| ashu |
Posted
on 12-Feb-03 07:27 AM
In early December 2002, Mr. Raghu Shah, a Nepali businessman, spoke to about 40 or so young Nepali entrepreneurs and businesspeople in Kathmandu on aspects of doing business in Nepal.
Since repeated ORAL discussions about Nepal alone seem very little to add to knowledge that can be cited and referred to, here is a written summary of what Mr. Shah said. This was written by Mr. Madan Lamsal, and published in the monthly New Business Age (January 2003 edition)
Enjoy,
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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Man behind "Ask Me"
Starting his career as an assistant in a trading firm, Raghu Shah has traveled a long route to the present status. As the CEO and main promoter of Himalayan tele Commerce Pvt. Ltd. (HtCom), he is now in IT enabled services.
HtCom is not only an international call centre, it is serving also the domestic market providing all sorts of information to the general people as well as to the business firms, and in the process it is automatically developing such an extensive database that ‘he is sitting over a virtual gold-mine’, to quote Shah’s marketing professional friends.
Shah also served as an administrative officer in Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. And his entry into the business field gives an interesting example of the strange situations that the novices face at the start up phase of their business in Nepal because of the unpredictability of the authorities.
After leaving the UN job which he did for about five years, Shah wanted to do something new, and someone suggested opening a garage for maintaining vehicles, since, as Shah recalls, he was very good in “maintaining things”.
So he decided that Balaju Industrial District would be an ideal location for such a workshop, and luckily he found a space that was being occupied for a cane furniture making unit and the owners of that unit were ready to vacate it for Shah. But after he took the space, the authority that was managing the Balaju Industrial District refused to allow him to open a garage in that space because, as they said, it was designated as a space for cane furniture making, and it had to be used only for that specific purpose.
“So I was compelled to do cane furniture”, he recalls. But he claims that his unit soon became the number one in cane furniture making in the entire SAARC region. Perhaps that indicates to his versatility as well as his adaptability. But Shah recalls that despite the success he was not satisfied as his desire to do something new was not fulfilled yet.
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| ashu |
Posted
on 12-Feb-03 07:28 AM
While he was looking out for something new, he was frequently hearing people talking about computer. Out of curiosity he bought one computer for himself and started playing with it and was fascinated by it. Thus he entered the computer business selling PCs. And he was successful in this line too. “At one time, my company was the highest seller of PCs in Nepal”, he proudly recalls.
But the cloned computers soon started making inroads into Shah’s business of branded computers. “Hence I started Himalayan teleCommerce”, he says and describes the new business as the most challenging of all the other businesses he has undertaken to date. Though he says that he has not been making money out of this business, he is satisfied because, “I’ve provided employment to so many people, and it is something really new business, at least in Nepal”.
Though the original intention in setting up HtCom was to develop it as an international call centre, later he started wondering why not to do something for Nepal as well using the same software, i.e. the Customer Relations Management (CRM) software. Thus was born the “Ask Me” service.
The international call centre is operated from 7 PM to 10 AM. During the day, it becomes domestic call centre serving the Nepali people and companies. “Ask Me is for much more than telephone numbers. We provide all sorts of information for asking”, he says. “We also have a helpline, as well as an employment exchange”. Companies get information about their clients and the feed back about what the clients are concerned regarding the products. The employment exchange helps the companies to focus their recruitment exercise on a very short list of probable candidates.
The other side of Shah
Despite belonging to the new generation of Nepali entrepreneurs, Shah prefers to project himself more as a social worker as the older generation does. And for this he has some really authentic credentials.
For example, he has been involved in flood relief, environment conservation programs, construction of community working shelters and schools in the rural areas, organizing medical camps, helping to set up drinking water supply projects, providing scholarship to the poor children, donating computers to the schools, conducting computer courses for the poor, conducting trainings on knitting and sewing for the women and donating knitting and sewing machines to them.
“All these were done without any outside financial support”, he claims, and adds, “If you don’t do social work, you become greedy and ruthless. This does not help your business in the long run.” He has been the founder of two social organizations “SWARAJ” and GEM (Green Earth Movement).
Arts & sports
Raghu Shah is also equally involved in literature and arts as well as in sports. He has a number of stories and music albums to his credit. He also directs plays. A telefilm is about to be telecast over TV as the shooting has already been completed. Similarly, another music album is in the process of recording. Shah also likes to identify himself as an Olympian, and was the leader of the Nepali team in Olympic Games held in Barcelona in 1992.
Management Credo
Some of the claims that Shah makes are quite unconventional from the point of view of established management principles. For example, he says he does not plan his business, so he does not want to answer the question, “where does he want to see his business next year?”
Similarly, he says he does not like to tell ‘get lost’ to any of his employees. The fact of having two businesses has been helping in this. For example, the employees are generally selected for the international call centre. If someone for any reason is found unable to handle the international calls, he is asked to handle the domestic calls. Another unconventional about his is that in hiring people, he does not go by the certificates of the candidates.
He rather asks one simple question: “Can you do this job?” If the person shows the confidence and replies that he can, then he is hired. “But it is not so simple, it can’t be explained in words”, he adds. THE END
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