Hyderabad: For the success of a business, a good management is as important as the product itself. Several people have made fortune just by reviving companies that have fallen sick due to inefficient management. Padmasree Gunn-ala belongs to this creed.
Padmasree, a young home maker who was a lawyer by education, found reviving a sick company more interesting and challenging. “In 2005, I was planning to start a business as I was always interested in entrepreneurship. My friend suggested me to start a unit in ancillary sector. He had an experience in that sector. So we partnered to buy a sick company and revived it to be known as Mudra Flexible Printers and Laminators,” she told this newspaper.
Mudra operates in the roto-packaging industry, which manufactures food-grade packaging products. Its specialty lies in catering to all kinds of flexible packaging material in multi-colour printing and laminations.
The partners, however, later found that acquiring a sick company will have its own share of hiccups. And Padmasree was very quick to realise that getting a bank loan for a sick company was very difficult.
“So we pooled in about '6 lakh for working capital as no bank was forthcoming to help us. The same was the case with customers. It took pretty long time for us to convince customers to give us orders as they were unsure about our business continuity,” she recalled.
A well-trained karata, Padmasree had to endure testing time when her factory was gutted in a fire accident. “I don’t whether I can call it a turning point or not; but the fire accident that gutted my factory has strengthen my resolve to succeed and it showed my customers’ faith in me.”
Mudra, which started off with 18 clients, claims a fairly strong customer base of 700 companies, comprising varied spectrum starting from MSMEs to MNCs. The customers spread across sectors like food and FMCG, pharmaceuticals, agro industries, bio-technology, cement, automobiles, distilleries and many more - both in India and abroad.
Though successful in business, Padmasree rues about the fact that her work-life balance was skewed towards business and as a result, she could not focus on the upbringing of her son, who is now pursuing engineering course. “I feel woman entrepreneurs must focus on this aspect also.”
Padmasree was among the chosen few to be a part of the Golman Sachs 10,000 Women’s program-me along with Indian School of Business (ISB).
Ask her about her success mantra and she is quick to respond saying, “hard work.” She explains that there is no other alternative for hard work, quality and customer satisfaction. Mudra saw the growth from being a small scale enterprise to a medium scale enterprise and now, Padmasree, only dreams of Mudra to flourish with a better annual turnover every year.
(In association with jobsdialog.com of TMI e2E Academy)
