Sunday, March 23, 2003		Life Ties

Challenging destiny fearlessly
Taru Bahl

JUST by looking at Sita’s frail frame, since she was five foot nothing, you could not imagine that she was such a dynamo of energy. She could outwit an Israeli when it came to getting a discount on any business deal, she was more aggressive than a Punjabi in blatantly pushing herself, irrespective of how inelegant it seemed so long as she had a contract in her pocket. Without getting dejected, she could follow up with a prospective client in the hope of forming a strategic partnership.

At 38, her phenomenal success story was an ideal case study for business schools since it had all the ingredients of struggle, failure, rejection and heartbreak. A successful businesswoman, she had singlehanded created in 20 years of professional existence an enterprise that had a net worth of Rs. 5 crore.

The only child from her father's first marriage, she had learnt to grab in order to survive when she was all of three years old and her father had remarried. Conforming to the fairy tale stereotype, her stepmother was always more indulgent to her own brood than to that of her husband. If at all this hurt little Seema, she chose to block it from her memory. She learnt the most crucial lesson in life early, that "blaming others rarely took you anywhere. If at all, one had to learn from the situations that are thrown up in life and battle with them, making sure it is you who come out on top." So however hard her step mom tried to distance her from her dad, she could not succeed because Seema anticipated every move and had her own counter-strategy in place. She knew exactly how to tug at her father's heart strings, make him feel guilty and get him to relent to her demands.

Without having read Ayn Rand's Virtue of Selfishness, she practised most of its idioms and continued being her father's favourite baby. Disinterested in studies, all she wanted to do was set up a shop and make money. Her father would not hear of her dropping out of school. A basic education was something she had to tuck under her belt before getting married. How else would he fulfill his parental obligation ? She capitalised on this emotion and told him not to worry, instead he should help out by giving her whatever money he had set aside for her marriage so that she could start her own venture. With great reluctance, he gave in seeing her complete disinterest in academics and the desperation to branch out independently.

On her 18th birthday, she got her father to inaugurate a tailoring unit which she had set up in a rented accommodation. This was not to be the usual neighbourhood darzi. She knew there was a demand for well-fitted clothing for designer outfits at non-designer rates. There was a huge market to be tapped. She spent money on devising a low-cost but effective advertising campaign selling the concept of having a tailor come home to take your measurements, offer you fashion consultancy and customise Indian and western outfits for maximum impact. Since the target audience was the middle class housewife, young collegiate and fashion-conscious working woman her market potential was enormous. She built up a database and procured membership lists from clubs, credit card companies and department stores, making personal contact with each one of them. She had no qualms about doing door-to-door calls after fixing appointments. She did not get too pushy with her services but packaged the entire thing so attractively that it was difficult not to give this convenient tempting service a try. Her management principles were clear from the beginning, namely not to fleece the customer, build a long-term relationship and focus on volumes by keeping prices low.

Within a year, she had more than 20 tailors working for her, the business grew and she no longer needed to make house visits. She had employed a few college graduates and the entire thing was done with panache. She sold over five franchises in the city. There were some errors of judgement but every mistake led to a few lessons. Her childhood training had taught her to look at things dispassionately and not to let emotions cloud hard-core business decisions. She sold out when she was offered a .good price and concentrated on strengthening her export orders through merchandising houses. Initially, the margins were low but gradually she understood how the cookie crumbled. She went abroad and participated in trade shows, procured orders and kept expanding.

Her greatest strengths stemmed from her practical and earthy wisdom. She knew that there were no free lunches in life. She also was acutely conscious that if she allowed any hesitation or ego hassles to come in her way, she might as well not do business. Which is why she was never too dejected by a deal not working out or somebody cheating her by not sticking to a commitment. She had become a good judge of people and had a strong instinct about what would and wouldn't work. Yet, there were times she felt that it was a dog-eat-dog situation, for you never knew when a so-called business associate would stab you in the back. However, she never dwelt too long on any unpleasant occurrence.

Sita had an amazing resilience to put things behind her besides her basic premise was that nothing came easy in life. Ups and downs were an integral part of human existence. Lamenting over things which did not work out was something she had never done. She had always found a way around situations, however daunting they maybe. Even if she had been manipulating, slightly scheming or street smart while driving a tough bargain or cutting prices to stay ahead in competition she had done it with the simplicity of a well-intentioned business woman whose only objective was to keep the cash registers ringing.

Sita did not conform to societal norms. She had her own laws of living and loving. She had steered clear of marriage till she was 35 and when she did marry it was to a European with whom she had a live-in relationship of over 6 years. During which time her father battled with cancer, making her move in with her parents. She took the entire responsibility of the family, including her stepmother and three step brothers/sisters. Her father died a happy and relieved man. His daughter had chosen to live life by her own rulebook but he was happy with the way she had turned out. Hard working, focused and well meaning, she had her head and heart in the right place. And he was grateful to her for freeing him of guilt and misgiving. She told him on his deathbed that he could not have been a better father and that whatever she had achieved in life was because of him. Even the adverse situations which had come her way because of some of his decisions had actually taught her very vital lessons.