"To do Big, you need to be Big"

A self-made entrepreneur, Ramesh Babu has always believed that hard work and only hard work makes one successful. The shipping company, he started in 2007 with a handful of people has emerged as an Indian MNC with 30+ branches and 450+ employees offering single window solutions for its clients. As the Managing Director and Founder of Seashell Group, Ramesh Babu's vision and approach has driven the company to become one of the most efficient shipping company. Seashell Logistics Pvt Ltd, today has established itself as one of the important players in the logistics industry in India, offering total logistics, shipping, supply chain solutions under one roof with a global reach. In an exclusive interview with Corporate Citizen, Ramesh Babu talks about his entrepreneurial success story and what it takes to be big in a competitive world

My career journey

I have done my Masters in International Business, from GITAM Deemed University, Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. I was campus recruited by the Tata's in 2001, so I started my career with one of the best and finest organisations. I worked there for six months in marketing, but I was interested in international business and wanted to know more about the trade. I thought shipping would be the best platform to be in. So, I switched my job even though I was better paid at Tata's, to a lesser-known company in Chennai. Those were my initial days when I worked really hard to prove myself that I am definitely different than others. I put my heart and soul in my work to be successful. In those days being a salesperson, I would earn around 700 dollars a month and my passion was to generate in a year, around one shipment of that size and above revenue. That made me happy and that happiness inspired me to move further.

Moving to Mumbai

Initially, during my career, I wanted to settle down in my native place, in Andhra Pradesh. So, there was a position opening in Hyderabad and the company I was working for, initially, offered me that position, but later withdrew that offer. I argued with the management and they said that the position was very small for me and Mumbai is the place where I should be. They wanted me to start a new branch in Mumbai. Initially, I was reluctant moving to Mumbai, because I had never been to Mumbai. The management had promised me that in case I was uncomfortable with the new position, I had the choice to move back to Chennai.

Then I moved to Mumbai, as a Business Centre Head of the company's new branch. I did the whole setup of the company and I ran the branch. I was successful, but from the beginning of my career, I had set a goal that in less than 10 years, I will be starting my own company. That goal was very much clear and known to me-in eight years or so, in 2007, I took a decision of starting my own company, quit my job and started on my entrepreneurial journey.

Taking the entrepreneurial leap

When I started my company, Seashell Logistics in Mumbai, I started very small with a team size of just eight people. The company was registered in the year 2007 and the first year operation started from February 2008. In the year 2008, we started doing good business and I planned to expand my business and have branches elsewhere. We opened our second branch in Chennai because, for the maritime industry, Mumbai and Chennai are the best port cities. And as I am from Andhra, we started our third branch in Hyderabad city and since then it has been a growth story.

"For entrepreneurship and to be successful as one, firstly, you need to be passionate about what you are doing. Then comes the leadership skills how you handle people and situations"

Larger expansion plan

While starting our first branch in Chennai, I took my very close friend and classmate on board. I had him trained under me for some time in Mumbai before moving him to Chennai. Once the Chennai branch was successful, we opened up in Hyderabad and then we had professionals working with us. While in Hyderabad, we wanted to do some big business and a big power project contract came our way. That was the time when tough negotiations were needed, as we were dealing with a 100-year-old organisation. Even though I was well known and giving good service to the organisation, there where ifs and buts, because there were larger organisations as our competitors. That is the time, I took a decision that "When you have to do big, you need to be big", and we need to have a larger expansion plan. I then set a goal to open more than twelve offices within two years.

We drove the business in such a way that in eighteen months, we had eighteen branches opened all over India, in addition to our offices in Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. Through our expansion, we had recruitments of the best people in place, and the best network. We went for campus recruitment every year to have the best brains working for our company. Today, we have around 30 branches all over India and more than 450 employees working for the company. This is our thirteenth year and we are one of the best shipping companies in India. Right from small cargo to full ship, we run everything and are among the very few companies in India that do all the gamuts of activities under one roof. We have companies under group organisation and independent companies doing independent activities.

Corporate Citizen: What were the big challenges you faced when you started your entrepreneurial journey in 2007?

Ramesh Babu: For entrepreneurship and to be successful as one, firstly, you need to be passionate about what you are doing. Then comes the leadership skills how you handle people and situations. When it comes to crisis management, you need to sleep, dream and live with the work, as the buck stops at you. The process is something very vital and one should know in detail as to what is the process. It is always advisable to the new generation, to understand the business before they venture into it and that can only come when you work very hard.

CC: On an entrepreneurship journey you see more failures than success.

Successes are very few because people like to have shortcuts when you choose shortcuts instead of the long associated approach of doing things, you try to choose something which is beyond your capacity. You don't know the process and you are trying to get into it. You don't have a passion and just want to copy what others do. These are all the things which will never work as far as entrepreneurship is concerned. Today, you should definitely see your self as an inexperienced employee when you start fresh and not see yourself with a feather in the cap and stick to your role, thinking there are many other people working. It does not work that way. Those who just see one side of the coin and try to be an entrepreneur, it is not going to work. So, I would advise new entrants deciding to jump on to the entrepreneurial bandwagon, to gain some experience working, to gain knowledge, get hold of the process and the ups and downs of the business, before they start. However, in spite of all this, it's the right time and situation that will make a person successful. When you are at the crossroads, your sense of taking the right calls makes a big difference and impact. You will never see a person having all these qualities and commitment to work, failing. But, success and making it in a bigger way depends on your capabilities and abilities to deal with situations.

"In my initial days, I worked really hard to prove myself that I am definitely different than others. I put my heart and soul in my work to be successful"

CC: As you have been working in the logistics industry for more than 15 years, what are the major changes that have happened over the years for this industry in India?

There has been a phenomenal growth in the logistics industry over this period. When I started working, there were limitations and infrastructure was very poor. Multiple people were involved and logistics was not important. The supply chain management was never considered to be an important topic, also with post-graduation business administration programmes at that time. Whereas now it is being understood, because of China's success story of evolving as a manufacturing hub. It has made the whole world and India also realise that supply chain management is a decisive factor. In today's date, where cheap labour and technology associated people are available, that is the place where supply chain management happens. The market is global, so when the doors are open to the rest of the world, you are no longer in an isolated market. You need to be global and your supply chain, your maturity and proximity, makes a serious impact. That is something I see is improving in India and there is good momentum in the right direction.

In India, ease-of-doing-business was a serious factor which impacts logistics and supply chain management. This government and even the earlier government, they were trying their best to improve it, because good investments were happening through the World Bank. And the World Bank through its report has given a development direction and the government is seriously working to see improvement in ports. Government is doing very good structural and administration changes and changes to the regulations to simplify the procedure so at the end of the day it is easy for anybody to deal with international business.

CC: Logistics in India has been granted Infrastructure status in 2017. How has that helped the industry?

Logistics as infrastructure will always help us to do better. Nowadays with Third Party Logistic (3PL) model and post-GST with warehousing and all that, there are serious investments needed for the port development, warehousing development and technology investments. So not having an infrastructure industry status for logistics was impacting us for the capital availability, flexibility and the drive from the government. We had requested the Ministry of Heavy Industries, around five years back, advocating on this particular issue of giving the infrastructure status, so as to have the subsidies on the capital cost. It has been granted and I am seeing the impact because investments are happening in warehousing and port development.

CC: Now we have a logistics division in the commerce department.

The reason for creating a logistics department we are fortunate to have a regime which knows who is having close proximity with another conglomerate and who are somehow managing the ports. That gives an advantage as there is some kind of serious understanding as far as the logistics is concerned. A few years back they started a separate logistics department they are active and they are trying to understand the needs of different departments, the industry, all the stakeholders, the service providers, and are trying to figure and deal with various issues. Infrastructure and logistics are linked with multiple states, multiple departments, wherein one single nodal agency dealing with all of them will always give you quick results.

"It is always advisable to the new generation, to understand the business before they venture into it and that can only come when you work very hard"

CC: How has GST been a game-changer for the logistics industry?

The GST is a big regulation, which is in favour of logistics. We used to have a situation like 28 states, 28 borders, 28 VAT one tax for one country is a big relief for the industry. Earlier, the industry would like to have their own infrastructure, which was unprotective and had hardly 10-20 per cent utilisation, the only reason being the tax requirements, for which they needed to have that infrastructure. That is all past now. Now we are seeing good strategic locations, deep-pocketed companies and large organisations coming forward for having establishment warehousing. We are going to see the development of logistic parks on a large scale in India very soon.

CC: India's rank has gone up from 54 in 2014 to 44 in 2018 in the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index (LPI), in terms of overall logistics performance. Are we going to see more progress in ease of doing business?

We can't do a jump that we had in the past, but yes, there is a possibility of increasing our position in the LPI ranking. There are still some obsolete laws which are of no use and unnecessary and then there is add-on paperwork. These all issues need to be addressed and I think the government is also looking at it seriously to try to ease it. But they are again loaded with turmoil situation which has slowed down the growth.

CC: Is the slowdown affecting the auto industry?

The auto industry is affected by the slowdown, not only in India but it has been affected globally, because of disruptive innovations. It is not just that the consumer is not willing to spend, but there are multiple factors which are affecting the auto industry. One is the invention of electric vehicles and the development drives taken by the last three successive governments, where-in now the metro rails are coming in. Then you have the technologies which facilitate I mean comfort without having a liability of asset aggregators of different aggregators and new developments happening. The asset is optimised so that you don't need to have an asset just to utilise it today, you can just use 5 to 10 per cent of what was being used before. These are all the factors which are impacting the auto industry and it is a global phenomenon. A bigger factor above this is carbon emissions one way we are making our next generation aware of the environment and educating them on the carbon emission. So, when we are educating people, they will be sensible enough of the utilisation of vehicles and the demands will also reduce. Then congestion the negative aspect of it is that the infrastructure is still lagging and some governments are not active enough in keeping pace with the momentum of the development. All these reasons together are in some way impacting the automobile sector growth.

"It's the right time and situation that will make a person successful. When you are at the crossroads, your sense of taking the right calls makes a big difference and impact"

CC: How are the technology-based interventions improving the logistics industry?

Technology is going to be an evolving factor and a necessary element of a business. The regular affairs of mediocre working will be handled and replaced by Artificial Intelligence. What is need for the moment and will remain are the people who can manage people, manage systems and manage and understand data. One who understands the output and to analyse data and understand what system needs to be told will remain relevant. Not only in shipping and logistics, but every other sector will be impacted with the technology disruption on the employment process to a major extent. Data analytics is going to play a big role because the systems are going to dump so much data without being asked for and how to utilise that data will be an important factor. Tomorrow, taking a decision of anything and everything will majorly depend on artificial intelligence and data analytics. But looking at other side of it with the kind of population we have, with the kind of employment we have, with the kind of Per-Capita we have, the big question is, are we prepared? It is something which is a worrisome factor.

In the days to come, we need to have human resources having the skills to maintain the future technologies, skills to understand the output of these technologies and to understand the people who will run these technologies. We will also need an HR with skills to understand what machines or technology cannot do.

CC: When you go for campus recruitment what are the qualities and skills you look for in the freshers?

We look for aptitude, group dynamics, cross-cultural integration, leadership qualities all these are important factor than your academic grades. Who is a go-getter is always given a preference. In the logistics process, communication and presentation skills is not something we seriously look at. Communication and presentation skills can be learnt and developed through training.

CC: Is there a big opportunity waiting in the growing logistics industry?

I won't say that growth is directly proportional to employment opportunities, the reason being we have not seen that kind of growth in the recent past. What we have seen is, prior to the recession in 2008 and before, there was a sudden growth and there was a demand and supply gap, wherein the demand was more and supply was less. So, there was a sudden kind of a boom in the market. But later on, what happened was the kind of growth what you are seeing is better than the other industries. Because you have less employment happening and much of intakes were not happening, you have people who are available. But the most important thing is whether there are skilled people available who can be retained by the company for the next three-six years, that percentage I think is less.

CC: Some of the astute lessons you learnt over the years in your career and entrepreneurial journey till now.

Sometimes the situation are beyond our control you may have the best of the culture and business in any organisation you are in or any country you are in, you need to be planning. Unless you don't have a plan and you take actions on that plan, it won't work. The macro situation at the moment is actually a discouraging environment. I used to give very little importance to the political environment in the past but now I find that the macro political environment is an important factor for business.

In the initial days, I was not looking at India as very prospective and looked forward to expanding my business overseas and was travelling to different places across the world. I observed that the people in the countries I visited, met and talked with, were more interested in India. Then I realised that when the whole world is looking at India as a very prospective and promising place, what am I doing looking for business in other places. I stopped my overseas expansion plans then and there, completely focused my attention on India and took quick decisions and expanded my business across India

"The Indian Government has rightly sensed the evolution of the post-Covid trade and given slogan for promoting Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan"

CC: How has the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown affected the logistic industry in India? What are the big changes you foresee happening to the logistic industry post-pandemic?

Unfortunately, the pandemic affected all the industries including the logistics globally. Neither the world nor the global economy was prepared for this sudden Covid-19 pandemic. When it comes to the global trade, the pandemic is going to leave the footprint with pre and post-Covid era for global trade. We are still not clear on the direction and the impact. I believe the pandemic has also put a check to globalisation and it further needs to redefine now. The supply chains will be restructured and I also feel the trade will move from globalisation to nationalisation and further localization before restructuring the supply chain.

When it comes to India specifically, our population and their demand for the consumption will benefit the indigenous industry to further grow. The Indian Government has rightly sensed the evolution of the post-Covid trade and given slogan for promoting Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan. This will make large global companies to start their local production for the local demand. The pandemic has also put the ecommerce industry to test wherein consumers even from three-tier towns in the country have started using the ecommerce sites for their household purchases in the lockdown period. This will make an ecosystem of organised logistics, warehousing and distribution system in India.

Coming to the international trade, India is also cautiously taking steps to reduce the net trade deficit. In order to reduce the trade deficit the export trade has to be promoted and incentivised. I am sure there will be more drive to increase the export trade and the Indian Logistics Industry will benefit out of this move. The biggest challenge is we are not sure about how long the pandemic will last as we are not able to see vaccination happening very soon. Disruption by way of trade barriers will increase under the name of protecting each countries local industries or economy. The trade wars may get intensified leading to cold wars among large nations. In my view, globally as well as locally, we are going to face a big gamut of new challenges and uncertainties post-Covid, and this will also last long before it settles. In any case, India can take advantage of this transition and increase the trade relationship and participation in global trade