Met Chandramogan - CEO of Arun Ice Cream
Long time since I blogged ... Did it last on the last day of my 1st term ... which was almost 7 months ago ... For the next two months, I will be in Mumbai for my summer internship ...
Chandramogan might be in his late 50s or early 60s ... He came to campus as part of an interaction arranged by the professors of the subject "Strategy Formulation and Implementation" ...
Nobody would guess that Chandramogan is the CEO of an organization which had a revenue of Rs. 540 Crores in the last financial year ... He was wearing a simple full sleve shirt ... Had not tucked it in .. But, he was absolutely at home handling the questions addressed to him by the fachchaa students ...
A case was written about Arun Ice cream's ascent to glory ... He had dropped out of college decades ago and started the venture with a seed capital of Rs. 15,000 ... Started off with manufacturing ice cream in a small factory and selling it fresh ... He had competed against the Dasaprakash-es of Chennai ... People in Chennai would be able to recall the decades old Dasaprakash hotel in Poonamallee high road ... Had taken the ice cream to the neighbouring small towns with the positioning "Fresh Ice cream from Madras" ...
He had hit upon the concept of franchising without even studying about it formally ... Every kid in TamilNadu would be familiar with the neighbourhood ice cream parlour ... Chandramogan gave insights about the consumer preferences ... He was talking about the fact that in the 1980's ladies would not want to be seen (from the road) eating ice cream sitting in a shop ... He had designed the shops keeping these things in mind ....
For running the franchise, he chose people with modest educational backgrounds who had failed in the earlier businesses ... He explained that the loyalty factor would be higher in this segment of the population ... So much so that some of the franchisees had named their sons and grandsons as "Arun" !!!
He had survived the onslaught of MNC's like HLL which had tried to acquire the company ... By that time, Arun Ice Cream was valued at several crores ... A friend had suggested that Chandramogan sell it before the value gets eroded because of the competition ... Chandramogan had explained that when he started the business, it was worth 15,000 and there was nothing to loose as long the firm was worth more than 15,000 !!! THAT was the guts with which he faced his formidable competitors.
He has come a long way since the time he started the venture ... A professor asked him, on behalf of the students, about the qualities necessary for an entrepreneur ... Chandramogan mentioned that different skills are required at different stages of the business ... He explained that during the initial years he used to concentrate only on marketing ... As years went by, he picked up finance (He underwent a short term management programme for executives many years ago) ... Now, he is concentrating only on strategy and manpower management ... And he means business !!! You must have seen him throw terms like backward integration, cost of capital, dept / equity structure, cost leadership, consumer behaviour with tremendous ease ...
Another question he handled well was about the necessity of management education for being a good entrepreneur ... He stated that perhaps he would not have taken the risks that he took if had been a management grad ... And at the same time, he also agreed that a management degree might have accelerated his growth - saving him about 10 years ...
~~~ Bowing down in front of the towering personality ~~~
References : These facts have been gathered from the case written by professors Abraham Koshy and Venkiteswaran and the question answer session we had with Chandramogan.
Do leave your comments !!!
Chandramogan might be in his late 50s or early 60s ... He came to campus as part of an interaction arranged by the professors of the subject "Strategy Formulation and Implementation" ...
Nobody would guess that Chandramogan is the CEO of an organization which had a revenue of Rs. 540 Crores in the last financial year ... He was wearing a simple full sleve shirt ... Had not tucked it in .. But, he was absolutely at home handling the questions addressed to him by the fachchaa students ...
A case was written about Arun Ice cream's ascent to glory ... He had dropped out of college decades ago and started the venture with a seed capital of Rs. 15,000 ... Started off with manufacturing ice cream in a small factory and selling it fresh ... He had competed against the Dasaprakash-es of Chennai ... People in Chennai would be able to recall the decades old Dasaprakash hotel in Poonamallee high road ... Had taken the ice cream to the neighbouring small towns with the positioning "Fresh Ice cream from Madras" ...
He had hit upon the concept of franchising without even studying about it formally ... Every kid in TamilNadu would be familiar with the neighbourhood ice cream parlour ... Chandramogan gave insights about the consumer preferences ... He was talking about the fact that in the 1980's ladies would not want to be seen (from the road) eating ice cream sitting in a shop ... He had designed the shops keeping these things in mind ....
For running the franchise, he chose people with modest educational backgrounds who had failed in the earlier businesses ... He explained that the loyalty factor would be higher in this segment of the population ... So much so that some of the franchisees had named their sons and grandsons as "Arun" !!!
He had survived the onslaught of MNC's like HLL which had tried to acquire the company ... By that time, Arun Ice Cream was valued at several crores ... A friend had suggested that Chandramogan sell it before the value gets eroded because of the competition ... Chandramogan had explained that when he started the business, it was worth 15,000 and there was nothing to loose as long the firm was worth more than 15,000 !!! THAT was the guts with which he faced his formidable competitors.
He has come a long way since the time he started the venture ... A professor asked him, on behalf of the students, about the qualities necessary for an entrepreneur ... Chandramogan mentioned that different skills are required at different stages of the business ... He explained that during the initial years he used to concentrate only on marketing ... As years went by, he picked up finance (He underwent a short term management programme for executives many years ago) ... Now, he is concentrating only on strategy and manpower management ... And he means business !!! You must have seen him throw terms like backward integration, cost of capital, dept / equity structure, cost leadership, consumer behaviour with tremendous ease ...
Another question he handled well was about the necessity of management education for being a good entrepreneur ... He stated that perhaps he would not have taken the risks that he took if had been a management grad ... And at the same time, he also agreed that a management degree might have accelerated his growth - saving him about 10 years ...
~~~ Bowing down in front of the towering personality ~~~
References : These facts have been gathered from the case written by professors Abraham Koshy and Venkiteswaran and the question answer session we had with Chandramogan.
Do leave your comments !!!
posted by Naveenan Ramachandran | Sunday, April 08, 2007
10 Comments:
Buddy good to see you write on the blog after a very long time.Let me the first to congragulate you on that.It take lot of effort to put together those idea in one piece!!
I think what Chandrmogan is in the same league as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. These people did not finish their schooling, yet made it up in life.So it is ultimately the Gut power which brings in the Glory!!
So where u heading as summer Intern ? Any start-up plans in pipeline ??
yayy...great to c u here in this unusual place... arun ice cream owner chandramogan engira matterayy enaku ippa thaan theriyum =P great to the brief history... cha naanum padikaama irunthirunthayna oru periya bujiness magnet aagi irunthirupayn... cha cha cha ;)
There have been numerous debates on the value of an MBA for an entrepreneur and how MBA creates great managers but bad entrepreneurs. Do you think that doing an MBA is essential to be a successful entrepreneur? What is your take on it? -lav
Naveenan, Thanks for posting this interesting stuff!! As every one knows business is common sense, for you to succeed that is what required, understand your customer need with changing times. This one is no different from the inspirational success stories we read time and again, repeated not far away but in our home country, hometown, neighborhood...
Time for us to start emulating some of these personolities...
Naveenan, Thanks for posting this interesting stuff!! As every one knows business is common sense, for you to succeed that is what required, understand your customer need with changing times. This one is no different from the inspirational success stories we read time and again, repeated not far away but in our home country, hometown, neighborhood...
Time for us to start emulating some of these personolities...
Naveenan, Thanks for posting this interesting stuff!! As every one knows business is common sense, for you to succeed that is what required, understand your customer need with changing times. This one is no different from the inspirational success stories we read time and again, repeated not far away but in our home country, hometown, neighborhood...
Time for us to start emulating some of these personolities...
It is really fascinating. The flow is pretty good. Keep up the good work.
Its again a very interesting and inspirational writing from you, Naveenan, after a long time. One thing which i can sure about of is, even if you would have not made to IIMA, you could have become a good writer, as like Chetan baghat... The language you use is too good to read, which makes me to read a lot of yours...please keep writing...
hi ..though late a sweet post apt for the season.good one
Karthikeyan,
Thanks for the encouraging words. Will keep writing as often as I get the right ideas.
Kripa,
Thanks a lot !
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