In this autobiographical work, the prominent industrialist and the founder of V-Guard, Mr Kouchuseph Chittilappilly shares the events and experiences that touched him and made him who he is today.
The first part of the book recollects his journey from being an employee earning Rs 150 a month to starting out on his own by setting up a small-scale voltage manufacturing unit in 1977. Following the success of V-Guard, Kouchuseph Chittilappilly has diversified into other areas such as amusement parks with Wonderla, manufacturing of inner wears with V-Star Creations and a property development venture with Veegaland Developers Pvt. Ltd. He is also known for his humanitarian gestures, including donating one of his kidneys to a person whom he had never met before. The second part of the book is just a recollection of his childhood memories.
Here are some of the highlights from the book.
- The credit for the success of V-Guard goes to a team.
- A winning organisation requires a talented, energetic and disciplined workforce. They must be well-paid, and well-motivated, so much so that they maintain a sense of ownership.
- the real brand ambassador is none other than your customer. Not just any customer, but a satisfied or even overjoyed customer.
- What defines and distinguishes a professional organisation is having a definitive process and system defined to manage every aspect of the operation. Such an organisation would have a decentralised structure and would comprise clearly defined departments with distinct functions associated, each led by senior managers, with clarity about and the protocol governing who is responsible for what, who can do what and cannot do what. There must also be provisions for integrating the functions of the different departments, and information flow enabled by management information systems that allow the company’s senior management or owners to monitor the functions closely, and enable live and efficient decision-making.
- A professionally run company will have empowered managers with decision-making capacity. In a non-professional business organisation, if a manager were approached with a proposal, he would mostly say: ‘I will consult the boss and get back.’ This indicates centralisation of all power and discretion in one individual; no one except the company’s owner has the authority to make decisions. Of course, there are matters important enough to be perused by the business owner or a board of directors, but in all other matters regarding operations, managers must be empowered to make decisions.
- Professionalism is a confluence of efficient structuring, stipulations in process and procedures, clarity, decentralisation, precision, efficiency and institutionalisation of knowledge.
- Efficient management must also be able to predict problems the enterprise is likely to face in future, and find solutions in the present to avert them.
- An organisation is not the totality of its premises, factories or machinery. A lot more important is the people employed, the precise processes designed and implemented to integrate and manage their efforts, and disciplined compliance with the procedures and systems.
- Organisations are built top-down, and so are the values and culture of an organisation operate. At V-Guard, I have personally set the culture, by insisting on operating according to certain values and principles, and have set the example by following my own stipulations. Naturally, managers follow the culture and values embodied therein, and it’s replicated downward, right up to the workers. If suppliers of raw materials or components walk into our offices to collect their dues, they will always go back with their money. Under no circumstance will there be any red tape; they will never have to keep chasing their payments. Because it simply can’t be, it’s not our culture; everyone knows it, deep within him or her.
- A good organisation is a harmony. A well-orchestrated piece of music. When a musical number gets popular, we take note of the vocalist or the composer. However, there are a lot of musicians and other people out there who contribute to the orchestration. Leadership is the art of finding the people who would be the best to play each part and distributing power and responsibility amongst them to create memorable music together.
- There is yet another point in decentralising, or sharing power and responsibility. If the head of an organisation accumulates all power, and therefore all responsibility, he simply can’t cope with the stress that comes with it. He may not live long.
Chapter 1: A Journey Toward Hope
- Though small, opportunities at hand must always be exploited for gaining valuable experience.
Chapter 7: The First Stabilizer is Born
- External appearance is as important as quality and reliability in any product. It should conquer the customer’s heart at first glance.
Chapter 8: A Humble Beginning
- ‘Big brands are selling at lower price tags. And if you price your stabilizers more expensive than them, how do you propose we sell them? I had my answer ready: ‘Pay me after you sell them.’ I was sure they would sell mine. Because I was offering better trade commission: twenty rupees more. Besides, my brand came with a two-year replacement guarantee. I put it this way: ‘If a customer walks in with a complaint, just replace it with a new one.’
Chapter 9: A ‘PP’ Telephone Number, and Emergency
- One can’t depend on collections to meet the operational overheads of any enterprise. One needs working capital.
Chapter 11: A Kangaroo of Protection
- I still remember the quote from John Ruskin that was used in our first advertisement – “Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort. There must be a will to produce a superior thing.”
Chapter 12: A Child Before Wedding
- Unless we have an intense passion for what we do, we cannot be dedicated. And without dedication, no effort bears fruit.
Chapter 14: Self-investment
- If an organisation has to grow, those in leadership must grow. One must recognise one’s limitations and seek help to overcome them.
- I kept going to the classes whenever I could find time. Technical knowledge was hardly enough; managerial aptitude, leadership qualities, communication skills including linguistic proficiency in written and spoken English, and other aspects of self-development, were all important. I attended classes and workshops for managers that were conducted even in cities such as Bangalore and Chennai. Just like the upgrading of technology and manufacturing equipment or processes, even management should undergo constant upgrades. This is essential for leading an organisation effectively according to changing times. It’s an unending process, and it requires humility, and the ability to set aside one’s ego. This is one of the important lessons I learned from nurturing V-Guard.
- I tend to think the reason for the failure of a number of entrepreneurs who ventured into business around the same is this: they failed to personally reform themselves through constant learning so as to provide effective leadership to their business organisations.
Chapter 15: The Importance of Professionalism
- An organisation’s growth, by way of gaining trust and acceptance in the market and society, calls for an essential quality: professionalism. Primarily, the leader of the enterprise has to be transformed for growth. He or she must find within, the discipline, the dedication and the determination to facilitate and manage growth. There must be a process that ensures quality and accountability. The system must decentralise responsibility and accountability, and stipulate organisational roles, making known who should perform what tasks, who should make what decisions, and who should be responsible for what. It should make for effective measuring of performance against these stipulations. We can say such an enterprise that provides for these is professional.
- I was handling all management functions hands-on in the beginning, soon each function was assigned to a suitable manager. The courage for delegating this way is very important in leading an enterprise. A leader must find the most efficient resource to handle each function and empower each. Should that person fail his responsibility, a firm decision should be taken to replace. Unemotional, unwavering decision-making is an integral part of true leadership. So is the vision and aptitude for innovation and embracing new ideas; indeed, one of the key functions of leadership is to envision.
- V-Guard, for instance, underwent computerisation, as soon as computers were available in Kerala. This process, replacing keeping accounts and inventory management manually, was necessitated by changing times. Those days, computers were expensive, a desktop costing up to one and a half lakhs Rupees. When computers were first brought in, many couldn’t use them to perform any task. Then, we made extensive training available to staff members. One should always strive to stay abreast of the latest technology, standards and benchmarks. This is the only way to keep an organisation future-proof.
- V-Guard must be able to function with full efficiency without me, even after I say bye to this world. If I have been an efficient leader, and if I am successful in making V-Guard a professionally run organisation, I am redundant.
- Management, as they say, is the art of making oneself redundant.
Chapter 19: Music by A.R. Rahman
- While many responsibilities including V-Guard’s production, marketing, and accounts were handed over to others, I kept the control of advertising entirely with me. That is to say, I cannot overstate the importance of advertising as a strategically important business tool. A constant, intelligent effort is required in establishing a brand name and acquiring and maintaining market share.
Chapter 20: Business DNA
- Knowledge or expertise in any one domain isn’t enough for the success of an enterprise. A businessman must bring together a confluence of domain expertise, marketing skills, organisational skills, leadership, tact, and financial aptitude; he should even know how to handle politicians and authorities.
- I am not saying an entrepreneur should know all such varied subjects in depth, but he or she must have a fundamental idea of it all. If one can bring it all together, success can be beyond one’s best expectations.
Chapter 21: Learnings and Realisations
- What made us grow from a tiny operation in a shack to a large corporation spread across the country were our values: honesty, transparency and uncompromising quality standards.
- In business, one must be able to make successful retreats. I can’t overstate this: to recognise one’s failure is the first and the most essential step in winning. There is no business sense in persisting where you cannot succeed, on account of any misplaced pride.
- To win, one doesn’t have to win everywhere, but only has to distinguish between where one can win and where one cannot, and carefully pick the battles accordingly.
- It is important, even within severe limitations, to have the energy and persistence to find and implement new ideas.
Chapter 24: Changed Life
- Those days, the total initial investment in Veegaland (his second venture, amusement parks. Veegaland was later rebranded as Wonderla) stood at twenty-two crores of Rupees. The project became a profitable operation in year one.
- We kept ourselves on our toes, bringing in new facilities now and then so as to keep the park new. This was important: when you returned, it wasn’t the same park you had visited the last time.
- Once someone crosses the threshold of financial security, what motivates one to put in hard work isn’t money anymore. It’s the thrill of doing new things, and the excitement of making new accomplishments.
- The name ‘Veegaland’ means nothing. ‘Veega’ was taken from V-Guard, and ‘land’ was added to it. I wasn’t afraid of trying a brand name that meant nothing. Indeed, people connected with the name. In fact, a name need not be any meaningful on its own. If the product or service comes to be well-loved, happy customers will find meaning to whatever name stands for the enriching, gratifying experience offered by the brand.
Chapter 31: Laughter Club and Health
- One doesn’t need any business that doesn’t allow one to care for one’s health.
Chapter 32: The V-Guard Culture
- the V-Guard culture doesn’t allow any red tape, especially in paying what is due to suppliers. If a supplier doesn’t get paid in time, he cannot stay in business. Regardless of if we make profits or losses, we will pay the people who partner us, on time.
- It’s been asked several times: how do we cultivate such loyalty in V-Guard employees? Loyalty in people is simply a matter of how we treat them. V-Guard has consciously tried and been successful in nurturing an excellent relationship with its workforce. And a relationship should do more than just talking about how we care about them. When V-Guard and Wonderla came up with IPOs, five per cent of the company’s stocks issued were reserved for the employees. This means, every employee is today a shareholder. Being part owner surely enhances their sense of ownership, and therefore their dedication and efficiency. Make no mistake, sense of ownership is a big deal; it changes everything.
Chapter 36: Handing Over
- The most important requirement is to have a system of doing everything, a protocol, established in the company. Even if the employees change or the owners change, the protocol will ensure everything is done right.
- In 2015, V-Guard and Wonderla clocked a market capitalisation well above Rs 4200 crores.
- Primarily, this takes the state of mind to let go of control, and to trust the next generation. They should be given the opportunity to work on their own. In a professional organisation, there is always a protocol, which will ensure operations to run according to the stipulated system. They just have to ensure it runs the way it is meant to.
Chapter 37: Reasons for Public Issue
- Think of a business enterprise as an athlete, a jumper. A good one trains every morning. However, if he is unable to jump any higher or longer than his previous jump, he is not making progress. A business must strive to do better, every single day. That’s the only way to go forward. In fact, in a very competitive market, that’s the only way to ensure one isn’t going backwards.
- The increase in annual turnover isn’t the only measure of growth for a corporate. How the company has expanded, how its reach and market presence have grown and so on, growth has to happen across several plans.
- Instead of being complacent as the large fish in a small pond, he (a business leader) should have a clear vision of growth and a plan of action to materialise the vision. If not, stagnation is inevitable.
- No mistake should be made twice. If a mistake is repeated, it means growth has ended, and failure has begun.
Chapter 38: Charity and Social Work
- From my early days, I have tried to help others as much as I could. V-Guard hadn’t grown to be a large corporate then. Even though, my thoughts were like this: it is the society that helped grow my company. Charitable work is the only way to give something back to the society. Besides, the sense of gratification derived from helping the underprivileged is priceless.
Chapter 40: Paths of the Past, Thank You!
- I came out of a job that paid me Rs 150 as monthly pay to found a corporate group with V-Guard and Wonderla in it, now well entrenched in markets across the country.
- I began thinking of starting out on my own because I was unable to make ends meet with the meagre pay I earned.
- I was having a monthly income of Rs 150, when I began dreaming of a company that would eventually have a market capitalisation of over 4200 crores!
