Pioneering IT in East
K L Lalani, Chairman, Lalani Infotech has been instrumental in shaping IT distribution in the East. He talks candidly about his eventful and successful journey of 30 years in the business
By Sharmee Roy
 Having recently completed 30 years in IT channels, K L Lalani, the Chairman and Managing Director of the Kolkata-based Lalani Infotech, can truly be called a pioneer of the IT distribution business in the country. Indeed, in the eastern region, he is sometimes called the father of IT channels.
The honor is justified. Not only did Lalani seed the IT channel market in the east, but he also strived hard to get it organized. Compass, the apex channel association of the region, was the brainchild of Lalani, under whom the regional channel became forward-looking.
“I want to be remembered as a person who always supported his peers in the industry. While achieving business success is important, helping the industry grow in a healthy way has always been paramount for me. With the help of my peers at Compass, we have managed to spread the IT revolution to the remotest areas of the country,” says Lalani.
Downs and ups
It’s been a roller-coaster ride for Lalani. He still remembers the end of 1978, when he ventured into the office automation business. “Basically I’m from Mumbai, I came to Kolkata in 1977 to join my uncle’s export business. But I had always dreamt of starting my own venture, so after almost two years of working with my uncle I decided to start on my own,” he reminisces.
Lalani took the plunge, starting his own company with a seed capital of Rs 2,200, in an office with 6x6 sq ft table space, selling toners for copier machines.
Within a year he found the going tough and decided to quit. “I felt I had made the wrong decision because getting business was difficult. I went back to Mumbai and that’s when my elders sat with me and explained to me that for creating a business one ought to have patience. They asked me to go back to Kolkata and invest 1,000 days in my venture, to give it my best shot without thinking of failure,” recalls Lalani.
He took their advice. Lalani set a sales target for each day, and personally went out selling. “It wasn’t until five years into my business that I felt my dream venture was established. By then I had become the leading distributor for office automation products in the east.”
Little did he know that his next turning point was just around the corner. With the launch of PCs in 1982, Lalani sensed that it would be a product for the future, and hence in 1984 he ventured into PC distribution. “I felt the need to expand my business, and to diversify. With PCs being introduced, the timing was right.” He signed up for Wipro PCs and Shiva PCs, selling them to the government.
Today, Lalani’s business is not restricted to distribution. He has branched into retail with three outlets in the east, and also has a popular computer training franchise called Lalani Academy. With a Rs 100 crore topline in FY 2007-08, Lalani has been growing at a CAGR of 25 percent over the last five years. Specializing in office automation and IT hardware distribution, the company represents major vendors.
Pioneering spirit
Lalani has been a pioneer from the beginning, be it the launch of his PC business in 1984 or his retail business in the early 1990s—when the retail revolution was just beginning. “I was fortunate to have spotted several new markets and trends. I felt early on that with a billion people in the country, retail would be a driving factor for the growth of PCs. Also, from the business perspective, it helps you increase the visibility of your brand in the market. It also increases the cash flow,” he explains.
Currently, Lalani has three multi-brand outlets at Ranchi, Kolkata and Guwahati, which together contributed Rs 20 crore to the company’s turnover last year. Before the end of this fiscal, Lalani plans to open two more retail outlets at Bhubaneshwar and Raipur.
Not only did Lalani pioneer IT retailing, he also went on to start a very successful training franchise in 2000. “The idea of starting the computer training business came from the acute shortage of hardware engineers that we were facing. On an average, there’s a shortage of 50,000 engineers in the country every year. Considering this, we thought it was time we started our own institute to develop trained engineers.”
Lalani Academy now has 95 training centers across the region, with 90 franchised and five owned by the company, churning out 6,000 students every year. The academy provides training in hardware, networking, multimedia design and financial accounting. Last year it started a retail management program.
Students of the academy get to do an internship at Lalani, and many are absorbed by the company on the completion of their respective courses, thus complementing the 150 technical people the company already employs.
What’s in store
Lalani says his focus for the next 2-3 years is to work toward making a success of Kanry, his home brand, which was launched in the second half of last year. He has already introduced 28 products under this brand-name, including mice, keyboards, webcams, UPSs, pen drives and specialty office products like document laminators, paper shredders, currency counting machines and fake note detectors.
Lalani explains the rationale behind launching Kanry. “Vendors keep changing their policies and partner preferences. As distributors we toil to create markets for them, but after a few years they sideline us. Also, the shrinking margins on MNC brands were frustrating, that’s why we decided to create a brand of our own which would give us full control over availability, pricing and post-sales support.”
The company has made a considerable investment to create a 40-member technical support team for the brand, and has created separate service centers exclusive to Kanry.
Over the next two years, Lalani wants to have 100 products under the Kanry brand. This he will do by adding products to the IT peripherals and components segment, also to the specialty office automation side. The company is already in talks with suppliers in China for sourcing these products.
“Our goal is to get nearly 70 percent of our business from our own brand in the next two years. Once we achieve critical volumes, we have plans to set up local manufacturing facilities for a few products,” Lalani discloses.
The distributor plans to expand its geographical presence too. With existing branches in Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar and Ranchi, it now plans to spread its wings to the north by opening branches in Delhi and Jaipur over the next two months.
On the process front, the company aims to make its services business stronger, and has recently implemented custom-made software to manage its large pool of service engineers across various locations.
Close and personal
One person who has inspired Lalani is HCL’s Founding Chairman, Shiv Nadar. Lalani still remembers the first meeting he had with him at an IT Expo about 15 years ago. “Despite being the CEO, Nadar was there at the stall, attending to visitors, asking for their views about HCL products and HCL’s service. That taught me a lesson: to always be in tune with your customers. It has been my motto since.”
After a hard day’s work, Lalani likes to spend time in front of the television watching some of the ‘K’ serials. His favorite holiday spot? Venice. “To travel to any place in the city you have to cruise through water, and that’s what makes it the perfect holiday destination.” Music is another way to relax, with ghazals and instrumentals being his favorites. |