In this episode of Entrepreneur Insights, Pradeep Karambelkar, Founder and Managing Director of Vision Invest Tech Pvt Ltd. talks about his initial journey, challenges, and the road to success.
Vision Invest Tech Pvt Ltd. has an inevitable contribution in transforming Bhopal and MP into a leading business centre. And if we talk about Central India’s foremost successful Investment Products’ Distribution Services Company, then Vision Invest Tech Pvt Ltd., is undoubtedly the leading one. Vision Invest Tech Pvt Ltd. works in 5 different domains- Investment Product Distribution, Hospital and Patient Management Services, Equity Broking Investment Avenues – Investment Magazine Publication, And Start-Up Incubator Recently, we got a chance to interact with Mr. Pradeep Karambelkar, Founder and Managing Director of Vision Invest Tech Pvt Ltd. who shared his inspiring journey of entrepreneurship. Let’s hear how he made it through.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The major challenges that I faced in the initial days were financial resources and human resources. Convincing people to trust us and join us was not easy. Brushing up my leadership qualities helped me to attract good human resources that eventually led to the capital inflow. Another major challenge was employee retention. Majorly employees after spending a certain time with the company learning how the business works, either move to parent companies or becomes a competitor by starting their own business. So, again improving my leadership quality and developing an employee-driven company helped me as we have employees with us for more than 15 years. They have now ESOPs in the company.
Which one thing do you wish you’d done differently/ what style did you adopt?
One thing that we have successfully accomplished and are proud of is that we have created a powerful network. This is our biggest asset. Second, is our marketing strategy, where rather than investing in social media advertising we have increased the public profile that helped us to increase our network. We have preferred to be members of various reputed organizations such as the PHD Chamber of Commerce, CII, Bhopal Management Association, TiE, and a lot more. Getting associated with such trustworthy organizations helped us to increase our customer base.
What does revolution mean to you and what changes Vision Invest Tech Pvt Ltd. Has brought into the market?
The word Revolution comes from the Latin word revolution, which means “a turnaround.” And if we talk about Bhopal business industry Vision Invest Tech Pvt Ltd. (www.visioninvesttech.com) has been successful in bringing a fundamental and relatively sudden change in the entrepreneurial domain. And this we have achieved by embracing the latest market changes. We have always been very adaptive in mastering our skills with the latest technology and latest methods that came into the market with time.
A diversified business venture has been the key to us. We have always aimed to raise the business standards of Bhopal and MP. Being a Bhopalite, I wanted to develop organized financial services in Bhopal and MP. We are the pioneers in providing hospital management services to 50 hospitals. I believe together we can create a notable change that is why to encourage the entrepreneurs and to help them build successful businesses we founded VASPL Initiatives which is a start-up incubation center in 2017. Embracing digitization, adopting the new edge changes, and giving back to society has made us the ecosystem contributor.
How has the industry changed over the years?
Technology enhancement in the form of Digitization has been the biggest change and challenge at the same time.
Digitization has brought a radical change in the industry. Many organizations that could cope up with this sudden and rapid changes have survived, rest got demolished with time. So, adapting to this change of digitization is vital.
Tell us about the client base.
We are into 5 businesses. First the investment services where we cater to nearly 30000 retail-based business owners from different parts of Madhya Pradesh. In hospital service, we are serving the district and government hospitals of Madhya Pradesh where we are catering to 30000 to 40000 patients per day. In our incubation services, we have mentored and funded nine start-ups till now. In business network we are empowering entrepreneurship. With Venture Catalysts, we are the regional partner where we are creating a local investor group (Angel investor group) where they can invest in start-up’s and multiply their investment.
When it comes to the company, what are you most proud of?
“Our network is our net worth.”
My journey can inspire a lot. I say, if I can anybody can. 16 years back when I started my journey as a post office / LIC agent and the best part is that with time our business has grown horizontally. By saying horizontal growth, we mean that we have successfully created and established our footprints in several industries. Being chairman of 6 associations, members of several educational boards and colleges we have been able to develop a huge network and this is our biggest asset.
What do you see as the most difficult task in being in your Industry?
Adopting the latest changes that come into the market and be a pro that is the most challenging and difficult task. Every 2-3 years there are new strategies coming into the market, and those who can adopt these changes survive rest gets perished with time.
What do you do when you are not at work?
Business is always in my mind even when I am off the track. It has been a part of my existence, I breathe, I live, I dream and I survive through my business. I always stay relaxed and I am never over-burdened and thanks to the wonderful team that I have who always comes forward and takes ownership of this business. I say it’s not me it’s them who own the business. All of my ventures are employee-driven. Whatever decision they take, I trust them and allow it to imply, and the rest of the ownership is theirs. Rest I always made it a ritual to spend quality time with my family and kids and dedicate some time to reading books.
What are the most important decisions you make as a leader of your organization?
Making a comeback whenever there was a financial setback was one of the most important decisions I have taken till now. Another one is empowering the employees within the organization so that they can take ownership and sail the ship forward. Basically, decentralizing the power for creating a collaborative management model.
How do you encourage creative thinking within your organization?
You have to trust and decentralize authoritative decision-making process amongst your employees. Giving them the power to ideate, imply that idea and convert it into success is the only way that has encouraged the creative thinking capability of my employees. I have always given free-hands to my employees and this has led to various creative ideas which have been a bit hit too. We are a purely human-driven organization. And I believe our organization is employee-driven and to inspire them, we have a policy those we have exceeded 10 years in our organization have equity in our company, so basically, they own the company and I just lead them.
What are some of your future endeavours?
By 2025 we are aiming to be a National Company. We have created a local model, state model, and lab model and now we aim to expand in a factory model and want to expand at a PAN India Level. In our hospital management business model, we want to reach out to hospitals in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and other states too. As we are in the age of digitization, we want to ensure that our financial services can reach out to people from different parts of the country. Through our incubation centre, we are giving out consultancy to others who are developing their own incubation centre. If we talk about BNI we are currently having 150 members and in the next 5 years, we are aiming to cross 1000 members.
What is the best advice you can give to our readers?
There’s no such thing as failure, only success gets delayed. Unless you accept the failure, no one can fail you.