Entrepreneurs who keep their first office

[dwarakesh]

Some entrepreneurs preserve their first office or store. Reminiscent of their past, these inspire them for the rest of their lives.

They say in business there's hardly any room for emotions. Cold business logic often dictates where or how a business must go. But ask successful entrepreneurs about their very first venture, and chances are you'll be suprised how emotions take over as they travel back into time to relive their early starting up days.

[dwarakesh]

Qimat Rai Gupta, Chairman, Havells

1831, Bhagirath Place in Old Delhi evokes such sentiments in Qimat Rai Gupta, 72, chairman of Havells.

The $1 billion plus electrical equipment manufacturer, which acquired SLI Sylvania last April, now operates from a spanking new 180,000 sq ft headquarters in Noida. But this tony 200 sq ft shop is where it all began in 1958.

Gupta, then a strapping young man of 21, came to Delhi from Punjab in search of better fortunes and bought this shop for Rs 4,000 to trade in electrical goods. Later, Gupta acquired the Havells brand from one Haveli Ram Gandhi and the rest is history.

[dwarakesh]

Chandubhai Virani, Chairman, Balaji Wafers

Every alternate Sunday, Chandubhai Virani drives down his Honda City to Dharmendra Road in Rajkot, and spends some time watching a small shop that sells sandwiches. The chairman of Balaji Wafers, a Rs 350-crore maker of potato chips and snacks, takes evident pride in the hard work and struggles he went through in his early years to build his business.

"I started in this 6x10 ft shop in 1986 with an investment of Rs 3,000, selling sandwiches," he recalls. Now, Virani visits just to ensure that the quality of sandwiches being delivered is still as good as before. Before setting up the shop, Virani used to supply home-made wafers to cinema halls from 1974-1982.

As business grew, he bought 1,000 sq yd of land in 1989 to set up a small wafers-making unit, and 3,000 sq yd in 1999. His big moment came in 2002, when the Virani family bought 45 acres of land to set up Gujarat's first large fully automated potato wafer making unit. It was rumoured food and snacks giant PepsiCo had offered to buy out the company for Rs 500 crore.

[dwarakesh]

Kishore Biyani, MD, Pantaloon Retail

For Kishore Biyani, who's synonymous with organised retail in India, his first Pantaloons store launched in Kolkata in August 1997 is special too. This flagship store, which heralded a phase of aggressive expansion for the company, had an advertising budget of around Rs 4 crore, which was quite unheard of in the retail segment then.

"But that store generated Rs 10 crore for us, exceeding our expectations," Biyani recalls. Even after setting up India's fastest growing retail business spanning diverse product and consumer segments, Biyani admits that this store is among the most important milestones in his entrepreneurial journey.

"It's only natural that some people have an affection for their first business. It could be because they learnt the business there, or it could just be about nostalgia ," says S Manikutty, professor at IIM-Ahmedabad who has researched family-owned businesses

[dwarakesh]

Nikhil Mohan, MD, Mohan Clothing Company

Take the case of readymade garments brand Blackberry which owes its origins to Sri Ram and Sons, a 128-year-old shop in old Delhi's Chandni Chowk market.

Nikhil Mohan, managing director of Mohan Clothing Company that owns the Blackberry brand says, "This shop started in 1881 and now the fifth generation of our family runs the shop. Each of our new ventures starts from this place, so there's an emotional bonding with the shop. We want it to remain with us always. It gives us hope and strength."

Sometimes, sentimental value takes over any other business logic in preserving the past.

[dwarakesh]

Bhushan Kumar, MD, T-Series

Music and fruit juice may have nothing remotely in common, but for T-Series managing director Bhushan Kumar, it's a connection that dates back to this Rs 447-crore music company's roots. Krishna Juice Centre, a 40 sq ft fruit juice stall in Daryaganj, Delhi is where his father and the company's founder Gulshan Kumar began his entrepreneurial journey.

Started in 1968 by Gulshan Kumar's father Chandrabhan, business from this shop supported Kumar's first business of trading in LP records and subsequently an outlet in South Delhi's Gulmohar Park area. From there, Kumar began recording 'cover versions' of popular Hindi songs which led to the inception of the T-Series label.

Bhushan Kumar now runs the company from Mumbai but makes it a point to visit the outlet (run by a relative) whenever he can. "The juice shop is very significant for our company. It has given us everything we have today, he says.

[dwarakesh]

DPS Kohli, Chairman, Koutons Retail India Ltd

For DPS Kohli, chairman of Koutons Retail India Ltd, the first office he ever started was special. Kohli entered the apparel market in 1992, eight years after his TV manufacturing plant was burnt down in the 1984 riots. Kohli and his cousin BS Sawhney started Charlie Creations, an upper-end jeans brand, at an office on DCM School Road in Karol Bagh.

With limited capital, Kohli and Sahni then rented two 1000 sq foot offices and combined them. The new office, which was used mainly for dispatching and packing garments manufactured at their Karol Bagh factory, employed around 50 people. The location was carefully chosen.

Kohli says, "We have kept that office because it was our stepping stone to much greater things. It is the same today, except for some minor paint jobs."

[FsidiGsi]

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