend time with the family as I consider that very important,” says Karuturi, whose nonflower interests include reading fiction, watching films and going to the gym.
He cherishes two moments: “When I brought a chartered 757 to Bangalore in 2000 to export the roses and, in 2007, when we became the world’s largest rose company.” He opened the first rose boutique at the Bangalore International Airport last year and expects to start 100 similar boutiques over the next two years. Expansion plans include production of gherkins as well as farming corn, palm oil, rice, vegetables and sugarcane on the recently acquired three lakh hectares of land and increasing staff strength from the current 10,000 to 50,000 employees by the turn of the decade. But as of now, the mainstay of the business continues to be roses with a target to reach one billion stems by 2010.
The company is going to process crude palm oil for trading in ethanol. With the global energy crisis getting serious, there are plans for tapping the big oil companies selling ethanol for blending with petrol, he says. When he is not dabbling in shipping roses to almost all of the worlds big chains, horticulture and his Bangalore-based internet connectivity business, he likes to go on long drives with his family. Through his business he has come across some interesting clients like a UK customer who wanted a heart-shaped bouquet made with 2,000 roses. Now that must have blown away his fianc says Karuturi with a guffaw.
Much in the same way as he has ridden over competition from around the world and come up trumps. He got his largest order in 2006 from Tesco. Since then, all the partnerships with the retail chains have endured. No wonder, Karuturi still sends roses to people. Can’t think of a better gift.