The yatra was not easy, but here’s how Yatra.com made it possible
Who says the last mover faces a crippling
entry barrier erected by the early birds that have cornered most of the market? If you decide to barge into a ‘sunrise’ sector where the sky is the limit, even late entrants can make a killing if they have the right strategy and the right dollops of chutzpah.
Yatra.com is a classic example of this contrarian wisdom. Well before the three brash young promoters Dhruv Shringi, Manish Amin and Sabina Chopra decided to chuck their jobs at ebookers (A leading European online travel portal), Makemytrip.com and Travelguru.com, they were already comfortably perched as leaders in the space. And yet, starting with a gung-ho gang of 10 colleagues in 2005, Yatra.com now clocks annual revenues of $120 million and has 600 gung-ho gang members – we mean employees. That’s not a mean feat for a fledgling outfit where dozens, even scores of travel and holiday related portals, companies and advisories are proliferating across India.
But then, smart thinking right at the beginning is like well begun and half the job done. The key was to zero in on the right brand name that will immediately connect with potential customers in India. After hours of coffee (and other stuff) and brainstorming, Shringi, Chopra and Amin decided that Yatra was their ticket to glory. “The name is understood by a South Indian and at the same time by a North Indian also. So even people from non-metros also started connecting with us and to reach the internet savvy customers, we adopted lots of programmes,” explains Shringi.
Yet, despite all the positives like a great brand, an exploding market and relentlessly rising middle class ‘holiday’ budgets, the intrepid promoters didn’t find the going easy at the outset. They were not even naive to expect a smooth launch and take off, and took the early knocks on their chins. “We didn’t even have a proper place to set up our office and we started only with one room and 10 persons. But we were very choosy about the name as it got to be different from the other players,” says Shringi who now flaunts the fancy designation of Executive Director.
Who says the last mover faces a crippling
entry barrier erected by the early birds that have cornered most of the market? If you decide to barge into a ‘sunrise’ sector where the sky is the limit, even late entrants can make a killing if they have the right strategy and the right dollops of chutzpah.Yatra.com is a classic example of this contrarian wisdom. Well before the three brash young promoters Dhruv Shringi, Manish Amin and Sabina Chopra decided to chuck their jobs at ebookers (A leading European online travel portal), Makemytrip.com and Travelguru.com, they were already comfortably perched as leaders in the space. And yet, starting with a gung-ho gang of 10 colleagues in 2005, Yatra.com now clocks annual revenues of $120 million and has 600 gung-ho gang members – we mean employees. That’s not a mean feat for a fledgling outfit where dozens, even scores of travel and holiday related portals, companies and advisories are proliferating across India.
But then, smart thinking right at the beginning is like well begun and half the job done. The key was to zero in on the right brand name that will immediately connect with potential customers in India. After hours of coffee (and other stuff) and brainstorming, Shringi, Chopra and Amin decided that Yatra was their ticket to glory. “The name is understood by a South Indian and at the same time by a North Indian also. So even people from non-metros also started connecting with us and to reach the internet savvy customers, we adopted lots of programmes,” explains Shringi.
Yet, despite all the positives like a great brand, an exploding market and relentlessly rising middle class ‘holiday’ budgets, the intrepid promoters didn’t find the going easy at the outset. They were not even naive to expect a smooth launch and take off, and took the early knocks on their chins. “We didn’t even have a proper place to set up our office and we started only with one room and 10 persons. But we were very choosy about the name as it got to be different from the other players,” says Shringi who now flaunts the fancy designation of Executive Director.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
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4 comments:
iipm campus placements are great
yes iipm placements rocks
hey dude not only placement but whole iipm rocks
me also agree
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