Academic Year: PGP 2012- 2014

Pandora IT Solutions

Faculty :- Mr Abhijit Mukhopadhyay, Ms Aparna Kaushik, Ms Jyoteshwar Kaur Dua & Ms Shipra Goel

Student :- Apurva Singh

PGP Number :- PG20121122

Pandora IT SolutionsIntroductions

Pandora IT Solutions is a leading web and mobile development organization providing Professional web-development services, eCommerce development, Internet Branding and SEO Services across various industry verticals. Our expert developers work with Agile Methodologies and best practices to provide high quality website, web application, android and iPhone APP.

Their Mission is to provide Quality Solutions and Services efficiently so that the client can achieve their Business Goals. We strive for long term relationship with our clients through our focus on Customer Satisfaction, commitment to Quality and exceeding Customer Expectations. Most of our relationships begins with a project and prospers to a long-term Strategic Business Partnership, with Pandora IT Solutions™ sharing similar risks and investing in building capabilities. Our constant drive for excellence begins right from hiring the right people to providing the right infrastructure and rewarding environment to bring out the best from our Delivery Team. Based on this foundation and continuous improvement through capability building and training, we keep exceeding customer expectations and show a high level of customer satisfaction. See what our satisfied clients have to say about us. Pandora IT Solutions™ journey began after his CEO realized , when he was a employee that most of the s/w companies are just targeting clients of countries like US, UK, South Africa just for money no matter if the things are delivered correctly and in timely manner or not and just wanted money. It is then Mr. Abhijeet Singh Tyagi with his wife and mother came up with a dream to make the outside India customers happy by working honestly as these customers are the one who provides major hands for incoming foreign currency to the small medium based companies. And he is still fighting to make sure that India reputation does not go more down compared to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia like countries which are overtaking India now by their honest work.

Mr Abhijeet Singh Tyagi has always had a dream to open a company inspiring from his Granna Late Mr Jeevan Lal Sah who was again Uttar Pradesh first person to create a pocket transistor. With his wife Mrs Reena Tyagi and mother Mrs Vibha Singh when he was in job to start the things. At that the two great women’s were the great personality to look after pandora when she was a baby. At this same stage Mr Tom Revell also helped Mr AST and finally Pandora established their office in New Jersey, Haddonfield, United States.

Later when after a couple of months Mr AST finally decided to come full time leaving about the monthly income of 1 L/M and started Pandora in faith that he can do this and he has right age of 33 and right experience of 12 years at this stage.

During my interview with Mr Tyagi I talked to him on many issues and Challenges he faced, some of them i have highlighted below :-

Financial issue as he was not born with a silver spoon: - This was one of the concern because to be an Entrepreneur somewhere or the other you do required finance and this was the biggest challenge be faced by this Entrepreneur as he was not the one who was born with silver spoon so things were very much clear in his mind that whatever he have to do he completely has to rely on himself and just on himself and nobody else. After leaving his job and coming to Pandora his 80% of income he had to recycle to Pandora to bring more computers and hire first employee. In fact Mr Tyagi is so down to earth person that he even did not had a laptop and had to use her wife’s laptop initially for one year. He did not disclose the figures but initially it was not even half of his salary in first 2 months. But finally after 4 months he managed to bring one computer (still using her wife’s laptop) and hire first employee. Later on everything started slowly and grew in next month with 5 developers and there after the glory kept on going.

Generated alternative course of action: - Weather to disclose the figure of earning to his family or not to.

Choose between alternatives: - He didn’t disclose the figure of earning to his family as this may tensed the family and moral.

My observation: - I Think he did the right thing as disclosing the figure of earning to his family as this may tensed the family and moral or may be the chances are his family might have forced him to discontinue with the new company.

Challenges to trust his idea: - The very next challenge was to trust his idea because risk involvement was very high with this concept and the biggest thing was to resign from the current job and focus completely on an idea to make it come true, but as the quote is said “Risk is something which can make you or even can break” knowing this and on his back his family that was the major tension a wife and a 1year old baby girl and to look after them and at the least make sure their basic three time bread and shelter won’t go out of their head. This was one of the major challenge faced by him and according to him this pressure actually made him to check at least ten times and 360 degree before going ahead with any investment and to solve any problem related to money and this actually makes him a perfect Entrepreneur who has the ability to

take calculated risk. Last most difficult part was that he was selected in a very good CMMI level 4 companies with an excellent package at the same time when he resigned to decide to come to Pandora. Now this is the toughest decision to choose a good and easy life with an excellent package and a good position in a Brand Company what everybody desires or to start something of his own ,to bring his dream into reality about which even he was not sure that how much time it will take, will anybody support him…He only knew one thing that His decision is the right decision because he wants power in his own hands, and he was determined enough to bring his dream into reality so he choose to go ahead with his idea. His vision was very clear and He was very confident about his determination.

Generated alternative course of action: - Weather to go ahead with his idea and open up a company or stay as employee for the rest of life.

Choose between alternatives: - Go ahead with his idea

My observation: - I Think this part is the most risky part of life decision especially when you’re the one who is not born with silver spoon this is what the starting of a true entrepreneur.

Challenges to look after his own family after leaving the job: - Now this was the biggest challenge face by him as if having a responsibilities its quite very difficult to go ahead with your idea when you don’t have enough money and at same time you have a wife and a kid to look after within your salary and you also need to put up your idea on the track, so to tackle this problem he came up with an idea i.e. do your job and initially hire two employees and come back home and work on your company. Every day he used to go office from 10 to 9 and thereafter he used to work from home from 10 to 6 merely sleeping for about 4 hours a day for almost a period of 8 months. This was a big challenge as the workload got double, during this time period he was even unable to give time to his family, Also his family also played an important role by understanding him and his wife who is a qualified HR had help him up in the company beside her household work.

Generated alternative course of action: - Leave the job and give full time to your company or do the job and be a part time work for your own company.

Choose between alternatives: - Leave the job and give full time to your company

My observation: - I Think that was the right decision, part time doesn’t work for long he you believe in your idea then be bold and go ahead, so a right decision.

Challenges to handle 40 engineers in India and 2 sales team in U.S: - Although he had an experience of Project manager in his last company and do have 10 years of work experience in handling the Technical and Business development team, but to handle others company and handling your own company there is a big difference, yes he was set free to handle as he wish, but handling once own company was a bit different and yet sophisticated. Main challenges came when you have to deal the employee with your own decision as he was not MBA student who have all the knowledge of Business administration. In this area his wife who is an MBA having knowledge of Business administration helped him in taking right decisions and acted as an bridge between management and employees. She created HR policies for the company and take care of all the issues related with HR & Administration. She along with her husband created policies which are very much employee oriented to keep employees happy. They want their employees to be happy because their main Mantra was that if your employees are happy they work for the benefit of the company and any they make you happy.

Generated alternative course of action: - Handle your employers as a manager or as a leader or both.

Choose between alternatives: - Both

My observation: - I Think that was the right decision, Once you are holding a post of CEO of the company, definitely you need to be both a leader and a manager because you need the results and also well-being of your company and your employers.

Funding problems: - There were many partners out there who were ready to invest on the company, but involving partners means creating barriers in the company as others will start compelling their idea which may not be appropriate, he wanted his idea to be fully implicated so he didn’t go for any partnership instead he made his family members as legal partners for the company. So, to initially when he started working in Pandora he almost worked for 20 hours a day for and in about two months he was able to purchase 2 computers. But still for next 6-8 months he still used to work for about 20 hours, at last purchased 5 more computers. But story just not stops here then as the employees grows the next problems were like Air Conditions, coffee machine, lunch room etc. too for which he had to still save the funds every month. Here again his wife helped him a lot by cutting her home budget. Their main focus was their company. So initially because of low funds he started his company from home with two computers and then on it keeps on increasing to 8 computers and on and establish an office nearby to vishrantwadi, pune and an office in New Jersey, USA and never looked back.

Generated alternative course of action: - Have a partnership or not to have a partnership.

Choose between alternatives: - Not to have a partnership.

My observation: - I Think that was a tricky decisions, as I think having a partnership not only solves the funding problem which Mr Tyagi was facing, but it also helps you in your aiding your idea and chances of better can be developed more and quicker.

Unexpected resignations of key employees: - The next problem was to start a company in IT hub like pune, it’s extremely difficult to retain your employees for long time because your competitor & the demand of employees in the pune is quite very high and the investment put-up on training up the employees are quite high and after 3 to 5 months only your employee can become productive, that means your complete one month salary goes in vain. Now to handle this problem he sit with me and we come up with a plan where we change our policy, we introduced new plan where we put new employees who are under training with Rs 5000/- stipend is given with extending the working days from 5 days a week to 6 days a week, if someone learn at a good speed and become productive before finishing his/her training we immediately increased his/her salary as per company norms, this way employees were become more proactive gives more hours to the company in order to become productive and earn more simple.

Generated alternative course of action: - Continue with the same rule or change the rule.

Choose between alternatives: - Change the rule.

My observation: - In this case as it was me who was serving as a employ of Pandora IT Solutions and fortunately I helped Mr Tyagi with this idea, so I definitely feel it was the right decision.

Challenges to provide 24x7x365 service to its customers: - Now the question was how to attract your customer so that they should go ahead with Pandora rather than any known or well established company and answer to this questions was provide the customer not only high quality but working with mind of long term relationship but also good suggestions even though it was not profitable to the company and this made the long term relationship. Whenever customers wished to call us he provided 24 X7 hours support so that globally all the client leads can be captured. This concept actually delights the customer and spread good mouth of words to other customers as well and this is how the company networks actually gain its growth thru out the

world. Today Pandora on biggest freelancing portal with highest number or repeat clients.

Generated alternative course of action: - Go ahead with a different concept or follow the concept as what IT companies follows.

Choose between alternatives: - Go ahead with a different concept.

My observation: - I think this was the concept which was really good and I actually learn a lot out of it.

Challenges to provide better services then to its competitor specially giants like TCS, Infosys, HCL, etc.: - When you do big the big fish will certainly like to eat you up and the companies like TCS, Infosys and HCL were concern about this company as the company growth is 400%. The challenges were not to provide excellent service but to provide a delightful service. So that not only customer come back to you but also tell others about the services to other and thus generates new customers as well. In fact few companies tried to come with fake names to know Pandora’s strategy but were easily caught by Mr Tyagi and so he did not further entertained them.

Generated alternative course of action: - Join hands with a big company and be a Vice president of there company or denied them and be your own boss.

Choose between alternatives: - Denied them and be your own boss.

My observation: - I think this was a good decision when you work so hard for your company then why to let others lead your company. I have seen a similar example where Mr Gopi Nath (founder of Air Deccen) operated well but when Vijay Mallya puts joining hands and converted Air Deccen as Kingfisher Red and at the end nobody remembers Mr Gopi Nath and Kingfisher totally lost its market and grounded. Hence Mr tyagi took the right decisions.

Challenges to make customer to trust: - This was the biggest challenge why a

customer will trust a new company. Initially this was a big problem, but gradually when people started seeing the product in their surrounding they started talking about it they started believing it and thus, the trust was build up. For this since start 100% deliverables were made in time with highest quality. There after every customer gave referrals and projects counts kept on increasing.

Analysis & Recommendations

As per the above story I found Mr Tyagi to be extremely hardworking and sincere for his company and a true entrepreneur. Although I find if some of his strategy if was different, then they might be having much better growth in the beginning era of his company. If I were been there in place of him I would have certainly gone for partnership as this have lower down my initial starting burden and by this I would have been as big as HCL company is. Rest of the things I really found out to be extremely efficient, especially the way he work in the office and after coming back home again in his company at the starting of his company. I also learn how important it is to trust yourself in order to go ahead with your idea. It certainly helps to have strong technology skills or expertise in a key area, but these are not defining characteristics of entrepreneurship. Instead, the key qualities are traits such as creativity, the ability to keep going in the face of hardship, and the social skills needed to build great teams. If you want to start a business, it's essential to learn the specific skills that underpin these qualities. It's also important to develop entrepreneurial skills if you're in a job role where you're expected to develop a business, or "take things forward" more generally. I also learn how does one person successfully take advantage of an opportunity, while another, equally knowledgeable person does not. To be a successful entrepreneur, you'll have to work closely with people – this is where it is critical to be able to build great relationships with your team, customers, suppliers, shareholders, investors, and more. To be a successful entrepreneur you need to have skills which includes Leadership and Motivation, Communication Skills, Listening, Personal Relations, Negotiation skills, Ethics, Creative Thinking, Problem Solving, Recognizing Opportunities, Goal Setting, Time management, Planning and Organizing, Decision Making, Business knowledge, Entrepreneurial knowledge, Opportunity-specific knowledge, and Venture-specific knowledge.

Lastly I am completely amazed by the strategy he has taken in foundations of this company and I find him up a true entrepreneur of modern era.