Bharat Entrepreneurs

” When I thought of starting a company, I felt India needed 100 people like Narayana Murthy and Ambani. If 100 such people support 2 lakh people each, imagine how many Indians get supported. Entrepreneurship is needed to uplift the poor. It is not easy to be an entrepreneur, especially a first generation entrepreneur. There will be lots of challenges in the beginning but you should learn to look for the light at the end of the tunnel. Never give up even if there are hurdles. There are many who give up within a week. You need determination and a tough mind to cross the initial hurdles.” E.Sarathbabu

E. SarathBabu is not the typical IIM Ahmedabad student you read about in the newspapers. He did not take the easy path to earn mega bucks in spite of being offered plum jobs from top companies. Instead he chose, like a true entrepreneur, to carve out his own path to success. So he started FOODKING.

His mother worked as an ayah in an Anganvadi to educate him and his siblings. Later he went on to complete his higher education in the prestigious BITS Pilani and IIM Ahmedabad.

In the beginning, he took a loan of Rs 20 lakh and started Foodking in August 2006. Initially the losses were poised at Rs 2000 a day. The cafeteria’s he set up initially did not work according to plan and he soon came to the conviction that only by selling in large volumes that any profit could be made.

In 2006 IIM A alumni meet, he hoped to bag a contract but could not.

In march 2007 he got an offer to start a unit at BITS, Pilani. This contract proved profitable. Spurred with this initial profit and with the money that he borrowed from his IIM A friends, he wanted to move ahead. He got BITS Goa contract which was to be his biggest break. He had to cater to over 1300 students and the sales peaked at 65,000 Rs per day.

Then he got an opportunity to serve at SRM deemed college which boasts of over 17,000 students!

Right now he has a turn around of Rs 3.5 crore per annum. By next year he hope to increase it to Rs 20 crores.

At present he has BITS hyderabad in his hands and it all set to be operational by July 2008. So the future does look rosy to this Foodking.

http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/aug/31spec.htm

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With the Indian economy poised for a giant leap, despite certain pressures on account of inflationary trends and a strengthening Rupee, there is no doubt the next few decades are going to be dominated by us, Indians. True China, with its more than treble rate of growth and FDI, is going to be our challenger. But to my mind, the intrinsic strength of our economy, the head start we have in the area of skilled, English-speaking work force ( true China will cover up this loss in another five years time), and the policies which we have been following which are more open and more visionary will ensure that we march ahead of this giant across our border. The reason why our Left parties are making such a big issue about our Nuclear deal with the US ( which would place us way ahead of China in nuclear fuel capabilities) and trying to put a spoke in every progressive decision that the UPA government is planning, is not far to seek. The hidden agenda is to ensure that China does not lose its present advantage and head start to us. Of course, you mention this to the Lefties, the whole world will come down.But I am convinced, the reason is what I have mentioned.

With the focus of the government having rightly shifted to Social security and Agriculture, I feel our journey ahead of China is going to be accelerated and by 2018 ( a decade from now) the world will be vying within itself to be a business partner with India than any other country. The only area where we are still lagging behind is our attention to Infrastructure and Convergence. I am sure in an year’s time which ever government is going to be in power will focus on these two also much more than what has been done so far. When that happens, Indian entrepreneurs and Foreign Investors are going to line up an array of projects in these segments. But a look at the scene now will reveal a Hercules in the making- already concentrating on Infrastructure, Communication,Visual media and Natural Resources. yes you guessed it right. I am referring to Anil Dhirubai Ambani, the star in the making.

When Reliance of Dhirubai Ambani was split down the middle, the elder of the 2 siblings walked away with the cake, the wealth and of course the support of the Delhi Political boses. Anil, who, in my opinion was the business brain behind Dhirubai’s wealth creation, wasleft with much less and lot of political enemity to cope with. His brother and friends have been trying all tricks in the trade to snub his growth. Even the bombing of his first major IPO shares on listing, was also not an accident acccording to me. But Anil, the financial wizard has hit back with the bonus offer. The growth in wealth of the Reliance group,post split, and Anil DA group will reveal the staedy pace at which Anil has been creating wealth.He has already focused on the key areas od development in the Indian economy, viz. Convergence sectors and Infrastructure. With the growth in Indian economy in the coming yeras.Anil is going to end up the winner and all those who have reserved faith in him are going to reapthe dividends. In another five years, barring political interference ( as we saw in the case of the Airports renovation bids), will catpult Anil as the highest wealth creator in the Indian economy, may be evn more than what his illustrious father achieved.

Hence, he, AnilDhirubai Ambani, is the person to be watched in the next decade.

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