Being Systematic and Organised

Being focused and determined comes naturally to Anuraag Kesarwani, the 32-year-old scion of the 100-year-old jewellery business house. A computer science graduate from IIT-Delhi with an MBA from the same institute, Kesarwani knew that the lure of the corporate world wouldn’t pull him away from his decision to join the family business. So, it wasn’t a surprise to anyone when he gave up a prospective career at Tata Consultancy Services to return to the family fold in 2012. A little over five years later, he doesn’t regret that as he has devoted himself completely to taking the business into the new era.

Trigger
Till the time I joined in 2012, business operations were conducted manually. All logs were handwritten, thick files were maintained and the inventory was manually checked. All this resulted in long hours for the employees, extra staff and sometimes utter confusion. More importantly, it also ended up in stock being misplaced or lost. At times 200g of jewellery would go missing because of some paper being misplaced. The business was seriously getting affected. Even customers would get hassled as delivery would be delayed. I knew that I couldn’t work in such a set-up. So, my first step was to computerise the operations.

Execution
In consultation with my brother, I customised a new software which took care of our needs. All details of the business were fed in and the staff was trained to handle computers. All the data was systematically uploaded. It was a humongous project as details of all our showrooms had to be centralised but it was one challenge that I was not willing to let go. We implemented it in one store and later followed it up in all our other stores. It took a few months for the processes to be in place and the staff to get accustomed to it but very soon it became a part of the business. The execution went smoothly as I had the entire support of my family and senior staff members.

I strongly believe that it is important to be organised. It gives us a perspective on how things are functioning and helps to understand where we stand vis a vis our competitor. At the click of a mouse, now we are able to understand our strengths and weaknesses. We can compare sales and stocks and accordingly take action. It has made us more professional and proactive.

At the click of a mouse, now we are able to understand our strengths and weaknesses. We can compare sales and stocks and accordingly take action. It has made us more professional and proactive.

Result
Once the system started functioning, we realised how easy all our lives became. My father, who never went on a vacation all these years because he had to be in touch with the daily workings, was now comfortable with the idea of a holiday. He could be in touch with the business even while vacationing overseas. The employees discovered that they could leave office early as compared to days when they had to stay back to wrap up the day’s business. Also, the system has helped us to track which salesperson is performing good and then accordingly reward him/her. This has boosted the morale of the staff, who in turn work harder and keep the customer happy. And definitely, our sales have gone up.

(As told to Meenakshi Kumar)