A Field Project on the Young Entrepreneur Mr.

Harsh Shah
Director-Marketing of Embee Corporation

Submitted to: Prof. Satish K. Nair Course: MBA FB&E Group Number: A08 Submitted By: Hardik Parmar (114119) Jeet Parikh (114126) Jyoti Chhaparwal (114127) Mishal Jain (114136) Satyam Patel (114148)

Acknowledgement It is our great pleasure to present this case report. We thank all those people who helped us to make this case study, by providing necessary inputs. We would like to express our gratitude towards Mr. Harsh Shah of Embee Corporation who spent his most valuable time and shared his experience and views about his organization with us and motivating and encouraging us to take up the entrepreneurial journey with the best of our abilities. We also express our sincere thanks to Prof. Satish K.Nair for giving us opportunity to take this informative task and guiding us throughout the project and providing us with his valuable suggestions and encouragement.

Executive Summary

This case report mainly focuses on young entrepreneur, Mr. Harsh Shahs views and managing experience in running Embee Corporation which is into making of trolley wheels, textile machines and chemicals. The report also enlists the observations and actions taken by Mr. Harsh Shah for managing his organization more effectively. It tries to highlight the difference between traditional management practices and modern management practices. It includes the details of how they manufacture and market their products in an effective manner. The case report discusses Embee Corporation as a manufacturing firm and how they deal with their customers. This case include the future plans of the entrepreneur for the goodwill of his company.

Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the recognition of an opportunity to create value, and the process of acting on this opportunity, whether or not it involves the formation of a new entity. While concepts such as innovation and risk taking in particular are usually associated with entrepreneurship, they are not necessary to define the term. Who is an entrepreneur? According to Nandini Vaidyanathan (expert on entrepreneurship and visiting faculty at many biz schools around the world) Well, an entrepreneur is someone who is his own boss. Is that right? A plumber who works for himself, is he an entrepreneur? No! Well, an entrepreneur takes risks. Participants on Fear Factor, the reality show on AXN, also take many risks. Are they entrepreneurs? No! An entrepreneur is the owner of his business. Steve Ballmer does not own Microsoft. Would you say he is not an entrepreneur? No! An entrepreneur cannot be fired from his job. Steve Jobs was fired from Apple, no? An entrepreneur becomes a millionaire. Anand Kumar, who runs the highly successful Super 30 in Patna, is nowhere near being a millionaire. Is he not an entrepreneur? This brings us back to my question. Who is an entrepreneur? Well, an entrepreneur is a new species. Wait, maybe not. Darwin spoke of him when he said the fittest survive. Entrepreneurs are the fittest. They survive negative bank balances, peer pressure, family opposition, opportunity loss when they give up cushy jobs, and failure. And, like the proverbial phoenix, they rise from the ashes, dusting themselves up, smile on their lips, steely resolve in their eyes, and song in their heart. Being an entrepreneur is a state of mind. Which means you are a differently-abled thinker. Does this mean Einstein was an entrepreneur? No, because he only thought. He did not do anything to take his thoughts to the market. So, an entrepreneur is one who is a thinker-doer. A mentee of ours figured that when people want to buy laptops, smartphones, digicams, there is no go to place that facilitates an informed buying decision. So he not only thought a portal like his was a good idea; he also went ahead, created the product, and took it to the market. Being an entrepreneur is an attitude. It is an attitude that says: I dont like the way things are in my world, I have the power to

change them, so I will change them to make my world a better place! A mentee of ours said, I dont like the way my family treats me, just because Im illiterate. I want to see respect for me in their eyes, so I will become an entrepreneur! In the last three years, she has built a business which has a turnover of Rs.20 crore! Do her family members respect her now? You bet! So, if being an entrepreneur is a state of mind, an attitude, is it necessary to be the owner of business? Not at all. You could be working for a Microsoft or an Oracle and still think entrepreneurially. You may not have brought capital to the table, hence you dont own the business but if you think and behave as if you do, in the sense that you take ownership of the road map, you can proudly wear a dog-tag that says worlds best employee! Now, let me answer my own question. Who is an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is a person who wants to leave a footprint in society. He wants to transform lives. He wants to create meaning such that even people who dont know him will shed a tear whens hes gone. He is so focused on the meaning that nothing fazes him, not the mundane rigor of getting the idea off the drawing board into the marketplace. The only thing that drives him is the goal and the goal lays the road he makes. An entrepreneur is someone who invented the phrase: I can.

Young Entrepreneur The definition of the young entrepreneur (Male and Female) means - business owners between the age group of 21 and 45 years, youth-owned Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or independently owned businesses as Partnership or Proprietorship and entrepreneurs involved in business as Director, Chairman, MD in Corporate or Multinational. Types of Young Entrepreneurship Economic, social and public entrepreneurship Intrapreneurship (Corporate entrepreneurship) and co-operatives

Categorization of young entrepreneurs Pre-entrepreneurs (15-19 years) Budding entrepreneurs (20-25 years) Emergent entrepreneurs (25-29 years)

Challenges of Young Entrepreneurship: Social and cultural attitude towards young entrepreneurship Not being seriously by colleagues or business contacts Age discrimination by suppliers or customers Difficulties in attracting funding to the business Age discrimination by institution or the government Lack of support from family or friends

Entrepreneurship education

General lack of introduction and adoption of enterprise education Inadequate curricula and study programs Wrong learning methods Negligence of students personal environment Lack of trained / educated teachers Lack of career information and business possibilities Lack of business and education linkages Lack of ICT infrastructure / capability

Access to finance / start-up financing

Lack of personal saving and resources Lack of security and credibility Lack of business experience and skills Strict credit scoring methodologies and regulations Long waiting periods Lack of knowledge, understanding, awareness of start up financing possibilities Unfavorable firm characteristics and industry Lack of status / form of enterprise Lack of micro lending / -finance and seed funding

Administrative and regulatory framework

Unsupportive tax regimes Business registration procedures and costs Bankruptcy laws: Time and costs involved in insolvency proceedings Ineffective competition law Regulatory framework changes and lack of transparency Property right, copyright, patent and trademark regulations

Business assistance and support

Lack of business connections: contacts, suppliers, suitable partners and networks Lack of knowledge of available business support services Lack of tailor made business training and advice for young start-ups Lack of trained counselors, development workers and adequate support agencies Lack of mentoring capacities Lack of exchange networks forums and meeting places Lack of other business development services

Introduction to the Entrepreneur: This case study analyzes the background of young entrepreneur Mr. Harsh Shah & his role in managing & operating his organization Embee Corporation. The case study focuses on the challenges faced and steps taken by him to ensure smooth & easy functioning of his organization. Right from childhood, Mr. Harsh Shah wanted to follow his fathers footsteps. The dream of setting an innovative and dynamic company has always driven him. He comes from a reform joint family; his father, Mr. Ashvinbhai B. Shah is a MSC Chemistry graduate. His father believed that education is a crucial component in making a successful enterprise. He is the role model and main source of inspiration for Mr. Harsh Shah. Mr. Harsh completed his graduation in Chemical Engineering from Nirma University in 2002. Then he went to University of Manchester, UK, in 2003 to do Masters in Polymer Technology. He completed his MBA in Family Business & Entrepreneurship from Nirma University in 2006. Soon after the completion of MBA he joined his family business. His main aim to join the business was to help his father and his uncles who had served the organization since a long time. He has sheer interest in area of chemical engineering, and he wanted to do something new and innovative for his company in the same field.

Introduction to Embee Corporation: Embee Corporation was started in the year 1956 by Mr. Babubhai M. Shah grandfather of Mr. Harsh Shah. Mr. Babubhai M. Shah and his friends started the business on partnership basis with a small capital. Later, due to some conflicts between Mr. Babubhai Shah and his partners, the partnership was resolved and business was taken solely over by his grandfather. Initially they manufactured small spare parts of textile printing machineries and provided maintenance services to the rapidly growing sector of textile industries in Ahmedabad region.

Later they started making trolleys and other simple machines and equipments used in textile industries. After completing graduation in MSC Chemistry, Mr. Ashvinbhai B. Shah, father of Mr. Harsh Shah joined the organization and he expanded the business by starting manufacturing of chemicals used in textile industries. Later they were joined by his uncle, who is Mechanical Engineer, and they expanded their business in manufacturing of complex and advanced textile machineries and equipments, such as pneumatic pumps, steam traps, color pumps, screen engraving machines, tanks, screens etc. They mainly catered to the need of local market. After succeeding in this area they planned to expand their business to other areas. In the year 1982 they started exporting the machines to different countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Srilanka, Kenya, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Iran, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Egypt. Then they started manufacturing wheels of industrial trolley from HDPE plastic. Currently Embee Corporation is the world largest manufacturer of UHMW-HDPE wheels, with production capacity of 10 million wheels per year. They are also engaged in manufacturing of various textile machineries, such as: Castor, Endrings, Nickel screens, Hydraulic trolleys, Rotary screens, Screen Engraving Machines:

Dual light film contact box Screen unpacking device Curing oven Degreasing tanks Automatic coaters Exposing machine

Screen washing machine Engraving accessories

Textile Machineries: Rotary screen printing machine Rotary sample table Color dispensing systems Dew drop printing machine Foil stamping machine Vacuum color strainer Cloth inspection machine

Engraving chemicals and consumables:

High quality photo emulsions Engraving chemicals Endring remover, sensitizer and fluffex Thermoplast Endring adhesives

Industrial products:

Chemical process pumps Pellet truck Hydraulic stacker

Oil pump Pneumatic pumps Disk check valves Steam traps

Other spares: SS blades Pneumatic pump spares Magnet beam Endrings Ball bearing for screen heads

Why he joined his family business? Starting up my own business would have definitely changed my life, the way I have thought, the way I work, the way I spend money and the way I socialize. Itll be one of the most demanding challenges I will ever be likely to take on. But my family came first in all my priorities of life. I have to join my family business and help my father and uncle in their work, take responsibilities from their shoulder to mine. I thought of giving a relaxation time to my family member as they have been working from their early ages. So it became my priority to join my family business. I have to give back what I gained from my family. There was no second thought to it. The harsh truth of starting your own business is, youd be reducing your hours spent with your family and not increasing them, it wouldnt disrupt your family life. But the excitement, pleasure,

joy, satisfaction and fulfillment of starting your own business is one of its own kind, it is always my dream desire to start my own firm. Observations: After finishing his MBA in Entrepreneurship, he joined his family business. He first observed and tried to learn the functioning of the company, he didnt want to jump directly on decision making and implementing process, making others think he is more prudent then them who are working from many years, which would have broke their trust in the organization and hampered his image. For first five-six months he tried to learn from his employees, how they worked and managed the organization. He is a very keen observer.

Their organization was functioning on a traditional management method where his father and uncle handled each and every work of the organization. There was no expert to handle different departments. First thing he observed there was a great burden on his dads shoulder as the work was not distributed in the organizations, he was the person who handled every department from purchasing, production, and marketing. At that time his company was labor intensive. Managing workforce was a huge challenging task for them; this caused many problems as it was time consuming with more manufacturing cost per unit produced, less efficiency and poor quality. At times few of the workmen also influenced others to go against the benefits of organization. Due to limited use of technology the small decisions were also time consuming for the organization. As the skilled labors were less, the process of manufacturing was slow and thus time consuming. Even during small break down there was a substantial loss of time and production. He also observed that due to less use of technology and no use of computers the billing process was not efficient as the main authority had to sign each and every bill and during dispatch. Sometimes when they were not available the delivery was also delayed. Coordinating and communicating with other offices and departments was also disorganized.

There was no effective communication between the workers and the authority so, that created many misunderstandings and conflicts. As the authority and rights were not distributed among the employees, even a small issue stopped the production chain. This was the major drawback and thus they were not able to meet up their customers time commitment. All the purchase records and stock records of raw materials and finished goods were kept on books. There entries were recorded on daily basis. This was a time consuming process and also many incidents of false records were observed. Once a there was an entry of one drum of chemical in stock register but when verified actually only 1/5th of the registered quantity was found. This caused miscalculations and delayed the production. We must not solely depend upon one person or service provider as this creates his monopoly and blocks our vision of searching new alternatives. We may never come know when he tries to cheat us if we are not aware about other substitutes. He observed there was breach in the security as he found out that many raw materials kept were missing but he was not able to figure out who did it.

Actions: Mr. Harsh Shah wanted that organization should work with ease and simplicity. His First action was to learn how his father and uncle worked and later it was his responsibility to reduce the burden from their shoulder. So, he believed delegation of work and working in neutral manner at organization. He took the decision that distribution of work should be done equally and organization should follow lateral communication, where nobody feels inferior while working. So this way company would achieve more productivity and everybody can give their most effective output. He even distributed works between workers, and different rights were passed so that they can enjoy their work, which would motivate to work them differently and easily.

He introduced use of new technology in the manufacturing unit and management department. Due to use of such technology work was done easily and effectively without much dependence on expertise. Also catching up deadlines was now possible. He made many small but significant changes in the existing plant and machineries which were in line with current technologies. He laid importance on atomization of plant. Also machines they manufactured were improved by use of PLCs and other instruments. This helped them to face global competition more strongly. He also changed their boiler fuel from Liquid Diesel Oil to Natural Gas which was more eco-friendly and cheap. Now they have continuous supply of boiler fuel and the trouble of managing the boiler fuel inventory was avoided. To overcome the problem of maintaining daily stock registers manually, inventory management software and ERP softwares were introduced. This required training the existing staff about the new programs used and hiring few others with technical skills about it. To overcome the stealing of products, he installed CCTV cameras in the factory which helped him a lot. So he can know who is working regularly effectively or wasting time and also helped to notice the people who were working against the organization and motivating others not to work. He fired his most trustworthy employee because of their changed behavior and egoistic attitude with other workers. He introduced and replaced the Solid Wheel manufacturing process from HDPE with Ultra High Molecular Weight High Density Poly-Ethylene (UHMW HDPE). This development added a very distinctive feature of unbreakability to their product. As a result their market share increased and today they are the worlds largest producer of such wheels with production capacity of 10 million wheels per year.

Marketing and Customer Services: On the subject of customer servicing and marketing, Mr. Harsh Shah claims to have a very positive approach. According to him, problems are to be faced anywhere in the world. One has to be very patient while developing a market as it is not an easy task. One has to be very tactful and deal with each customer in a diplomatic and friendly manner.

He tries to understand the psychology of his customers; he understands the requirement of his customers and works accordingly. He goes to different countries for marketing of his products. He has tied up with marketing agencies in different states of India and abroad. They have regional sales office in Surat, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Erode and also in countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. He introduced company emails for his employees for easy and better communication with the customers and to retain the information of the organization. There chief marketing tactic to attract customers was to participated in different exhibitions like ITME Mumbai, ITMA Euorpe, America and China. They are also the member of FIEO (Federation of Indian Export Organization) and other such trading bodies. They help them in exporting their products by getting necessary clearances and paper work done. They also help them in getting finances through foreign nations keeping banks as guarantee or mediator. Their production capacity is of making 20-25 machines a year. Currently they are able to sell 15-18 machines a year. They also make customized machines based on customers needs. They also provide their customers with the necessary after sales services for proper maintenance of the machines. They are more interested in increasing their exports as there is larger profit margin than compared to local sales.

Vision and Future plans: He wants to make his firm more eco friendly by replacing the boilers with the solar heaters. He is successful in developing a textile chemical product which is currently in the early

stage of completion. He wants to patent this product. He wants to reach out to more number of countries and explore the regions which are

untouched. Complete color kitchen

Effluent treatment plant Caustic recovery plant

Conclusion: Mr. Harsh Shah is an ethical person. He says any business can be carried by ethical means. His father and his uncles has drived the business ethically. Following his fathers footsteps has taught him to work ethically and helped him in becoming a good and a successful entrepreneur. He is a good observer and has ability to take up actions whenever required. His friendly nature and soft skills has created a very trustworthy and friendly environment in his organization. He is a good visionary and is innovative in his work. Being a young entrepreneur he has a great ability to handle any situation with confidence. He is ready to face any challenges and according to him challenges are part of entrepreneurs life. According to him mistakes are important part of life, as it helps us learn many things. He is good in marketing and travels to different countries for marketing his products. We can define him even as a growth entrepreneur, as growing in business and growing his business is one of his priority. Thus, Mr. Harsh Shah, as a young entrepreneur is very efficient and active in growing his business.

References:
1) Intelligent Entrepreneur - July 2011-Volume 2-Issue 11- Page 20. 2) CR1 Entrepreneurship - Text and Cases.

3) Embee corporation - embeeindia.com 4) Youngentrepreneur.com