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When in Business, do it like Sindhis!

Updated on 25 November, 2022

6.58K+ views
5 min read

These are two excerpts from the book ‘How Sindhis Do Business – Paiso’ by Maya Bathija. These reflect the business mindset of one of the Fabiani Brothers, Harish. Harish Fabiani, who was India’s first individual angel investor and chairman of Americorp Group today, started out in business with his brother Kamal, importing electronics into Spain, where he was settled at the time.

The first excerpt reflects the fast thinking and smart planning of Harish Fabiani, which created a stir in the market. His sharp decisions helped the Fabiani brothers to secure a position among the top businessmen. Further, it shows why he chose not to stop and started expanding his business in newer markets of Europe. The second one talks about post-expansion and describes how Harish grabbed the market with the help of his soft skills. It shows how everyone wanted to do business with them just because of the trust built.

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“For the Fabiani brothers, work always took precedence over everything else. They were now growing their market with goods from Japan and the US too, importing brands such as Pioneer and Panasonic, along with generic music systems, telephones, wireless telephones, etc. Their business was definitely galloping ahead faster than the rest of the market. At the time, very few had created the growth they had. Capital-wise, they were very strong and were able to handle more volumes. Over the years, they introduced more branded items into their electronics range.
Do You Have All the Skills Required to Start a Business?

From 1984, the business remained stable for another three or four years, but in 1988, a large trader who used to buy a lot of merchandise from many importers, including the Fabiani brothers, created a stir. The brothers heard a vague rumour that he was going to default on payments worth $40 million owed to people across the market, including themselves, and was liquidating some of his merchandise in order to flee the situation. Thirty years ago, $40 million was a large amount. The trader owed the brothers $2 million. Time was of the essence, as it was Christmas time and all sales were at a high. The Fabiani credit in the market was at its highest, and the situation looked pretty grim.

If the man planned to skip off by 5 January, the brothers would feel the tremors by February end. But they were sitting on a secret, and seizing the opportunity, they confronted the trader and managed to settle the matter. They also sidestepped part of the disaster by accepting his house worth over $1 million and retrieving some of their products from him. In the interim, they also got the names of their other clients whom the trader dealt with and squared off accounts with them too, thus reducing their risk in the market. Fast thinking and smart planning saved the day for the brothers. Harish was always the proverbial sharp Sindhi businessman.

All their other competitors were badly hit, and that created a domino effect, weakening the whole market. Motiram at this time warned them to go slow, but Harish, the strategist, had other plans. He wanted to be even more aggressive in the market because his Sindhi mind realized that they were in the strongest position to spread their wings. Harish expanded the business. This decision sent the Fabianis into the top bracket of the market.”

“By 1990, the Fabiani brothers had expanded exports to Germany, France, Holland, Switzerland and England. At that time Kamal and Harish were working together, one managing sales and the other the business side. Kamal turned out to be quite the salesperson; people thought he could even sell ice to an Eskimo. He was a good businessman, with an eye for the right pricing, and he could very easily procure the right merchandise. People loved doing business with him because they trusted him. He clearly understood a product’s market and its requirements. His people skills took him far, and he created lasting relationships for the company.
How to Get Your Start-Up Idea Validated?

So while Harish could manage the product deals, personally dealing with suppliers like Panasonic, Aiwa and Sanyo, Kamal was instrumental in improving sales. This combination of skills helped them grow manifold and increased their sales volumes. Malls came into existence in the 1990s. Harish joined the bandwagon and started supplying to these ‘hypermarkets’, in spite of his margins being severely hit. He realized it was this was the beginning of the end for middlemen like him. Harish had a foreboding of things to come, which he felt in the pit of his stomach. He questioned the longevity of a business like his, in spite of it being at the top of the industry.

In 1995, he realized that he could not go on doing the business he was doing and gave himself five years’ time to regroup. He felt the train that he was on, though moving ahead powerfully, was heading towards a dead end. He realized that he would have to get off the train sooner than later and get onto another train headed towards something that would last him a lifetime. Harish saw the paradigm shift coming, and it proved to be the game changer in his life. He needed to diversify into something that would have a longer business run. At that time, he never thought he would come to India.
What skills do venture capitalists look for in early-stage entrepreneurs?

Though Harish had begun to make long-term plans, the year 1996 turned out to be an even bigger one than 1995. Turnovers soared, land banks grew, and at thirty-three, he felt he had the world in his palm.”
If you like Harish’s way of doing business and want to read more about him and other Sindhis’ ways of doing business, you can read the book; ‘How Sindhis Do Business – Paiso’ by Maya Bathija.

If you want to learn more about marketing and entrepreneurship, Liverpool Business School & upGrad offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) Liverpool Business School which helps you to transform your career. The program provides 1-on-1 mentorship from industry leaders, 1-week immersion program at University campus, dual credentials (MBA from LBS & PGPM from IMT), network with peers at offline basecamps and more.

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Try this, you will love it. If you are an entrepreneur or an aspiring one at that, this statement can be a dream come true when your customer recommends your product to someone who is yet to discover it in this manner. But mind you, this domino effect always starts with one customer. That particular one who made you realise that there is a problem and your product/service can solve it. The one who you intended to cater to, right from day one. Hold on to that customer, hypothetically or otherwise and they will lead you to your holy grail eventually. And if you are chasing a group of customers, now could be a good time to pick one of them, understand them and see where it leads you. This might sound ironic but we often tend to visualize our target group in terms of age, occupation, location and many more inhuman parameters, when what matters the most is to know how they would feel, think and react to your product/service when it is out and about. The best way to do this is to choose only one customer and get to know them thoroughly. Learn Online MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career. You don’t have to know them personally but if you do, nothing like it. Apart from the usual details like name, occupation and location, figure out their likes and dislikes. Find out the little nuances that define who they are. While you are at it, keep your eyes open to find out where does your product/service fit into their life seamlessly and what can you do to get it there. Resist the temptation to stretch your target group till you have achieved your first few milestones. Being a leader, your entire focus will usually be on building your company and taking it to the next level. But in the process, don’t lose sight of your ideal customer. Take them to the next level too. Befriend them, talk to them like you would talk to your best buddies and get to know them up, close and personally. They will have more to say about you, not just about your products but also about who you are as a start-up or an entrepreneur. This will help you to broaden your horizon even more efficiently. Keep your ears open to what your customers are saying even when they say nothing at all. No, you don’t need any telepathic skills to do this. While the surveys and lead generation campaigns you conduct will get your customer to speak to you directly, there are many things they might say about your product/service on other portals. Lap it up instantly and see how you can improvise. This does not mean you need to extend your customer segment. It just means that you hear them even when they are not talking to you and give them a product/service they only wished for. No matter how far you go with your start-up, make it a habit to come back to your ideal customer every now and then. They will help you put things in perspective and stay focussed on your primary objective that had turned you into a leader. If you want to learn more about marketing and entrepreneurship, Liverpool Business School & upGrad offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) Liverpool Business School which helps you to transform your career. The program provides 1-on-1 mentorship from industry leaders, 1-week immersion program at University campus, dual credentials (MBA from LBS & PGPM from IMT), network with peers at offline basecamps and more.
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by Anirudh Challa

08 Jan'16
Lessons in Marketing for Startups

5.12K+

Lessons in Marketing for Startups

Early-stage challenges When you are starting up, you are low on resources. Getting your first set of customers becomes very crucial. A lot of us, when we take the entrepreneurial plunge, have a fair idea of how the product will look and evolve – and this is something that lies in our hands. But reaching out to your customers is a complete unknown. You always ask yourself these questions – Will customers try my product? How much do I need to spend on getting customers? Learn Best MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career. Getting your first 100 customers is always one of the toughest, but the most fun part of the entrepreneurial journey. We recently launched our online program – Leadership & Management – for leaders. We knew that there is a need for the program in the market, but were unsure if: We will get customers to take up an online program We will get customers to actually pay for an online program As a new venture, we were facing two uphill battles – one of convincing our customers to adopt online education and secondly, to pay for it. Therefore, it became important for us to be smart about our marketing. We tried different techniques- some worked and some didn’t. As an early-stage digital startup, it is very easy to start focusing on getting customers from across India for your product. Yes, it allows you to aim for a larger target group, but you end up spending a huge amount without commensurate conversions. It is important to know your ‘one customer’ and plan to target them accordingly. In the case of UpGrad, we went ahead with focusing on three Tier 1 cities for our digital marketing initiative with a small marketing budget. We got a very strong response to our marketing campaign. We deployed a small number of sites (Yourstory, NextBigWhat, etc.) that folks interested in entrepreneurship frequent. With that limited marketing budget, we were able to reach out to our narrow target segment multiple times. It is important for an early-stage startup to know the right marketing channel and focus on it rather than going after multiple channels. For a lot of entrepreneurs, digital marketing is always the first thing that comes to mind. However, for the first 100 customers, it is important to leverage offline marketing significantly. When we were launching Startup with UpGrad, we participated in a number of events across our selected three cities. The reception that we got in these offline events helped us create a strong positioning for the brand UpGrad in terms of credibility. In these events, we got a chance to talk to potential customers that helped shape our product and fine-tune our positioning. In the early stage, as a founder, it is important to go out and meet potential customers and get first-hand feedback on their expectations, and offline events are great avenues for that. When we were conceptualizing Startup with UpGrad, we wanted to create a strong positioning for our program. The idea came up in one of our weekly meetings, when a team member asked, “Why don’t we interview India’s leading entrepreneurs and get them to share their experiences for our program participants?” Initially, the idea was laughed away, but we all realised that it did sound like an interesting proposition. We decided we will go ahead with this approach and reached out to 30-plus first-generation tech-entrepreneurs — from Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal to Deep Kalra of MakeMyTrip, Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola and VSS Mani of JustDial. Most of them responded enthusiastically and we interviewed them for their insights. These interviews and experiences that we offered as a part of the program helped us create a strong positioning for the brand — and that became a strong marketing message for the program. So when you are starting up, any crazy idea could lead you to a successful launch and thus do not shy away from thinking bold. If you want to learn more about marketing and entrepreneurship, Liverpool Business School & upGrad offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) Liverpool Business School which helps you to transform your career. The program provides 1-on-1 mentorship from industry leaders, 1-week immersion program at University campus, dual credentials (MBA from LBS & PGPM from IMT), network with peers at offline basecamps and more.
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by Mayank Kumar

26 Jan'16
EdTech for Working Professionals: Future of EdTech in Higher Education

5.63K+

EdTech for Working Professionals: Future of EdTech in Higher Education

Going back to the ‘School-mode’ is never an easy decision for a modern professional, in a hectic, competitive world. At the same time, there may be instances where one feels the need to catch-up with the latest skills being taught in his/her area of interest. With the ever-changing rules and practices in every field these days, on-the-job learning may hit a wall at some point. So how does one keep up with the changing times? Does one need to take a break from work to pursue full-time degrees every few years? Clearly, this is never the answer. Learn Best MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career. We are privileged to be living in an age when one has the option to pursue an education, without having to let go of a career. Of the many benefits of opting for an online course, here are the top 3 reasons that the students of StartUp with UpGrad had told us about: Perhaps the greatest advantage of online education is the convenience it provides to the student. All that time that a post-graduate student would otherwise spend on a traditional form of education, can be invested in more productive forms of learning and on-the-job application of the modalities studied in the course. This is especially useful for budding entrepreneurs, who would need all the real-time experience, they can get. Traditional modalities require you to spend plenty of dedicated time in the classroom, with very limited scope for practical application of your learnings. While most executive programs are designed to provide you with the maximum & the best exposure possible, it cannot provide you with the exact, practical experience that real life can. A working professional, who continues to hold on to his job while pursuing a rigorous course in a certain field of study, is far more likely to have a more realistic perspective of his/her course learnings. This, our students say, is one of the greatest advantages that edtech can provide. Algorithms in online education modules are designed to provide the student-user with a customized learning experience that allows them to grasp course content at their own pace. This is one of the greatest advantages of the online learning mechanism that places it miles ahead of traditional methods of learning and especially suited for working professionals pursuing part-time education. If you want to learn more about marketing and entrepreneurship, Liverpool Business School & upGrad offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) Liverpool Business School which helps you to transform your career. The program provides 1-on-1 mentorship from industry leaders, 1-week immersion program at University campus, dual credentials (MBA from LBS & PGPM from IMT), network with peers at offline basecamps and more.
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by Anirudh Challa

03 Feb'16
How To Launch Your Startup Faster: How To Do it Right?

5.24K+

How To Launch Your Startup Faster: How To Do it Right?

As entrepreneurs, we often sweat about what the first version of our product should look like. We all want it to be so beautiful and highly functional that users fall in love with it instantly. However, many founders have fallen into the trap of building and iterating until no end in search of that elusive perfect product state before ever releasing it to actual users. The core philosophy behind the quote by Reid Hoffman is that the sooner we can validate our assumptions and gain more understanding about how our users react to our product, the better. It reflects the “Release Often and Iterate Fast” mantra increasingly followed by many in the entrepreneurial community. There is immense risk in spending time and money in building product features that don’t solve the core problem that you are you trying to solve for your users, or worse end up turning away your users because you released a bloated product. If a startup is successful, no one will remember how your product looked the day you launched. And if it doesn’t become successful, well then it doesn’t really matter. Think about this, how many launches of successful startups do you remember? Three key things Venture Capitalists look for in Entrepreneurs Below are examples of two of the most successful consumer internet startups in the world – Twitter and LinkedIn, and how their product looked when they launched. Their product design did not really set the house on fire but what it did do was allow them to launch early, gain valuable feedback from their early users and accordingly iterate into hugely successful products. It is very important to remember that releasing early does not automatically mean releasing a buggy product. The reason to launch early is for you to validate your core assumptions with your users and basis that take the decision whether to continue down the same path or take a slightly different one. For this to be true, it is very important that your users are able to understand your core value proposition and derive value from the product you have released. Remember you are launching a “Minimum Viable Product” and not just a minimum product. Learn Best MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career. Entrepreneur’s guide to pitching to investors For us at UpGrad, it was important to test how students interact with the platform, how effective is the learning experience, what should be the process of content development, how do we structure our support team. We very quickly realized that it would take us a long time to build our student platform from scratch which supports the learning experience we were designing (engaging content, peer collaboration, active and regular interaction of students with the platform, etc.). So rather than wait to build the entire platform in-house, we decided to launch our first program early using a third-party platform, while regularly building and plugging elements that we assumed would drive engagement. Sure the user experience on the third party platform was nowhere close to perfect, but it has given us valuable learning as to what drives and does not drive students to engage with our product, and we will be using all this learning while building our own platform for the next set of programs. Idea Validation with Startup With UpGrad It is easy to say but it is a lot harder to actually put this into practice – to release a product that may be in your eyes raw or ugly. When you have a big vision and it has only been partially translated into a product, you would inherently be afraid to show it to users. But by waiting to have a better product before you show it to anyone, you can seriously compromise the intelligence you can gain and the early traction you can build. You will be surprised how often users don’t mind a minimum viable version of your product and look beyond the initial flaws and understand the broader problem your product is trying to solve. If you like to have one-to-one meetings with industry experts, networking with hundreds of entrepreneurs, and bag a seed funding to start your idea, check Leadership & Management program If you want to learn more about marketing and entrepreneurship, Liverpool Business School & upGrad offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) Liverpool Business School which helps you to transform your career. The program provides 1-on-1 mentorship from industry leaders, 1-week immersion program at University campus, dual credentials (MBA from LBS & PGPM from IMT), network with peers at offline basecamps and more.
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by Ravijot Chugh

09 Feb'16
Startup With UpGrad: Students Speak

5.11K+

Startup With UpGrad: Students Speak

At upGrad we have been fortunate to have excellent students from a diverse range of backgrounds join our Entrepreneurship course; lawyers, managers, StartUp founders, and Small and Medium Business owners. What each of these entrepreneurial minds has in common is how much of an influence Startup with upGrad has had on not only improving their skills but actually changing the way they think about business. Those who came from traditional business backgrounds found they had to unlearn much of what they knew, before taking their first steps. Best Career Options After Graduation Approaching the last modules of the program, their thought processes and approaches have changed – “The course has taught me to look at problems in the most pragmatic way – I’m always trying to think like an Entrepreneur”, says Amit from Hyderabad. “I have more clarity on my venture than ever before.” We at upGrad are thrilled at the response from our students towards the flexible structure of the program and the value our participants found in being in a group with like-minded individuals. We are excited to see the longterm partnerships and networks that our alumni will grow into. Learn Best MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career. How do our students describe upGrad? “A bible for any start-up.” “A blessing” “the best thing to happen to my business” “Impactful” “Life changing” What the founder of ThinQbate learned from StartUp with UpGrad? And how do we at upGrad describe our students? Well without hardworking, motivated, engaged students, our collective learning experience wouldn’t be half as excellent as it has been. For our batch of 2015, we are extremely excited to see their future avenues and their growth to the next generation of leading entrepreneurs in the country. And to our new students – Are you ready to take the first steps in upGrading your lives? If you like to have one-to-one with industry experts, networking with hundreds of entrepreneurs, and bag a seed funding to start your idea, check Leadership & Management program If you want to learn more about marketing and entrepreneurship, Liverpool Business School & upGrad offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) Liverpool Business School which helps you to transform your career. The program provides 1-on-1 mentorship from industry leaders, 1-week immersion program at University campus, dual credentials (MBA from LBS & PGPM from IMT), network with peers at offline basecamps and more.
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by Chirag Asnani

19 Feb'16