More than three decades ago, just after passing out from college, Pawan Jain went on a countrywide tour to assess business opportunities and returned home determined to start a trucking business.
Despite discouragement from friends and acquaintances, he never looked back and built the Rs 650-crore enterprise brick-by-brick. In three decades he floated a trucking company, a courier company and supply chain and logistics company. The journey has been full of challenges.
Reminiscing about the halcyon days of youth, Jain, who hails from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh says, ?I had just passed out with a postgraduate degree and decided to travel across the country.? After seeing the wide expanse of the country, he decided to go in for trucking. ?I was a keen observer of things going around me and came to the conclusion that trucking could be the best business,? he says.
Determined to take the plunge, Jain started discussing the business plan with friends. But to his disappointment, the responses were not very encouraging. ?People thought that trucking is a shabbily managed business and one did not need any education to get into it. On the contrary, people opined that a college degree was a minus point for me,? Jain recalls.
Nevertheless, such criticism did not deter him and he went ahead with his plans and opened his first 160 sq ft office at Azad market in Delhi way back in 1975. He formed a company called TranSolution, which in no time started expanding operations. Initially, he catered to the eastern market and opened his second office in Patna. Gradually, the company had a strong presence in states like Bengal, Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya, among others.
Even while he was consolidating his operations, the initial three years were very challenging. By 1987, the company had offices in the four metros and boasted of a pan-Indian presence.
So, what was the key to success for Jain? ?Owing to lack of education in the sector, unethical practices prevailed. There was rampant overloading of trucks, billing norms etc. There was no provision for claims on lost consignments,? he says, adding, ?But I thought we need to be ethical and tried to do things differently from others. I think that was the catch.?
Jain came out with a series of innovative solutions to accelerate his business. He introduced compensation on lost consignment and offered value added service to the clients. Claim settlement and dispute resolutions were never heard of in those days and Jain knew that customers were in need of such value added services. ?We are carriers later and custodians first,? says Jain
It was not the only customer satisfaction programme that he introduced. ?By 1987, we thought are we saturating and should do something else,? says Jain, who had been nurturing the concept of time-definite delivery, another pathbreaking idea given the constraints of those times.
?Earlier, it was never thought that something will get delivered within a definite time frame. It will get booked and whenever it reaches it will get delivered,?. So he started a courier company, Overnite Express, in 1987 focusing on documents, letters and parcels. ?We strongly concentrated on domestic areas. India is so big in land mass and population,? he explains.
This clicked and Jain got overwhelming response for Overnite Express and clients urged him to get into production process as well. To brush up in knowledge in supply chain, Jain went abroad to study the best practices and implement them in India. ?My clients were looking forward to complete logistics solution for their own production and distribution of finished goods and raw material. So, I went outside and studied Fed Express. I was there for some days and thought that this can be replicated in India. Then we set up Safexpress in 1997. By the time multinational companies were coming in. The companies were here and they already knew the concept of supply chain and logistics,? says Jain.
Safexpress is now providing complete logistics solutions encompassing warehousing and third party logistics to over 500 clients in the country. The company has a network of 3,500 trucks and operates from 562 offices.
Jain also has a good deal of learning to share. ?Never say it cannot be done. We have to be very focused to deliver. In India, we are dependent on many outside agencies. You should never lose focus. There is an opportunity to tap the $100-billion unorganised sector,? he says.
Looking out for opportunities has been another learning experience for Jain. ?In 2003, customers started asking us to do complete solutions for the distribution and post-production activity. We started with managing their warehouses in their premises with our own ideas and scientific supply chain model. Nobody ever thought about strengthening supply chain. Inventory holding cost was never discussed in any board meetings. Management was only focusing on quality or marketing aspects,? he explains.
Like in any another business, challenges and tough times also went on side by side. The company had to face major losses after the Tata Nano project moved out of West Bengal. Jain has lined up plans in anticipation of ancillary units coming up. ?There is not a single day in India when you can say that there is calm. We need to innovate everyday to deal with situations that are not favourable. India itself is a complex country. But we are committed to deliver this way or that way in a legal manner. You combat challenges every single day,? he asserts.
Though he combats challenges , Jain is a family man by heart and is a keen reader. ?Beyond business, I am a reserved person. When I work, I am here, and then I need to be with my small family. Me, my wife, one son and daughter-in-law,? he says.
Married in 1980, Jain met his wife in Shillong. ?I was on a business trip to Shillong and a family friend introduced me to her and we started meeting. We met in 1978 for the first time and got married in 1980. My wife supports me in all my ventures and we divide our roles,? he smiles.
His son, Rubal, is director of corporate strategy in the company and is now focusing on how to take the company to the next level.
Apart from work and family, Jain finds solace in reading and travelling. ?Once upon a time when I started my career, my living expenditure was half of my expenditure on books,? he says.
Jain acknowledges the growth in business to his interest in travelling. He loves visiting Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh and also travels to smaller countries to learn about the culture and society.
?Knowing people and local environment is the need of the business. While travelling, you sense the opportunity. Opening 562 offices and understanding that there is some small town which needs to be opened does not come by sitting in the boardroom. These decisions come by travelling. You need to sense the opportunity and react to it,? he says.