How does an entrepreneur expand his business inspite of all the challenges he faces along the way?

Subhash Chandra who serves as CEO of Sangeetha Mobiles shares his experinces of his journey in the mobile phone industry from the time when exchanging your old mobile for a new one was unheard of..... He is an innovator, leader and visionary who believes in leading from the front. He has been an inspiration to all the employees in his organization and an excellent role model to the people in the mobile industry. At the young age of 16, he started his career as a sales person in Sangeetha mobiles. His hard work, dedication and creativity have made him the head of one of the top chains of mobile phone showrooms in India.

Sangeetha always offered innovative and customer friendly schemes. It was the first to introduce interest free installment scheme. One of the largest Mobile retail outlets chain in India, with more than 40 showrooms, is safe in the hands of the experienced leader, Subhash Chandra. The credit and responsibility of leading this successful organization rests on his broad shoulders.

Consumer satisfaction has always been his priority. Little wonder, that an organization which had the turnover of 1 crore in 1981 is now over 200 crore.  His dynamism, efforts and leadership qualities are exemplary.

Excerts from Subhash.s opening remarks:

I'm not a professional speaker nor a Business man, I'm a first generation business man almost, my father was a farmer. He started his career as a sales person in Chennai, in a appliance showroom. He had a vision of starting his own business and shifted to Bangalore, he started Sangeetha in 1974; we used to sell music those days, hence the name!

Probably Luck or the lack of it, from 1974 to 1981, Dad and his partners faced turmoil and financial problems. In 1981 Nov, when TV was launched in Bangalore, we started retailing of TV, then we added Computers, we were one of the pioneers of 386 and 486 sellers. I have sold 386 for Rs.45,000. We were early entrants and were one of the first few retailers of Computers.

Then Paging started, not many in India were familiar with the concept of paging. Max Pagers were the first paging operators, to enter the market, we were unable to tie up with them. But then we signed with Mobilink, after paying money for the stock we had to wait for almost 6 months to roll out service for Mobilink . I had the patience and the foresight to try something new and innovative..

In 1997, on 6th April, when JTM was just 5 months old, someone from Spice walked into my store and said that they were going to be the second operator and asked if I wanted to sign up with them. JTM started in Nov'97, I had tried my best to be an associate of JTM and was unable to do so. So when Spice offered me to partner with them, I took it up readily. Fortunately from then on we have never had to look back, may be that was the turning point in our career.

We started with a sale of 29 sim card sales in Apr 97 and  went on to become the highest seller 1900 post paid cards in a month, in the country, through pure retailing. At that point of time, Customers had to be approached at their residences. A SIM card used to cost Rs. 5000/-. We made the customers come to us by advertising etc. 99% of the sale was happening from the grey market. Though the legal product cost twice as much we decided to sell only legal products. Of course it was a gamble and lost some money.

Some of our best practices were to get the best price from the distributors, we bought in big quantities, we used to part with money for the connections, as conncetions costed a lot back them.

When we look back now, we realise that  Media was economical, we feel we should have done more of advertisements, should have built a brand name. Today for an ad in The Times of India, I pay close to Rs.1000 Per square centimeters, but those days, I used to pay Rs. 90/- per Column cm.

We have many firsts to our credit, we were the first to introduce insurance on mobile phones, subsequently copied by NOKIA. When we introduced exchange offer for Handsets in Nov 97, people were only used to TV and Refrigerators exchange offers. I was ridiculed by family members, as nobody thought people were ready to exchange 5 month old handsets.

I have always gone ahead with confidence and it has paid off. 

He was speaking at a Panel Discussion organized by Businessgyan and TASMAC on the topic ‘Funding for Growth'. 

Compiled by Ms. Mangal D Karnad for Businessgyan

Issue BG81 Dec07

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