'Spot an opportunity and seize it with both hands'
Madhusudhan Sikri, who exports packaging machines to over 70 countries, has a knack for bucking the trend and turning it into a golden opportunity
December 21, 2012 / 17:40 IST
Nikita Peer
Madhusudhan Sikri is an opportunist. And he’s proud to wear that tag. If he wasn’t, his company, Sikri Packaging Corporation, wouldn’t be what it is today. Manufacturing and exporting packaging machinery for pharmaceuticals and groceries, he has a footprint in 70 countries and is still expanding.Sikri takes you on a tour of his ‘empire’ - a 35,000 sq ft industrial estate in the heart of Kolkata - where it all began. It was a time when guts, not Google, led entrepreneurs to glory. “I began exporting machines 13 years ago, when terms like B2B had not yet been coined. Packaging machines were called ‘packaging machines’, not ‘packaging solutions’, and I didn’t have a website because the Web as we know it today didn’t exist,” says 55 old Sikri with a wry smile. “And when we had to meet clients, we travelled abroad because Skype was yet to be invented,” he laughs, recalling the good old days.In Step With The TimesThe Internet has levelled the field for small businesses, he points out. “If you need any kind of assistance, you can simply post a request on Linkedin groups and you will get plenty of suggestions. Thanks to Linkedin, I was able to convert all the operating systems of our machinery into multi-access electronic controls using frugal engineering – in just six months!”That’s not the way it worked a decade ago. “I used to work 20 hours a day as I had to talk to customers across time zones, from California to Australia. Today, all you have to do is place your finger on the map, a window pops up and you’re in a virtual boardroom meeting,” says Sikri, whose uncanny knack for moving with the times has kept him ahead of the game.Frothy StartExporting packaging machinery came later. Sikri started his entrepreneurial journey in the 1980s, selling bars of soap to hotels in India. “Tata Oil Mills was the only company in this segment then. So I saw a huge market there.” Just two years later, Sikri threw his hat into the ring. He talks of an era when written contracts were rare and businesses were powered by goodwill. “We would sit on a gaddi with dealers and order the raw material. On the stipulated date, the tanker of vegetable oil would arrive at your doorstep,” he reminisces.Marketing and promotion were the prerogative of the really big corporations but Sikri was used to bucking the trend. He started by sending six samples to each hotel with the name of the hotel engraved on the soap. “There were 300 hotels at the time and our soaps were an instant hit.” But running a business from Calcutta came with its own challenges. “Bombay was THE place to start a business. As if Calcuttans didn’t know how to sell good products!” Then there was the Communist legacy. “Clients would tell me, ‘There will be a strike in your factory very soon. You should have a factory in Bombay’. They were right. Eventually, I became one of the biggest soap makers for hoteliers but, as the locals had warned, they shut me down.”Second ChanceIt wasn’t long before Sikri had another ‘aha! moment’. “I was attending a trade fair and realised that the only company doing packaging in India was the Indian Institute of Packaging,” says Sikri, who spotted another opportunity and has never looked back. Since Calcutta was a hub for the tea trade, our entrepreneur bought machines from Delhi and Faridabad, upgraded and sold them to big tea companies.It’s been a long but thrilling journey with many a lesson learnt along the way, and Sikri is always willing to pass it on. “You don have to think about whether you are selling in the domestic market or overseas. Just find the right market and do your business. In fact, I find it easier to sell my products abroad. I get a better price because people appreciate quality. I doesn’t make a difference whether the customer is in Surat or San Francisco.”It’s easier doing business with foreign clients, he says. “In India, companies expect you to meet them if they want to purchase a machine whereas foreign clients search for us on the Internet and get in touch with us over the phone. The executive who calls us has sound knowledge of machines. If he likes what he sees, he talks to his board and it’s a done deal. People in India don’t know how to buy from good vendors.”Secret Of SuccessFinally Sikri shares the secret to his success. “Always take a long-term view of things. Never look at your balance sheet or books of account. Just service your customers, vendors and suppliers well. A sportsman never looks at the scoreboard all the time. They just look at the ball.” And this is not glib advice. “We don’t have a sales department, only a service department,” reveals the man who went from selling soap in India to, well, conquering the world.You can send your feedback on smementor@moneycontrol.com or simply post comments below Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
