Silent Achiever

Power: The ability to influence others with your strong characteristics and achievements

Jayamuni Rao is a no-nonsense man. He never boasts his achievements nor does hype carry him away. Using limited words, he comes across as a serious person. But that does not mean that he is out of sync with the market realities. Nor is he slow in thinking on his feet.

Instead, Rao can be termed as an out-of-the-box thinker and he always looks at what others miss out. Initially, when all resellers focused on metro markets, he decided to target smaller towns. Sogo opened branches in the smallest of towns in Karnataka, which gave it good leverage in the sub-distribution business. Rao purely goes by his intuition and it has worked out for him so far.

School dropout to entrepreneur
Rao, who was a school dropout, initially joined his cousin to work in a bank and quit immediately as it did not interest him. He wanted the freedom to take his own decisions. And being the only son, his parents pampered him a lot and supported his every decision, including his plans for starting his own business. This despite the fact that his father was working with Indian Railways while mother managed the home.

While mulling over which business to enter, Rao came across a friend who offered him a lucrative opportunity in travel. As that industry was booming then, Rao snatched this chance and established a travel agency. The business went well and he dedicates its success to his wife, Mary.

Entrance by accident
Rao entered into the IT business by accident. While he was running the travel agency, he bought some computers and peripherals for his office. When it fell into disrepair, Rao could not bring any service engineer or a reseller immediately to attend it. So, he opened an IT service company of his own as he felt that there were not enough companies offering quality post-sales support. That's how Sogo Computers was conceived in 1991.
Rao recalls that Sogo was the first company in Bangalore to offer IT products on lease. The concept of rental flashed to him when one of his customers approached him for a big IT purchase. But, the client did not have enough money to buy it and Rao suggested he take the equipment on rent. He also agreed and this signaled the start of a viable business stream.

Talking about his succession plan, Rao said he wishes his daughter, Mythili Shelkey, would take over the business, as his son Manmat Shelkey is too young.

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