Anand Rao: Grabbing the Opportunity

Balluru, owner of Bengaluru-based Par Data System (PDS), is notably known as a very courteous and composed man. He started his company in the year 1994, and took over 6 years to consolidate every little thing to make it a successful distribution company. The company handles key technologies, such as structured cabling systems, Wi-Fi solutions, LAN electronics, net­working tools and certification gadgets, LAN enclosures, network security and storage. It serves majority of clients in the government, defense, IT/ITeS, education and BFSI sectors.

Above Par
Hailing from Kurnool, the erstwhile capital of Andhra Pradesh, Balluru is a native speaker of Telugu. Majority of his family members had medical or pure science academic background, but Rao chose not to incline on the same direction, and studied engineering, an appre­ciated profile in 1980s. After completing his engineering in 1983, his passion for teaching led him to become a lecturer in electronics and communication engineering in an engi­neering college in Bengaluru. In pursuit of inner happiness and satisfaction, Rao wanted to study more, "I completed my engineering from JNTU College of Engineering, Anantapur, and started teaching during that point of time. I also pursued my higher studies and did a diploma in computer architecture and design and personnel management and behavioral sciences."
In December 1984, he changed his path from teaching to a real-time application engineer in a process control equipment manufacturing company, IRA Private Limited. "I had a good exposure in operating digital equipment for sensing, controlling and recording the process parameters, such as temperature, humidity, flow, pressure etc," Balluru says. He was also instrumental in bagging big deals with various steel, cement, pharmacy, chemical and rubber industries for this company.
After a successful stint at IRA, he decided to shift, and changed his job profile in the year 1987 to a senior business executive in Sunray Computers Private Limited. In his new job role, Balluru was responsible for getting rate contract orders from the railway, defense and central government sectors for super and mini mainframes. "At that point of time, Sunray had its offerings of computer systems, all based on India's first 32-bit processor and Unix OS," he adds.
He changed his job profile again in 1988 and joined In Numeric Power Systems Limited in Bengaluru, known as Numeric Electronics Private Limited at that point of time, heading sales and service support. The company was basically engaged into manufacturing large-sized UPS systems and CVCF source equipment. "I was successful in introducing products in the banking and insurance verticals. I was also instrumental in the sale of custom-based power equipment for intrinsic data grade power requirements," he adds. Here he worked for almost 7 years. Finally in November 1994, the birth of the company, Par Data Systems, took place.

The kick-off
During his last 6 years of service before star­ting his company in 1994, he headed the entire business administration, besides technical function. He worked closely with the customers largely involved in IT deployments and procurements. "A deep desire from within came to start my own company. It was the best time to set up a mark in networking and I chose to start something related to computer networking," he recalls. This was how Par Data Systems started, initially as a solution provider in the field of computing, power and networking. The company then gradually drifted the focus to distribution, specialized particularly in structure cabling solutions, LAN Electronics (Active Range), 19-inch standard racks and enclosures, network installation tools and certification gadgets etc. This company has Tyco, SYSTIMAXy, Cisco, Linksys, Fluke Networks as key principals. Majority of the businesses came from the government, R&D and defense, IT/ITeS and education verticals.
In the beginning, the journey was little tough, though the business was steady, but it nearly took 5-6 years to create a niche for the company in the market. As a result, the company grew consolidating themselves to become a successful networking distribution company. "One of the major achievements was the support from our major principal, Tyco Electronics India Private Limited," says Balluru with full gratitude towards Tyco. The company since then successfully grew and made the brand Tyco highly demanding. Today, the company distributes the entire range of Tyco products across Karnataka through 600 SI partners, dealers and resellers. While talking about one of his strength areas and achievements, he says, "We had grown potentially in the areas of logistics, order generation and fulfillment. We work on relationship building with our customers, thereby generating huge sales revenue from the products we distribute." Anand Rao aims to make his company a ‘Total IT Infrastructure Solutions', in the near future. He also admits that growing to various other territories and regions is a major challenge for his company and they are working towards it. He considers meaningful and logical working relationships as the USP for his business. He also believes in maintaining good relationships with his employees.

Role Model
He respects and considers all those entre­preneurs as his role model, who started their businesses from scratch without diluting their values.

Advice to Young Entrepreneurs
According to Balluru, "Never say ‘no' instantly to customer's demands, even if they look unreasonable in the first place. Evaluate the customer's demands in the right senses and take time before you get back to them." One of the biggest learnings of the company is that they never say no to any opportunity.