The Corporate Connect- Mr. Asgar Khorakiwala

The members of the Corporate Relations Committee (CRC) of SIMSREE had an enriching interaction with Mr. Asgar Khorakiwala an entrepreneur who runs Akbarallys Furniture. In this interview he discusses his family history, commencement of the business, challenges faced and values that helped him go up against all odds.

Mr. Asgar Khorakiwala comes from the reputed family which owns India’s first department store -Akbarallys. The family has a remarkable history. In early 1897, Mr. Akbarally Ebrahimji had bought a small 30-square-foot space near Bombay’s Gunbow Street to start a “department store”, selling a range of items, like imported articles, toiletries and biscuits. In the course of its operations of more than 100 years, Akbarallys has established itself as a brand known for quality and integrity.

The Interview:

CRC: Sir, could you tell us how this business started?

Mr. Khorakiwala : In 1984, my family had a place near a store vacant. We wanted to start a new business here. I played a key role in determining which business we would undertake. In retail; the options were Electronic Goods, Footwear, Furniture, Fabric and Travel. After doing market research, weighing all the options available and understanding the intricacies of the businesses, I decided to go ahead with Furniture manufacturing and retail.

CRC: How has been your journey so far and what were the challenges that you faced?

Mr. Khorakiwala: At its commencement, I expected a good start because of the strong brand name of Akbarallys. But to my surprise, it didn't pull customers. So the smooth start that was expected didn't materialize and I had to think about the further course of action. After a few days there came an excellent opportunity which speeded up everything. The firm got a contract from a television manufacturer to supply wooden casings for their television sets. There was no upper limit for the supply and we could sell as much as we could produce to the TV manufacturer. This went on for a few months. The TV Company went bankrupt. This stopped the continuous orders and work. The payments for previous orders were also pending. It was a tough time for the firm.

CRC: Sir, how did you overcome these challenges?

Mr. Khorakiwala: In this period, we concentrated on the core business of Home Furniture. We managed to get the money from the TV Company. The business ran just fine with some orders from retail customers. But this alone couldn't have helped the firm to survive and grow. We decided to offer total home furniture package with the best quality. The package we offered was expensive. But due to the values that our business follows, people trusted us. Within a short time the package became very popular and resulted in a perennial supply of orders.

We introduced a lot of variety in home furniture with unbeatable quality. This strategy helped the business grow. We expanded our manufacturing facility. After this we entered in the office furniture business. There also we gave turnkey solutions to many customers. But the main focus is still home furniture. Now we have three furniture retail stores in Mumbai.

CRC: Sir, please tell us about the furniture industry.

Mr. Khorakiwala: In India, the furniture industry has few big players. Most of the players are small manufacturers. The transactions in the retail furniture are small, so there is a lack of accurate official record of all the transactions. This makes it difficult to understand the volume of the industry. But yes, the industry is large and promising. Organized sector is growing in the industry but at present its share is quite small.

CRC: What are the marketing strategies that have helped Akbarallys Furniture?

Mr. Khorakiwala: The furniture brand was built on three core values, Transparency, Ethics and Quality. This created loyal customers. Only print ads were used for promotion. This promotion ensured demand large enough to completely utilize the available manufacturing facility. We modernized our shop display. The home furniture package that we offered was displayed in the shop. It would have occupied a space of around 220sq.ft; which would have been difficult to display in an overcrowded city like Mumbai. So we developed a miniature model for all the merchandise. The total set now occupies only 75sq.ft of area and also gives the customer a real feel of the product. We conduct exhibitions in Goa, annually. This has helped us garner orders from Goa also.

CRC: Sir what is your message for budding entrepreneurs and MBA students?

Mr. Khorakiwala: Business has many uncertainties and unforeseen challenges. An entrepreneur has to work on his toes. The scenario can change drastically, he has to adapt to the changes and evolve with the new circumstances. Values play an essential role when one thinks of long term. Only strong values can retain the customers.

CRC: It has been a pleasure talking to you, sir. Thank you for spending your valuable time with us.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Gautam Thakker

The Marketing Club, BUZZ arranged a guest lecture by Mr Gautam Thakker, CEO of Everymedia Technologies. The lecture was insightful and an informative one. He particularly highlighted the digital marketing of movies and brands which was the forte of Everymedia. Mr Gautam started with a montage showing the digital marketing campaign of the super hit movie Agneepath, starring Hrithik Roshan and Sanjay Dutt which he had handled. The campaign was hugely successful with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube collectively generating a very high revenue.  Despite all this huge success he explained that the digital market is a hugely untapped media for revenue generation and it is still being experimented. He spoke on the digital marketing of movies and brands which was the forte of Everymedia. Although he had various other videos lined up for the lecture, students were excited to know more about the business that they kept Mr Thakker engaged during the entire session with various questions. The question posed to Mr Thakker ranged from “how the financial Structure of a digital media advertising of movies works”, “Is media advertising considering the huge success of the viral 'Kolavari Di' video an organic or inorganic” and “What impact a star has on the success of a film or a brand that he endorses” and many more such questions. He answered to all these question comprehensively giving real life industry examples.

He explained that no campaign that is hit today is just by chance citing examples from that of ”Kolaveri di” in which he tactfully cleared the doubts that it is always a tricky and calculative business. No idea is good or bad unless it works out. He also explained in context to the questions asked that marketing a movie with big stars like Shahrukh Khan and Amir Khan is relatively easier as the stars bring with them a lot of media attention and as such grabs attention nationwide. However the smaller concept movies like 'Vicky Donor' with newbie actors has to be marketed aggressively and intelligently to create a hype that will pull the crowds to theaters. Most importantly digital marketing is used to save money and not to earn revenue from. When asked by students whether it is safer to use a big star for promoting a brand, Mr Gautam elaborated how some firms had achieved success by not involving celebrities and using clever marketing gimmicks which could save money and also ensure long term brand image. 

All along student gained a lot of insights into the unexplored world of Digital Marketing and found the session beneficial.

Mr Gautam has also been judge to the FILMARK event at Simerations’13 and was received by a warm welcome from the students.

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Guest Lecture by Ms. Anita Zutshi

The SIMSREE students witnessed a guest lecture by Ms. Anita Zutshi, GM Finance-Sales and Customer Development at Hindustan Unilever Limited. Ms. Zutshi talked about "Career in finance and FMCG sector".

Ms Zutshi talked about the industry expectations from MBA students. She stressed on hard work, along with thorough research and ability to get along with people. This is quite important for today's manager since he is expected to deal with different kinds of people in India or on a global level. Along with all these, a manager should also be able to put across his thoughts properly. She emphasised on the importance of training a Management Trainee has in his involvement particularly in the initial one year.

Ms. Zutshi also talked about the roles a career in finance has in this sector. She described various finance expertise roles like taxation, treasury, auditing, budgeting, etc. She mentioned a term "Business Partner" and said that a business partner is not just a consultant but is completely involved with the day-to-day functioning of a company, and making important business decisions. A finance business partner has roles in departments like purchase, manufacturing, distribution and marketing.

Along with academic skills, Ms. Zutshi also agreed about the importance that a manager has as a leader. His/her leadership skills are tested along the years as he/she moves up. This happens in local, then national and also global level. She said that at these levels, its the leadership more than the academic skills which acts as a differentiating factor. This is because the academic skills have already been tested and now the manager is expected to perform as a leader.

The guest lecture was an interactive session, with the students of the first year asking questions and Ms. Zutshi answering them all with equal prowess. We all,at SIMSREE thank her for sharing her thoughts with us and adding to our learning.

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Coffee With Alumni - Mr. Mahesh Kalsekar

We were delighted to have the first ‘Coffee with Alumni’ session of our batch with Mr Mahesh Kalsekar, Director – Strategy and Business Development at Takeda Pharmaceuticals and alumnus of the 1995 batch. He has close to twenty years of experience in the healthcare sector across Corporate Strategy, Business Development, Consulting and Market Research verticals.

In the session, coordinated by the Alumni Committee, nine students got the opportunity to spend quality time engaging in a meaningful conversation with Mr Kalsekar over coffee and snacks. He shared with students his deep insights about the pharmaceutical industry in particular and marketing, consulting, advertising etc in general. He replied to each of the volley of questions that students asked, tailoring his answers to industry-specific details based on the students’ interests. 

Among other things, Mr. Kalsekar stressed the importance of building a relevant skill set based on the targeted industry (communication skills, analytical ability, Excel and Power Point etc) and of gaining work experience from local Indian firms before starting their own ventures for aspiring entrepreneurs. The details he shared about career growth paths and opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry, in addition to those in general market research and strategy consulting were particularly interesting and insightful. 

The students found the session immensely beneficial and look forward to more such interactions with industry professionals. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Mr Kalsekar for consenting to spend time with the students.

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