sko-da

In 27years of my professional life,the best years that i enjoyed as well as those years that put my life into high gear were at Skoda India.i had shifted from one of the most admired brands Mercedes Benz where i had spent 4years and decided to move to the "unknown arena".My folks were worried and my mom said,"son i hope you know what you are doing?"The aura and the brand around the star kept you as an individual in a shadow of sorts.I wanted to be "Bipin Datar"an individual of brand xyz rather than get branded as a star or Skoda .The challenge in starting from scratch and building up a brand gives you immense satisfaction.

I had to sacrifice a lot personally to build up the professional side.Shifting to a place called Aurangabad,250kms away from Pune where I belonged,leaving my family there due to my children's education and my wife's job etc was tough on me personally.Being the 2nd employee of Skoda Auto India ,it was exciting and scary.Coming from a home of high technology and power,class and supremacy to a brand where people found it difficult even to pronounce the word"SKODA" was a steep climb.Three people in a hotel room of 250sqft and having no clarity on the way forward was like heading into a blackhole without brakes.We had one computer and a couple of mobiles and waited to get the first instruction from HQ.Things moved at a snails pace and the wait became frustrating.The press and media criticizing the delay at Skoda always carried the negative impressions to the potential consumer.we had no advt or PR agency and the factory was a small assembly hall with one lift at the far end of the shop floor.I had to step in and take some concrete steps than wait for those remote instructions from Prague.I picked up the phone and decided to call up the journalists and editors of all print medias directly and got myself introduced.I made it clear that rather than speculate and write negative,please contact me and i will keep you updated about the progress.That made a huge difference.Gradually i was in touch with all the journos and got to know them better personally and set a positive,more constructive tone to the write ups in the media.This was extremely effective as it was more convincing than spending on advertisements.Positive write ups kept appearing at the right intervals and the quick response given by my Journalist friends ( who I still owe this success to) made this easier.The trick that worked was , direct interaction instead of PR agencies,transparent and straightforward approach,and keeping them updated of things to come.The amount of mileage Skoda got in terms of column centimeters, was free and many times more than the paid journalism and advertisement bills incurred by competition. We kept adopting the guerrilla tactics and in all fairness got the car to be launched in Metro cities of Delhi and Mumbai at premium locations like the Czech Ambassadors residence and the Turf Club at Mumbai, that got phenomenal footfalls and mileage at an unbelievable cost.We had just 2 cars for demonstration, and 20 employees pan India when we rolled out the Ist Octavia.I can say ,nowhere in the entire world has any company started of operations( ckd/skd) with just 20 employees as did Skoda India.I owe this to that team that made this happen.Working for 17-18 hrs a day and literally making manual invoices, driving the cars on the trucking containers for transportation to the final destination,skipping lunches and having early morning dinners.It rained and also the dry heat with temperatures reaching 47degrees centigrade, we slogged to build these cars and sell the first 250 cars to convince the management that yes India is the location and Octavia the product.The decisions moved in slow and we lost time but then we had to develop the infrastructure to sell and service the cars that would eventually dominate Indian roads.In a matter of 4 years with just a team of 6 young enthusiastic go getters in my sales and marketing team, we put up 35 dealers across the country , flying 25 days a month at times and spending late nights to reach the target dates.

God was there at every step and made things happen .Some were indeed miracles and my first experiences of those kinds. TV mileage, print media, interviews, launches, inaugurations etc were fantastic.Reaching beyond the borders in Prague and Dubai through the press were mind blowing times.The story unfolded and reached new heights every day. The biggest satisfaction is that all business partners whom were appointed by us in the year 2000-2004 are still with the group and earned success and fame.No one failed in business terms.Political vengeance and personal preferences as they happen in any company remained but they stood by the test of times and came out with flying colors,establishing the fact that they were the best.

I will continue the stories as we go along and rewind the good and interesting times that took place in my life.