FROM IDEA TO PRODUCT
THE STORY OF TRINITY COMNET
A Workshop on Innovation by Subhash and Archana at Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore
Mr. Subhash and Ms. Archana are an entrepreneur-innovator couple from Palghat and in this workshop, they shared with us the story of an entire 15 years of innovation and entrepreneurship. Archana introduced subhash and spoke about their early years at Delhi, about the difficulties they faced and how they started a whole chain of NIIT franchises in Kerala. After 15 years they finally bid goodbye to it and finally floated their own venture, Trinity Coment, a logistics solutions company.
They began their talk by telling that their venture was at an important transition stage as of now as they are looking for the second round of scale up of their private equity funded company, Trinity Comnet and would be shifting their headquarters shortly from Palghat to Bangalore. The new office would commence working from 3rd January, and thus, a few weeks before embarking on the new journey, these entrepreneurs shared with us, innovation students, about the roadblocks, about their successes and about innovation in general. Subhash also spoke about Intellectual Property Rights and about their importance in innovation.
Subhash spoke about the days when he and Archana were fresh graduates. 25 years back, it was all about the “Job Market”, now there is a paradigm shift. Incubation and placement are given a lot of importance. What young people lack is experience. But they have a fresh perspective towards things. He began by expressing his happiness over the fact that ASB had a dedicated course on Innovation.
Subhash spent a while on the concept of ideation[/b], the primary stage of innovation. During the Pre Idea stage, we have to look at how feasible the idea is, what gap it addresses, what can be combined, what can be done differently etc., inorder to generate revenue. In short, an innovative idea must be “commercialisiable”. Identify a need that can be filled by your product. Add value, or net benefits you can give with the product. In the end, it should differentiate and has to be unique and it should address the gap.
The next step is identifying key resources[/b]. Elements like talent (people who have the ability to deliver the value you want to), raw materials, distribution channels, process and technology etc., are the most important ones which every business needs. After the framework has been laid, we should look at the statutory compliances[/b]. This includes registration and other legal aspects of the business.
Once you have identified these components, you should convert them in to a business plan. A business plan essentially contains key activities, resources, partners, revenue flows, cost structure, customer segments, relationship management and your value proposition.
The next stage is the most testing stage, locating the Source of Funds. [/b]You can either shell out money from your own pockets (with help of friends, family etc) or approach a bank for loans. The banks in India haven’t yet become idea friendly and are very risk averse. Then you approach a venture capitalist, for equity funding.
“The most important part of your business plan (which you present to Venture capitalists) would be your profit and loss statements. They would grill you on the figures ruthlessly. Your commitment towards the idea and leadership abilities is very important. However, a VC will not be able to place trust in you unless you are faithful to your idea. Integrity is absolutely essential.” Subhash said.
Another element which should be concentrated upon is the Value Proposition[/b]. [/b]How will you address the market, how will you communicate to the customer etc are very important. Equally important is the product lifecycle[/b]. Subhash spoke about disruptive technologies like digital cameras, mobile phones etc that killed the lifecycle of their predecessors.
Ecosystem Partners are an important component for any successful business. You cannot do a business on your own. He cited the example of his own firm for illustrating how important partners are.
For their emergency response system/ distress call handling, Centre for development in advanced computing (CDAC) is an important partner for them. BSNL gives them the database. They map phone lines to a digital map (with an accuracy of 60cm). This enabled the Police (customer) to track the source of distress call with immense accuracy. With the data given by BSNL, Trinity Comnet geo codes the data. Police vehicles fitted with GPS get a map, that shows the location from where the call has come. Dell is also an important partner as they provide Trinity with the Data Centre Technology. Airtel and BSNL provide the communication layers. Thus each element of partners is very important for the success of their business.
After elaborating on his business firm, Subhash continued on how to attract VCs. He reiterated the fact that VCs are not looking for dividends, but for enterprise valuation. For this it is important to analyse the space you are in, the growth potential, competitors, geographic locations and scalability. Emerging markets are really attractive, and Trinity is planning to go global soon.
“All VCs test the innovators for commitment to the idea. They might suddenly stop funding just to see how committed you are to your idea” added Archana.
Subhash also admitted that a lot of it happens on gut instinct. He does not employ a lawyer. He learnt all the nuances himself and negotiates with VCs.
In the last part of the workshop Subhash spoke about Intellectual Property and his experience with patents.
Trinity works on solutions for secure logistics. They understood that there is an immense amount of cash on Indian roads. “At any given point in time, there is about 1.2 lac crore INR on the road”, noted Subhash. Banks move money within districts, between branches, to ATMs etc. Movement of jewellery is also happening. Trinity is trying to bring tracking surveillance solutions to make these boxes “intelligent boxes” by fitting them with cameras and tracking them. They are also holding provisional patents in this sector.
For obtaining a patent, the first stage is to employ an agency to search for existing patents in a domain. The Indian database is very amorphous in nature, that presents challenges. Patents are regional in nature. There are world bodies like WIPO and PCT, and these respect members’ patents.
Subhash spoke about how good lawyers are essential for patenting process. He also told us that for a PCT patent, the charges are nearly 40,000USD and that it takes nearly 3-4 years by the time your patent comes through. Once patented, the owner is protected for 20 years through IPR. He dwelled for a while on industries like pharmaceuticals which are entirely dependent on patenting, as they introduce generic drugs on the expired patents. Subhash concluded his talk by giving a broad overview of copyright and design registration.
This workshop on Innovation focussed on the left brained innovator. The nuances like logic, the numbers and funding processes which are equally important to make a brilliant idea happen. It went beyond ideation and gave us a full picture about how we could make our dream company happen.
Anitha