Neutron Electronic System Contd...

Moving ahead resolutely with zest and vision, Neutron blossomed into a full-fledged business organization with its own distinct corporate personality. While it continued to provide after-sales support infrastructure to Enkay, it also began to explore newer horizons for itself. Driven by Nanik's spirit of adventure, the company entered the developing area of video conferencing in 1994. Just as Enkay had teamed up with Nitsuko from Japan to bring to India the best in KTS technology, Neutron forged strategic alliances with the American company PictureTel (now Polycom) to bring the latest in video conferencing to India.

Nanik elucidates: "For a host of reasons that included the rising cost factor, air-travel would not remain the preferred mode of travel for top companies and software giants to stay in regular touch with their foreign counterparts. Perceiving this change, we began to concentrate on video and audio conferencing. Concurrently, our team had to engage in heavy-duty marketing to introduce this then new and expensive concept of video conferencing to the Indian market."

Neutron's first mega-project was to link the offshore platforms of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) to its central office at Bandra in Mumbai through video conferencing. ONGC, one of the foremost public undertakings in India, had three offshore process platforms that needed to be interconnected to the main office. Before Neutron stepped in, a whopping amount was being spent per day simply on the transportation of personnel, engineers and labour even for the most minor of troubleshooting exercises. The only way to commute to offshore platforms was by helicopter. Firstly, this was proving to be extremely costly and secondly, there were frequent cancellations due to inclement weather, thereby holding up processes and increasing downtime.

The project was a prestigious one for Neutron. Nanik's colleagues were a little jittery, nonetheless. But Nanik was confidence personified. Even when a lot of funding had to be arranged, he dealt with bank officials and got everything in order in the shortest possible period. The project was implemented in 11 months, a record of sorts. "We put up a multi-point integrated network along with video conferencing facility in such a way that a technical person sitting in Bandra could guide a repair operation at the offshore site without the physical presence of the engineer," informs Nanik.

Later, Neutron was invited to undertake a project for Cairn Energy, a British oil company. Cairn was a committed user of PictureTel products from the time video conferencing was introduced. It wanted to link its head office in Edinburgh with its Chennai office, a project that Neutron successfully accomplished.

By the year 2000, Neutron's mission statement was clear — to be a pioneer in communications and to remain a leader. It offered integrated solutions in networking for a wide range of businesses, from call centers to IT firms, and heavy engineering to real estate. Neutron has offered solutions to several organizations such as the Carlton Group, National Thermal Power Cor-poration, Cathay Pacific, Godrej, Enron, Mitsubishi, Larsen and Toubro, Bharat Electronics Limited, Infosys and Citicorp, among others. As has been mentioned before, Nanik is a meticulous planner. Before embarking on a new project, he takes time to deliberate on all aspects, primarily those involving customer expectations, as well as technical and commercial elements. Nanik also seeks the opinion of his financial advisors and legal consultants before setting foot on new soil.

"Although any business is a risky proposition, there are always certain factors which can be studied in advance. Your homework should always be perfect. If something goes wrong later, it must not be due to the fact that you were too lazy or foolish to not have invested some time and effort in studying the background," is Nanik's prudent advice.

Adino Telecom

With wireless technology poised to become the commu-nication medium of the new millennium, Nanik and Dayal, along with two of their long-time friends, established Adino Telecom in 1993. The company is a joint venture between Enkay and Onida.

Onida is the brand name of the products of MIRC Electronics Pvt. Ltd. that was established in 1981. The brand has set new standards in the realm of quality electrical home appliances — especially televisions — in the country. In recognition of this, the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India, had bestowed Onida its Award for Excellence, in 1998.

Vijay Mansukhani, Onida's Founder Director, and Gulu Mirchandani, its Chairman and Managing Director, have been Nanik's long-standing friends. Nanik narrates: "Once, when Vijay came to meet me at my Khandala retreat, we got down to discussing the advent of wireless technology. Both of us agreed that there was tremendous potential in this field and we decided at once to start a joint venture between Enkay and Onida. Having agreed in principle, Dayal next met with Vijay and Gulu to work out the nitty-gritty. Adino Telecom was thus born in 1993."

Mr. S. Ramchandra, who had earlier headed the wireless division at Meltron, expressed interest in joining the new venture. With his long years of expertise in wireless technology and two-way radio communication equipment, Adino was all set to commence operations.

Striking an alliance with the American giant, Motorola, Adino began by distributing the MNC's state-of-the-art two-way radios and trunking systems in India. As Motorola's channel partner, Adino took care of its pre-sales operations, order acquisitions, post-sales operations and support services. Till date, Adino has sold over 100,000 Motorola radios in the Indian market and has, in fact, been a pioneer in providing digital radio-trunking solutions in India. Over the years, Adino has provided Motorola's wireless solutions to India's Border Security Force (BSF), the police force in certain states of India including Maharashtra, as well as to several organi-zations in the private sector.

In view of its sterling performance, Motorola awarded Adino with its Gold Award in 1996. Confidently, Adino moved into the emerging area of broadband solutions during the late nineties. "The 90s provide a most interesting case study of how technology and economy move hand in hand. The decade began with a chronic shortage of capital, a ballooning fiscal deficit and a precarious position of external reserves. This actually led to India's economic reforms. By 1993, the growth of technology accelerated remarkably, most significantly in convergence of conventional analog and digital applications. The transmission of voice and video was made possible in standard modulated data streams on common copper pairs," says Nanik.

However, the euphoria in the market proved to be short-lived. While liberalization boosted the economy, there were still various issues like recession, investment ratios and inflation that needed to be sorted out. Innovations, though, continued to flourish and remarkable changes came about in fiber-based systems and wireless technology, achieving what would once be considered impossible in data transmission and communication. By 1998, the Indian economy showed signs of recovery. Adino flourished and made more than 600 installations of fixed broadband wireless equipment all over India.

In the area of broadband wireless solutions, Adino has successfully implemented a major contract with the Gujarat government to expand the Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN) at all district and block levels. Three hundred government offices have already been connected using broadband wireless technology for simultaneous voice/data transmission and video conferencing.

Adino now has offices in India's major cities like Delhi,Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bangalore and Guwahati.

Every company in the Enkay Group has greatly benefited from Nanik's active guidance and direction. Right from the start, he took it upon himself to explore the global market to forge collaborations with the right companies. Towards that end, Nanik and his colleagues participated in many overseas expositions and events that allowed them to identify prospective business partners. It was only after a lot of meticulous study and planning that overseas alliances were entered into. And alliances were made only with the best and the strongest. As Nanik is fond of saying, "If, in a jungle, you wish to be powerful, befriend the lion."

Nanik is ready to enter every door of opportunity that is opened to him. For example, with the national broadband policy declared in October 2004, the country is now all set for a telecom revolution. Nanik is positive that customs duties on telecom equipment and accessories will be reduced to near-zero percentages as agreed by India in the WTO arrangement. Although it will lead to a clutter of competition, reaching out to customers through the best of services will gain primary importance. Here again, Nanik knows that his companies are all keyed up to deliver the goods.

Besides keeping a tight vigil on current developments, keeping an eye on the future is equally important. Nanik explains: "We constantly watched technology development in advanced nations. Sooner or later, these technologies had to come to India because globalization means that you have to be on par with the others. We therefore invested in products prematurely, but they soon grew to be in great demand."

Nanik's foresight enables him, his team and his companies to always stay a step ahead of the others. Name any area in convergent communications — Internet telephony, wireless Local Area Network (LAN) solutions, Key Telephone Systems (KTS), PABX, audio-video conferencing, voice messaging, radio-trunking, broadband wireless solutions, Wi-Fi, multimedia solutions like plasma and projection systems — and you will find the leading presence of all three companies headed by Nanik — Enkay Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., Adino Telecom, and Neutron Electronic Systems.

Beyond Silver Horizons

On October 14, 2005, Enkay marked its 25th Anniversary with a flourish. It was a glorious day for Nanik, Dayal and Balram, who looked back with pride over their Group's accomplishments. Look-ing ahead with complete optimism, they beheld golden horizons of opportunities that beckoned them to greater success and fortune.

The day began with a Tech Show exhibiting the latest products from all Enkay Group companies. Mr. F. C. Kohli, former Deputy Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services, inaugurated the show in the morning.

The Silver Jubilee celebrations took place in the evening at Hotel Hilton Towers, Mumbai. It was Enkay's proud and unique privilege to have as its Chief Guest, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Also in attendance were high-powered delegations from NEC and Polycom, that had traveled a long way — from Japan, Singapore and Malaysia — to be present at the special occasion. Several captains of industry were also in attendance, and members of the print and electronic media were present to cover the function.

In his speech, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh complimented Enkay's sterling contribution to the field of telecom in India. Appreciating the special relations that bind NEC and Enkay, he said that NEC would be given red carpet treatment should it ever decide to open a factory in Maharashtra. Every possible concession, he stated, would be extended, in view of the foreign investment that would flow into India, particularly into Maharashtra.

Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra, one of India's most respected and leading corporate names, was a special guest for the evening. A degree holder in arts and management from the prestigious Harvard University, Anand has won several laurels and accolades, nationally and internationally. He has also been the past President of the Confederation of Indian Industry. For Nanik, Anand's presence on the evening of October 14, 2005 was deeply significant. Anand's father, the late Harish Mahindra, had been Nanik's friend, philosopher and guide. It was Harish Mahindra, himself a business stalwart in his time, who was the one who had inaugurated Enkay on October 3, 1980.

Anand had especially postponed his overseas trip by a day to ensure his presence at Enkay's Silver Jubilee celebrations. Addressing the august gathering, he referred to the intimate bond he shared with his late father. Anand said he was aware of the close relations that existed between his father and Nanik, and his presence there was intended to honour these special sentiments. He expressed his appre-ciation for the level Enkay had reached, and added in a lighter vein that though he had no financial stake in Enkay, he would tell his officers to look into the products Enkay was offering.

A View from the Helm

It has been a long road for Nanik. From his evenings in Ghana when he sat solitarily, watching the sunset over the Atlantic, mentally formulating how he would one day start his own company, to the present time when he sits in his office at Nariman Point as Chairman of the Enkay Group of Companies — it has been a daring and adventurous journey.

But then, Nanik always craved for adventure — he is far from weary and entertains no regrets. "While it is true that many of my initial attempts did not amount to much, they certainly gave me the experience and the maturity necessary to manage bigger projects. Whether it was the time of my struggle in Ghana, or those long working nights at my power looms in Bhiwandi, or the memorable times in the swanky Eastmen Art Emporium," — Nanik pauses nostalgically as his mind rushes through memory lane, "Enkay, Neutron and Adino are the result of everything I learned during those bitter-sweet years. Yes, these companies have indeed been my dream come true. I have much to thank God for."

Today, Nanik does not concern himself with the daily activities of his companies. Elaborating, he says: "It is my good fortune to have trustworthy members in my team to whom I can delegate responsibility. Many of them have been working with Enkay for more than twenty years and have become like family members. Of course, I keep myself updated on all vital information and am aware of whatever is discussed at the bi-monthly meetings of all the companies. But as a firm believer in teamwork, I like to give my senior officers a generous degree of latitude in the execution of day-to- day affairs. They, in turn, refer to me for guidance on crucial issues and policy-related matters. It is a system that has served us excellently."

Nanik's withdrawal from the active operations of his companies helped him to expand the scope of his social activities. It gave him an opportunity to devote quality time and accomplish a special mission that was very close to his heart — something that he had always wanted to do!

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