Ramkumar, CEO, Gemini Communication believes in the mantra 'Failure is a
stepping stone to success'. Gemini was his father's dream and he left no
stone unturned to fulfill this dream. Ramkumar's main focus now is to achieve
two things mainly-positioning Gemini Communication as a product company in the
global arena and creating several leaders within the organization who can drive
and make Gemini a business conglomerate.
The company recently acquired US-based PointRed Technologies, to get into
broadband wireless and venture into the global market. In another development,
the company claims to have created world-class products in the RFID space in
which the company has been involved since 2001. It is all set to inaugurate Rs
25 crore RFID tag manufacturing facility at Sriperumbudur SEZ, in the next
couple of weeks, which Ramkumar claims will be the first such project in South
Asia. Meanwhile, Gemini is ramping-up its business in the existing space and has
won some prestigious orders from a few state governments. It is also investing
on SNOC (Security and Network Operating Center) to get into remote
infrastructure management services and has joined hands with Sanat Technologies,
an Intel associate company, to roll out NAS and SAN solutions, mainly for SMB
markets.
PROFILE |
CEO: R Ramkumar Academics: BE in Computer Science (Venkateswara Engineering College) Interest: Sports, skits, mimicry Business Focus: System integration, network integration, product development, and infrastructure services Address: #1, Dr Ranga Road, Alwarpet, Chennai — 600018 Tel: 044-24996422 Website: www.gcl.in |
“With so many developments happening, we are looking at creating several
owners within the organization to run the various businesses,” explained
Ramkumar about his vision for the company in the next five years. He added, “We
get satisfaction only when we create world-class products and leaders, who can
take Gemini name beyond the horizons. Mere numbers (turnover targets) are not
our aspiration.”
Today, Gemini CommunicaÂtion has got about 30 key people in the
organization, who are driving the business at various levels. “Gemini has
shaped them to be leaders and we want to create 300 such owners within the
organization. We never believe in the American system of management-the hire
and fire mode. We are emotionally engaged people.”
Like some of the leading companies, Gemini's story also started in a
garage. Ramkumar's father R Ramamurthy started Gemini Hi-Tech computer company
in 1991 to deal with monitors. He quit Sterling Computers to start his own
business, while Ramkumar joined him as soon as he passed out of the college. “My
father's friend was into manufacturing monitors, as a sub-contractor to HCL.
So, they decided to get into business on their own and we tied-up with them as a
marketing partner. However, within two months, they quit from manufacturing and
we were pushed to take up their entire engineering team and continue with
manufacturing on our own,” said Ramkumar. Gemini started with an initial
investment of just Rs 65,000.
From a small outfit, Gemini became a popular company by 1995 with a turnover
of Rs 18 lakh. However, things did not go well from thereon as the government
policies changed and hardware manufacturing did not get any boost from them. “India's
manufacturing business went through a rough patch and because of global
competition, many local brands died out. We clearly envisaged the situation and
diversified our business from monitor manufacturing to networking services. Thus
was born Gemini Communication Ltd in 1995,” he reminisces.
Ramkumar came to the helm of the business as he is a computer science
graduate and his brother Vijaykumar joined him, with a strong financial
background. Gemini launched its operations as a public listed company and raised
a capital of Rs 1.8 crore from the open market. “We brought in our own
investment of Rs 1.5 crore, while Rs 70 lakh was raised through private
placements. Overall, we had Rs 4 crore for the project,” informed Ramkumar.
Gemini tied-up with the brands like Motorola, Lucent, Intel, 3Com and Pcom,
as their resellers.
Being a cash-rich company, it went on an expansion spree by opening offices
across the country. “Soon, we bit the dust as we expanded business without
fundamentals. By 1997, we closed our branch offices and gave up monitor
manufacturing business and for the next two years, we slogged out to prove
ourselves. Things started to change from 1999 and in 2000, Gemini resurrected
and again started with its expansion program, but now with a more matured
business model. From thereon, there has been no stopping for us,” claimed
Ramkumar.
The company, which registered a turnover of only Rs 4 crore in 1998, is today
standing strong with Rs 138 crore revenue in 2005-06. Gemini offers wide range
of services from simple LAN to high-end wireless broadband services, being both
a system and network integrator. Now, it is waiting for a big-leap in business
with own product launches and global expansion program.