Young and daring

At 22, Rahul Sirigiri took over the reins of his Auckland-based family business of contract services in 2008 when New Zealand was reeling under recession. He had just graduated with a BSc degree from the University of Auckland but he took up the challenge and saw the company through the crisis.

Recently, this 27-year-old Telugu NRI and general manager of Link 2 Services Ltd bagged the Best Young Entrepreneur award in New Zealand.

Rahul, whose family is from Hyderabad, admits that though clients had started to cut costs due to recession, his agenda was to increase staff, meet the deadlines, survive the recession and increase the turnover of the company. He says, “I joined as the general manager in 2008 and that’s when recession hit us badly. But we were able to survive the recession and the company, which had only 25 staff back then, has 125 employees now with a turnover of $5 million.”

A proud Rahul shares the secret of his success: “I always gave my 100 per cent and had a dedicated aim. I mainly concentrated on increasing the number of staff. We proved to the clients that we were capable of more than what we had been doing and successfully met all the deadlines,” he says, adding, “I suggest all future entrepreneurs to give their 100 per cent in whatever they do. Also one should not give up easily on anything.”

Talking about his biggest achievements, he says, “My biggest achievement this year was when we bought one of our competitors — a New Zealand based company, Apparal Solutions — in April. My duty as a GM is now to look after both the companies and co-ordinate with the managers and clients.”