At his textile mill in Bangalore way back in the ?80s, Bharat Goenka gave an entry code ?T001? for a travel expense document. His father Sunder Goenka who ran the mill did not see the need to provide a code for this. Bharat, who was even then considered a master coder, said computers understood codes better. His father, though, was not impressed and told him to come up with a solution that would be easier on the user than for the programmer.
That was a challenge that young Bharat took up then, and eventually it led to the birth of Tally Solutions which has gone on to become one of India?s leading software product companies. The textile mill, meanwhile, got burned down in an accident and that led to the family concentrating fully on the new and fast developing software business.
Tally Solutions, which came up with a new accounting software language, became one of the rising brands in the ?90s and people rightly expected it to scale great heights in a short span of time. But Bharat has largely played it safe and has not listed his company yet. In the meantime, domestic IT services firms charged ahead and stole all the limelight.
?Well, I have not listed the company, though every 2-3 years this issue comes up for discussion. Why should we share the profits at this stage and plus we do not require the funds,? he defends himself. ?Now my son is 21, and he will soon assume greater responsibilities.?
The talk has been that Mukesh Ambani has invested in the company, but Bharat likes to downplay that aspect. ?I would just say that he?s a well wisher. I do not consult him on business matters.? For a man who is just a graduate in Mathematics, Bharat has come a long way. ?I did not think that I needed more education. I was more keen to join the familybusiness.?
Now Tally is dreaming big. After having made a great start, it had meandered along for some time. ?We have certain plans. My son and I are confident that we will be able to take the company truly global,? he says.
?Our offerings are not cheap, in fact we quote the highest price in the market. We do not spend huge sums of money on marketing. But we know we are the best. If you want to build a successful product story, you have to make it the best and not the cheapest,? he says.
Tally is practically unrivalled in its space (financial accounting software) in India and has a 95% share of the market.
But the early days were a big struggle. Tally (which was then called Peutronics) thought its software would be used as a standard feature as enterprises would have found it easy to use. But it was not the case, and it soon dawned on the father and son that they have to do the marketing themselves.
They started interacting with the customers directly. Bharat and his dad firmly believed that if the promoters themselves could not sell the software, an employee may find it even harder. Of the 500 Tally software packages that were sold initially, 400 were directly sold to the customers. In the early days, they had to upgrade the software every month or so, to meet customer expectations. They kept themselves honest and did not bring their egos into play. They did not find it hard to face criticism and kept addressing the weaknesses of the product till it became the very best.
?Word of mouth was very critical for us. We kept each customer happy and they in turn began to do spread the word about us,? says Bharat. Today, Tally solutions has a large line up of customers across 100 countries, with over three million customers in India itself.
But isn?t he concerned about media space enjoyed by the IT services firms, while the product ones are still struggling to be in the limelight? ?The services firms are doing a good job. Hence they get the rewards. And many of them are listed, so the media tracks them closely. I do not have any regrets.?
In fact, Bharat has a sage like presence and it is difficult to see him worry too much about things. Tally has been long affected by the rampant software piracy issues, but he has held firm calmly. Tally has been a favourite with software pirates and that has always hurt the company.
?I always maintained that only the best software gets pirated. We have only continued to make the product better, without worrying about piracy. Our regional distributors are strong and have a good grip of the market,? he says. Bharat does not have many interests outside his sphere of work. ?I do not invest in real estate or stocks. I just plough the profits back into my company. All I am concerned about is the firm.?
?The next few years will be crucial for Tally. We are prepared for the changes that will happen during this period. In fact, I have always felt that it is better to initiate change rather then get short changed by circumstances,? he adds. ?I want to now build Tally into one of the biggest organisations in the world. The best is yet to come.?