Runner-up most inspirational story on small scale entrepreneur from student team from IMI Delhi

Success Story of a small entrepreneur
From AFTERSCHOOOL

We are extremely grateful to Kundan Kishore and Pooja Mishra for contributing an inspirational story on successful small scale entrepreneur. We are thankful to them for writing on small entrepreneurs. We hope that this will create a momentum for promotion of small scale entrepreneurs.
(in the language of Kundan and Pooja)
The success story is as under:



Authors of the essay
Kundan Kishore (Kundan.kishore@gmail.com)
Pooja Mishra (Pooja.imi@gmail.com)


(Students of PG Diploma in Human Resource Management)
International Management Institute, New Delhi

Contact Details
IMI, B-10, Qutub Institutional Area
New Delhi, 110016
Ph: +91 9871829483


A Brief Profile of the Entrepreneur




Name : Mr. Prakash Anthony

Company Name: Korcomptenz Inc.

Currently: Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer

Qualification:
1. Masters in Business Administration from International Management Institute, New Delhi
2. Bachelors in Chemical engineering from Anna University
3. Schooling: Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary school

Previous work experience: Siemens, Square D Software, Mazzindia, Ramco in India and Satyam computers in USA for around 6 years.

Home town: Chennai, India


Introduction
“An entrepreneur is an innovator who seizes an opportunity, converts that opportunity into an idea, adds value through time, effort, money and skill, assumes risk and realizes the rewards of his or her efforts”
Kuratko and Hodgetts (1998)

Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking, reasoning, and acting that is opportunity obsessed, holistic in approach, and leadership balanced. An entrepreneur is a vision-driven individual who assumes significant personal and financial risk to start or expand a business. It is a process of creating value by bringing together a unique package of resources to exploit an opportunity through innovation, creativity and hard work without regard for the resources currently controlled. In a nut shell entrepreneurship is an idea whose time has come.
Following are the characteristic of an entrepreneur:
v Knack to identify the opportunity
v Core competencies
v Innate talent
v Innovation
v Ideas leading to timely business development
v Willingness to work hard
v Positive orientation
v Adventurous / Risk taking ability
v Capability to network
If we combine all these characteristics into one we will get a dynamic personality like Mr. Prakash Anthony who has not only followed his dream and founded Korcomptenz but is also passionately indulged in social activities.
Making of an entrepreneur; straight from the horse’s mouth


We are very fortunate that we got an opportunity to have a chat with Mr. Anthony. An excerpt from his interview:

“I hailed from a lower middle class family from Chennai and my parents spent their whole life and their savings ensuring that they give us the best education. I and my siblings went to the best schools in Chennai which is Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary school. I completed my schooling and came out with flying colours in the 12th standard examination including a 200/200 in Mathematics.

I joined subsequently my Chemical Engineering in Anna University, Chennai and passed out in 1988. After passing out I worked in Chennai and New Delhi. I studied my part-time 3 year PGPM course (1990-93) course in International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi. I worked in Siemens, Square D Software, Mazzindia, Ramco before moving to USA. In USA I worked for Satyam computers for around 6 years before founding this company Korcomptenz.

Today we have operations in USA and India and are in the process of branching out in Europe and Middle East. We are around 150 people today and our plan is to be around 500 by 2010.

We also understand our responsibility towards society and carry out various social service activities. All the employees at Korcomptenz have a great passion for helping in this cause.

As he believes the greatest reward in becoming an entrepreneur is not the amount of money that you earn, it is about the scope that you get to work for the betterment for the society.”




About the entrepreneur

Prakash Anthony is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Korcomptenz and has close to 18 years of impressive credentials in the areas of operations, sales and marketing, relationship management and project management in the Information Technology Industry. He has credible experience in building early stage businesses and setting up start-up ventures and nurturing them to great heights.
A graduate in Chemical engineering from Anna University and with a Masters in Business Administration qualification from International Management Institute, New Delhi Prakash has worked with large and renowned companies such as Mazzoni India, Siemens, and Satyam before co-founding Korcomptenz. Prakash in his past illustrious career has been responsible for the growth and leadership of the Manufacturing Practice of one of the Top Indian Big 5 Organizations.Prakash has been instrumental in initiating, fortifying and implementing multi-million engagements for Fortune 500 companies like Philips, Gillette, Saint Gobain, PPG Industries, BASF etc in the areas of Offshore Outsourcing. He has initiated and grown several offshore development centers for Fortune 500 companies in Information technology services as well as been responsible for the growth of SAP business in India in the mid 90’s.His vision is to propel Korcomptenz into the big league of Global Service providers in the IT and ITES space by initiating several new initiatives like Quality certifications, Enterprise Solutions Practice and Knowledge Process Outsourcing.
Along the way, Prakash has also learnt the value of taking time to motivate and inspire his staff; adopting a consensual approach to problem-solving and decision-making, while being as open and transparent as possible in conducting the affairs of the company.

About the enterprise

Korcomptenz is an organization formed by senior executives who have several decades of combined experience in Information Technology Industry globally. The team has successfully acquired, managed and delivered multi-million dollar assignments worldwide.
Korcomptenz Inc provides consulting and IT services to customers in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific – using a Global Delivery Model backed by High Class Talent, World Class Processes and Leading Edge Practices. Their Core strengths lie in understanding the customer’s requirements and putting together workable plan to address customer needs. They mobilize the right technical and managerial talent from existing pool across the world or working with independent consultants and partners to make available to their customers the right resources which would solve customers’ problems and delivery value at the most optimal costs. It provides services in Manufacturing, Retail and Financial services.

Vision:
· To be an internationally acclaimed provider of consulting, IT and ITES services by 2010
· To realize our objectives in an environment of earnestness, dedication and courtesy towards our customers, employees, vendors and society at large

Mission:
· To provide a rewarding and enriching experience for our investors, customers, employees (ICE) and all who partner with us.
· To provide our customers with innovative business solutions that addresses their core problems and needs.
· To be a responsible Corporate citizen by investing a substantial portion of its profits for the less fortunate brethren of our Society


Philosophy:

· Adherence to professional ethics
· Commitment to innovation
· Dedication to work
· Making a difference in society
Services:
Korcomptenz provide a broad portfolio of services thereby enabling their clients to turn to us for all their requirements. The services range from Application Development and Maintenance, Enterprise Resource Planning & CRM Implementation and Support, Infrastructure Support and BPO. Cutting across all service lines Korcomptenz offers Human Capital Management, Training, eLearning and EAI Practice as value added services.

Quality:
Korcomptenz has successfully clears ISO 9000 surveillance audit. Prakash Anthony complimented the team on the occasion. He said “The associates of Korcomptenz are always committed to providing quality deliverables to its customers both internal and external. This is the essence of our quality journey. The successful results of the ISO 9000 audit further confirms our seriousness in following the quality practices and nuances we laid out when we kicked off our quality journey. I wish the Korcomptenz team the very best in its quest for excellence in quality.”

Social Responsibility:
Korcomptenz true to its Philosophy has embarked on a campaign to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate in the world. Be it children who do not have the basic amenities like sanitation, food etc or be it people who are suffering from AIDS.
Korcomptenz has started of in a small way by making a small difference in the lives of a few people. All the employees at Korcomptenz have a great passion for helping in this cause.
It has started a programme called HOPE which is described by the following pictures:




THANKS NOTE:
We are thankful to Mr. Anthony for his kind support and hope to be associated with the company in future. We hope that his initiatives would be more fruitful in the future and may he achieve his dreams. We hereby congratulate him for his venture and wish him good luck for his future endeavors.
-Kundan Kishore
-Pooja Mishra