A Seed of Thought

I have developed a belief that communication of Ideas and Problems is beneficial for everybody. These should be scattered like seeds. Many of these seeds would fall on barren ground . However you may never know when one of these seeds would fall on a fertile ground with conducive surrounding to germinate and develop in to a Tree.

I started my entrepreneurial journey in 1996. The story is as under. The Central Railways had published a Corrigendum to a tender about Bird Repellent Gel. My father encouraged me (rather insisted me) to inquire what the matter was all about. When I met the concerned officer, he narrated a unique problem the Railways faced.
Every year during the pre-monsoon period ( April to June )  , birds especially crows start nesting. Due to lack of natural habitat in Big Cities like Mumbai , crows use OHE (Over Head Equipment) structures of Railways for nesting. They not only use twigs but often use waste material found in surrounding areas .  Especially in the suburbs such as Kurla which have lot of slums, these birds use pieces of electrical wires or electrically conducting material found in garbage for nesting. 

This is where the problem started . The conducting material in the nest was a cause of short circuit which lead to costly disruptions in the train schedules . Suburban trains being the life line of Mumbai these disruptions are a calamity.

The Railways sought solutions to avoid electrical failures due to bird nesting. One of the solutions was to avoid birds nesting on OHE structures. This was solved by applying Bird Repellent Gel which the Railways procured through Tenders . So when I understood this problem I started exploring other instances where bird were a pest .  Bird nesting was a menace to Electricity Boards . The investigation into the root cause of problem opened a broad sector of repellents business and comprised of customers such as The Airport, Ware Housing Corporations, Factory Sheds, Heritage Buildings, Hotels and Housing Complexes etc.
My job then was to understand the pain area faced by every customer segment. I realized that some of the customers like the Railways were Institutional Customers where the decision making was decentralized and often more than one department was involved in the Tendering process . This process involved The Consignee, The Accounts Department and The Stores Department. The criteria of each Department for awarding contract would vary . So even if one member objected to a particular product or a supplier the resultant was loosing of Sales Opportunity. In contrast if the customer was an individual flat owner the decision rested on one single individual.
During the passage of time I soon realized that the Repellent Gel was not the only solution which could solve the bird menace problem in the best possible manner. Alternative technologies posed a competitive threat. Besides ,  for application of the Gel a manufacturer had to heavily depend on external agencies for application. The entire success of the product rested on a combination of multiple points some of which were beyond the control of a Gel manufacturer.

Over all my entrepreneurial journey as a Gel manufacturer has been very enriching. It taught me to identify a problem, define this problem, validate that the issue is a problem for many other people, search for the technology to manufacture the product, rope in external agencies to apply the product and thus deliver the expected result . 

Today when I look back, I realise that this journey would not have started if this Railway Officer had not discussed his problem. I am indebted to him discussing his problem .
This "Seed of Thought" helped me embark on my entrepreneurial journey.
I invite you to share your thoughts by filling attached Feed Back