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There have been ample cases when friendship has blossomed to business
partnerships.
S Mahendran and R Ravishankar have been friends with 45 years of experience
between them in the IT industry.
Both had aspirations of starting their own business, and one day in March
2006 they decided to put their heads together to start a company named Pranaav
Tele-Ventures. Later, they were joined by Priya Mahendran, Mahendran's wife, who
was a charted accountant by profession.
Unique segment
From the inception, the directors were sure that they would only offer those
products that needed to be pushed into the market rather than merely ship
well-known products that sold on the virtue of their brand name.
“This is precisely the reason why we are not spread out in many locations. We
want to restrict ourselves in certain key accounts like defense, large
manufacturing units, etc,” said Ravishankar. These manufacturing units include
companies in oil, gas, petroleum etc. Pranaav assists its clients right from the
design of the solution, its implementation to providing automated services.
But this does not mean that the company is not equally present in other
verticals. Be it IT or non-IT organizations, Pranaav offers a wide range of
infrastructure solutions across a cross section of business segments.
Mahendran said that solutions such as automation infrastructure cannot be a
regular solution that a regular SI can't offer. Most of these products are
sourced from Shanghai, the US, Hong Kong which it sells directly to customers.
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PROFILE |
NAME: R Ravishankar (R), Priya and S
Mahendran (L)
DESIGNATION: Managing Partners
COMPANY: Pranaav Tele-Ventures
EMPLOYEE STRENGHT:18 |
Apart from providing IT-enabling solutions, Pranaav is also involved in
providing supply-chain management solutions, CRM and CRP. “We also deal with
marine grade and mill grade (related to military) products. This is an area in
which you will not currently find many players in the industry,” Mahendran
claimed. The company closely work with selective clients, who precisely deal in
such products.
The transition
With lots of SIs offering various end-to-end solutions, the two promoters
wanted to distinguish Pranaav from other companies in the field. Though
Mahendran and Ravishankar got into this business with a gameplan to be different
from the rest, they started off as a regular SI. Over time they slowly migrated
into the niche segment they are presently in.
To start a company that was not a run-of-the-mill trading outfit in itself
was a challenge for the duo, and being newcomers, it became particularly
difficult to identify the vendors in the manufacturing industry, search for the
customers and import the right kind of products. Initially, they took small but
firm steps towards their destination, which they reached in a very short time.
Today, Pranaav has offices in Bangalore and Kerala, with support locations in
Hyderabad and Mumbai. But Mahendran believes that his company is still in the
transition phase as they are adding many new things to their existing portfolio.
Not one to believe in flashiness, Mahendran feels that doing the interiors of
his office or spending on advertising is not his cup of tea. Instead, he prefers
to spend the business revenues on conducting seminars and workshops.
Being a member of the Fiber Optic Cable Association and Secretary for its
Southern Chapter, he conducts workshops and seminars out of social obligation
and educates people on various emerging technologies. “We get people to attend
seminars where they can get to know about the various activities in the market
and emerging technologies,” he noted.
Dealing with challenges
The founders of Pranaav were no exception to the usual rough patches that
hit the roads of entrepreneurs. Like their business, the challenges they faced
were also unique.
Since it was a new organization, customers weren't ready to accept the
technology that Pranaav had to offer. But after a few installations and through
word of mouth publicity they started laying a path for their growth.
To ensure that the three directors did not lose sight of their mutual
objective, they assumed three different roles, depending on their individual
strengths.
Priya's support to the business was obvious. Being a CA, she looks after the
complete financial activities. While Mahendran takes care of the marketing
activities, Ravishankar is in charge of operations and post-sales and other
back-end activities.
The most important aspect of Pranaav is that there is no hierarchy within the
company. All the directors feel that every employee of Pranaav is the company's
pillar, and that is why none of the employees have designations on their
business cards. The Directors of the organization aim to inculcate the thought
of entrepreneurship in the minds of each employee and give the credit to the
success of the company to teamwork.
Both Mahendran and Ravishankar feel that they have a long way to go yet
before they can proudly claim to have achieved the targets they had set for
themselves. They are confident that 2008-09 would be the turning point in their
business lives. Because this will be the year when they will put to practice
some of the plans that have not left their boardrooms yet. If they continue with
the determination that the three of them have put into Pranaav so far, this
fiscal could herald them into a totally new league of solution providing.
NR SETHURAMAN
sethuramannr@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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