Entrepreneur, Ground breaker, Mentor, Role Model and Orator par excellence; Mr. Manohar Malani, MD, NCS Computech, dons many hats. Mr. Malani is a man of all seasons. Having come from a grounded background, he has always believed in giving back to society. Speaking about the influential person in his life, he says, “My Father has been a great inspiration in his mental strength and conviction to give it back to the society. Simplicity by choice has been into my blood line.”
Talking about the beginning of his business, he says, “I started off straight out of the college and it was in the year 1993 that I jumped into business. For couple of years I tried running a computer training institute. In late 1994 the company joined hand with Quick Heal (practically from the 1st copy sold) and moved into proper goal oriented business model and brand building. From there on it has been a consistent, persistent efforts and probably lot of support from all my dealer friends and destiny which helped me on the journey.”
Currently NCS as a group has focus on 3 major verticals: IT, Agriculture and Waste Management. Intensive engagement and contribution into partners business has been the signature strategy of NCS. NCS has been relatively a low noise company. When asked about the marketing activities that the company has undertaken over the years to build the brand, he says, “With limited budget innovation was the key to our marketing efforts. We drove the engagement through seminars and workshops. What we brought to the table was the innovation in the design and delivery of such events, make them more meaningful and implementable for the participants. This has been the main stay of marketing.”
Continuing he says, “Schedule promo activities and advertisements, social media etc are definitely part of our marketing plans. While branding it is important to understand who we are and that image needs to be carried in whatever we do. NCS as a brand has that distinct signature of simplicity and reliability-both in terms of assessment of the future and delivery of the current. So when we make a statement people take it seriously. We deliver what we promise.”
Talking about the future of the company’s IT business, he says, “IT is expanding with a compounded growth rate in the range of 40-50% and I expect it to be around that for some more time. In our trade division we shall be introducing some more products from December. As NCS it was important for us to establish the company to a proper solution distribution company. With that in mind from 2004-05 after 10 years of being only in Anti Virus we started adding more product lines – one at a time. At the same time moving into enterprise business was critical for future growth. With last 8 years of hardwork we had been able to establish NCS in 18 states of India with some international expansion as well.”
“In our enterprise vertical we have built up the team in last 5 years to address Government, Defense, Education and enterprise. All these teams are now doing well and expanding the business pretty fast. With independent teams handling different business the focus is bang on. NCS has strong technical team and that is now foraying into servicing international customers as well. We are building specialized service delivery infrastructure for that.”
The company has also started its corporate training division at Pune. He adds, The Corporate training division at Pune has established itself and now we are taking it up to more geography. Looking at the growing importance of ITIL, we are bringing in ITIL training to non-metros like Jaipur, Udaipur, Lucknow etc.”
NCS’s strategy is to identify one new domain every year and develop its expertise around it. The company has its own Agriculture and Waste management divisions. These domains are still in its start up phase, but Mr. Malani is quite positive about these segments. Talking about the potential of these segments he says, “In NCS Agriculture business the growth for next 5 years is going to be over 100% compounded. We are putting up new manufacturing capability which is 10 times our current capacity. The IP bank of the company is strong and growing. It shall be soon complemented with Irrigation products and then implements. Even in waste management we have discovered some interesting possibilities. Young team has been inducted to bring in vigor to the business. It is a young business and I expect it to shape up in next 2-3 years.”
The man who has been inspiring other entrepreneurs is himself inspired by the likes of Katkar brothers, Tally Co-Founder Mr. Bharat Goenka, Infosys MD Mr. Narayan Murthy. Talking about the traits of these people he says, “Katkar brother – Kailash and Sanjay for being able to build a company like Quick Heal from scratch and take on the biggies. Mr Bharat Goenka, Co-Founder, Tally, for setting up such a trust worthy channel and a brand which is today almost a Verb. From the galaxy of stars Infosys team still attracts me a lot. Mr. Narayan Murthy is a great inspiration. So is Mr Nandan. I appreciate their approach of taking professional risks by trying to do things differently and bring fresh perspectives. It take lot of courage to take the challenge of turn around again as Mr. Narayan Murthy has taken. Even for Mr. Nandan, taking up UID project was huge and not a easy decision. I would love to see someone coming up with some great made in India products in hardware which is still missing.”
Mr. Malani is a man of many facets. Having started from the scratch he is acclimatized to the problems of the dealers, partners. He has been using his experience to guide them. He says, “Having built up from scratch, we understand the problems of the partners from management perspective. I have been conducting seminars, writing blogs on the subject of management which is tailor made for IT service providers in India. On the face of it many of my friends tell they have been benefited. I am not sure if they do it just to keep me happy or they have been genuinely benefited.”
Mr. Malani has created a stupendous benchmark for others to surmount. He is leaving behind footprints for others to follow. But such success comes only when there is family support. He explains, “To keep focus you need to have to be in absolute peace and love with your better half. I had been extremely lucky to have a wife like Aruna. Coping up with a husband who is obsessed with bigger goals is not easy. My daughter Yavantika is well cultured and that keeps things good for me. My nephew Yash is 23 and has joined business and is handling the Waste Management. Younger Keshav is into 2nd year of his Chemical Engineering.”
The inherent spirit of adventure and entrepreneurship has led to the success of Mr. Manohar Malani. The success comes only if the person has a great vision. Mr. Malani has some Creating organizations which has the eco-system for creativity and growth. All my businesses are built around this central goal. When we live for the bigger goal, we automatically create wealth. IT industry needs to re-discover and move away from the obsession with technology to best implementation of technology. We have more technology available than we can use. So the question is different and the answer has to be different.”
