HE began his career at Blue Star and got interested in international trade, which prompted him to join the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi for a Masters program. While managing several key accounts at the GP Group, like Nestle Worldwide, P&G USA, Lavazza and Kraft Jacob Suchard, Manav Garg refined his knowledge on international trade. “This gave me extensive exposure to the coffee markets of Italy, Korea, Japan, Germany, Vietnam and USA,” he admits.
However, seeing most of the trading houses using outdated technology, he felt the need of a comprehensive commodity trading solution that can entirely meet client requirements. “This prompted me to work towards creating a product that would cater to the needs to these organisations and add much more value in terms of total cost of ownership as compared to the existing methods of technology. This is how Eka Software Solutions came into existence,” Mr Garg recalls. As the CEO of his company, he summarises the journey as being fulfilling. “I have been fortunate to work with some of the best people in the industry who are focused, striving to persevere and are extremely dedicated and committed to what they do. This has enabled us to meet our goals and given us the drive to work towards taking the organisation to higher levels,” he proudly affirms.
His journey was also not a smooth one. “Raising capital, getting the first customer, getting a multi-billion dollar company as our customer and creating product from India were few challenges,” he recalls. But this determined man refused to give up. “We overcame these challenges by relentlessly focusing on customer pain points, creating winning relationships and persevering during hard times,” Mr. Garg states. Today, with a strong team of 100 professionals, Eka creates several software products for its 15 global customers, covering various industrial sectors. The Commodity Trade and Risk management (CTRM) software offered by Eka Software Solutions is used by commodity buyers, sellers and traders worldwide to manage positions, risk, profit and loss (P&L), gain operational efficiencies, compliance and reporting. Being an initiator of key risk management practices for hedging green coffee in New York Board of Trade and London International Financial and Futures Exchange, he believes, “With increased volatility in commodities, risk management and hedging is a necessity to manage your position, P&L and exposures.” What sets the company apart is the way it engages with its customers. “This includes the efforts we put in to understand their requirements thoroughly, our flexibility, the working relationships we form, our solution ideas, technical capabilities, how we structure the project governance and delivery, and our long-term customer-centric relationship approach,” Mr. Garg elaborates. Commenting on the future plans of the company, he says, “We intend to ramp-up operations over the next year to service our clients and expand our presence in geographies such as Americas, EMEA and APAC. We plan to become a 100 million dollar company by 2012.”
Mr. Garg feels entrepreneurship in India is slowly coming of age. “It’s important to do your homework well, try to find out how and where you can build your competencies/skills and be extremely focused in your approach,” he suggests on a concluding note.
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