Entrepreneurship in Chennai on a mixed palette

While holistic social changes like job creation and offering new services to the society may be eventual fruits of a business, entrepreneurs largely take the plunge excited by an idea. On considering the sectors covered in this book, it seems the entrepreneur is not afraid to venture into unusual businesses fraught with uncertainty such as supply chain for agricultural products (eFarm) and or define new services like marketing process outsourcing (CMO Axis). Tragedy brings out the enterprising spirit of Patricia Narayan (Sandheepa Restaurant) while a chance conversation gives birth to a new, untested business (Ranjani Manian, Global Adjustments). Dr. Kamala Selvaraj founded GG Hospitals on the land donated by her father ‘Gemini’ Ganesan, the famous Tamil actor of yesteryears, to fulfil motherhood dreams of thousands of women. She is quite excited that she is respected as she is growing older for her work on artificial fertilization but would have been confined to home basking in the fame of being an actress, if she would have chosen to become one. Dr. P. Srinivasan overcame many a hurdle to set up Jeevan Blood Bank to save thousands of lives lost due to unavailability of blood. He is now betting on stem cell bank again to save lives.

Chennai’s everyday encounter businesses – GRT Jewellers (jewellery), Adyar Ananda Bhavan (retail food), Agarwal Hospitals (healthcare), Hatsun (Arun Ice Creams, diary), Vaasan Healthcare (healthcare) – are given prominence maybe to showcase how such businesses come to define the city itself and also contribute to its socioeconomic progress by generating employment and bringing new features into their business. Two real-estate entrepreneurs – C. Subba Reddy of CEEBROS and G.R.K. Reddy of MARG – who have shaped the city’s landscape have had contrasting entry into entrepreneurship. While CEEBROS tasted success with its first project, G.R.K. Reddy had to endure many hurdles and it’s his dream and never-say-die spirit that seemed to have stayed with him. Subba Reddy has diversified into hospitality and owns Raintree Hotels, the latest property dotting the arterial Mount Road.

B.G. Raghupathy of BGR Energy Systems, T. Shivaraman of Shriram EPC, and Rajiv Mittal of VA Tech WABAG, all engineers by education, who have created waves in energy, construction and water treatment, respectively, tell us their journey of entrepreneurship, its many challenges and joys.

Custodians of family businesses – L. Ganesh of RANE Group and Suresh Krishna of TVS Fasteners – have provided a professional touch to their respective businesses while preserving the traditional family business values. Firmly resting on family values, RANE Group made foray into new segments as markets opened up infusing professionalism while Suresh Krishna followed the TVS group tradition of caring for employees as a plank for his company’s growth, imbibing valuable lessons from his uncles as he grew up. In TiECON Chennai 2011, when he was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award, he proudly said that in the 40 years of existence of his company, there has been no labour strike.

The retailer B.G. Kodandaraman of Vivek and Co. fulfilled the ambitions of middle class family’s desire for retail gadgets by introducing instalment scheme buying and the concept of New Year sale way back in 1977 and the dormant company for 30 years, it grew out phenomenally once professional management team was in place in 1995. Of course, the charismatic C.K. Ranganathan of CavinKare, who believes it’s the desire that helps you scale, stands out as an example of an entrepreneur who demonstrates that strength in values such as not bringing family into business, ability to multiply resources both personal and organizational, and empowering workforce that helps big dreams come can create a force to contend with in the hypercompetitive FMCG space. CavinKare has also diversified into restaurants and personal grooming segments. Their humble nature stands out more than their stellar achievements.

Smart techies also find extensive mention, with Sridhar Vembu, whose bootstrapped Zoho is a rage in the Valley and its development centre in Chennai is hailed as a model for socioeconomic progress as it employs young guys who didn’t pass university, leading the pack. His bold experiment with young people who have spark in the mind rather than donned with a degree has paid off. He vehemently denies the label ‘low cost’ to Indian services and feels India can match the western world in productivity. V. Vijayakumar of VoiceGear, Biju Ashokan of Metroplots and C.R. Chandrasekar of fundsindia.com lend their crafty touch to take some traditional businesses such as telecommunications, real estate and investment online.

Women of substance who have a point to prove include Saundarya Rajesh of AVTAR Career Creators, who found career options for women at home constrained by family callings such as marriage and childbirth, Chitra Ravi of EZ Vidya who betted on multimedia to help learning for children and Sharan Apparao of Apparao Galleries who just followed her passion into art and then into art entrepreneurship.

Lakshmi Narayanan, TiE Chennai president, who thinks innovation has taken centre stage once again puts forth his vision of TiE Chennai: “We in TiE Chennai believe that it is better for capital to chase ideas and entrepreneurs than the other way.” Every business or entrepreneur profiled in this book seems to have made their destinies on the strength of their dreams and having the guts to execute that dream.

My favourite is Soup and Salad Cafe by Bharat T. Rameash, just for Bharat’s bet on a niche business segment that has only a few players globally. If you are in Chennai, be sure to drop in there as it boasts of 50 varieties of salads. If you thought fast food doesn’t make business sense, you have Petawrap who sell fast food in autos. Sounds crazy, isn’t it? Of course, we also have young kid off the blocks but already a name to contend with in the social media space, Sorav Jain of echoVme, who thinks creating awareness about social media is the first step to building a vibrant social media enterprise.

The famous art director Thota Tharrani has designed the image appearing on the cover, exclusively for TiE Chennai, and the publisher New Horizon Media has designed and produced the book for TiE Chennai.

To put faces to names, the accompanying DVD features extensive interviews with all the entrepreneurs and their advice for young entrepreneurs.

Dream to Destiny: The Driving Spirit of Chennai’s Entrepreneurs, TiE Chennai, 151 pages + DVD. Available at TiE Chennai, IIT Research Park – Module 1, Ground Floor, Kanagam Road, Taramani, Chennai 600013. Telephone: 044-65154900. E-mail: [email protected]