Entrepreneurship can be tucked away in unexpected corners. It happens even if there are no ecosystems existing to help set up a business and no Angels and PEs stepping in to fund a project. ?Sheer passion and the desire to succeed have propelled emerging entrepreneurs from second and third tier towns in Tamil Nadu to succeed,?says R Ramraj, who set up Sify Ltd, an Internet, networking and e-commerce services company. He is now mentoring many budding entrepreneurs. Among other things, he is an advisor to The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).
TiE Chennai is one of the best performing chapters of the global organisation with 55 branches. TiECON Chennai, the chapter?s entrepreneurship networking event, has been honouring Chennai-based entrepreneurs under various categories. This year, it decided to look for active entrepreneurship beyond Chennai and took steps to recognise and attract nominations from all parts of the state. TiE Chennai held road shows in Coimbatore, Tirupur, Salem, Erode and Madurai; it reached out to a larger number of entrepreneurs and identified potential nominees for the awards.
Each of these places revealed clusters of entrepreneurship. For instance, Namakkal and Salem districts have a large number of entrepreneurs in the poultry, egg and hatcheries business. Namakkal is India?s second biggest egg-producing region. Nationwide, Namakkal is known for body-building of truck, trailer, tanker and rig units. Customers from other states come to Namakkal to get body-building work done. More than 50,000 trucks are operated by Namakkal truck owners all over India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh; this makes it the centre of the largest road cargo transport industry in the country.
Another well-known cluster is Tirupur, which is the heartland of the knitwear industry. The first generation entrepreneurs who were making vests for the local market saw an opportunity in knitted garments and they moved in. They took the plunge into exporting to the US and European countries without even knowing English or European languages. Their funding came from family and friends who have also been their mentors. Today, the second and third generations have taken the same business many steps forward. In Sivakasi, there is a cluster of firecracker manufacturers, who export to the West and each of them has a turnover of over R500 crore.
Sakthi Masala
Then there are those who made the transition from agriculture to industry. Take the case of Erode-based Sakthi Masala. When he started his business almost 35 years ago, PC Duraisamy, the founder of the company, was trying to sell a concept as much as he was trying to sell spice powders and curry powders. Duraisamy was a small-time turmeric trader in a village near Erode. He then began selling pure spice powders like turmeric, chilli and coriander. This was not easy in those days since housewives preferred to make their own masala powders. But he started marketing the powders under the concept of easy cooking. His wife Dr Santhi, a director in the company, has been a pillar of strength to him. Duraisamy started with an initial investment of R10,000. Now his business has grown to a turnover of about R300 crore and the Sakthi brand of spice and curry is an all-India name, with a flourishing export market as well.
Today, Sakthi Masala manufactures over 50 varieties of spice and masala powders, over a dozen varieties of pickles, flour, pappads, ghee and sunflower oil. The company employs mostly women and differently-abled persons from the rural areas. It uses modern technology in drying the raw materials. Solar heating channels, the largest in Asia, are used to dry the raw materials uniformly and hygienically.
KPN Travels
KP Natarajan from Periyaputhur village in Salem district decided he had to own a bus when he was in the 6th standard. He dropped out of school to become a cleaner with a bus company. Eventually he hired a bus, then owned one and now he is the founder of KPN Travels, which has a fleet of 250 buses, and 200 commercial vehicles. KPN does not come from an affluent family and his background is in agriculture. In 1971, he recognised the need for regular bus services between major towns and cities. He set up KPN travels in 1972 at age 23, starting with services between Thirunelveli and Bangalore. There were days when he had to drive the bus himself. He says that after he paid his loan off for one vehicle, he acquired another one.
The company started expanding in a couple of years. The service would start around the same time as when the express train left Trichy and would reach Chennai ahead of the train. KPN was one of the first to introduce the latest technologies in buses. Today, the company has the most modern fleet of buses, including 35 Volvo B7R high-end luxury coaches. KPN?s introduction of fleet standardisation, bus route review and employee training has provided a strong base for growth. With a turnover of around R60 crore, he is planning the next expansion to his business: a helicopter service between villages.
Thriveni Earthmovers
Another Salem-based company Thriveni Earthmovers was promoted by B Prabhakaran, a computer science graduate in 1991. Thriveni provides low-cost mining solutions that facilitate development on a major scale. The company has proven mining capabilities across a variety of minerals like iron ore, coal, copper, limestone, lignite, bauxite, quartzite and armour rocks. Employing its own range of mining, crushing and auxiliary mining equipment, it undertakes break-through mining explorations across some of the toughest terrains. It is also engaged in mine development with activities spanning geological prospecting, statutory clearances, mine operations and marketing. The company has recently ventured into commercial production of coal and aggregates; it has an overseas presence in Mozambique and Indonesia. Thriveni?s turnover is around R650 crore and it employs more than 3,000 people. The company?s quality complies with international standards and it has state-of-the-art infrastructure.
Education is big business in smaller towns. ?Some of these colleges have incredible infrastructure,? says Ramraj, who has looked at several. Take an institution like Mahendra Engineering College near Namakkal, set up by Mahendra Educational Trust (MET). The college was started in 1995 with three branches of engineering?computer science, electronics and communication, and mechanical?and it is affiliated to the University of Madras. Today, it offers several undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in engineering, computer applications and applied sciences. The student strength has grown from 180 in 1995 to about 2,500 in 2008. The total built-up area of the current facility is 31,970 sqm.
The Mahendra Educational Trust was established in 1978 by Bharath Kumar, a well known educationalist and philanthropist from the region.
Dr Sridhar Mitta, an IT industry veteran and an internationally recognised expert in the effective management of multinational R&D in Information technology, is closely associated with the institutions. The college is working with him to set up rural BPOs.
RSM Autokast Ltd
Coimbatore-based RSM Autokast Ltd is the flagship company of the RSM Group, which has diversified interests in auto components, castings, sheet metal components, horticulture and wind power generation. It is best known for its design and manufacture of brake drums for commercial vehicles. It is one of the largest suppliers of this component in the country. RSM is the only company that caters to OEMs, exports and the aftermarkets. It exports to 30 countries under its own brand name.
RSM Autokast was set up by K Kasturirangaiyan in1996. Almost its entire power requirements for manufacturing activities are met by its windmills located in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The total installed generating capacity is over 6 MW. Says K Ilango, the founder?s son and deputy managing director,
?My father believes passionately in green energy.? Kasturirangaiyan is the chairman of All India Wind Power Association.
A departmental store and a healthcare chain Entrepreneur, D Navaneetha Krishnan started the Shri Kannan departmental store in 1989 in Erode with his partner T Tanushgaran (chairman of the group). It was then a very small kirana store that could be managed by just two people. Krishnan?s vision was to create a chain of shops in Tamil Nadu. In Chennai, he was working in a coffee powder shop and he learnt the modalities of setting up a departmental store. His vision was big but he had to put together the funding to make his dream come true. When he set up a store in Erode in 1989, he strongly believed that giving the best product at the cheapest price possible to the customer was the way to go. In the early days, Krishnan used to work for 20 hours a day and SKDS saw continuous growth for a straight 72 months.
After many ups and downs, he started his first branch in the year 1996 in Erode. Today, there are 35 branches in many districts of Tamil Nadu with a volume of business of R500 crore and an employee strength of 4,500. ?Our main focus has always been in ?believing?. We always believed we can grow every day, we can face any competition and we can win over our customer?s heart,? says Shivaji Siddharth, Krishnan?s son. ?We are now working on expanding branches to other states.? Taking the company public is also on the cards.
The Vasan Healthcare Group is one of the fastest growing healthcare chains in the country. It has pharmacy outlets, super-specialty eye hospitals and multi-specialty diagnostic centres. Vasan Eye Care was established in 2002, with one hospital in Trichy, by a young Dr AM Arun, chairman of the group. It now has 75 eye hospitals. It plans to touch 100 within and outside the country by the end of 2011.The expansion will be funded mostly from internal accruals and partly by debt. Sequoia Capital has already put $20 million into the chain.
These entrepreneurs have understood that they have to strive for global standards even if they do not go global. All have expansion plans and dreams. Do they have scalable models? Will the second and third generation share their passion? It will be interesting to see what happens next.
