Bharat Entrepreneurs

Not even the wildest guess can tell you about the one common thing in these Brands. These Brand logos are all designed by the RAY+KESHAVAN, India’s top-notch Brand Identity and Design consultancy. A few more popular clients are Proctar&Gamble,HUL,Haywards,ITC,Reliance,etc..,They do everything that is concerned with Branding–establish a Brand,Make-over of an existing one,design a new look and strategy that would help the the brand permeate in to the targetted people. After getting the current image of their new client they then put up their creative thoughts that would establish a Strong Brand. Himalaya and MTR are among those Brands that went through remarkable profits after a make over from RAY+KESHAVAN Its not an overstatement to say that you will find atleast one Logo or Brand that is designed by RAY+KESHAVAN for every 100 m in any metro.

SUJATHA KESHAVAN & HOW IT ALL STARTED When SUJATHA KESHAVAN joined in NID National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, in the 1970s, it was quite an audacious step. No one belived ‘Designing’ could be a profession as such at that time. She travelled from Banglore to Ahmedabad at the age of 16 changing three trains only to pursue her studies. After that she did her post graduation from Yale University School of Art. After working for a couple of years in US she returned to India but was job less. At that time there was no firm to hire designers. So she had to become an Entrepreneur and co-founded RAY+KESHAVAN in 1989 in Delhi with his boss RAY.Ray retired after a few years to come and R+K was shifted to Banglore in 1995.Now MEETA MALHOTRA is the Director and the other owner of R+K. With the increase in the awareness about Brand design and consultancy R+K has emerged as leading consultancy in that field. Now its become a part of THE BRAND UNION ,which is a wing of WPP Group Plc, the world’s second largest marketing communications groupand is soaring new heights.

The R+K Mantra: LIVE the Brand is their Mantra where LIVE is Learn-Introspect-Visualise and Execute. This is the principle that helps in conceiving the present image and delivering the right one.— Well let me finish this article with the acheivements of Ms.SUJATHA KESHAVAN.

1. She won Eastern Press award and the Schikle Collingwood prize for her creative Design work.

2. She has been The Graphic Designer of the Year twice, in 1992 and 1994. 3. First Indian woman to receive PG degree in Graphic design.

4. She is also the first woman to bring Apple Macintosh in India.

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NOTE
Guys, I wanted my entire post in my own words but i think the statements made by Suhas Gopinath are worth left as they are said. Because those simple lines will inspire you better.
AT THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, BANGLORE
Suhas was at the gates , on his way to the auditorium to attend the seminar on ‘The Education System in India’ when a security person did not allow him to enter as he was very young and didn’t have an ID. He said to Suhas that it was a seminar, only for CEOs .”I don’t have my ID card but here are the visiting cards of the people I know“, suhas said.
Just a few calls and he was in , not in the audience but on the dais.

SUHAS GOPINATH TILL 14

He was born in Banglore and had a dream of becoming a veterinary doctor. But when his elder brother once showed him the world of internet, his fascination started. He was enthralled by the power of the internet, web, email and all. Within a year, he had taught himself how to create and design a website, HTML, ASP and all other related software that he could lay his hands on. He was a ‘good’ student at academics till then but became an average student when he started exploring his new found world in cyber cafes. And that was when he started COOLHINDUSTAN.COM along with his friends (He abandoned that project when it was hacked and the logo was changed to coolpakistan.com). To start that he needed money but his parents refused to invest . He then wrote to Network Solutions headquartered in California, and they readily agreed and offered him a job and would also have paid for his education in US. But all he said was NO. He wanted to do the stuff for his own company rather than for other’s.
HE WAS 14 WHEN HE MADE THAT CHOICE… perhaps that was when he became an entrepreneur.

AFTER 14

He became the youngest Indian to start a company, when he found GLOBALS INC., at California, in USA (because one has to be 18 yrs to start a business in India), at the age of 14 in 2000. Its an MNC with offices in more than 11 countries that offers quality solutions to web, mobile, multimedia, e-commerce etc. He had even started a branch in Karachi, Pakistan (Initially our government opposed the idea but he convinced them that GLOBALS inc., was an US based firm and not of Indian origin ). The company expanded from 4 people to 400. In 2005, a Houston Investment firm approached him and offered 1 Billion $ for a majority stake. The answer was NO and he said “Why should I sell my baby?”

SUHAS at Present

He is now completing his bachelor’s degree in Information Science in Banglore. And he has already applied for a course in artificial intelligence at Stanford University (and hopes to see his icon Bill Gates).

Once asked to give a message to would-be entrepreneurs, he replied “I don’t think that I am mature enough to advise others, but if you have it in you, go for it. One should also make time to enjoy other things in life. With work, you get too busy to even repent”.

FUNNY FACTS
A few years ago ……

• He buys a car but wouldn’t drive because he had no license.
• He, as a CEO, successfully accomplishes a deal but wouldn’t sign the contract !!
• He even grew his Mustache to camouflage his student looks.

At present, the average age of the employees in his company is around 21. The senior most employee is 26 yrs old with the youngest being 12 yrs, (Obviously they will not allow the youngest to do a full time job, abiding by the Child labor Act) who does web designing for them.
Suhas says
“Enterprise is more important than high academic qualifications”

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