‘Follow your dreams and build your own world', says Limesh Parekh of Enjay IT Solutions

"Allow people to do mistakes and learn from them. It pays and has worked for me all these years" said Limesh Parekh, co-founder and CEO, Enjay IT Solutions who shared his experiences with DQ Channels. 

Enjay is known for their E-nnovative solutions offerings for Indian SME market and is the one of the pioneers of ThinClient Solutions in India. Today, the company offers Smart Enterprise class Storage, Telephony, Linux on Desktop, Cloud, Desktop Monitoring solutions and more. In a very short period Enjay has achieved high growth from a small family startup to a 100+ team with revenue ranging in several crores of rupees.

Initial Days
Co-Founder and CEO of Enjay IT Solutions, Limesh Parekh had did his bachelors in Commerce from Birla College, Kalyan and in addition also did complete till Inter CA where he missed All-India rank by mere 13 marks. Apart from this, he did a GNIIT program from Mumbai.

Being nostalgic, Parekh said, Overall, i was always an outstanding (from class, due to mischievous behaviour) student in school, average in sports and in studies and Post studies. In the initial days, he worked as office boy, the accounts clerk, then audit clerk and then went on to become Accounts and Tax consultant for 8 year of his career. Adding to this, the first innings of my career which started when I was in 10th standard.

Destiny had something else in story for Parekh and just 15 days before, appearing for final C.A exam, he changed his mind and shifted from consultant business to IT. "Iam very happy about that decision. In fact, IT is my interim profession, I had thought in childhood that if Idon't become CA, I will become cook and that dream is still pending," he said. 

From there things moved on for Parekh and he had his share of experience with Novel Netware, Windows NT, Remotebooting Windows 95 (a revolution then), then thin Clients, and then Telephony, CRM and so on.

Key decisions
Talking about giving a different course to his career, Parekh said, "I like to create something, it may be a product or an excellent customer experience, that smile and broadened eyes matter a lot to me. Enchantment is the right word."
When in Accountancy and Taxation, I felt the people do their business (or their mistakes) and then I do the checking and correction part. I thought that I wanted to do my own business (and commit my own mistakes) and experience life more closely, explains Parekh. These factors compelled him to take the deep dive into starting his own business and that initiative is being repeated again and again, which had led to consistent growth of his company.
Three major factors which have contributed to his successful career as quoted by him are Ennovativeness, perseverance and readiness to fail. He adds, i believe very firmly in these lines. Today, he has nearly 20 years of experience in hardware and software field excluding 8 years that he worked as an Accountant.

The Milestones
HIghlighting one of the first milestones, Parekh said, If we were to identify the turning point of Enjay or myself then that would be - Remote booting of Windows 95 (diskless win 95) in 1998-99, which made us very famous across India. Furthermore, he added, "The second turning point was Enjay Thin Client Cards, which at one point of time, we used to sell more than 5000 pcs per month. We were proudly known as Enjay matlab - CARD WALA."

Inspiration and leadership mantra
For Limesh Parekh, it was his dad who has been the inspirational model. Adding to this, he said, "I have a learnt a lot from my bosses in my earlier career including Arun Nakrani, Ashwin Doshi and Ashok Mehta." In addition, he also draws inspiration from greats like Steve Jobs, Sardar Patel, Narendra Modi and of course Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar.
His leadership mantra seems to be simple but is indeed effective. He states, Zero Control and allow people to do mistakes and learn from them. It pays and has worked for me all these years. At office, he constantly strives to create an environment which promotes quality work and opportunities. He said, "The chance to work with so many wonderful and amazingly talented people, makes me come to work daily. "Iam the TEAM" and this feeling keeps me and my team to achieve goals and get desired results.

The Pain areas
Talking about the challenges being faced, Parekh puts forth three challenges:
 Generally there are very less product companies in Indian IT scene, we are one.
 Generally people don't expect a product software company based in Gujarat, we are one.
 Generally people don't expect an IT company in rural area, we are one. (Bhilad is a GRAM Panchayat).

Growth Quotient
Parekh said, "We are THREE IDIOTS (three brothers) in same business Enjay, that helps a lot. And what makes Enjay stands out - ENNOVATION (we are so innovative that we write spelling of innovation differently).
The company is setting up a call Center in Mumbai to Handle Sales/Pre-sales of our 8 product lines. Also, the company is launching new Linux OS, which will enable people to run Tally on Linux. Going ahead, the company intends to continue and explore more and more on (Ennovative) Software Solution. The company is now looking beyond the geographical boundaries to foray into developed and other developing markets

On a lighter note
Parekh comes from a typical Gujarati forward thinking joint family, which consists of 12 members. "I don't work on Sundays and that is for family only, said Parekh. We have not gone to many exotic holiday destinations, but we think, that if you are with someone you love then even hill behind my home, would look like ALPS in Switzerland. It is people and not place that matters," says Parekh. He likes to read in his free time and also is learning guitar. While he loves to play with kids, he also enjoys going for a long walk or cycle ride with wife or friends.

Advice for youngsters
Don't grow old, be young enough always to be open to make mistakes, take risks and build your own world. If you don't follow your dreams, then someone else will make you work for their own dream, said Parekh.
At a personal front, going ahead in future, Parekh dreams to be not be actively involved in day to day activities of Enjay. He said, "I would be rather involved in helping more and more young people of India achieve their dreams."

Prasanth Menon
(prasanthm@cybermedia.co.in)