Business Achievers Making a Difference 2020.

BUSINESS

VOL-09

ISSUE-02

2020

www.insightssuccess.in

ACHIEVERS Making A Difference 2020

Antony Joseph Kitherian Xavier Founder & CEO Entoss Technologies

Antony Joseph Kitherian Xavier

WITHSTANDING CHANGES, MAKING A DIFFERENCE

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eing a business leader, it is important to maintain the company’s growth, particularly in the midst of new difficulties, on the road to progress in a period of continuous and uneventful corporate disturbance.

Being a leader, challenges can not only be viewed as threats to success as an enterprise, but as tools to enhance current organizational systems, or to create new models that are best adapted for the contemporary environment of business.

If leaders wish to remain active with the job they do, they must keep up with all the changes affecting their business, market, team members, and themselves.

Currently, multinational companies are experiencing significant macro-economic transitions, developments that have a huge effect on companies’ budgets, achievements, and values. Being a successful leader remains as important as ever, and the way you handle leadership itself is reframed as a core aspect.

Changes—be they swift or slow; established or new—can

From the be seen as measures of how the business operates.

Abnormalities may be daunting to manage, particularly if they are extremely new and unparalleled like many businesses experience today. However, they still have the ability to be a source of motivation to look to the company’s future and contribute to innovative management approaches which were not feasible, as recently as last year.

While too many companies are operating in a different and uncertain way of functioning, the focus might be less on innovation and more on actually remaining on board. But that does not imply that leadership patterns are on the side of the lane. In reality, all of these tools may be used to your benefit and improve your capacity to effectively guide the company during this turmoil.

And to give you the perfect examples, Insights Success has come up with this edition, Business Achievers Making A Difference – 2020. This exclusive edition highlights the best of minds in the industries taking on challenges and transforming the world with the best of their abilities.

The edition highlights: Antony Joseph Kitherian Xavier, the founder and CEO of Entoss Technologies; a platform of ready to use automated business processes for its customers to make them efficient, flexible, and intelligent enough to compete in the market.

Abhishek Shinde the CEO & Director of Sales and Business Development, Excelsior Research Pvt. Ltd., a full-service market research agency offering a wide range of research solutions and services to a global clientele.

EDITOR Akshay Mehrotra the Co-Founder & CEO of Early Salary, a salary-advance mobile application that enables users to borrow money for urgent cash requirements before they get their monthly wages.

Ashish Jhagarawat the CEO & Director of Moon SEZ Consultants Pvt. Ltd., which offers ‘One Stop Solutions’ to all SEZ related requirements of various stakeholders of SEZs. Chandru Kalro the Managing Director of TTK Prestige, India’s leading kitchen appliances brand with a 64 year old legacy of continuous innovation.

Pradeep Lala the MD and CEO, of Embassy Services Private Limited (ESPL), a multi-faceted company delivering end to end, Integrated Facility Management services to over 150 clients, covering 70+ million sq. ft. of space, across 12 states of India.

While learning about these exceptional personalities, do keep your eyes on inputs directly from prominent industry leaders tagged under ‘CxO Standpoints’. Also keep your keen eyes on articles masterly crafted by our in-house editors.

With that being said, it is time to flip the pages and learn a leadership trait or two.

Have an Insightful Read!

Abhishaj Sajeev

Cover Story

08

Antony Joseph Kitherian Xavier

Interview With Insights Success

16

AKSHAY MEHROTRA

Article

30 Abhishek Shinde

24

20

Ashish Jhagarawat

Chandru Kalro

34

Business Talks

Pradeep Lala

26

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal sales@insightssuccess.com

Managing Editor Sneha Sinha

September, 2020

Quality Assurance Team Shreevarshita Gupta Abhishaj Sajeev Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Associate Designer Asha Bange Art & Picture Editor Mayur Koli Co-designer Deepanjali Jena Sr. Business Development Manager Megha Mishra Business Development Manager Nandan Deshpande Business Development Lead Tejaswini Whaval Sr. Business Development Executive Pravin Yalameli Technical Head Pratiksha Patil Technical Specialist Amar Sawant

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COVER STORY

BUSINESS

ACHIEVERS Making A Difference 2020

Antony Joseph Kitherian Xavier

Antony Joseph Kitherian Xavier Founder & CEO

“Failure is not the opposite of success; it’s a part of success.” Arianna Huffington, Author, and Co-founder, Huffington Post

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If you check other reports, they also say that almost 90% of these startups fail in the first year itself. That brings us to the question of why. All the start-ups are built around an idea or a problem that needs to be solved. The entrepreneur has chalked out everything, or so it seems.

(S)he has the problem, the solution to it, supportive people who think the solution is the best, the roadmap is drawn on when the services or the product goes live and it is then launched. But it doesn’t work out. And after losing money, time, and a lot of confidence and faith, the entrepreneur thinks about what went wrong.

This is also what Antony Joseph Kitherian Xavier thought to himself, not once but twice after his two start-ups failed to take off the way he imagined. His first idea was that of a retail online business that he had nurtured for 8 years planning everything alongside his regular job and even completing his part-time Executive PGDM at

TA Pai Management Institute, Bangalore.

Soon he realized this idea wasn’t working. But he also knew that he can’t go back to his 9 to 5 routine.

So he came up with another business idea. Having heard of opportunities in the education sector, he started a business school offering MBA programs in 2009.

The institute produced a couple of batches but the cash burn out rate was so high and he lost all his savings.

Seek and You shall Find In a society that judges people by their financial position and success, Antony had only failures to show. All he knew was he has already set himself on a path that only leads forward and the journey had just begun.

A serious round of introspection and reasoning with himself made him realize that up until now, he was chartering in untested waters. A software developer by profession, his ventures had been in unknown territories, and he started his entrepreneurial career without a

‘‘

We envision an automated world with connected enterprises regardless of their size for end-to-end value chain optimization.

‘‘

s per Government reports, there were around 50,000 start-ups in India in 2018 and 1300 new tech startups were added to the list in 2019 alone. So, approximately we have around 2-3 tech startups being born every day.

While the numbers may encourage you to join the bandwagon with the idea that you think is amazing and unexplored, take a pause and think again.

plan and market research which led to failure.

So finally, his quest for the next business idea ended with him picking up the domain (workflow) which he was working in before the entrepreneurship bug bit him. He started practising freelance consulting services in ‘Business Process Automation’ and ‘Application and System Integration’, and in 2015, laid the foundations of Entoss Technologies Pte Ltd in Singapore. With Entoss, Antony finally hit the sweet spot in the business where he had the perfect blend of passion, expertise, and opportunities.

Entoss builds a platform of ready to use automated business processes for its customers to make them efficient, flexible, and intelligent enough to compete in the market.

Entoss Technologies envisions “The

The Platform Entoss offers cloud solutions to automate the business processes on demand. It first identifies the key KPIs that are important to improve, and its related business processes and then maps the existing business processes as is with the existing automated business processes.

Next, it implements the customized business process and deploys it on Entoss Pomfret. Once the customer starts using the processes, it also monitors the performance of the key metrics and indicators. Any

issues are handled and assisted for resolution by the Entoss support team.

Pomfret is Entoss’s platform for Automated Intelligent Business Processes. It is the digital transformation platform of ready to use automated business processes interleaved with intelligent (AI / ML) decisions routing. It is affordable as customers pay only for the utilized processes. The platform can help customers with increasing revenue, enhance customer experience, achieve better business performance, and improved productivity.

‘‘

Successful companies thrive on having a system with automated processes and intelligent decision making.

‘‘

Automated World” – connected enterprises regardless of its size to make the world better for consumers. It focuses on three spectrums of today’s CIO priorities – Business Process Automation, Document Management, and enterprise mobile app. In 2019, Antony started the Indian entity of Entoss.

The Transition from an Aspirant to a Leader On his entrepreneurial journey, Antony has seen both success and failure and believes that neither of them defines or decide the journey.

Just as failure doesn’t mean one should stop trying, success is not a milestone but a step towards a larger goal.

To succeed as a leader, one needs to have a vision for oneself and instil the same in the organization. The vision should be the same throughout the hierarchy. He also feels that it is important to assess and evaluate the business journey and whenever needed, there should be a reality check on whether the business is on the right path.

Due to its dynamic nature, there might be instances when the organization’s goals change during the journey. The same must be communicated to and realized by

To Lead, You need People who Trust

they are taking up and the solution should be in-line with the company’s values. The rest, they can take care of.

This type of trust that everyone at Entoss enjoys comes from three core values that Antony and his core team have been nurturing over the years. These values are:

To know how good a leader is, one must take a look at his followers. For Antony, co-workers and employees at Entoss are not just followers but equal partners who now share the same vision as his. He feels that the younger generation working with him has a lot of information at hand and all they need to stay motivated is a free hand in solving problems.

Commitment – With commitment comes credibility. It is necessary to deliver what one commits, whether to a client or a co-worker.

Antony feels, as a leader or top management, he shouldn’t be micromanaging his employees but encouraging them to solve issues by their free will. All they should be reminded of is that the problem

Teamwork – Together is the way to grow. We must work together and share the knowledge that we possess. And as it is with knowledge, the more we share, the more we gain.

‘‘

We build platform of ready to use automated business processes for our customers to become efficient, flexible and intelligent to compete in the market.

‘‘

the entire team so that they all work together.

Relationship – Good relations go a long way. Antony believes that when we put other’s needs first, one’s needs are taken care of on their own.

Words of Experience As a Software Developer, here’s what Antony has to say to the fellow developers. “Do not worry much about what technology will become

‘‘

Pomfret provides ‘Actnow’ as an Automated Business Process Platform for businesses to achieve their business transformation objectives.

‘‘

popular, instead focus on problems.

With technology evolving, everyone is confused about what new they should learn to keep up with changing times. However, there is no end to it. It doesn’t matter what new you have to learn, if you are capable of solving today’s problem with what you know, it should be good enough.”

As a Business Leader and Entrepreneur, he feels that the fellow entrepreneurs should focus more on connecting with the customers. Instead of trying to focus on what new technology they need to implement to stay relevant, they should connect with the real customers, find their areas of pain, and provide solutions.

Towards an Automated Future What the future holds for us is always a mystery, more so in the current times when a pandemic has put most of the plans for the year on hold. However, Entoss has its plans cut out as it envisions all enterprises using solutions

provided by the company. This vision can be achieved by connecting with them, addressing their pain points, and motivating Entoss’ employees to solve them.

According to Antony, Automation isn’t a rapid stream and the technology is currently not affordable for mid-size companies.

Entoss is trying to make it affordable. He adds, “Our job is to make sure AI and Automation can be put in one bundle for mid-size companies which need it but can’t afford.”

Going forward, Entoss will be focussing on Intelligent Business Automation. They will be looking into integrating Intelligence in dayto-day operational efficiencies.

“We’ll see how we can collect data from daily activities, feed the Machine Learning mechanism, and improvise so that enterprises can stay ahead of the market trend”, concludes Antony.

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AKSHAY MEHROTRA Simplifying Lending!

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he below excerpt is an exclusive interview with Akshay Mehrotra - Co-founder & CEO of EarlySalary.

IS: Brief us about you and your journey since the beginning of your career.

Mr. Akshay: After completing my Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Symbiosis Pune, I started my own Start-up venture EarlySalary, a Fintech Start-Up which uses new age technology for lending funds. I have 16 years of experience in strategic planning and marketing and have worked with brands like Future RetailLtd, PolicyBazaar.com, Big Bazaar and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co. Ltd. I was also conferred as one of the Most Talented CMO of the year award in 2013 – 2014 in the retail space, by CMO Asia.

IS: How do you describe yourself in one/two word? Who has been your guide, source of inspiration, support?

Mr. Akshay: Determined and Self-motivated IS: What do you like most about your job? State us about your passions, mission, and goals. What acts as a motivation tool for you?

Mr. Akshay: As the Chief Executive Officer at EarlySalary, I oversee the implementation of the company’s product strategy and focus towards building EarlySalary as a Financial Institution. I believe my unwavering passion for customer service and attention to detail, is one of my biggest strengths. Our TG of young working professionals is the fasted growing segment in the country and hence we would like to build EarlySalary as a market leader in this category.

IS: Kindly describe in brief about your company and its services/products.

Mr. Akshay: Headquartered in Pune, EarlySalary is a salary advance mobile application that enables users to 16 | INSIGHTS SUCCESS

borrow money for urgent cash requirements before they get their monthly wages. This Fintech Company uses new age technology for lending funds. The company aims to deliver a revolutionary new business model which is set to change the lending market in India. EarlySalary was founded with a mission to offer consumers the convenience of availing loans at a short notice with minimum legal formalities involved. The service is available as a Mobile App that offers small bridge loans to working professional who are short on cash and need funds till their salary gets credited at the start of next month. Users can just download the mobile application and login using their Facebook account with some basic details and apply for a loan. Within minutes, the user will be notified whether his/her loan request has been approved or not. Once the documents are approved through the mobile app, the money gets transferred to the loan seekers account within minutes.

IS: State us your major achievements and your company’s achievements under your leadership.

Mr. Akshay: The inception of EarlySalary took place when we realised there is a large credit underserved population in India. Easily accessible financial assistance was nonexistent for young professionals and blue or grey collar workers in the country. We set up EarlySalary to initially provide short-term financial solutions to help our users combat the month - end cash crunch. The company began operations in 2016 and now, EarlySalary is India’s largest consumer lending application for salaried professionals having disbursed over INR 1350 crores so far. We are also the ‘financial wellness’ partner for more than 300 companies. We have also introduced a free credit score feature for our users to make it easier for them to check their credit score and take steps towards improving their financial health. EarlySalary has won numerous awards and has been touted as one of the Must – Have applications on a millennials phone.

VOLUME - 09, ISSUE - 02, 2020

INTERVIEW WITH INSIGHTS SUCCESS IS: State us about the most memorable and remarkable moments of your life.

Mr. Akshay: EarlySalary was launched in Feb 2016 and within 3 years of the launch of mobile app, the company has disbursed 9L loans amounting to Rs.1, 550 Crores. The mobile application has 9 million downloads disbursing 80,000 loans, amounting to INR 140 CR per month.

Moreover, nearly 400+ corporates and over 1 million employees have partnered with the Financial Wellness Offering & Salary Advances of EarlySalary which help the users to create a financial cushion in times of need.

IS: Kindly tell us about the challenges you took and the risk associated with it and how did you overcome them?

Mr. Akshay: Learning a new business model and then to disrupt it with new technology was a huge challenge.

Having to learn something new is a big leap, especially when you are a seasoned professional. EarlySalary is my dream project. In the last three and a half years we have gone through phases where funding cycles were critical, and we came out with flying colours with marquee investors like Eight Roads (Fidelity) Ventures and Chirate (IDG) Ventures participating in the funding rounds. Today we have raised not only $ 23Million in Equity but also raised more than $50Million in debt to build growth our business and today have disbursed over Rs.1500Cr. Growth cannot happen without building a strong team; at EarlySalary we have been able to build a strong team of nearly 250 people comprising of data scientist, core technology development, and risk & underwriting, collections, product and marketing which allow us to grow business in a high automated manner. Large customer acceptance is critical to any early stage business, today we have over 9Million app downloads, disbursed over 900,000 loans and tied-up with over 400+ large corporates to help kick start hyper growth.

IS: Share your point of view on the current scenario of the industry and its future.

Mr. Akshay: With internet penetration, technology in the financial space is catching up in India. Right from shopping to financial transactions, everything is gradually going digital now. The long and cumbersome process of getting loans from banks has been cut short with just few clicks made using smartphones. Today, the Fintech startups have been successfully addressing the under-served micro- and small-business segments for their financial needs which are not met by banks. Fintech is indeed a complex ecosystem but has been rapidly evolving. The overall potential for 2020, ISSUE - 02, VOLUME - 09

Akshay Mehrotra - Co-founder & CEO

Fintech in India is very promising. It is imperative for governments, regulators, financial institutions, entrepreneurs, lenders, borrowers, market participants, investors and lending platforms to play a responsible role towards the development of this powerful business model.

Currently in India, the personal loan and credit card debt outstanding is close to Rs. 576,600 crore at the end of FY18. Today, only 20% of working young salaried professionals have an access to credit cards. Hence, this creates a huge potential for EarlySalary.com for tapping the remaining youth population of India looking for easy loans.

IS: What would you advise to the budding entrepreneurs?

Mr. Akshay: Focus on building a model which makes business sense not a problem you want to solve.

IS: Please tell us about your future business plans.

Mr. Akshay: Our TG of young working professionals is the fasted growing segment in the country and hence we would like to build EarlySalary as a market leader in this category.

And in next 3 years, we aim to build a billion dollar balance sheet.

INSIGHTS SUCCESS | 17

BUSINESS

ACHIEVERS Making A Difference 2020

Abhishek Shinde CEO/ Director - Sales & Business Development

“

My Family is my biggest motivation as they have supported me, time and again through every decision

“

20 | INSIGHTS SUCCESS

VOLUME - 09, ISSUE - 02, 2020

ABHISHEK SHINDE Heading Towards Success, Delivering Excellence

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chievement is a sense of success. A medal of honor that one gives himself, for making a difference through all the adversities faced. Challenges are inevitable, but facing those challenges head-on with a proper plan is the way to go. Breaking through the limits and rising above the horizon of hard work will place you on the top.

One such remarkable entity, instilled with the abovementioned ideals is Abhishek Shinde - CEO/ Director Sales and Business Development, Excelsior Research Pvt Ltd. The journey of an entrepreneur is never easy. “I actually had to go through a lot of tough times during the inception of my company,” says Abhishek. Every failure in his life gave him the strength to move forward, and he learned a lot from his mistakes. As far as his driving force is considered, he thanks his wife primarily. “Personally I would like to thank my wife Vrushali Shinde who left her carrier and helped me in my worst times to get the company to this level,” states Abhishek. “I would consider my father, Shri. Deepak Shinde as my role model. Seeing him happy gives me a lot of strength,” he further adds.

Excelling Excelsior Excelsior Research is a full-service market research agency.

It offers a wide range of Research Solutions and services to a global clientele.

“We are providing a one-stop solution for all market research related needs of the leading large scale as well as medium and small scale companies,” tells Abhishek. The company’s digital practice research services are customized to ensure that the clients’ campaign derives the maximum and most relevant leads. Its Lead Generation team works with laser-like focus and uses cutting edge digital advertising methods to drive in potential customers.

“Excelsior Research is the best agency to work with and the best company to work for!” proclaims Abhishek.

One of the primary objectives of the company is to become the first and foremost choice as their go-to solution provider for all the companies and other users. “We want to be the 2020, ISSUE - 02, VOLUME - 09

prominent market research & ITES projects enablers in all the sectors, be it private or public,” Abhishek envisages.

He wants to grab more opportunities and create more employment opportunities for society. On a priority basis, he wishes to expand the company to an organization where his team would consist of more than 1000 employees. He is on the way to create a great pool of talent for the betterment of society.

Struggles and Troubles Working during odd hours was always a challenging task for Abhishek, which required a tough mind to cope up with work stress. Not just stress, but the pressure of performing as per the industry expectations and on-time delivery were also engaging factors. Finding the right talent has always been one of the difficult activities in this industry. The industry is in need of people who can manage and multitask along with handling a tremendous amount of pressure.

The industry has been changing at a rapid pace. With the growing innovation across various verticals like artificial intelligence and data science, are proving to be the modern solution for doing business. With new competitors emerging every day, client satisfaction is considered to be on top priority for being on the charts. “We have to be on toes to meet the requirements of the end-user,” claims Abhishek. “We have also been very well recognized by our clients across the globe,” he boasts proudly.

Another thing that holds the company together is its human resources or employees. Employee satisfaction is the key that has been incorporated in Excelsior from the beginning.

Hence, within just four years of time-frame, the company has gained new heights and was able to create its own identity in the industry. “I am so glad that my team and I were able to get into this competitive market and make our identity,” informs Abhishek. Now, the company comprises of more than 250 staff personnel working in different segments. “Finally, when I see my team and Excelsior as a brand, it makes me feel so proud,” he relishes.

Abhishek’s advise to the young business heads is, “Take care of your employees and they will take care of you.”

INSIGHTS SUCCESS | 21

BUSINESS

ACHIEVERS Making A Difference 2020

Ashish Jhagarawat Redefining Business Leadership with Passion

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etermination is the key to achieve greatness in anything you pursue. A strong resolve always solves the small dilemmas. To ensure the smooth flowing of any activity, one needs to channelize his/her core strength and bring about sound decisions throughout the work. Being a leader is not about changing things around in the workplace, it's more about changing perspectives of the people working there. That’s how the identity of a true leader is derived.

A Business Baron “I believe that business is in my blood and soul,” expresses Ashish Jhagarawat boldly. He is distinguishing the concept of being a leader in a new way and driving success with a passion for business. As a CEO/Director of Moon SEZ Consultants Pvt. Ltd. Ashish has always focused on creating and delivering solutions to the problems encountered by people on a daily basis. Most of the issues are related to compliances and right advise at right time these days. Hence, he decided to venture into the field of management consultancy and to be precise Special Economic Zone consulting business along with IFSC (International Financial Service Centres) the only IFSC in the country at present is at GIFT City, Gujarat which is Hon’ble Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s pet project.

He hails from Udaipur, Rajasthan and has a traditional family background.

Before entering the business world, Ashish had to go through various personal challenges in order to fulfill his dream. After moving out of his home and coming to Mumbai in 2004 for pursuing Chartered Accountancy, his goals were getting disoriented as his parents had different visions for his life. They wanted Ashish to work and excel in the service sector. Without the knowledge of what his parents had in store for him, he completed his graduation in B.Com and appeared for CA (inter) examination. Behind his back, Ashish’s father made arrangements and admitted him to Indira College, Pune for MBA which was a very shocking experience for him.

24 | INSIGHTS SUCCESS

Nonetheless, he moved to Pune and completed his MBA as well. He got placed with HDFC Bank as a credit manager in the unsecured loan division.

He left the job from HDFC in June 2010 and started his own venture of financial services. Initially, it didn’t do so well for around six to seven months and finally, it came to an end. Later, Ashish joined Moon SEZ Group in April 2011 after having served as a salaried employee for three months. Since then, there was no looking back for him. He started new business verticals at various intervals of his life.

Now, he looks after overall business development activities, operations handling and client handling across sixteen different locations in India for Moon SEZ. “What I like the most about my business is that every day there are new challenges and something new to do,” says Ashish. “My work is a self-driving force for me and my passion for it acts as a fuel,” he adds further. His mission is to make the Moon SEZ group as equivalent to the Big 4 consulting firms in India.

Business and Beyond When he is not thinking about business, Ashish turns into a thorough family man. He considers his parents as guiding light and treats them as a moral compass in his day to day life. “I appreciate and thank my family, especially my wife!

She has always stood by me through thick and thin,” Ashish tells. According to him, the most memorable moment for him was finding his life partner in 2010 and leaving his job to venture into the business. “Those were the two most important turning points in my life,” he claims.

As far as his source of inspiration and support system is considered, his passion for work and the team he works with are the engaging factors. “I am passionate about everything that comes to me,” states Ashish. Explaining the current situation pertaining to the industry Ashish opines that he does not see any recession anywhere, but a bright future for Indian entrepreneurs. To emphasize this, he articulates the reason as the negativity in Us-China trade

VOLUME - 09, ISSUE - 02, 2020

Ashish Jhagarawat CEO

Like any other businessman, Ashish also faced some challenges while navigating through the difficulties in Moon SEZ. “Since our line of business mostly deals with clients that are looking for consulting and compliance including import and export clearance for them, there are a lot of risks associated with it,” he informs. Every step right from any approval the company obtains for the client and any incentive it claims for them, all of it propagated uncertainties.

However, with the robust and uniform processes, and automation system implemented in the company, it is now able to handle all the matters extremely well. This has minimized the risk by eliminating human dependency and chances of errors.

Inspiring the young and new entrepreneurs, Ashish’s advice to them is - “There is no shortcut to success and learning is a never-ending process. The more you read, the more you will brush up your knowledge and then it’s my challenge to you that no one will be able to beat you.”

2020, ISSUE - 02, VOLUME - 09

“

Don’t think of what people will say, just go ahead and do what you feel like doing

“

relations. “Chinese are not known as good English speakers.

Hence, it’s an opportunity for us to grab the international deals as in India, most of the population is well versed with the English language,” suggests Ashish. It will provide more business opportunities for India due to the availability of young brains in the country. Furthermore, with the Indian economy opening up more and forming bilateral relations day by day with FDI norms the opportunities have grown tenfold.

INSIGHTS SUCCESS | 25

BUSINESS

ACHIEVERS Making A Difference 2020

Chandru K

Leading Change to Achieve G

I

n India, people especially women, spend around 13.2 hours a week on an average in the kitchen. Food and matters related to food are central and often revered for an Indian household. So it is natural that good kitchenware is quintessential and often a prized possession for the lady of the house. The modern Indian kitchen has long moved on from earthen cookware and now relies on modern cookware that ranges from non-electric to electric. They need kitchenware that can keep pace with their fast forward life, and add value to their kitchen collection.

Since 1928, TTK Prestige has been catering to the changing whims and fancies of the Indian kitchen. The TTK Group was founded in 1928 as an indenting agency by Mr T.T. Krishnamachari who pioneered organized distribution in India. Today it spans 30 product categories with 7 group companies and a turnover that cross 30 Billion rupees. The group company products reach every continent of the world. TTK Prestige Ltd. is the flagship company of the group.

The People’s Leader In 1993, Chandru Kalro joined TTK as a Product Manager. In 2015, he took over as Managing Director, and today manages the largest and most profitable company in the Kitchen appliances category. An engineer by academic qualification, Mr. Kalro has played a key role in changing the course of the company from being a pressure cooker company to making Prestige India’s number one kitchenware brand.

In a career spanning over three decades, he has been a part of BPL Limited for a brief stint of seven years. His move to TTK saw him climbing up the ladder quickly to General Manager Marketing in two and a half years. He has since played a key role in several strategic initiatives with a strong focus on innovation, superior customer service, and long term planning.

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A Legacy that kept Re-inventing Itself TTK Prestige is India’s leading kitchen appliances brand with a 64-year-old legacy of continuous innovation. It is the first company in India to offer a range of innovative and unique products both in the electric and non-electric category thus offering end to end solutions. It has nourished and developed three brands over a period of time namely – Prestige, Manttra and Prestige Xclusive. These brands have struck all the right chords with the Indian customer and the products range from pressure cookers to gas Stoves, Induction cook-tops, Mixer Grinders, Air Fryers, Roti makers, to hob tops and many more. TTK Prestige retails its products via Prestige Xclusive stores and enjoys a strong distribution network of over 550 stores across India.

Seeking and Capturing Opportunities in the Market With strong economic growth and increasing employment opportunities in India, the country’s kitchen appliances market is witnessing continuous growth. The expanding working class, especially working women; increasing nuclear families coupled with busy lifestyles are among the major factors boosting the demand for kitchen appliances in India. According to reports, the kitchen appliances market in India is set to grow at 25% CAGR. We have recognized these changing market dynamics early and have we have consistently launched new products to suit the everchanging needs of the Indian homemaker.

Cashing in on the market trends, Chandru Kalro played a key role in several strategic initiatives that were taken to make TTK Prestige become an aspiring company. The most important being TTK Prestige’s foray into retail by setting up a retail chain across the country. This provides a unique competitive edge that has made the company India’s number one Kitchen appliance company. The other major initiative was to strategically transform the company from being a manufacturing-focused company to a marketingVOLUME - 09, ISSUE - 02, 2020

Kalro

Growth

focused company and therefore create core competencies in sourcing. Consequently, the company today is transforming itself from being a Kitchen appliance company to becoming India’s largest kitchen appliances.

Charting New Path

In April 2016, TTK Prestige acquired UK based Horwood Homewares, one of the largest tableware & cookware suppliers in the UK. It supplies over 2,000 table and cookware products across key European markets. The acquisition was a part of TTK Group’s strategy to strengthen its globalization strategy. The Company aims to be more efficient and add a new competitive edge through an enhanced customer focus.

Chandru adds, “Its all about customer delight and not just customer satisfaction.”

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Chandru Kalro, Managing Director

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I owe my success to God and my father who taught me to deal with situations and people the way I have

“

Under Chandru’s innovative leadership, TTK Prestige has forayed into a new line of business in the home cleaning space, called ‘Prestige Clean / Home’. It transforms the way India cleans and will emerge as the go-to and preferred cleaning partner for the Indian homemaker. It comprises of electric and nonelectric range of innovative floor, air and water care products that offer convenience and ease of use. The electric range includes Electric Mops, Vacuum Cleaner, Floor Polishers, Steam Cleaners and Air purifiers.

Whilst the non-electric portfolio consists of Stick Mops, Twister Mop, Squeeze Mop, Magic Mops, Spray Mops, Ladders & Flip Bins, Water Purifier, Bottles & Flasks, Small Cleaning Tools etc.

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Business Talks

Remodeling A synonym for FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS 2020, ISSUE - 02, VOLUME - 09

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T

his generation has been living in scary brutish times - with a global pandemic and rumors of a possible World War III. How-so-ever seemingly, Gordon Gecko’s “greed is good” creed stands firmly for more political commentary than 1980s cinema.

Sure, it has been said that money cannot buy happiness but on the other hand poverty cannot buy anything. Entrepreneurs obviously want to make money, but that is not all about what they are. As a matter of fact, entrepreneurship has forever been about pushing oneself to be better than who they were yesterday.

allowed her to create a device that could predict them and alert the patient or the caregiver up to 25 minutes in advance. There have been reportedly 65 million people affected by epilepsy worldwide and having something that could alert them in advance could certainly change their lives.

This is how it works: Epistemic works with two electrodes placed in the head and then connected to a box that in turn sends the signal to an app.

2. Siroun Shamigian from Lebanon

Thus, not all entrepreneurs pursue the accumulation of wealth at all costs. It does seem direly odd that while one thinks of entrepreneurs as those who are primarily driven to make enough money to buy the world a Coke the actual definition does not even mention money, rather it focuses on risk and initiative. Given this definition, it seems fair to point out the number of ever-increasing Women Entrepreneurs.

Women empowerment has forever been a topic of interest in the intellectual as well as business world.

Empowering women, as the word states, should be to provide them with all the conditions required to flourish and this should not just be a quote. This should be the way of life. Entrepreneurship has proven to be one of the best ways to create conditions for empowerment, since it is the path for forming a unique business that follows and caters to a women’s needs, passions, and abilities. Women entrepreneurs have found in their businesses the advantage of flexibility, success, and leadership.

Amongst the many women who have paved their path for entrepreneurship, there are a few who have made it to the list of making a difference in the world and working towards a cause.

1. Paula Gomez from Brazil

After having an experience of 23 years in teaching, Siroun discovered that Arabic teachers had access to very few technological support tools, which challenges the teaching of the language in a world that is drawn into technology. This led her to innovate the process of teaching and learning of Arabic through an online platform, called Kamkalima.

In its first year itself, Kamkalima had benefited 12,000 students in 35 schools across two countries.

3. Swati Pandey from India She had been interested in fighting diabetes and obesity, considering the new age epidemics.

Alarmingly, India has the highest number of diabetics in the world. The main problem, she learnt, was that people suffering from diabetes have increased from 180 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014, according to World Health Organization. She then came up with a solution to establish a plant biotechnology company that could produce stevia, a 100 percent natural substitute for sugar. Her company, Arboreal, now intends to be sustainable through all levels, from the farmers who cultivate it, to the consumers who may transition to a healthier option.

- Vedika Mansukhe

Paula, along with her 75-year-old mother, studied the signals of incoming epileptic seizures, which then

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BUSINESS

ACHIEVERS Making A Difference 2020

PRADEEP LALA An Epitome of Proficient Business Leadership

Pradeep Lala, MD & CEO

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t is not your legacy that makes you a leader, but the lessons you learn from the people around you.”

This adage imposes more weight to the fact that leaders are made and not born. Being an accomplished business leader requires one to be resilient, passionate, gritty, compassionate, and many other aspects that evidently cannot be inherited and can only be learned through time and efforts.

We often tend to disregard the years of hard work, numerous sleepless nights, tough decisions that had to be taken, and the many challenges and hurdles that an accomplished business leader had to overcome. We tend to disregard that for any leader, achieving success and recognition do not come easy and when they do, it is always at a cost.

This edition titled, Business Achievers Making A Difference in 2020, has been curated with the intent of bringing such business leaders into spotlight, who have strived relentlessly to achieve their purpose and in that journey, made a significant impact on the world of commerce.

Pertaining to the same, we wish to introduce you to Mr. Pradeep Lala, the MD and CEO, of Embassy Services Private Limited (ESPL).

Mr. Pradeep Lala is the driving force of Embassy Services, an independent arm of the Embassy Group. Mr. Lala studied Mechanical Engineering and is an alumnus of M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology. He also holds an MFM from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.

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Prior to ESPL, Mr. Lala had worked with Ingersoll Rand for 14 years. He then founded the Horizon Group in 2000 where he worked ceaselessly to establish a strong leadership and made it independent before he joined the team of Embassy Group.

In 2013, Pradeep joined Embassy Services as CEO at a time when the company was all set for the next stage of growth.

Owing to his leadership qualities he focussed on strong internal communication and people management to enhance team performance in the company which only helped garner positive results for the organization.

Pradeep’s approach and tremendous contribution has established strong and long-lasting relationships with prestigious clients like Blackstone Flipkart, WeWork and HCL. Today, Embassy Services has presence in 12 cities of India with team strength of 6000+ people managing a diverse portfolio of almost 60 million sq. ft.

Along this journey, Pradeep’s focus on delivering the highest standard of services has never wavered. Embassy Services, under his leadership has achieved many milestones and awards including the prestigious Sword of Honour from the British Safety Council in 2017. He was also awarded the “Best CEO of Integrated Facility Management Services Company” in 2019.

Exhibiting Excellence Founded in 1993, Embassy Services Private Limited is a multi-faceted company delivering end to end, Integrated Facility Management services to over 150 clients, covering 70+ million sq. ft. of space, across 12 states of India.

The company’s pan-India presence covering the real estate portfolio spectrum of commercial, residential, industrial, co-working, retail, hospitality and other properties, gives it a unique advantage of having a reservoir of deep technical knowledge to cater to any requirement.

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From home grown start up unicorns to large multinational firms, ESPL’s customers come from diverse industry sectors. Over time, this has helped the company develop essential skills across various industries.

The company’s key clients include names like IBM, Flipkart, WeWork and HCL amongst others. ESPL manages facilities for 150 brands in BFSI, IT, engineering, manufacturing, consulting, research, healthcare, retail, telecom, hospitality, education, and co-working sectors across India.

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Embassy Services efficiently deals with functionality of properties by integrating people, place, process, and technology.

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ESPL is on a mission to build transformative tech-driven tools to address tomorrow’s challenges. Its strong leadership principles are based on technology, transparency, and trust.

Embassy Services has been accredited with certifications such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, from British Safety Council, and Indian Green Building Council, which leads to a consistently high level of quality, environmental management, and occupational safety. ESPL makes every facility, every property, every experience extraordinary through their relentless effort and high-quality management.

ESPL’s pure client-centric approach highly influences operational decisions. The teams are constantly connected with clients to understand their business and growth plans in order to customize services based on their requirements.

“We implement an array of technology tools tailor made for IFM, which enables data driven decision making, optimisation of manpower, allows clients to lodge complaints and be in touch with their on-site managers in real time,” Mr. Lala expresses.

Setting Benchmarks With a solutions-based approach, ESPL delivers best-inclass end-to-end services. The company manages clients’ needs across multiple verticals like engineering services, energy management, water management, transport management, statutory compliance, soft services and environment, health, safety and security services, giving clients the quality that maximises productivity.

About Embassy Group Embassy Group has a three-decade long track record spanning the commercial, residential, industrial, retail and hospitality segments of the Indian real estate industry. With over 40 million sq. ft delivered and a corporate client list of over 150 marquee global and Indian corporates that feature some of the best brands globally.

The company actively supports all high sustainability standards. A few noteworthy initiatives followed by the company are – providing adequate parking space for cycles, battery charging points in the basement for electric vehicles, and using aerators across all the parks to control water consumption. The company efficiently deals with functionality of properties by integrating people, place, process, and technology.

The Embassy team is skilled with a refined eye for detail.

They work tirelessly to ensure smooth and perfect roundthe-clock management of the properties backed by holistic services. The company maintains a very systematic process, makes careful selection of vendors, and appoints supremely qualified on-site and management teams ensuring high quality deliverables.

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At the core of the value chain lies Embassy Group’s ability to envision and identify key development hubs and systematically plan and oversee the acquisition of key land parcels. Embassy Group has a proven expertise of understanding the needs of global businesses and translating them into productive and effective workspaces.

Strong corporate relationships that have grown across geographies, projects that have been delivered to exacting international standards, meeting stringent cost and timeline demands, are all testimony to the Embassy Group’s focus on driving operational advantage for its clients.

To learn more, visit: www.embassyservices.in /www.embassyindia.com

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