Chapter 10

“I am happy that the launch was organized quite well. It was truly a team effort. Special thanks to Arjun and Udhi for leading from the front” Bhishma observed in their next weekly meeting.

“Sir the who’s who of the education industry was there” Gopalakrishna  said excitedly.

“Minister’s presence was really a boost.” Sajjan was beaming from ear to ear.

“Sajjan gets an orgasm if he has been with a minster.” Udhi whispered to Arjun’s ears mischievously. “He was standing behind the minster on the stage full time. In that position he looked more like a security. Black safari suite of security would have suited better than the tuxedo he wore! ”

“Keep quite” Arjun wanted Udhi to stop. He knew Udhi will go on with his wisecracks.

“Udhi how is the response to our product from the clients you have contacted?” Bhishma asked

“Sir this is a new concept and a difficult idea for the potential clients. I had discussion with many of the regular schools. None of the managements could appreciate the usefulness of this.  They thought that it was madness to spent money to establish computer labs which had weekly updates of new modules. We organised a small focus group discussion of parents from these schools. They were mostly of middle class background. They considered it as an expensive hobby. The rich and elite thought that what they bought from abroad was a better alternative.” Udhi sounded discouraged.

Udhi was very convinced of the product and was very unhappy that the potential users are not getting it. He felt frustrated at the “stupidity of the consumer”

“It means that we have a challenging task ahead” Bhishma said in a calm voice. “This is the challenge when we launch a completely new idea. We need to spent effort in shaping the market and to develop an appetite”

“Udhi, develop a plan of action in this direction. Set up a team to work with various forums, arranging for demos at schools, organising seminars for parents. Have an aggressive marketing pitch” Bhishma continued.

“Exactly sir. I was suggesting the same thing to our team the other day” Sajjan butted in.

Bhishma looked up and smiled.

***

Udhi was charged up. He went about with an education plan for the various segments of users. He was a good communicator and loved anything to do with children. He visited school after school and demonstrated the exciting stuff one could do with computers. He showed the children how to do use the product. He even took effort to teach programming to the children with an idea to get them more excited about computers. He spent time with the children to see how they responded to various new features.

He worked closely with Arjun who was responsible for product development. On the basis of the experience with the children in the field, Arjun and Udhi developed lots of ideas on computer based games that also taught children a variety of topics. He organised contests and gave away handsome prizes.

Ramaswami focused on getting more schools to sign in for the service. He enjoyed going to school after school; talking to the management and the teaching staff about how computers would change the way children are taught.

 Gopalakrishna took care of day to day operations. Documentation for each sale, delivery of kits, installation, invoicing and collection and so on.

 Vidur handled recruitment and training of staff.  With the company growing leaps and bounds, getting the right kind of people was a challenge. Once they joined they had to be trained on the various aspects of this business as this was a new field and it was not possible to get people with relevant experience. This was an area Vidur managed very well. Vidur also handled all affairs relating to finance and accounting making sure that all compliance requirements were met.

Over a five year period, the idea clicked. Moreover, the success of the IT industry in Indraprasta also acted as a stimulant. More parents wanted the kids to be familiar with computers and more kids wanted to learn computers.  Bhishma guided the team to innovate. New funky features were added very often. The learning experience was getting to be exciting. The weekly updates have become something users looked forward to.