Skills and self confidence are key to Entrepreneurship

Amit Tyagi

Entrepreneurship is all about your belief in your abilities. It not only gives you an opportunity to fulfil your dreams, but also a chance to provide employment to many other deserving people. Sparsh is pioneer & leader in manufacturing CCTV video surveillance products in India with its presence in more than 10 countries and 150 cities in India with over 2000 distributorship network centres. It manufactures more than a million security products every quarter.

Sparsh being a pioneer and now one of the leaders in security products industry, has revolutionized the Indian security market by being India's first company to manufacture CCTV cameras in India in 2007. It has managed to have global footprints. The Managing Director of Sparsh Securitech Sanjeev Sehgal speaking to Employment News insisted that modern age youth (Gen Y) should go for entrepreneurship. Sehgal was born in 1970 in a lower middle class family and saw many hardships in life. After graduation he found the job scenario totally out of sync with what he had dreamt. He did many small jobs before finally launching his own enterprise.

 If an educated unemployed youth, say a graduate, wants to start his own unit, what he should do? Is self employment better than a job?
Starting your own unit requires a set of specialized skills & related knowledge, which comes from experience. Doing a job initially for some years helps you in gaining knowledge and experience. This gives you an enhanced view of working and managing people. Being a graduate alone cannot suffice for becoming an entrepreneur today. Attaining professional qualification is a must.

 Name one thing that is required to be a successful entreprenur?
Being an entrepreneur is not that difficult. To make it easy, just follow one simple rule; be unbiased & always judge the situations after evaluating the facts. Always carry a motive to serve more and more people and you will achieve success and the desired goals.
 How did you get credibility?
We always focus on quality of products.  Not compromising with the quality of products & services is the key to earn credibility.
 How did you develop key partnerships?
Since partnerships depend on need, we always welcome likeminded people who are ready to go with us to serve more and more people with a high standard of delivery.

How did you get funds? What creative strategies did you use to operate on minimal cash flow?
To increase market share, depending on banks is common these days. Our collection cycle helps in reviving our internal cash flow.

What habits helped make you successful?
I am an early riser. I set actionable goals during early hours of the day.  Working in a planned schedule gives you time to execute & complete things during well on time. Spending time with family regenerates your energy.
What kind of attitude one should adopt to be successful?
Positive attitude towards work & life make you enjoy every moment of it. Always be ready to welcome new ideas of innovation and move ahead with enthusiasm.

 How did you distinguish yourself from your competitors?
Our products are based on ‘Make in India’. Being largest manufacturer of CCTVs in India, we are pioneer and leader in manufacturing Electronic Surveillance equipment in the country.  Having a manufacturing facility in Haridwar, we are always a step ahead of Chinese products. We focus on customer friendliness and also depend on the customer feedback.

 Were you afraid of failure?
One should not entertain fear of failure. Failure gives you an opportunity to attempt new things. It often leads to fresh efforts in business. It’s better to try and fail, than fail to try!
 
Could you brief us about overall business activities of your company i.e. tie-ups, associations, reach, network etc.? 
Sparsh has been at the forefront in introducing new CCTV technology in the Indian market. As a result of our focus on innovation, quality and customer service, many multinationals have chosen to work closely with us including Sony Electronics, Texas Instruments and Aptina. Sparsh has a Pan India network with more than 2000 retailers in more than 150 cities in India and we target to double our partner base and reach to more cities. We aspire to be a true Indian company with global outlook.
 
How do you carry Research & Development (R&D) activity in your company? 
We have a team of more than 40 R&D engineers who dedicatedly work to bring new products and technologies to make our customer secure. We spend more than 5 percent of our turnover every year on R&D. We have one of the best and leading companies as our technology providers. This in combination with our R&D team and software expertise that India is known world over for enables us to design and develop world class products in India.
 
How do you foresee India as a potential market?
We as an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) brand foresee a lot of opportunities in the domestic market with lot of focus coming on "Make in India" and "Make for India" with schemes like Preferential Market Access (PMA) providing a level playing field for Indian manufacturers. Fast adoption of standardization in electronic products would also help the growth of the organized market. The need for security in almost every walk of life is driving the demand for CCTV cameras thus providing attractive business opportunity for multi-nationals, local companies and traders. Based on various estimates, global CCTV market is still growing at double digit rates and Indian market is growing at more than double the global growth rate.
 
How is global market different from Indian market? 
Indian video surveillance market is growing almost at double of what the world market is growing at and we would continue to see this fast growth. CCTV globally is an organized and technologically advances industry. Because of the past socially and politically charged global atmosphere Video Surveillance has gained prominence much before India realized. Technologically India is now at par with its global counterparts and now we could witness lot of global launches and see Indian market being used as testing ground for new products by many global MNCs.