Manoj’s first twenty five years of life went in Odisha with its beautiful culture of food and festivals and a strong moral value system. He did his engineering graduation from VSSUT at Burla (then UCE) in Odisha. Then, he spent roughly two years starting with TATA Steel company in Odisha and in the meantime, he thought to see the world outside the state. Manoj did his master’s in management from IMT, Ghaziabad and spent the rest of his job life in NCR and the commercial capital, Mumbai.
When did entrepreneurship blossom into your mind?
Roughly, a good twelve and a half years of industry experience after all the studies in the world and I was like what next to wake you up in the morning. That’s when the bug of doing something on your own, building something from scratch caught my imagination. And, boy, there was a huge opportunity at hand. I realised this was the wake-up call to give shape to the childhood adventures of selling the surplus milk of our cows, making paper packets for a small discount at the ration shop, teaching a younger brother or two et al.
I thought India as an emerging economy had a lot to offer. Large organisations are getting into the start-up mode of agility and a bottom-up value proposition and the market is hungry for innovations in every sphere. And, the very boring thought of not repeating the same odd job with not-so-inspiring people around was a big motivation.
And, having spent eight years with TATAs out of my twelve years guided me to build an organisation based on trust and ethics. The intention of creating wealth coalesce nicely with distributing wealth with a larger set of people and a sense of building institutions which outlive human life spans.
What are the challenges you faced before getting into this business?
The biggest challenge when you start up is finding a good partner who believes in the model and is committed. If you get, you are lucky. If you don’t, that becomes your first problem to solve. There you go. Then, the next challenge is to convince people that you can solve the problem. The next challenge is to hire people who can solve the problems. You jump into a room with challenges and then you can’t come out. So, if you are ready to fight it out in the scorching sun, the difficult winters and the relentless rains, then go for this or else it’s a strict no.
Growing up in a small town teaches you some valuable lessons of life away from the hustle bustle of a large city. It prepares you for a life of aspirations but makes you grounded at the same time. It helps keep the person inside you a thinking and a feeling one. You don’t end up as another machine ready to mingle in the crowd and just be a clone.
While working on the team how do you prepare yourself?
I ensure that my team is prepared, rather. I have a clarity of what we do, how we do, when we do, where we do et al. And, building a team is the most challenging task, especially in a country like ours where one puts everything to get a job not to get a job done. In our country, we have a bunch of overtly qualified guys with an array of excuses in their bag to explain you in the best Victorian language as to why the job cannot be done. You have a tougher task in managing these people than doing the job, yourself. But then the toughest job is to manage people, any day.
During COVID 19, how did you manage your business?
This was an unfortunate development for the economy per se. But, in retrospect it helped recalibrate a lot many things. In the journey of a business or an institution, there would be roadblocks, challenges etc. It takes a strong purpose and a set of processes to tide over such calamities. We had to stay indoors, put our brains into action, do our homework properly every single day, thought how to add value and build a pipeline of orders to be executed when things restart. All these exercises of going inward, reflecting on the times, responding to the new value paradigms helped us making our work-in-process offers stronger. Now, that things are easing out albeit slowly, we are back to score where we left.
Something about InventON
InventON is an eight-year young baby. As an e-commerce marketplace, we are having around Rs 1,000 Cr ($135 Mn) of industrial assets, real estate and auto assets at any given time in a financial year. This year we have reduced our selling target from the original Rs 300 Cr to Rs 200 Cr due to the pandemic. While this is my fifteenth year in the e-commerce industry, it’s ninth for InventON. We are working with some fifty manufacturing companies and financial institutions in the country at present who are one of the best in class. Geographically, we are covering at least hundred odd cities and towns in the country. On the demand side, we have got at least two thousand odd associates and buyers registered with us pan India.
When we complete a decade of our operations in 2022, we aim to have an order book of at least Rs 3,000 Cr ($405 Mn) and we plan to clock a transaction value of at least Rs 600 Cr. For that we are developing the infrastructure of people, associates, investors and some robust processes aided by some cutting-edge digital initiatives.
How has been the journey so far as an entrepreneur?
It’s a paradox of challenge and charm. It’s the highest form of satisfaction which comes with its own share of sleepless nights. But then when you aspire something big, the whole universe conspires to help you reach there. I have been fortunate to have a life partner and a co-founder in Payal who has stood like a rock all these years. Some people never come to the limelight, but they are your constant source of light. They show you the way. She has been such a source of constant encouragement; she has given a lot of sacrifices to help me steer the vehicle with an unwavering focus on the road. It was never easy in the last eight years. But she has stood the ground and how!
My team, who have believed in me, stood by me, in the dark rainy nights to see a morning of sunshine. All of them are my co-founders, in fact, and everyone works as an owner here. Then, some extra-ordinary people in the form of friends, client reps who make your day when you speak to them. They have enormous amount of positivity. Last, but not the least, I just look up in the sky and thank the almighty for his designs and enormous blessings in the form of family, friends, challenges and the charm even.
So, to sum it up, what looks like your journey is in fact the summation of many journeys by many people who walk with you for miles together. You are just one percent; rest is what others do it for you. I look for such platforms to say my heartfelt thanks and wish God to make me capable to help them realise their dreams, if I could.
What’s in the future?
We have got some offers of investments though it was before Covid-19. We have a desire of taking the real estate business to the level of B2C model that it deserves. On the Industrial Assets business, we want to sign up more companies in the ten odd sectors that we focus on. On the auto assets side, we want to make the logistics and transport industry more efficient in terms of selling their disposable assets. Parterning with PSU Banks and companies is an agenda.
And, as I have said, we must have a book size of Rs 3,000 Cr of assets to sell out of which we must transact Rs 600 Cr. A tough call, but then targets should keep you on your toes. We want to build cross-saleable revenues such as from advertisements and some other related fixed revenue streams.
Once we complete a good ten years of consistent performance, we would look to tap the investors by getting InventON listed in one of the stock exchanges. And, we have also started looking for HNI investors / PE firms / VCs. But then we would always be interested in a strategic investor who understands our business and gives the right value as well.
What steps do you follow to make your business journey smooth?
I thought, you got to enjoy the whole process, be excited at the opportunities like a child, think what it takes to take up the challenges mentally and physically. You relish the journey so much that the destination must be a great place. We are building long terms relationships on the ground with the clients and the customers alike. We are building a robust organisation of process and people to take care of tough times like the one we all are just going through.
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