Business is hard to come by these days, and people dabble in the enquiry more than the actual order, nobody thinks twice about letting a supplier down to get another one at cheaper rates. In these tough times, there is a client of mine who I have started to admire a lot, he is a smart intelligent old man, with enough money savvy to put most so called financial veterans to shame. I met him again this morning, Mr Bahl was just lighting up a Gold Flake cigarette when I walked into his room. The room itself was nothing fancy, a quiet man of refined tastes, it featured a desk and a chair, a sitting room that had leather sofas and two grand pictures of his forefathers who were Sikhs themselves like me. While he finished his cigarette, I fished out my spectacles to stare at the two pictures.
"Relatives ?" I asked curiously.
"Yes, my great grandfather and grandfather." he replied back.
"They look great, an epitome to Sikhism."
"Yes, they gave me enough entrepreneurial blood in them to last my full life time."
"They were businessmen."
"We have always been businessmen, working hard for our money, talking to people and figuring out whats going on, before taking decisions on what to sell and how to sell."
Theory, I knew on the tip of my hand and he had all the practical skills to make it work, my forefathers had also been businessmen of immense skill and knowledge, patience had been the keyword with them, wait till the time was right. The Rs 1000 Crore order was on the platter with Bahl, he had worked for it, with associates close to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the tender was big and he wanted me to get at least three companies in with large manufacturing and installation capabilities. For the project to work in our favour we would have to work hard on our presentations, have the companies shell out bank guarantees to get 90% advance and make friends with the high ups in the government, the perfect recipe for a political intrigue.
When I finished the meeting with Bahl, he was happy that we had worked out the modalities, the payments terms between us and the parent company, now all that was left was a trip to Lucknow on the designated date for the presentations. During the time that the trip would happen we had our work cut out, which included making the presentation and rehearsing our parts for it. I wanted that personal touch to come out in our presentations, they had to be crisp and precise, talk about exactly what was written in the tender and if we qualified as L1 it would be an incredible feat achieved in a short span of time. Such was the passage of life, that I had seen many peoples lives change with one big order and if ones time was right, there would be no looking back.
As me and Mr Bahl indulged in some wishful thinking, his Man Friday got us some tea and cakes, it was raining outside and I was feeling the heat come down, in the distant the heat vapours were rising as cold water fell on the baked earth, it was incredible feeling, give or take, whether we got the order or not, at least we had made friends with each other and put the acrimony of the past behind us.
If its planned well with the right people, the fall of the dice doesn't hurt.
"Relatives ?" I asked curiously.
"Yes, my great grandfather and grandfather." he replied back.
"They look great, an epitome to Sikhism."
"Yes, they gave me enough entrepreneurial blood in them to last my full life time."
"They were businessmen."
"We have always been businessmen, working hard for our money, talking to people and figuring out whats going on, before taking decisions on what to sell and how to sell."
Theory, I knew on the tip of my hand and he had all the practical skills to make it work, my forefathers had also been businessmen of immense skill and knowledge, patience had been the keyword with them, wait till the time was right. The Rs 1000 Crore order was on the platter with Bahl, he had worked for it, with associates close to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the tender was big and he wanted me to get at least three companies in with large manufacturing and installation capabilities. For the project to work in our favour we would have to work hard on our presentations, have the companies shell out bank guarantees to get 90% advance and make friends with the high ups in the government, the perfect recipe for a political intrigue.
When I finished the meeting with Bahl, he was happy that we had worked out the modalities, the payments terms between us and the parent company, now all that was left was a trip to Lucknow on the designated date for the presentations. During the time that the trip would happen we had our work cut out, which included making the presentation and rehearsing our parts for it. I wanted that personal touch to come out in our presentations, they had to be crisp and precise, talk about exactly what was written in the tender and if we qualified as L1 it would be an incredible feat achieved in a short span of time. Such was the passage of life, that I had seen many peoples lives change with one big order and if ones time was right, there would be no looking back.
As me and Mr Bahl indulged in some wishful thinking, his Man Friday got us some tea and cakes, it was raining outside and I was feeling the heat come down, in the distant the heat vapours were rising as cold water fell on the baked earth, it was incredible feeling, give or take, whether we got the order or not, at least we had made friends with each other and put the acrimony of the past behind us.
If its planned well with the right people, the fall of the dice doesn't hurt.
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