Vinayak
The Indian consumer has always been sold on value. Mahendra Vinayak Vichare, the managing director of Vichare Courier, realised this very early in his career. He founded Vichare with just Rs 50,000. Today, 10 years later, Vichare Courier has grown to become a Rs 30-crore company and is the courier company of choice in Mumbai.
A commerce graduate from Siddharth College of Commerce, Mumbai, Mr Vichare ventured into the courier business without any experience whatsoever. "At that time, nobody in the family had even heard of a courier but there was no resistance. My parents had faith in me and there was constant support," says Mr Vichare. When Vidhare started operations the service of delivering letters, in Mumbai, was majorly dominated by angadias or by India Post. While the angadias were hugely disorganised, India Post took pride in being an organisation with a bad delivery record. "The postal department's service was the cheapest, Rs 3 per letter but it also the most inefficient, taking at times, three to five days to deliver a letter within the city," he says. Vichare exploited exactly that gap in the market.
He set shop and introduced the concept of "next-day delivery" service at rates equivalent to India Post's Rs 3. But why would anyone believe him? Technically, very few should have but charity organisations who are typically frugal in their spends decided to bet on him, especially Rotary Club. Mahendra managed to cultivate good relations with the members of the club, who later on became his corporate clients. Later, a contract system was also started for corporate clients at cheaper rates. "Initially, the customers thought we were fools, offering same day deliveries at such cheap rates but then we capitalised on that and soon our name had spread across all business houses who were keen to sign us up for their postal deliveries," says Mr Vichare.
He recalls a customer from central Mumbai who thought that a move for cheap rates was foolish business sense,
A commerce graduate from Siddharth College of Commerce, Mumbai, Mr Vichare ventured into the courier business without any experience whatsoever. "At that time, nobody in the family had even heard of a courier but there was no resistance. My parents had faith in me and there was constant support," says Mr Vichare. When Vidhare started operations the service of delivering letters, in Mumbai, was majorly dominated by angadias or by India Post. While the angadias were hugely disorganised, India Post took pride in being an organisation with a bad delivery record. "The postal department's service was the cheapest, Rs 3 per letter but it also the most inefficient, taking at times, three to five days to deliver a letter within the city," he says. Vichare exploited exactly that gap in the market.
He set shop and introduced the concept of "next-day delivery" service at rates equivalent to India Post's Rs 3. But why would anyone believe him? Technically, very few should have but charity organisations who are typically frugal in their spends decided to bet on him, especially Rotary Club. Mahendra managed to cultivate good relations with the members of the club, who later on became his corporate clients. Later, a contract system was also started for corporate clients at cheaper rates. "Initially, the customers thought we were fools, offering same day deliveries at such cheap rates but then we capitalised on that and soon our name had spread across all business houses who were keen to sign us up for their postal deliveries," says Mr Vichare.
He recalls a customer from central Mumbai who thought that a move for cheap rates was foolish business sense,