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| ashu |
Posted
on 10-Feb-03 05:15 AM
What follows is taken from the latest (February 2003) issue of the monthly New Business Age magazine. This was written by Madan Lamsal.
This is based on a presentation Mr. Shyam Kakshapati made to a group of 40 young Nepali entrepreneurs/business people at Hotel Radission in Kathmandu last September.
Enjoy,
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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Shyam Kakshapati: Maker of Nanglo Restaurants
Shifting from Ratna Park to Durbarmarg and then expanding across the country, Shyam Sundar Lall Kakshapati has achieved a reputation of an entrepreneur with a streak of successful business ventures.
But if one asks him for some advice on how to go about emulating his entrepreneurship, he modestly says that he does not have any mantra that he can share. However, upon probing further, you may get some insights which may indeed look like the success mantras. Here are some of them:
Tapping Indian Market
One, for example, is that he is tapping the Indian market for meeting his human resource requirement. Though chauvinist patriots may not approve any Nepali entrepreneur sourcing the manpower from India, Kakshapati’s is a different case. He is bringing in not the Indian nationals but those Nepalis who are working in India.
However, it is not that he runs to India every time he needs additional human resource for his new projects. “Being in hospitality industry, human resource is the most important field for me”, he says and explains that whenever he needs additional human resource for his new projects, he first looks into the possibility of finding the persons of his requirements within his own existing businesses.
For example, he promotes the assistant cook to the cook. If that source is exhausted, he looks at the market within the country. If his needs are still not fulfilled, then he goes to the Indian market and he says he has tapped this market considerably by bringing here those Nepalis who are working in India and experienced. What is interesting is that, as Kakshapati reveals, the Nepalis working India do not know that they will actually be paid better in Nepal than in India. Thus it is a win-win situation for both – the employer and the employee.
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| ashu |
Posted
on 10-Feb-03 05:29 AM
Nagarkot Experience
Another useful tip from Kakshapati’s chest is related with the Nagarkot hill, which today is abuzz with tourists – both domestic and foreign for its magnificent scenery. The entrepreneurial eyes of Kakshapati had identified its potentials well back in early 1980s and he also had finalized his plan for a resort there which would have been the first resort in the country if it had materialized. The project could not materialize as the army decided to keep the hill entirely to itself with the explanation that it was a very strategic location that should not be shared to any private party.
That was a very terrible setback to Kakshapati who was enjoying a chain of successful ventures in business expansion. “Sam’s Grocery Shop” at Ratna Park, which he had started at his tender age of 19 following the early demise of his father, was famous among the high class ladies and gents of Kathmandu as the ‘best candy shop in town’.
He had brought a juice fountain machine from USA for Rs. 24,000 and with this he used to sell lemonade. “The crowd from Padma Kanya College gave me a very good lemonade business, and the money spent on the machine was back within a year”, he recalls. While Coke used to retail at nearly Rs. 2.50 that time, lemonade from Sam’s sold at Rs. 1 per glass, thus making it far affordable.
Despite such a lucrative business, he was not satisfied to be a grocer. So he moved up to set up and run Café de Park at Ratna Park area itself, positioning the café at between the restaurants of that time which were, in Kakshapati’s own words, “either too posh and expensive or just holes in the wall”. In those places the upcoming young professionals of that time would not find the ambience they looked for in a hang out. And such people were growing in number in those post-hippie movement days. Thus Café de Park proved a right product and was doing good.
But while enjoying the growing success of the business of the café for about three years, he identified that the pasture was greener in Durbar Marg area which was attracting ever increasing number of travel agencies, airlines offices and banks.
So he moved there and set up Nanglo restaurant in 1976 which soon became a famous rendezvous first for the young people and gradually for people of all ages. In 1978, he expanded the restaurant to add a Chinese room. Gradually the facility developed a capacity to serve 300 persons at a time under the same roof. But Kakshapati’s expansion drive outside Durbar Marg experienced a jolt circa 1984 with the Nagarkot resort project.
Though the resort business was a new field for Kakshapati, he recalls that he had carefully calculated all the risks and possible benefits, and he also had built up a strong support structure of friends, consultants and other professionals. People also were ready for the resort idea – to get out of the valley and relax. “But alas! My plans were not to be till much later”, he says.
Though he has a successfully running resort (River Side Spring Resort set up in 1996) at Kurintar by the side of Kathmandu-Pokhara Highway, he says the sudden demise of Nagarkot project broke his heart and spirits. How did Kakshapati face the shock then? “Through Transcendental Meditation”, he answers. He decided not to fight a protracted legal battle. “Because I believe this sort of thing just saps your time, resources and energies”. He had taken up transcendental meditation in earlier days, and he says this has always helped him to remain calm.
Partnership failures
Kakshapati perhaps does better on his own than in a team with others as illustrated by two incidents. One is the story about Nanglo Bazaar. The business could not last long. The other is the taxi service company (Kathmandu Yellow Cab) that Kakshapati tried with his friends in 1994. Though both of the businesses had to close down, Kakshapati does not like to call them ‘failures’. Both were, he says, quite viable businesses. They closed down not because of the failure of the business or because of any rift among the partners, but because of some exogenous factors.
For example, the department store had to close down because the rentals in Putali Sadak shot up 300 percent in a single go and the business was not able to bear the shock. The taxi company closed down because the government started allowing even 800 cc cars to be used as taxis. Moreover, though the market study conducted for Kakshapati’s firm with help from the then Nepal Grindlays Bank had concluded that there was a need for about 1000 additional taxis, the government granted permission to 1900 additional taxis within a year. The overcrowding drove the bigger and expensive vehicles out of market.
Nanglo name
Also interesting is the incident that led to the name ‘Nanglo’ being adopted for Kakshapati’s restaurant. While the infrastructure of the restaurant was being finalized at Durbarmarg, Kakshapati had placed order for several hundred of small size Nanglos to be used as the serving trays in the restaurant to give it an ethnic Nepali touch.
Meanwhile, he was wondering how to name the new restaurant. One afternoon when he was having a drink with one of his expatriate friends, he shared his concern. At the same time a worker served them the snacks on a Nanglo tray, and Kakshapati’s friend was quick to suggest, “Why not Nanglo?” There was no reason to reject the suggestion.
Bakery cafés
While Nanglo Bazaar was about to close down, another project was taking the shape in Kakshapati’s mind. And that materialized in the form of the first bakery café at Durbarmarg as a hangout for the young in the style of the Café de Park which had closed in 1980. “This happily started off the saga of bakery cafés”, Kakshapati recalls.
At Baneswor in 1997 he introduced hearing-impaired staff and Kakshapati describes it as a beginning of a new business concept of "service to the needy". In this regard Kakshapati says, “In fact we (businessmen) can do better service because we make plans more feasible, long lasting and therefore more beneficial”.
As reports say, Nanglo is also about to expand outside the country. Though Kakshapati is not ready to give any details about it, he says he will send his company public when he expands the business across the national boundary. THE END
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| ashu |
Posted
on 10-Feb-03 05:29 AM
Nanglo Bazaar
The other insight that he shares is that in projects like opening shopping centres, you would do better if the space is owned by you, because, as he says, if you go for a rented space, you may have similar fate as Kakshapati and his friends experienced with Nanglo Bazaar.
It was in late 1980s that they had tried with this experiment by setting up Nanglo Bazaar in Putali Sadak as one of the first supermarkets in Nepal. It was a successful business, Kakshapati recalls, but by the time the shopping centre had developed as a landmark in the area and the people had started developing the habit of shopping there, the rentals in the area shot up by 300% in a single go. Then there was no alternative than packing up the business, he says.
Why not shift somewhere else?
According to the wisdom that Kakshapati shares, once a property is developed as a landmark and people have developed the habit of shopping there, it is difficult to move out and expect the people to come following you wherever you go. People prefer to shop at a place where they are used to. For example, some people still go to Ason to shop despite all the difficulties such as the lack of parking facility and the congestion, simply because the habits die hard.
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| Dr. No |
Posted
on 10-Feb-03 07:00 AM
Kakshapati is truly an entrepreneur and has come up with some novel ideas.
But, I don't know if he mentioned it in his talk presentation at the Radisson or not that his barmen at the Nanglo Pub are liable for all the tabs that some "hunne khanne" has suddenly decided he's not going to be paying or skips town.
I know at one time one of the barmen downstairs named Khrisna told me that he had about Rs. 60,000 to pay which was being deducted at about Rs. 500 per month from his salary. He said he survies on tips. These patrons who don't pay-up sometimes are so rude, abusive and threatening that he had no choice but to accept their tab for his own personal safety.
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| Arnico |
Posted
on 10-Feb-03 11:43 AM
Ashu, interesting piece. Thank you!
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