1.

1 Entrepreneur & Entrepreneurship:

Entrepreneur -> Someone who exercises initiative by organizing a venture to take benefit
of an opportunity and, as the decision maker, decides what, how, and how much of a good or
service will be produced. An entrepreneur supplies risk capital as a risk taker, and monitors
and controls the business activities. The entrepreneur is usually a sole proprietor, a partner, or
the

one

who

owns

the

majority

of

shares

in

an

incorporated

venture.

According to economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883-1950), entrepreneurs are not

necessarily motivated by profit but regard it as a standard for measuring achievement or
success. Schumpeter discovered that they
1. Greatly value self-reliance,
2. Strive for distinction through excellence,
3. Are highly optimistic (otherwise nothing would be undertaken), and
4. Always favour challenges of medium risk (neither too easy, nor ruinous).
Entrepreneurship -> The capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a
business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit. The most obvious
example of entrepreneurship is the starting of new businesses.
In economics, entrepreneurship combined with land, labour, natural resources and
capital can produce profit. Entrepreneurial spirit is characterized by innovation and risktaking, and is an essential part of a nation's ability to succeed in an ever changing and
increasingly competitive global marketplace.

1.2 Competencies of Entrepreneurs:

The competencies may be general and some peculiar to the chosen career. You may
understand competencies to mean abilities and skills. However, we would desist from calling
these as personality traits as such a conceptualization only reinforces the mistaken belief that
entrepreneurs are born rather than made. We believe that recognition of these competencies as
abilities and skills makes entrepreneurship as a teachable and learnable behaviour. In
this section we orient you towards a set of entrepreneurial competencies developed by
the

Entrepreneurship

Development

Institute

of India

(EDI) Ahmedabad. These

competencies were identified by a thorough research procedure based on critical analysis

of the case studies of the successful entrepreneurs.
(i)

Initiative- acting out of choice rather than compulsion, taking the lead rather than

(ii)

waiting for others to start.

Sees and Acts on Opportunities- A mind-set where one is trained to look for

(iii)

business opportunities from everyday experiences.

Persistence- A never say die attitude, not giving up easily, striving Information

(iv)

seeking continuously until success is achieved.

Knowing- Knowing who knows, consulting experts, reading relevant material and

(v)

an overall openness to ideas and information.

Concern for High Quality of Work- Attention to details and observance of

(vi)

established standards and norms.

Commitment to Work Contract- Taking personal pains to complete a task as

(vii)
(viii)

scheduled.
Efficiency Orientation- Concern for conservation of time, money and effort.
Systematic Planning- Breaking up the complex whole into parts, close
examination of the parts and inferring about the whole; e.g. simultaneously
attending to production, marketing and financial aspects (parts) of the overall

(ix)
(x)

business strategy (the whole).

Problem solving- Observing the symptoms, diagnosing and curing.
Self-confidence- Not being afraid of the risks associated with business and

(xi)

relying on ones capabilities to successfully manage these.

Assertiveness- Conveying emphatically ones vision and convincing others of its

(xii)
(xiii)
(xiv)
(xv)

value.
Persuasion- Eliciting support of others in the venture.
Use of Influence Strategies- Providing leadership.
Monitoring- Ensuring the progress of the venture as planned
Concern for Employee Welfare- Believing in employee well being as the key to
competitiveness and success and initiating programmes of employee welfare.

1.3 Entrepreneurial Process:

Fig 1: entrepreneurial process

Successful entrepreneurship occurs when creative individuals bring together a new
way of meeting needs and a market opportunity. This is accomplished through a patterned
process, one that mobilizes and directs resources to deliver a specific product or service to
customers using a market entry strategy that shows investors financial promise of building
enduring revenue and profitability streams. Sustainability adds to the design of a product and
operations by applying the criteria of reaching toward benign (or at least considerably safer)
energy and material use, a reduced resource footprint, and elimination of inequitable social
impacts due to the ventures operations, including its supply-chain impacts.
Entrepreneurial process can be broken down into four pieces

Intention
Opportunity search and exploration
Decision to exploit opportunity
Exploration of opportunity

1.4 Entrepreneurship in India:

A concept of social entrepreneurship has been existing in India from ancient days.
India had witnessed a white revolution led by a cooperative movement of dairy farmers under
3

the brand name AMUL. This movement led to similar replications throughout the country
making India self-sufficient in milk. This serves as a compelling reminder of what can be
achieved by society participation, innovation and pro-activeness - the three cornerstones of
Social Entrepreneurship. Today domestic investors are joining the bandwagon of billionaires
and philanthropists like Bill Gates and Azim Premji in supporting those ventures who have
made it their "business" to make the world a better place. In a recent survey, it has been found
that in spite of the global recession; the funding options for new ventures have not dipped,
showcasing the conviction in social good. Social Entrepreneurship firms are growing as
investors are slowly realizing that an altogether new niche movement can be created out of
this concept.
Entrepreneurship has been on the rise as a global phenomenon much before India
began becoming sensitive to the development of entrepreneurship. However the awareness
towards the path of entrepreneurship is now picking up a quick pace in our own country, and
as a matter of fact is seen as one of the countries that are par excellence with the rest of the
Asian countries as far as growing entrepreneurship is concerned. There are ample
opportunities in small businesses in India and such opportunities will transform India in the
coming future. For such transformation to happen there needs to be support both at the
governmental and societal level. For the government it is important to realize that the goal of
small business owners will be to remain self-employed. Such people may not need financial
assistance but they will need marketing and legal assistance in order to sustain themselves.
Practical and cost effective programs need to be developed to address their needs because
self-employed people will represent an important segment in economic revitalization.
Unemployment is the main problem that our country faces now. In this situation it is
necessary to become familiar with the multidimensional aspects of Entrepreneurship. The
entrepreneurs in most of the cases are having business family background. In certain cases
the new generation has started after facing a lot of difficulties from their first generation. In
these cases the new generation is very careful in selecting their business career.
The first half of the present century witnessed a gradual change in the scenario.
During this period, there was a visible tendency among the natives to take to business. The
spread of secular education, rising nationalist feelings and social reform movements must

have given a fillip to this initial phase of the emergence of entrepreneurship. The independent
India thus could claim to have created a conductive climate for spread of entrepreneurship.
The glorifying corporate has portrayed that they have progressed in last fifteen years
after the new industrial policy of 1991 because of the Entrepreneurship and the encouraging
Entrepreneurship environment in India. We can be an entrepreneurial nation because we have
many reasons for it
1. Freedom of speech and willingness to disagree foster creative solutions.
2. Very high calibre human capital.
3. Diversity in the true sense of the term, the key to stimulate intellectual
discourse.
4. Functioning capital market and venture capital sector to find new ideas.
5. Young population is more rebellious and wants to challenge the rules of the
game.
6. Entry of global competitors into India threatens the status quo.
7. Lack of legacy technologies which offer leapfrogging possibilities.
8. Unique market structure, customer needs and affordability.
9. Excellent institutional infrastructure like BanasthaliVidyapith.
10. Stress on Entrepreneurship, Science and technology education.

1.5 Objectives of the Project:

The purpose of the entrepreneurship intern program is to provide student interns with
an opportunity to: develop profession- ally, acquire real-world entrepreneurial experiences,
and apply classroom learning to the workplace.
Employing Entrepreneurship venture Criteria:
The criteria for choosing the company is as given below
Must be a business that is entrepreneurial in nature
Provide significant work that will enhance the interns professional and educational
Development
Complete an internship application
Work a minimum of 45 hours in the duration allotted for project
Perform in a professional manner and comply with employing companys regulations
and policies
Maintain employing companys confidentialities
Submit an Internship Portfolio by designated due date

COIMBATORE: Coimbatore is synonymous with Entrepreneurship and is widely known as

a self-made city.
The city was created by entrepreneurs, points out Jairam Varadaraj, Managing
Director of Elgi. Entrepreneurship is about having new ideas that are novel and innovative
and taking the risk to make it successful, he says. It is more than making a product. There
are several companies now and industrial activity has grown. It is time now to focus on
taking Coimbatore to the next level and its people should do it.
Reason
One of the historical reasons for the city to be rich in entrepreneurship is that
agriculture was not lucrative and people were looking out for options for livelihood. The
Stanes Mill and Pykara project are two important factors that gave a boost to industrial
growth.
Technical Education facilities led to the growth of small and medium-scale units.
Availability of power, technical education and community leaders who showed the way is
some of the important factors that encouraged entrepreneurship.
People here are hardworking and innovative, and risk-taking is high, according to
Krishnaraj Vanavarayar, Chairman of the Southern India Mills' Association.

Ramraj Cotton
Ramraj Cotton was founded at Avinashi, by entrepreneur and visionary, Mr. K. R.
Nagaraj. The company was started with single, unwavering vision to deliver quality ethnic
men's

wear

to

people

in

the

southern

states.

In the year 1983, Mr. Nagaraj sold a few surplus dhotis from a failed joint-business venture to
chart off his very own textile business, Ramraj Cotton. With very limited resources and very
little financial leverage, Ramraj Cotton started out with big dreams.

With several years of marketing experience to back him, Mr. Nagaraj understood one
simple success mantra - the power of branding. He understood that if his product has to stand
out, people need to identify it by a brand name. That's how the brand Ramraj was born.
(Ramraj incidentally, is a combination of two names - Founder Mr. Nagaraj and his father Mr.
Ramaswamy) The company's mantra of 'quality without compromise' was the driving force
behind its astounding success, even during those early years. Slowly but surely, the company
made definite in roads into the South Indian market.

Fig 2: Mr.Nagaraj with Abdul kalam

2.1 Description of the enterprise:

Company Name

: Sahayam departmental store.

Founder Name

: Mr.G.P. Maharajan.

Year of commencement

: 1972.

Location

: maruthamalai main road, vadavalli,

7

Coimbatore-641 041.
Entrpreneur Name

: Mr.M.Asir (2nd generation entrepreneur)

Sahayam Stores is one of the well- established Departmental Stores in coimbatore

city which was started in the year 1972 by Mr.G.P.Maharajan at vadavalli in a private rented
place which is near to the present area. His native is Tirunelveli and he studied up to 5 th std
and he opted to learn the business in his early stages itself. Then 10 years later in 1982 he
started the store in his own area with the investment of his own 20lakhs without any loans.
In 1989, his son Mr.M.Asir started assisting him and took the business to a new level
by expanding the store and thereby creating a big store at vadavalli in the 90s. He completed
his school education and joined the fathers business. They expanded the business and
additional business such as rice mill & Dhaal mill which also came out successful.

Products & Services:

They sell all type of food products such as turmeric powder, salt, all types of dal and
flour items, rajma, peas, wheat, sugar, jaggary, rava, oil, tea powders, soap, etc.,
They get the products from many agencies in Coimbatore such as sampoorna
enterprises, cholamala agency, rajamani agency, S.V agency, stockers & movers and S.R.
associates.
They have their own godown for rice and they variety of rice like ponni, IR20, kerala
mattai, BT raw rice and boiled rice.
They purchase the dal items and other items in wholesale and they do self-packing at
a different weights of 1/4kg, kg, 1kg, 2kg.This give them very low cost of production and
gives more profit by avoiding company products and they providing these items with more
quality.

Long term aim of the business:

The business started with the vision of making big business in that particular
locality and they succeeded in it and the store become a landmark place at vadavalli. They

sustained in the area with more powerful for 42 years and making tough competition to the
competitors.
Their sole aim is to provide good products and satisfy the customers to a large
extent.

Fig 3: sahayam stores

2.2 Market Analysis and Competitors analysis

Target market
The market segmentation is done based upon the demographics and psychological
segmentation and the target market in this business is mainly the households who form the
major part of their business. The segmentation includes people of various classes which
include predominantly the business class people and the salaried. As this is the departmental
store business the consumers will have a continuous flow towards their products and hence
mainly the household people are targeted for the maximum sales yield for this kind of
business.

Total market size for the product/ service

The market size comprises of the residents in the areas of vadavalli, mullai nagar, Eb
colony and kalveerampalayam and to an extent of the residents in idayarpaalayam and other
retailers in and around the surrounding areas. The total market size of this business
constitutes around more than 7000 households approximately as these places comprises of
around ten wards of the corporation (Arbitrary data from the entrepreneur).
9

Market trends
The products dealt in this departmental store mainly involves the monthly
provisions for the purpose of cooking and all the products are branded like for instance if it is
a product like health drinks they are going with the prevailing trend in the market like Boost,
Horlicks, Pedia Sure and a new protein drink called Ensure which is rich in Vitamins and
essential fats are up to the current trend are also sold at a large level in this store. Apart from
that the present market trend lies in concept of quality [products and for this the people are
ready to pay more as it involves their health and hygiene. They are selling only the premium
branded rice varieties like India Gate, Double Deer and Ponni Rice keeping in mind the
health of the people and they are adapting to the present market trend in each and every
product.

Profile of competitors:
The competitors for the Sahayam stores are mainly the Super market stores like
Nilgris, karthikeyan stores and other mediocre range of super markets and they do possess
competitive characteristics like huge market coverage and the ambience of their retail stores
seems to be large enough as their investments are huge and their employees workforce also
was high. Though Sahayam stores faces a cut throat competition in their business they do
maintain a stable flow of customers at their end by imparting a quality service with due
diligence in their work. The competitors strategies seems to be tough for them in the areas
like the promotional offers and the advertisements they make in which this departmental
stores lags a bit to combat their competitors. Altogether it is a battle between the competitors
and my entrepreneur in this field of business where the taste and preference of people plays a
vital role in their business.

Competitor Analysis
The entrepreneur wanted to know about the strategies of their rivalries pertaining to the
size of the firm, products they deal with and especially their marketing strategies and brand
positioning and other related things.
If we take Nilgris which is located near to the vadavalli bus stop and it is visible to all
those crossing the junction. It is a successful brand in Coimbatore since 1960, it gives tough
competition to the sahayam in terms of appearance, ambience, marketing strategies, and more
10

accessible to the people by affording cart for selecting their products which is lack in
sahayam. They slowly increase their presence in the market by providing different products
like dog products, dairy products, fruits & vegetables, books and cakes.
They have around 15 educated employees for sales, billing, inventory, maintenance
purposes and they even have security who welcomes the customer and he takes care of their
products safely. A dress code (Men have uniform and coat for a lady) is followed which
gives more charm to them and customers have good opinion on them for their cleanliness and
their attire. A manger is in charge for the store and he takes care of the entire management
functions and they have web cameras and other security systems which ensure the safety of
the customers and also to the store. These things cannot be seen in the sahaym stores.
In nilgiris, we can see many brands for single product and it gives the clear idea to the
customer to pick up the product which satisfies their needs in terms of quality and price but in
sahayam, we can see only limited brands which are most preferred by the people over the
years.
In Sahayam stores, products like dal, flour items and all bought in wholesale and they
clean it and pack it with different weights and they are not providing the brands like udhayam
dal and other brands in these products. But people still prefers these products from sahayam
because of the quality they offered at low price but in this competitive world branded
products are most preferred and in near future it will affect them. The same scenario is
happening in nilgiris, they also offer self-branded dal products but they too offer udhayam
and other brands. This helps to attract different categories of people.
Another tough competitor right from the inception is karthikeyan stores which is
located near to the vadavalli junction and behind the bus stop. This is an added advantage to
them because more people notices and easy accessibility. Other than this, they follow same
ambience, strategies and methods used in the sahayam and they too have set of customers for
the past 30 years.
And apart from this the entrepreneur shared that he developed certain unique
strategies based upon the competitor analysis and he wisely integrated the gaps in the
previous strategies of the competitors with the expectation of the people and based upon this
he planned a strategy for home delivery even for the purchase for Rs.500 to position the
customers and to sustain this cut throat competition.
11

The Entrepreneur felt that this kind of thorough analysis of his competitor really
helped them to expand their business and to have a proper structure in their Business plan.

Competitive advantage
The Sahayam Departmental stores possess a competitive advantage over their rivals in
terms of the location of their departmental stores which is located just near to the vadavalli
Bus stop. The main advantage of the stores is that it is easily accessible by the customers
residing in these places because of the location of the stores which is quite difficult to reach
its competitors like other departmental store. Moreover they have rice godown which gives
them more advantageous over their competitors. Apart from this they are more experienced in
this field of market for about 4 decades and hence they are well aware of the changing trends
of the people in that particular segment of market in which they have set their target. This
makes them to reach the customers very easily and the positioning strategy is quite good in
the case of Sahayam departmental stores. The Entrepreneur that is the chairperson of the
departmental stores also works along with their staff members and thus creates an emotional
bonding between the employees and the boss. This kind of strategy is not much prevalent in
the super markets and eventually this is one of the strong competitive advantages they
possess.

Benefits to clients/ Customers

The service recipients of the Sahayam stores are beneficial in terms of the home
delivery services offered by them and price discounts for savvy consumers so that they might
feel that they are benefited in terms of buying the product at a reduced price. The clients like
the small retail do get the benefits like credit sales but only on weekly basis and other
benefits like complementary gifts to the regular customers and it is even expanding its
customer volume by extending their home delivery services to the areas which is quite far
from the dispatch centre of the departmental stores.

2.3 Business plan of the entrepreneur

12

The entrepreneur involve into a thorough analysis of the prevailing competitors,

marketing strategies, promotional strategies and with the clear inputs from the competitor
analysis , he came out with a structured business plan by integrating all the functional areas
of the business in such a way to combat the stiff competition in the market. He planned all the
relevant strategies to execute his business with his field experience when he works under the
guidance of his father and after he takes his charge, he curtail the unwanted expenses and
losses in his business and he was very much oriented towards the quality products to the
people aiming at the profitability of the firm as it is mainly involved with the food products
where the sustainability is mainly based upon the quality of the products they deal with.
Based upon the structure processes he interlinked the different functioning areas of
the business of the Sahayam stores and the competitor analysis fuelled valid inputs for the
appropriate planning of the Business. He just had a proper analysis on both the inside view
and the outside view of the competitors and the competency of the business. He formulated
the mission and vision of the business such that it has to sustain for decades in a changing
market environments to adapt this kind of situation, he followed certain strategies that are
contemporary in nature. These strategies prove to be phenomenal in the growth of the
business.
The Entrepreneur believed that the development of this business mainly depends upon
the retention of the customers and for this he took lot of pain taking efforts to position the
people and slowly he executed his plan in all the functioning areas of the Sahayam stores and
especially in the operations, he developed a rigorous plan with less investment as the strategy
he followed is employing the young uneducated people to work faster especially in the home
delivery operations despatch and also he managed the inventory in a planned way to have a
structured process flow in his operations of his business. Thus the debriefing of the entire
business plan and the strategies of the Sahayam Stores and the executions are reported in
forthcoming chapters.

2.4 Marketing and Sales Strategy

Income sources
The Sahayam stores revenue is obtained through the sales of their products which are
done periodically for every month and this constitutes their major source of income. Apart
from this they also get revenues from the nearby small retail stores by supplying some
13

provisional goods to them periodically. They also have a fixed source of income through the
bakery shop retailers. This is about the income sources and their income will have a marginal
increase during the festival seasons and for special events like marriage birthday parties
where they will get more amount of demand for their products.
Apart from this they own a complex opposite to the departmental stores and getting
monthly income from that. A portion of the income is also obtained via the rental houses (100
houses known sahayam colony) under their proprietorship. So they have diversified income
sources and this is one of their major strength in their business.

Fig 4: commercial complex (opposite to the store and behind this complex they have
sahayam colony)

Marketing Strategy
The marketing strategy is based upon the consumer analysis, competitor analysis and
also the expected sales of their products. The strategy of the Sahayam stores takes into
consideration of all these perspectives .The ethical pricing and their excellent supply chain
management is one of the key strategies of their sales and marketing. They are not much
exposed with the concept of promotional offers for their products because of the popularity of
their stores lasting for more than four decades.

Pricing
The departmental stores follow a standard pricing of their products and to combat the
competitors they follow the method of discriminatory pricing strategy. The rice brands like
14

Basmati rice varieties are more influenced by the prices and in this departmental store they
have a direct tie-up with the producers and since they directly procure the items from the
producers and based upon this the prices are fixed and thereby eliminating the intermediaries
cost. So the prices they fix seem to have a competitive advantage over their rivals. Apart from
this they maintain a standard fixed price for the branded products and the pricing of this
departmental store seems to be predominantly good when compared with the other
departmental stores located over there.

Fig 5: rice variety

Advertising and Promotion:

The advertising and promotion of Sahayam stores does not have an impact on their
sales growth. The entrepreneur personally feels that for this kind of business and that too in
this residential area the advertising and promotion of the departmental stores will not have an
impact on the increase in the footfall of the customers and hence they dont concentrate much
on these areas and for the period of forty years they are tepid towards the advertising and
promotion of their departmental store.

2.5 Staffing and Operations

Staffing and Roles:
The Sahayam stores employees consists of 15 Employees working in different
functional areas and the employees perform their roles very effectively in terms of the proper
distribution of the goods to the customers at right place at the right time. The roles includes
15

warehouse manager, Rice dispatch centre care taker, supply chain manager and other
employees take part in the overall operational features of the business. They also have trained
drivers for the proper transfer of goods at the consumer end and these employees are always
expected to do a multi-tasking kind of work by the entrepreneur.

Purchase of Goods:
The FMCG products are purchased through the intermediaries like agencies which
forms the vital part of their source. For instance they are purchasing products like toothpaste,
toilet soaps, etc., from the authorized dealers called sampoorna enterprises, cholamala
agency, rajamani agency, S.V agency, stockers & movers and S.R. associates and like this
they purchase their goods from different agencies for different goods. The goods are properly
segregated and the warehouse manager tracks the operational flow of the goods. The process
of purchase of all the goods is through the direct cash transfer mode except the Rice varieties
in which they are sourcing it from the producers for credit and they are repaying that in a
periodic basis.

Inventory and Storing:

The inventory and storing mechanism is one of the key aspects of this business. The
inventory of the goods is properly maintained to satisfy the recurring demand of the products
and the received goods are stored in the warehouse which is behind the departmental store.
The inventory management techniques are effectively applied in the management of the rice
varieties where this is the only product they are purchasing for credit and the reorder level for
the stock of rice is one week and the departmental store is maintaining a safety stock of 2000
kgs in their godown which is behind the stores and this makes them to afford the demand and
the expected lead time for the product is one day. They are having a processed flow of goods
from the supplier end to the consumer and all the sales transactions and transfer of goods at
the required time seems to be a hassle free operation due to the proper maintenance of the
inventory and storing mechanism.

16

Fig 6: rice godown

Operational Process:
The operational process involves the purchase of goods from the supplier end and
delivery of the goods at the consumer end with a proper monitor on the inventory process.
The consignment operations are properly monitored and executed as they are receiving goods
from northern parts of the country like Delhi, Mumbai and certain products like dal, gram,
flour are purchased as bulk order from the wholesale market and the overall operational
process is accustomed in this way like proper tracking of the goods for delivery which is
taken care by the distribution part of the business. Apart from this other functional areas
operations are also closely monitored and the employees are complied with the core values of
the business in their operations thereby exhibiting a due diligence in their work for the
effective operations of the business. For financial operations like the cost accounting is
carried out by one employee means the cash inflow of the business and other things like the
working capital requirement are monitored by another employee. These two process forms
the core operational process of the business to ascertain the profitability of the Sahayam
stores and hence these two areas of operation comes under the direct supervision of the
entrepreneur to leverage the assets and liabilities of the Departmental store.

2.6 Finance
Sources of funding:

17

As a part of initial investment, fund of about 20lakhs was sourced from sale of family
asset only. After the establishment of the business there was no other funds that is been
sourced as the profit turnover was pretty much on the higher side.

Accounts maintenance:
They are not up to the contemporary approach towards the maintenance of the
business transaction rather they follow an informal style of book keeping for each and every
transaction like maintaining the debit and credit details of the business operations which is
under the direct purview of the entrepreneur.

Profitability/ loss:
Sahayam stores involve in various business such as crackers business, getting
revenues from the residential and commercial complex under their ownership. Apart from
this major proportion of the firms profit is obtained through the core business of
departmental store. The entrepreneur said that the overall business operations of sahayam
store seem to be profitable with an approximate turnover of 25 lakhs per month and the
profitability percentage is around 8 %.
They are highly safe from the risk of loss as they possess well established reputation
from the common public and this makes them to attain such a hefty amount as their profit.
And also other sources of income give them an added advantage to eliminate the risk of loss
in their business to maintain the sustainability.

INTERVIEW SESSION:

Name: Mr.M.Asir
Name of the Enterprise: Sahayam stores
Type of Business: departmental stores
Educational Background: +2
Year of Inception: 1972

18

Dialogue with Entrepreneur Interviewer: Mr.Srinivasan. Interviewee: Mr.Asir.

1. Interviewer: What inspired you to start the business?
Interviewee: My father is the only person who inspired me and taught me about the business
and I observed his work and dedication towards the job and I can able to continue his
business successfully.
2. Interviewer: Who were/ are your role models?
Interviewee: my father is my role model and I like to make my dads business big in
vadavalli like kannan departmental store. So in near future I will make my business big as
much as Kannan departmental store.
3. Interviewer: What are the important competencies for an Entrepreneur?
Interviewee: Now formal education is necessary to run any business and more courage,
networks to more people will help the business to run more effectively. Then you must
observe the business carefully so that you can able to know more about the business in detail
and it is required to know about the business from base to top, then only you can able to run
the business smoothly.
4. Interviewer: Do you think formal education is necessary to succeed as an
Entrepreneur?
Interviewee: Yes it is necessary to do any kind of business and at present in this competitive
world it is mandatory to have formal education to make the business in a larger manner. But
in our age it is not required to have proper education to do business and right now it is
necessary to sustain in it.
5. Interviewer: Tell me about the initial periods of your business successes and
challenges
Interviewee: In the early stage, our store was very small (petty shop), and we always dreamt
of making it big and now we successfully done with it by making our products at higher
standards and maintaining it firmly from the time of inception. We dont believe in marketing
19

and we service our customers and providing them what they needs and customer satisfaction
is very much important to us.
6. Interviewer: How has your business grown since inception?
Interviewee: Like I said, we started in private place which is rented and then moved to the
own building and started like a small shop and in the year 1989 we expanded our building to
around 3 cent area and our store became a landmark place at vadavalli and also our profit has
been increasing gradually.

Fig 7: interview with Mr.Asir

7. Interviewer: Are challenges different now? How?

Interviewee: Yes, challengers are different now. In the early stages there was only one
competition from Karthikeyan store but now more number of shops came up and the arrival
of super markets also gives more pressure to us. But our customer base is very large and most
of the supermarkets like more, yuva, day to day life and even kannan departmental stores are
shut down due to loss and other reasons.
8. Interviewer: Explain your average workday?
Interviewee: Daily 8am-10pm is the routine working hours and in between spend half an
hour each for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Store will be opened for all the days and monthly
one day (last Sunday) store will be closed.

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9. Interviewer: which season gives you more sales and fewer sales?
Interviewee: Festival season gives more sales and our business will be active all the months
except 3 months (March, April, and May) due to the vacation time. And we dont depend
upon this business alone and we have diversified business through which we get constant
income periodically.
10. Interviewer: What is the uniqueness in your business?
Interviewee: Quality + reasonable price are our uniqueness.
11. Interviewer: Till this month how many customers?
Interviewee: We have around 1000 customers who buy their products monthly basis and we
have reasonable amount of customers on daily basis also. But majority of our business
depends on the monthly basis groups only.
12. Interviewer: Is door delivery available? What is the lead time?
Interviewee: yes door delivery is available for those customers who buy products for Rs.1000
or above. We will deliver the products to their home within 2 hours.
13. Interviewer: how many employees are there?
Interviewee: Totally 15 members are working in various business operations and 2 of them
employed for door delivery.
14. Interviewer: What are the things that you like best in your business and what are
the most worrisome aspects?
Interviewee: our best is quality and satisfying the customers and I dont think about the
worrisome because in business anything may happen and we should accept everything as
good and move forward from it.
15. Interviewer: Is it possible to be ethical and honest in business?
Interviewee: Yes, 100% we can be true to our business and if not business will flop.
16. Interviewer: What are your future plans?
Interviewee: Till now I dont have any future plans because at present it is difficult to do this
kind of business in a profitable way. So right now my motive is to carry out this business
without any loss and sustain in the field very firmly.
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17. Interviewer: Would your children continue your business?

Interviewee: Dont know, I wont insist anything to my children and I will allow them to
pursue their dreams and would not compel them to carry out this business. It is up to their
choice to make the decisions in their life.
18. Interviewer: What three pieces of advice would you give to a young entrepreneur
starting out today?
Interviewee: If you are going to do this kind of business then,
1. You should have own building because it is very important in terms of
financially you can escape from giving huge rent.
2. Everything should be managed by you and you should be personally
attached with your customers so that the strong bond can create a much
profit.
3. You should be able to control the business and you should prefer to
purchase the products from the wholesale market and not for company
items, so that you can earn good profit through low cost.

Strengths:

Four decades in the industry

Own building
Owners involving directly in the business
Retention of customers for more than 2 decades
Having more loyal customers.
More number of Monthly orders
Location i.e., Landmark place at vadavalli
No loans & debts
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Financially more strong and no need to depend on the profits/loss.

Brand name
High quality & more concentration on customer satisfaction
Home delivery

Weakness:

Not upgraded to the modern world

Everything is handled manually
Lack of labour maintenance
No parking facility
Less attraction.
No proper maintenance.
Products are not arranged properly.
No inventory management information system.
No proper accounts maintenance.
Traditional way of book keeping.
Lack of offers and advertisements.

Opportunities:

Can improve the standards of the store.

Can implement 5S concepts.
Can make use of the profits in a useful manner.
Can renovate the stores ambience with the surplus profits.
Computerisation of the business operations can be followed.
Advertisements for their own products can be done to position their brands.
Provide offers to the new customers.
Can Provide uniform to the employees
Expand the store and warehouse.
Can opt for new branded products to satisfy the varying needs of the customers.

Threats:
More competition from the small stores in and around the area.
Tough competition from nilgiris & karthikeyan stores.
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Labours turnover
Lack of infrastructure.
Lack of maintenance in the warehouse
Market fluctuations of the products may affect the price in the wholesale market.

Suggestions:
From the analysis of SWOT it is clearly inferred that the major issue faced is of that
Labour/employee retention. The best suggestion would be to increase the wages/salary paid
and provide them with additional bonus and add-ons. Increase the interpersonal skills with
the employees/labours so that they would feel good to work.
Improve the infrastructure to the current trends as more competition increases from
small shop to super markets, so its high time to install new racks, expand the store and attract
the new customers by attractive interiors. Even though they have more footfalls, in future the
younger generation need some attractions to get them inside the store.
Till now they dint adopt any new marketing strategies except direct marketing and it
is necessary in the current scenario that any business needs marketing to attract many
customers and sustain in the field for longer term.

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They should look into the inventory system very seriously because inventory
management is inevitable in business and they must expand it and maintain it properly using
computers.
They should look into the ideas of attracting new customers to the store and also
considers discounts and offers to the customers and thereby increasing the footfall gradually.
And they must use some strategies to improve the visits of daily basis customers.
They must expand the business and open new outlets in other areas and make strong
impact in the industry and they grow like Shri kannan Departmental Stores.

Personal Learning:
The important thing that I learnt out of this EIP is that, doing business is not that easy.
So many things have to be planned of before execution of any business. It has all the
managerial skills in almost all the streams.
The most important in this industry to have labours and it is difficult to have them for
long years because they know the job perfectly by assisting in various ways and they went
out and start a new stores like start-ups in the surroundings.so its difficult to manage them
perfectly.
We should make our customers fully satisfied and our motto should be customer
based because its like service sector and we should give importance to the customers first
and then to the profits and other things.
Business will always have more competition and we should be able to beat the
competitors by reducing the price range and not decreasing the quality. This must be
maintained and look after the competitors offers and then build the strategies.

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Opportunity-seeking, persistence, commitment to the work, risk-taking, demand for

quality and efficiency of products are mandatory in this field.

Inspirations from the Entrepreneur:

I learnt many things from my entrepreneur like how to do your work sincerely and
make profits effectively.
Some of the things which I inspired/learned from the entrepreneur are:

Time management
Commitment to work
Making the customers satisfied with his product
Interpersonal skills
Attitude
Keep calm and composed even in the worse situations
Analysing and solving the problems in a most suitable way
How to deal with labour issues
Observation skills and
Be aware of what is happening in the market

And also I learnt how to interact with the customers and the skills which is needed to pack the
items very efficiently without delaying much.
I am now inspired to join my hands with Mr.M.Asir and try and help them in
expanding and develop into a good brand in departmental stores.

Tasks Done For the Enterprise during the Project Period:

In that one week, I learned how to keep the store clean and make the products to be
visible to the customer and it should be kept in the rack in a particular order so that we can
easily figure it out. Some of the works which I did for the enterprise are

Billing
Cleaning
Packaging the products to the customers
Checking the availability of products
Checking the inventory
Helping the labours in packaging.

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Fig 8: Billing

Fig 9: arranging the products

Fig 10: checking the availability of goods

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Fig 11: listing out the customers ordered products

Fig 12: helping the labours

Fig 13: cleaninng the rack and arranging the products

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Fig 14: checking the bill

Fig 15: checking the availability of egg Stock

REFERENCES:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/entrepreneur.html
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/entrepreneurship.html
http://www.du.ac.in/fileadmin/DU/Academics/course_material/EP_03.pdf

WORK DIARY
Name: Srinivasan.L
Reg no: 13MBA051
Class: I MBA-G1
Company name: Sahayam departmental stores.
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Founder name: G.P. Maharajan

21st march: My first day with Mr.MAsir (S/o G.P.Maharajan), gives me the overview
about the various business process and how their managing their products, inventory stock,
procurement of products.
22nd march: Today I studied about the various ways they adopting to attract the customers &
how they retaining their customers for more than 2 decades.
And also came to know about his brother Mr.M.David (another entrepreneur) who is
doing shopping and fancy store business for the past 10 years in the name of Maharaja
Shopping Centre which is adjacent to sahayam stores.
23rd march: Today I studied about their finance management and they adopt direct marketing
like word of mouth, directly involved with the customers and satisfying their needs.
Due to the busy schedule, my entrepreneur Mr.Asir was very busy and he cannot
allocate the time for interview and he asked me to come tomorrow afternoon for interview.
By the time I had the chance of taking interview with his brother Mr.David and I
already mailed you todays photos.
24th & 25th march: Due to elections I got limited time to work in the store then Took video
with the Entrepreneur and some photos, then today studied about how they giving tough
competition to the biggies like nilgiris and other supermarket. And also I gave suggestions for
the expansion and further improvement of the business.

PHOTOS:

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Fig 16: pamphlets

Fig 17: safety stock in godown

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Fig 18: chatting with labour

Fig 19: discussions with inventory managers

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