Stick to your original choice

SYM

To accomplish our dreams one of the habit that one needs to develop is to confidently, without getting intimidated by people, circumstances and consequences be able to speak one’s mind. In the current environment, we need to set boundaries.  By setting clear boundaries of our values, we are enabling ourselves to find the balance it will actually provide energy to each aspect of our lives. Setting boundaries in our heart and mind will enable us to speak our mind and get the important things done.

“To thy own self, be true, and it must follow, as the night and the day, thou canst not then be false to any man” (William Shakespeare, 1564-1616). The wonderful thing about character and integrity is that they are intimately related and also one of the few things in life that no one will ever be able to forcefully take away from you. Your good choices are your own. Even though someone can take your life, they can't force you to make a choice that you believe is wrong.  Look at the choices you've made in your past and observe how much you have or haven't lived by those principles. Be conscious every day of the decisions you make, however big or small and how close they bring you to being the person you really want to become.

Remember "...until a person can say deeply and honestly, I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday, that person cannot say, I choose otherwise."  Stephen R. Covey

A hungry wolf killed a sheep and wore its skin to get to the flock of sheep and kill some more. The sheep all thought that the wolf was also one of them and they lost their life. To accomplish your dream be with your gut level original choice.

I was reading “Achal Bakeri rescued Symphony by zeroing in on the products and tactics that were the company’s original recipe for success”, [ Forbes India, Aug’2012] Achal Bakeri narrated to Samar Srivastava as: Here is how it happened. In 1987 we moved into a new house in Ahmadabad, India, parts of which could not be air conditioned as it had high ceilings and long passages. Our architects suggested that we install air cooling. Till then we had never used air cooler. The performance was great but the product was an eyesore and we had to camouflage it.  That gave me an idea: Why can’t I make a better air cooler?  The next year I introduced my first cooler in the market under the Symphony brand name. I made sure it looked exactly like a wind air conditioner. By 1994 it became the national brand and we had our IPO. With lot of reasons of financial market and customer expectations we diversified into many more products such as washing machines, water heaters, flour mills, water purifiers and exhaust fans. None of these products succeeded. The reasons were different for each product category. First a lot of money went into development. Second, money went into marketing. As none of these products succeeded, there was a financial strain. The other thing that happened was that we took eye off the ball in the air cooler business, so the innovation was stopped with that result the range could not be expanded. As a result, by 2001 we had completely eroded our net worth and we became Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction Company.

That’s when I had two options – to shut shop or to revive the Company and stuck to the original choice of “Air cooler”. So we decided to focus and exited from all the other product lines. Between 2002 to 2008, our net margins doubled from 10 to 20 percent. Our most significant turning point came in 2008. We got an opportunity to acquire a majority stake in a Mexican company. Later we cooled a 200,000 square foot hall. This is something no one is doing on an organized scale in India. This is a virgin market. The potential is huge and we are currently talking to Walmart to air cool their super centers in Central America.

We have come a long way since our BIFR days. Today our market cap is at Rs. 800 crore, we are world’s largest air cooling company. Today, when we meet people from the markets, they ask me why I don’t get into other categories. But this time history is not going to repeat itself.  

Achal Bakeri’s Symphony stuck to the original good choice and instincts that steered them from being a sick company to a largest air cooler world player.