18. STANDING: Where It Was

Dushyant Mehta, Chairman of Mediaman Infotech, is known for readiness to plunge into new businesses. In 2000-01, he opened 'Here & Now' retail outlets and then he launched his own brand called Bravish. In 2001-02, he started an all-new division called the 'Notebook Lab' selling components and accessories for laptops.

Probably this was the only strategy that helped him survive the slowdown and maintain the revenue at Rs 110 crore as in the previous year. During the last fiscal he tied up with Compaq, IBM, Toshiba, Jaguar and Sony for laptop components and with Casio for

handhelds.

Revealing the long list of vendors, Dushyant talks about currently offering the entire range of laptop accessories. "We like to sell products that very few companies would be interested in specializing. For example, we have 85 types of batteries, which I donґt think anyone else can offer," says

Dushyant.

During the year, Mediaman also tied up with MaPower for external cases and Shoebox for CD-writers and drives. In its own brand Bravish, Mediaman added external USB port HDDs called Blue Eye with an universal adapter. The company also became a regional distributor for LG monitors.

Although Mediaman continued to sell peripherals, memories and HDDs, the focus was more on the newly-introduced division.

MEASURES THAT BROUGHT MOOLAH: Started a new division to focus on mobile devices Tied up with Compaq, IBM, Toshiba, Jaguar, Sony and Casio

Its earlier plans to introduce motherboard did not work out with a US vendor. However his affection for the western countries seems to be taking a new high with plans to open an office abroad. This office will cater to the European and African market, where he sees tremendous growth in the mobile devices market.

The company also shelved its activities on NAS, attributing low awareness for its failure. It now is planning to introduce high-end network-based products like network memories, router memories and cable solutions.