Talk by Mr. CK Ranganathan - CEO of CavinKare
The 60 minute talk was arranged by Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) on the evening of 31st July 2007. It is about half a km from my institute.
CK Ranganathan - A chemistry graduate amongst siblings who are doctors and lawyers. Grew up with a complex that he will never be able to measure up to their levels. Had trouble reading and talking English till he graduated out. Could not read beyond the headlines in English newspapers. In his 20's, he started reading up on 5 new words each day for a period of 3 years. Forced himself to read English papers by stopping the vernacular dailies.
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I had drafted till this point of the article about 18 months ago. This had been an unfinished task at the back of my mind ever since. Time to complete it. I guess my laziness has been proved beyond doubt ;-D
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He highlighted that his success hinges upon 5 pillars: Investors, Employees, Distributors (very important in FMCG), Customers and Lenders.
The most important thing that I remember from his lecture is his encounter with lenders (banks). There were times that he used to run out of working capital and had to knock on the banks' doors to extend his credit line. Bankers would quote an interest rate which he could not afford. He does not blame the bankers for this. After all, they have a profit & loss statement to take care of. They need to keep in mind the risk proposition before lending to each business. Ranganathan would negotiate with his bankers to decrease the interest rate by a percentage point or two. Many a time, he could get the rate he asked for. One of the bank managers had said "I will reduce the rate based on your negotiation. The very fact that you negotiate indicates to me that you do intend to repay. If you had no intention to repay, why would you bother to negotiate".
I am not able to remember the exact details about the rest of the stake holders in his business. The one about lenders was what hit me most. This is the biggest problem faced by SME businesses today. The liquidity crunch has hit small and big businesses alike. Credit is hard to come by. Government is doing its best to force lending through the PSU banks. I am not able to talk much since it is directly connected with the nature of my work. Let me just say that I hope that all stake holders survive this crunch- SMEs, Banks & GoI. Even if one of these fail, I shudder to imagine the effect.
Well worth the trouble I took in dragging Goga to the seminar !
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The first two paragraphs were written when I was a 4th term student. That was before I took TTR's elective 'Managing Financial Institutions'. The last paragraphs were drafted about 9 months into my job. No wonder the article seems to wander a bit aimlessly ;-D
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CK Ranganathan - A chemistry graduate amongst siblings who are doctors and lawyers. Grew up with a complex that he will never be able to measure up to their levels. Had trouble reading and talking English till he graduated out. Could not read beyond the headlines in English newspapers. In his 20's, he started reading up on 5 new words each day for a period of 3 years. Forced himself to read English papers by stopping the vernacular dailies.
*******
I had drafted till this point of the article about 18 months ago. This had been an unfinished task at the back of my mind ever since. Time to complete it. I guess my laziness has been proved beyond doubt ;-D
*******
He highlighted that his success hinges upon 5 pillars: Investors, Employees, Distributors (very important in FMCG), Customers and Lenders.
The most important thing that I remember from his lecture is his encounter with lenders (banks). There were times that he used to run out of working capital and had to knock on the banks' doors to extend his credit line. Bankers would quote an interest rate which he could not afford. He does not blame the bankers for this. After all, they have a profit & loss statement to take care of. They need to keep in mind the risk proposition before lending to each business. Ranganathan would negotiate with his bankers to decrease the interest rate by a percentage point or two. Many a time, he could get the rate he asked for. One of the bank managers had said "I will reduce the rate based on your negotiation. The very fact that you negotiate indicates to me that you do intend to repay. If you had no intention to repay, why would you bother to negotiate".
I am not able to remember the exact details about the rest of the stake holders in his business. The one about lenders was what hit me most. This is the biggest problem faced by SME businesses today. The liquidity crunch has hit small and big businesses alike. Credit is hard to come by. Government is doing its best to force lending through the PSU banks. I am not able to talk much since it is directly connected with the nature of my work. Let me just say that I hope that all stake holders survive this crunch- SMEs, Banks & GoI. Even if one of these fail, I shudder to imagine the effect.
Well worth the trouble I took in dragging Goga to the seminar !
*******
The first two paragraphs were written when I was a 4th term student. That was before I took TTR's elective 'Managing Financial Institutions'. The last paragraphs were drafted about 9 months into my job. No wonder the article seems to wander a bit aimlessly ;-D
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posted by Naveenan Ramachandran | Friday, August 03, 2007
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