At the core control of success

MEET YOUR ENTREPRENEUR

As one enters the cabin of Srinivasa Samineni, chairman and managing director of Indus Research and Development Limited (IRAD), it is not a typical CEO's room. Instead one comes across tools and gadgets used in automotive control systems.

The 34-year-old entrepreneur explains, "We are different from the information technology (IT) companies. The verticals that we are present in relate to providing technology solutions for automotive control systems, which is a fast growing industry in the country."

According to him, the current projects that the company is working on are mainly designing engine control and power train system solutions for power plant control and monitoring systems and core control systems in the US.

"Automotive majors spend around 20 per cent on the electronics, which is a significant amount. At present, our market is mainly in the US. We are also looking at breaking into the European market soon," he said.

The company has set its eyes on the communications systems and solutions market.

"During the current fiscal we are concentrating on developing solutions for automotive original equipment manufactures (OEMs). These solutions would be helpful for both public and private road transport corporations dealing with large fleets," he says.

Indus Research recorded a turnover of $2 million for the financial year ended March 31, 2004. It expects to maintain the same figure in the current fiscal also.

"This year the expenditure would go up significantly as we are looking at the investments required in to the solutions sector and therefore there would not be much in-flows," Samineni explained.

"The organisation is in the process of becoming a medium-sized industry and the organisational growth is what we are looking for this year. There would be a significant jump in the revenues once the projects on providing solutions take off," he said.

On the requirements for capital, Samineni said that currently we are self-sustained and the projects in hand are enough for us to make the shift in to the solutions side also.

"There were plans of going in for an initial public offer (IPO) about two years back but then we went against it. For now we have decided to go in for an IPO only when we are ready to make the next big jump, from medium to large organisation level," Samineni said responding to a question.

IRAD started operations in 1998 with a strength of five has since seen a linear growth. Samineni said that the company is planning to increase the headcount to about 100 from the present strength of 60 by the end of the fiscal.

"The seeds of the company were sown when Ravi Gudapati, the president of the company, and I were doing our masters in the US. We wanted to do something different from the normal trend and started the company with an investment of around $ 5,00,000," Samineni recalled.

"When Ravi and I were doing our engineering in Vijayawada it struck us as to why we cannot do something new and creative. Coming back to India in 1998 after working with automobile majors in the US both of us decided to put our expertise together to start a new company and thus we started this company," he said.

"The thought of IT never excited us, so we wanted to look at an option which would have a growth potential over a long time and which would be easy to sustain," he added.

Managing the company takes most of his time, but in his free time he loves to play with his daughter and also look into the technical aspects of work.

"It's been a long time since I had the time to play with my daughter who was also born at the same time as the company. So I have asked her to join me here till her school reopens in August and hope fully be there at that time," he said.

Regarding the future plans of the company, Samineni said that he would like the organisation to become a significant player in both the services and solutions sectors.

He adds that the company is focusing on developing the concept of individuality among employees and forging a strong team spirit.