Athu Oru Ilamayaana Kaalam,…Romba Jollyaaana Vaazhkai – M.V.Venkatesh (Mech)

My roomies have already written about Mullai Illam and etched their memories in our blog….

Mullai Illam taught me….how to plan my activities by responding to the ecosystem around me…like the water turning off in hostel by 7.30 AM meant I had to ensure taking bath before that…

Mullai Illam taught me that I need to keep pace with the person who served food in the mess…most of the times this is the answer  I give my kids when they question me on the speed at which we complete our lunch / dinner.

Memories galore…..Names fade…one guy from Andhra Pradesh who learnt Tamil the easiest way by first learning those expletives to scold his friends…

We were sort of ensconced from the ragging by placing us along with the big brothers doing their Post-Graduation in Arts. So we learnt the right way to wear the lungies.

Had grown up as a child who cannot sleep with the lights-on….grew up as an adult who can sleep with the lights on… (don’t ask how it is now….it is more like each of you now)….

Moving from Mullai Illam to the New Hostel and Travancore Hostel….wow !! what a transformation …became a senior, close to the railway station….tea and theatre at our disposal…the number of films that I watched simply increased exponentially…

Above all…AU gave me the freedom to choose….I can inculcate the bad or the good…it was my choice…

Thankful to the many good roommates and friends…was able to remain what I was….and for good.

My roommates were not Mech engineers and my close circle of friends other than roommates were all Mech engineers. So most of the times I ended up watching many movies twice.

Anand Kumar, my roomie, taught me how to appreciate the cinematography, music, some important scenes and actions…and Ramesh taught me how to get tickets for any new movie.. he was an expert in that though.

The memories are incomplete without recollecting the all-important “K” section where we laid all our hopes…not on the studies…but on the marks that were read out by the clerk at K section. Still remember the way I came to know my 3^rd semester marks….Amidst expectations my mark was first told to me to be 548 / 800.. and then Odayappan & Aruna Manickavasagam lifted my spirits after a double-check which indicated my marks were 648 / 800. Vaazhga “K” section..

Another interesting practice I developed which has now become my habit….You might call it superstition or belief… common practice was to not pay the exam fees on a Tuesday. Hence the queue at the bank counter would be thin on Tuesdays…just to avoid the queue had paid fees on a Tuesday…. And the Tuesdays combined very well with the “K” section to give me the belief that Tuesdays are the best for me….this belief and practice continues to date.

Remember a very interesting anecdote at Travancore Hostel….all of us were preparing for the examination which was in the afternoon. I don’t remember the name of the person staying in the same floor –a C&S engineer. He walked across our room holding a mug in his hand and singing this song… “Iraivanidam Kai Yenthungal… Cup illai endru solluvathillai”…. That was simply hilarious…and the song stayed in my heart forever…..

 

Sweet memories of a “Day scholar” – K.Natarajan ( E&E)

I was born (and so got my name 🙂 ) and brought up in Chidambaram and knew a lot, good and bad, about Annamalai University unlike some of you. During school days I had heard stories of how vibrant the student community had been all along, including the infamous student strike in late 60s and the closure of bachelor degree arts programs that followed.

   As a school kid I used to ride a bi-cycle once in a while to the university and to the engineering campus, used to look in awe at the majestic buildings and always wanted to study there. Still remember the visits to the science exhibitions that were held for the 50-year golden jubilee celebrations (if I remember right). I had a great admiration for the well established engineering college which had a good reputation of its Alumni. The college’s investment in the laboratories was well-known.

    Private engineering colleges were starting to spur like mushrooms in that year for the first time in Tamil Nadu. I had already joined  the Pollachi Engineering college through DOTE. I had paid the fees too, a big portion or all of which I eventually lost 😦 .  When Annamalai admission came through, it was a dream come true for me and to my parents. Although we talked about the importance of gaining the experience of the outside world, they rightly decided I was not ready yet. After all, I was a soft-spoken, studious kid (so they thought), had not travelled widely and so it was a good decision. Thus was born a “day scholar” for the next four years!

     I got admitted to Civil first and within the first few weeks met an E&E student who expressed his interest to exchange the branches mutually. We two went to Dean’s office and politely expressed our wishes and the Dean quickly got our study disciplines swapped. Win-win situation huh!

     Life was different for the day scholars with its own pros and cons. Though Chidambaram is a small town, I lived in a diagonally opposite corner of the town and pedaled on my cycle for about 3 km to college one way along the car streets of the calm temple town, crossing the Gandhi statue and another half the distance crossing some quiet roads daily. Many of you envied the home food part and I learnt the value of it hearing how quickly you all got fed up with canteen food and were ready to visit home on the weekends or on the first chance. Our classes were painstakingly long starting at the wee hours of 8:10 am and ending at 4:50 pm and the lunch break was less than an hour given we couldn’t get any classes cancelled in the 1^st year 🙂 . I used to ride back home often for lunch in the scorching sun which never bothered me actually thinking about it now.

    I was also worried about ragging those days though day scholars were supposedly less targeted. I had a backup plan. The advice to me was to “tell the seniors that I knew people from Kavarapattu”.  I knew no one from there and the seniors could find that out by conversing with me for few minutes 🙂 . I never had to use my plan and there was no ‘ragging ragging’ I came across. The seniors I met were quite friendly though the first meetings intimidated me for my own reasons.

    I profoundly thank the institution for the education and the experience it gave me thus providing the foundation for the rest of my life.

To be continued…

The Village of hostel life – Karthik Sundaram (M&P)

They say in Africa that it takes a village to raise a child—the combined wisdom of elders in the village helps raise every child to be aware of his or her world, responsibilities, and strengths.

Every time I hear this, I can only recall four years of hostel life—where the village of 200+ young teenagers grew together, building on each other’s strengths, on friendship, and having fun in it all.

The central school system that I came from is like a river—no two years have the same classmates as the defense and other governmental systems transfer parents in and out of cities. When I came into Annamalai, I was struck by how people here sought strength in the constancy of presence—we couldn’t go anywhere else for four years!

Another stark contrast was being in the presence of different cultures. The central school classmates ranged from Cheemas to Raos to Shahs—but we didn’t realize they came from different cultures as we all wore the same blues, ate nearly the same food, and dealt with daily life in nearly the same manner from eight to three everyday.

Not so at hostel.

The Dogras were uniquely different from the Chawlas who were not even remotely the same as the Banerjis, and all of them were so aware of us with uncommon last names—the Tamilians took our fathers’ first names as our last and confused the heck out of the Singhs and Reddys J

Where else would one get such a rich insight into the fabric of human society but inside those shaky walls of Queenly (pun intended) hostel life. A village that I will never forget—amen!

My Journey as an Entrepreneur – Meyyappan Annamalai (E&I)

Abstract

This paper takes through the life journey of a “forced” entrepreneur whereby it provides events to describe the challenges and opportunities faced. The paper is based on real experiences on the ground. The author tries to break the business journey of an entrepreneur into a few stages (Initial stage, Growth Stage and Exit stage) and covers the important events happened during these stages, lessons learnt and points to remember in each stage. The reader can co-relate this to his existing or future journey and the paper can provoke interest to adhere the experiences and thought process.

Introduction: A Case Study

I, Meyyappan Annamalai (Mey) would like to take this opportunity to run through a few important stages of professional cum business career which might help the budding entrepreneurs when they plan to get on the business bandwagon.

I plan to support the main presentation with incidents and actual examples which could be the right takeaway for the participants.

SCONCE – A 12 year on-going journey.

1990 – 2001 – Happy, comfortable, safe (sort of), easy going life

Graduated in 1989 and took a trainee role from 1990 to 1991 and then an employee role till 2001. Changed two organizations during this period and the employee role was quite comfortable with easy going office timings, less commitments, no pressure/stress, on the dot salary, time to enjoy the world and more importantly learn the domain in my own pace. Except for the money part, all seemed to be good and job was kind of safe when the bullet hit in 2001-> RETRENCHMENT!

2001 to 2003 – Retrenchment, Anxiety, Fear, No Prior experience, No financial backup, dot.com bubble burst

I had an extensive and very specialized CAD background and new opportunities in this field were very limited in Singapore. So had to take an alternative choice. As my wife was working, we felt we can financially manage for a few months and she encouraged me to do something different from what I was doing till then (family understanding and support). So convinced and roped in two of my colleagues who were together from the trainee days (a strong team) and did some scouting, felt that project/opportunity based software development was the potential way to go since we had all what was required for the job (no financial backup, no major capital, had the required domain expertise, had the required Enterprise R&D knowledge ^J )

The first year was challenging since we did not take any salaries, and had to keep all the financial commitments as low as possible. Also we had to source for any type of software project on any type of platform development (Unix, windows, C++, C, PLM(Product lifecycle management), Java (you name it) After a year we could stabilize on PLM/CAD software development which was our forte.

How did we address the initial challenges?

No financial backup -> Not required for this type of business, since this mainly depends on your domain expertise and we anyways had no capital or networking backup for the startup. You just need minimum capital, which can come from your own savings, and a home office, laptop, with good connectivity to the net. In year two we were able to get a small space which can hold 5 guys and we had a few projects on the way. So we started to build capital rather than go out to raise capital. The advantage of services consulting business is that your expertise and knowledge is the capital. The major issue was with the billing/receivables, which is a challenging task and mostly customers would have advantageous payment terms which affects your monthly payments during the initial stages.

Fear/Anxiety -> This is one critical area where you need to have some risk-taking DNA flowing in your blood. You cannot avoid risk, but be strong to be able to manage this. Keep you fear internal and keep your mind occupied with job/new developments etc, which can divert the fear. Keep meeting people since that’s a way to tap into ideas and opportunities. Have some financial backup (personal which should not be spent on the business) which can last 12 months (such as savings, spouse working etc.) which shall reduce the anxiety within the family.

Domain Expertise -> This is the key for success. My suggestion is that you need a min of 5 years solid domain expertise before you get into any business. You may have exceptions where you have a strong financial background or if your parents/relatives/friends are already in the business and be able to absorb you into the business domain. So during your employment days, just be ready to take up any job given by the organization and choose to be in smaller organizations where you have the opportunity to learn more and have bigger responsibilities.

2004 – 2008 – Stabilize, Expansion, new geographies, new ideas, risk management

After the initial few years, we felt that PLM was a limited growth area and we wanted to pursue our passion, which is product development. We created two products which we sold to OEMs (Original Equipment Manufactures) but since we did not have a strong selling strategy we did not capitalize on the success.

How did we address these challenges?

Stabilize – > we had created a name in the market space
-> “If there are complex plm /cad requirements, then look for SCONCE”. So, word of mouth and successful completion of projects with the motto

“Customer is King” took us through stabilization, but did not allow us to grow.

Growth/Expansion – > Bringing in talent and partnering with the right resources will help you to grow. We were technically strong, but not so good on sales, so we looked around and partnered with strong sales and strategy experts to overcome this. With the new influx of sales into the company we were able to grow into different geographies like Japan, Canada and USA and with an MNC base.

New Ideas-> Any business after a period of few years (Stabilization) has to look for new ideas in terms of expanding in the same domain or look for alternative paths to growth. At this stage you should have generated some profits to invest in various alternatives which you should be ready to risk and see if there are rewards. We did explore and felt that we were ready to invest in product development and in engineering services. Our mistake was to expand aggressively on both, which took a toll. We should have concentrated on one line of expansion. We were able to sell the product to the OEMs, but our expansion into Engineering Services cost us heavily, since we had no background knowledge and could not get the right resources to run/manage the business. Major learning is that you should know when to pull the plug and get out to reduce your risks, which we did after 12 months of investment

2009 – 2013 -> Investors, Growth, Plan for Exit

Since now we had a name in the market and had product development ideas for expansion, it was the right time to bring in investors to help us achieve the end goals.

Investors -> You need to tap the right investors at the right time, since the valuation of your company depends on your past success or the innovative ideas which you can sell to the investors. Today’s market is driven by quick return of money where typically investments are done on Consumer software, B2C, whereas we still believe that Enterprise is a strong proposition for investment on a long journey. With new product ideas, we approached ACCEL Partners USA and IIPL Singapore (a govt arm) to support the new idea of shape-based geometry search. We have done about 4 years of R&D and product development and have launched the new product about 12 months ago which has seen initial success with key pilot customers worldwide. So you should know that in order to reach mass, it’s difficult to develop/expand with internal revenue alone, and you should be ready to bring in external parties for your growth plan. This will increase the value of your company even with dilution of your shareholding.

Growth-> we are on the verge of splitting the company into two, based on the lines of business so that each one of them gets treated with proper importance, and each has a business plan and growth strategy.

Plan to Exit-> This is key in any business, and I would suggest it’s not advisable to be too emotionally attached to your business. Be ready to part at the right time. This will help the business to grow as well as provide time for you to re-energize and look for new challenges. We have set our exit targets for 3 years from now and in parallel started to look for new ideas.

Some key take-outs from our experience in the last 12 years:

Initial Stages

• There are no stipulated working hours; it has to be 24X7. You never switch off you mobile phone and should have access to electronic communication.
• Keep your start-up costs to a minimum; create an office in your home.
• There is no place for EGO; let it go.
• The customer is ALWAYS right. (see the antonym down the lines ^J )
• Your family’s support and understanding is absolutely necessary for your success.
• Keep a low profile during your initial stages of development until you are ready to announce your plans and build the business.
• Start with an investment that you can afford (without bank loans) during the initial stages, and don’t cut deeply into your savings.

Growth Stages:

• Build your profits to generate the working capital at the earliest.(lower initial outflow)
• Create a strong network of professionals, customer key contacts, investor contacts to expand.
• The customer is NOT always Right. Initial stages you need the job, but now you are in a stage where you need to convince the customer on what is good for him. So be strong and convince the customer.
• Build a strong management team that you can count on; you can’t do it all yourself.
• Strategize and look for potential investors to come in and allow you to expand the business.
• Make sure that you don’t lose focus on quality during the growth stages.
• Build a brand name through successful deliveries.
• Expand geographically.

Plan for Exit Stages:

• Build the organization to get the right valuations since that is the asset which you have generated over time.
• On exit, take a break and re-energize, and look for potential new ideas during this period.
• Your past experience will help you shorten the time-frame and increase the success rate of your next venture

Conclusion

Planning for each of the stages indicated above vary depending on the stage you are. You may not be able to plan much during the initial stages, but need to improve and stabilize during the growth stage. Your exit planning has to be perfect, since that’s the time when you realize the potential of your hard work done during the journey.

I would like to emphasize that entrepreneur is an opportunity of life time which many of them would not get to enjoy. So provided an opportunity take things as they come, but most importantly execute them with your full involvement and enjoy what you do!!!

The Journey continues,… – Gopalan Ramesh (E&E)

It all began when I got a telegram which was delivered in my room at BITS-PILANI from my father saying you have secured admission in Annamalai University-make up your mind whether you want to continue in BITS or make the journey back to Chennai to reach Chidambaram by the specified deadline.

I was in the MMS program but I always wanted to be an Engineer ( or so I thought!). Had I had the wisdom that I have gained now, I would have continued, but I packed my bags and fortunately, I had the money to shoot back to Delhi and catch the GT back home.

 Upon reaching Annamalai University and completing the admission formalities, we were told to go to Mullai Hostel to register there for a room. First year Engineering students were bunched three in a room. As my father and me were contemplating who would be my room-mates (which is the Annamalai lingo), I saw a tall and pious person with his very tall and handsome son waiting to complete the registration. My father introduced himself to the other person and after exchange of pleasantries, we immediately we came to know that he works for IOL, where my uncle worked and he knew my uncle. One-room mate accounted for- R.S Anand Kumar.  After we came out registering ourselves in Room number 77, me and Anand with one-more to go, I saw  MV Venkatesh, whom I did not know by name but remember seeing him on the stairs of  CEG, Anna University during the exams being introduced by Rangarajan, my classmate at MCCHS and his cousin. I said “Oh-you are Rangarajan’s cousin is it not?”. He was taken aback but said yes and questioned me how do I know him? I repeated what had been said above and there you go- room-mate #3 and friends for life.

Kicha (Krishna Raman) joined later to our room and we four were together all through the 4 years. Apart from Electrical Engineering, I learnt life skills from these three friends. Anand, the eternal early-riser, organized and focused individual, Venkatesh equally organized yet eccentric in his own ways and Kicha was practical yet flamboyant. Me, – the lazy-bone  and I was lucky that these people chose to put up with me for four years.

I still remember various values that these room-mates friends taught me and whatever skills that I have today apart from Engineering that was taught at the college, I owe it to these friends..

The journey continues….

Home away from home – Krishna Kumar ( Kicha) (E&I)

In life isn’t it very important to always find a home away from home? You may ask, Why? Because home is where you are who you are, relaxed, having fun. It also has people you love, associate with, like to spend your time with, and the relationships you build never really go away. You can always pick up where you left off! My homes are in Trichy, Chidambaram, Chennai, Detroit and Washington DC. Now you get the picture 🙂

When I was in 12th grade, I was chatting with my mom and another friend of mine who was in a college already. During the discussion, I said if I got in to something like Annamalai University, I will NEVER go there, because, I would be the fifth person in my family (both paternal and maternal) to go there and in late 70s the college had a bad reputation with lot of IDC (Indefinitely Closed). Then by end of the school year, I first got in to Shanmugha Engineering College, and like Anand’s first post I was warned/yelled by the principal that I should behave by starting to button the shirt (top). That place had no character and I really really hated it with a long bus ride from Trichy to that college. I was praying to God almighty to get me out of that place and HE really did help me in getting in to Annamalai University. I had mixed feelings and thinking about my own statement a year ago. It was interesting how I got there, it was destiny.

Chidambaram was the first home away from home for me. What an experience that was! I do really believe that it is one of the best times of my life, being part of so many stories, friendship, and brotherhood. I may not be in touch with everybody, but do end up meeting or talking to a few of you over these years. I really hope to meet and spend time with you all in July 2014.

Life is about finding the best in what you have… – T.Govindarajan (E&E)

I was so confident after my 12^th grade results, that I will get into a DOTE (Director of Technical Education) college.  My dad mentioned that he will not allow me to apply to BITS Pilani because,he will not send me even if I get in there.  After having kids, I understand what paternal instincts are. He knew me so well, as many people knew after I joined Annamalai University, that I could not survive without the “Thayir Saadam”.

I had a call to go for counseling for REC other states and it was Avani Avittam day. So my father said no again. On the eve of Annamalai University entrance exam, my family travelled to Pondy. I said I will also join them and miss the exam, because Annamalai  was not my choice any way. My father said, “No way you are going to miss an exam and come on a holiday”. As I remember the exam was in the afternoon in Anna University and I played cricket before the exam and left for the exam from the ground. I was late by 5 mins and still finished the exam.

When I got the Annamalai University admission, All I had was DOTE college admission in Kilakarai. I also had a chance to join Venkateswara College in the Management Quota. My father argued that financially it is going to cost the same even after paying the Management Quota donation. I put my foot down and happily took up Annamalai University because it was on merit.

I still do not regret my decision to join Annamalai University and I was glad to spend four years. When others have complained about Annamalai University, I always told everyone this is a decision we made considering the circumstances. All other reasons are excuses and just for academic interest.

25 years later, I want to cherish the memories. I have met some of the greatest guys, who have been my life time friends.  I have learned that life really IS about finding the best in what we have.

More to be continued…

First Day, First Lesson!!! – Anand Kumar (E&E)

The bus journey from Trichy to Chidambaram seemed unusually long-winded that day. The early morning feeling in Trichy quickly gives way in that hot July as the bus crosses Thuvakudi (a suburb just in the outskirts of Trichy) and passes by REC the engineering college one aspired to get into. In the last 3 months there were so many opportunities to keep visiting REC again and again. For collecting Application form, for the Engineering Entrance test, for Other State REC admission counselling,.. By now the hot spots in the campus (read as canteens) were quite in the knowhow. But today as the bus whizzes past REC, your mind also slowly erases it from its Random Access Memory. And makes space for Annamalai University –where one is going to spend the next 4 years.  First time in life to be out of home and live in a hostel!! How will be the college?? The campus??  How will be the ragging??? Will they start ragging today itself when you are just going to admit yourself and may be fix the hostel??? Who will be your room mates?? As all these thoughts and questions circle your mind, dad sitting nearby is trying to catch some sleep. I watch with some surprise first and start enjoying the green fields and the associated sights of paddy fields. After about 5 hours of travel we are now in Chidambaram.

Chidambaram – The only time I’ve visited this place before was on a pilgrimage trip with family when I was in the school that too when I was very young.  So had no good or bad memories though my dad remembered staying at “Vandayar mansion” which was as per him the only decent place to stay those days.  He also vaguely remembered about a mess next door. That “Mami’s mess” next to Vandayar mansion hotel will provide the much-needed succour from the hostel mess food in the coming time. But more on that later.

From the bus stand we engage an auto and reach the Engineering campus.  The engineering campus looked mighty and tall and after few enquiries reached the Electrical Engineering department.  The name plate outside the HOD’s office announced his name as Prof. Balasundaram and he wasn’t in. The next few minutes went in filling up the form,.. and other formalities of admission. The gentleman in the E&E/E&I department office Babu as later one would realize was the real HOD without whom the Output/Input % of the department engine suffered badly. (Incidentally Babu joined the department as a Diploma holder, started work in the office, soon became a lab assistant, in parallel completed B.E, became a lecturer in the E&E dept. in Annamalai University and I now hear that he is a Professor)

As we were standing there and taking advise on the next steps like paying the fees, obtaining hostel admission,.. suddenly the staff around got up and wished seeing a person coming in. Wasn’t difficult to guess that the gentleman was the HOD- Prof Balasundaram. Just before entering the cabin, he glanced at my dad and me once and asked

“New admission???”

“Yes Sir”

I wasn’t prepared for what happened in the next few minutes.

“What is this?? Leaving your button open in the shirt??? You have come to a college or movie theatre??? Ithu oru professional college”. The Prof took off.

“Sir,…” I was mumbling and fumbling

“I don’t want this in my department. Buttona podu, Puriyutha??? The Prof. literally barked.

Before I could say anything he walked off and went to his cabin. I slowly recovered from the situation and saw my dad grinning. “Romba strict professor polarukku” – he said. He was glad like any parent to see that the college was giving importance to discipline and all. All these years in my youthful exuberance it was cool to leave the first button of the shirt open.

But from that day on, I’ve never left my shirt unbuttoned hence till now!!!

The purpose of that travel from Trichy to Chidambaram was to take admission in the Engineering college and thereby learn valuable engineering lessons in the next 4 years that will help further my career. But straight up, first day there was this first life lesson!  Hopefully that also helped in my career somewhere by teaching me to pay attention to what and how I wear at work.

To be continued,….