Hyderabad: “Whatever happens, it happens for good,” goes the famous adage. It seems more appropriate and perfect especially in the hindsight.
“We need to believe in this principle and do our bit by working really hard. The success then won’t shy awar from you,” says Y.V. Giri, who grew from being an ordinary sales person to becoming the promoter of CorpOne, a company that manages back-end operations of most telecom companies in Andhra Pradesh and some in Tamil Nadu.
Giri, who comes from a lower middle class family, owns a company that employs around 1,500 people, mostly youngsters, for call centre operations and CAF management for Aircel, Tata Docomo. Uninor, MTS, Airtel, Idea, Reliance, Vodafone in Andhra Pradesh.
“We have complete dominance in the Andhra Pradesh market, serve two clients in Tamil Nadu and have a small presence in Karnataka. So, to sum up, we are at a critical stage of growth, poised for national expansion.”
The transition hasn’t come about easily nor was it a planned one. “I was born into a lower middle class family. My father was an employee at erstwhile Praga Tools and mother was an agent for National Savings Certificates. And, I started working from the age of 18 — first as a sales person at Chermas garments showroom.”
Giri, who is a successful entrepreneur in his field, entered into back-end operations by chance.
“I had lost my job at Profad, an advertising firm. Since I didn’t have any job, my friend offered an opportunity to work for GE Money. So in 1999, I started the company (then named as CK Associates) with 10 people and an investment of Rs 40,000 borrowed from my mother. Later, I understood the growth opportunities in this field and kept growing the company,” the 45-year-old explains.
Having worked in difficult fields like sales, marketing and advertising, where success depends on making people buy your argument, Mr Giri has the knack of pitching for new clients. “Apart from telecom companies, we also serve a multinational pharma firm and a Guj-arat-based oil refinery,” says Mr Giri.
“The desire to start something on my own was always there in me. It was my mother who inspired me to start off on my own. Despite being a homemaker, she used to work as a NSC agent and did small home-based businesses to compliment my father’s income. My wife stood behind me in difficult times, such as when I lost my job just after my marriage. Now, she helps me by handling most important function of HR.”
Spelling out his future strategy, Giri says CorpOne would to diversify by its client base by taking up insurance, pharma, FMCG projects, as a de-risk strategy. “Going forward, we want to grow nationally, which could further enhance our reach and profitability. For investment, we are in search for strategic investors, who could help us to take-off on the next level of growth.”
