COMPRO COMPUTERS: No Compro-mise On Commitment

The trio attribute their success to the undying spirit of honoring commitments and a vision that goes beyond just profits.

It was in New Delhi’s Alphabetics Private Limited an authorized IBM dealer–three
young engineers Pankaj Bandlish, Daljeet Singh and Sunil Mohindru started
working together in 1984. Little did they know that one day they would work just
as hard side-by-side with an entirely different objective.

Even though Daljeet left to join Crompton Greaves a few years later, the
three continued to be in constant touch. And in 1991 they finally got together
to start Compro Computers, that too without any start-up capital!

"Since we started with a view to take up AMCs, the skills that we had
was our startup capital," says Pankaj.

In its very first year of operation the company landed some good contracts
with a few foreign embassies and the Government.

And during the same year, Compro received its first recognition from Crompton
Greaves to become its authorized service partner.

So it came as no surprise that in the few months of 1991 that the company was
operational, it clocked a turnover of Rs 16 lakh.

SERVICE TO PRODUCT DISTRIBUTION

The company turnover rose to Rs 18 crore in 2001 but dipped to Rs 14 crore
in 2002 and the company has closed its accounts at the same figure in 2003.
"The dip primarily came because of market disturbances and the
consolidation that we were doing internally," says Pankaj.

Though it started as a maintenance company, Compro eventually moved into
hardware distribution. While the services business is handled by Sunil, Daljeet
and Pankaj look after hardware.

Last year when IT distribution came under pressure, Compro decided to let go
of a number of SKUs. "We did not want to spread our resources too
thin," says he. Today the company has an undivided focus on the
redistribution of the entire portfolio of products offered by Canon and Wipro.

While the company continues to deal in peripherals, it has also decided to
venture into the HPs PC business. "We will grow our HP business in the days
ahead," says Pankaj

FUTURE´S WELL-PLANNED

The trio have laid down clear plans to steer Compro into the future.
"Our objective from the very beginning was to build a sustainable
organization," says Pankaj. Profit motive was not the only driving factor
behind Compro´s success.

Compro has a number of firsts to its credit, most notable among them being
the first installation in Asia of HP´s entire storage library. "The sale
of two units of the storage library was a landmark for us," says Pankaj
with pride.

Compro is now trying to grow its outbound sales and is therefore training its
sales force to land large deals. Another effort that the company is making is to
sell more to end-customers directly. And very soon the company is expected to
venture into retail too. A division of Compro has already ventured into telecom
retailing.

Ask them what is the mantra of their success and without a second thought,
Pankaj says, "Honoring our commitments." He feels that this is
something a businessman must do, even in the face of adversity.

MOHIT CHHABRA