Blessingz –
Gifts Indeed
“If you
don’t go after what you wish, you will never achieve it”.
Founder:
Sacred Moment is founded by Mr. Prakash Mundra, a post graduate from a
prestigious B-School SCMHRD, Pune on 07th May ‘2006.
Memoire:
Prakash born on 01st February in
Ranchi, is a Marwari-Maheshwari, who stays in a big joint family. He spent his
early days in Kolkata, where he has his family business of “Cotton Textile”.
Prakash being stupendous in studies, was the boy-next-door who like other boys
loved playing cricket, toys of that era He-Man & Jiaijo, watching Ramayana.
In the year 1994, the family business got
expanded and Prakash with his immediate family had to move to Mumbai. Like all
the youngsters’ Prakash also had a goal pertaining to his career to pursue. He
aimed to become a “Textile Engineer” keeping in mind to present his family
business with an innovative prospective. In Mumbai he continued with his
studies by taking up Science as a stream. But destiny has a different plans for
him and unfortunately before his 12th board he met with a fatal
accident which made him drop his boards. Indeed with a year down he was left
disheartened as he could see his wish being shattered but Prakash didn’t gave
up on life and with positive attitude bounced back and appeared for his boards.
This incident made him change his stream from Science to Commerce post 12th
standard. Prakash is graduate in commerce from Sydenham College, Mumbai. During
college he was always inclined towards Extra-Curricular activities and quiz
competitions.
Soon
the family business faced some troubles which made Prakash think about working
in Corporate World rather joining the business. Herein he started preparing for
MBA entrance. After two years of disappointment i.e. by missing the cut-off by
two marks OR getting eliminated in interview rounds, he joined his family
business. However he being a fighter didn’t let the hope of doing MBA from a
prestigious school die, and once again appeared for entrance procedure. This time
destiny being in favour due to his hard work and will power made him crack the
entrance procedure of SCMHRD. In 2004 he joined SCMHRD as one of its young
aspirant, whose eyes were full of dreams and zeal to achieve it.
Journey:
SCMHRD being purely a residential programme was something new for Prakash,
which he enjoyed thoroughly. The business school become the podium for him by
giving him the first opportunity to participate in the business plan contest
“Mera Gaon Mera Desh” conducted by ITC. ITC wanted a business plan to connect
with rural areas for projecting there existing products. Among all the products
Prakash zeroed on “Mangaldeep Agarbatti” as he could easily relate to it.
Ideology based on that of “Amul – did for milk” “Mangaldeep Agarbatti” can do
it religiously. Unfortunately in the initial round the idea got rejected but
gave Prakash a delight to experience it again.
A
young entrepreneur was getting ready to take the world in his stride, of which
none was aware, not even Prakash. With a belief that things which appear to be
complicated / impossible are not always the same; rejection isn’t a question on
your ability to execute things profusely, he decided to participate in a
“Business Bazigaar” show on Zee TV. It
was about seeking innovative ideas from the common man.
He
kept the base line same, tweaking the business plan by presenting it with a new
name “Shubh Labh” puja kit. Concept was to organize the basic requirement
required for Puja, making it easily accessible for the people of all age
keeping in mind the hectic schedule they have. Contest had an amazing opening
and received 2 lac entries from across the country, from which 500 were
selected for second round, in those selected entries one was of Prakash’s.
After round of interviews 20 entries were selected for final round. Yes the
journey had begun, with the concept of having a theme, a goal led Prakash to
the final rounds. All the top finalists were given Rs. 50,000/- each to do a
pilot project.
A
challenge for Prakash, as he was still studying and the same time around had to
go for a compulsory course of “Vipassana”. Fortunately the college management,
understanding his passion to deliver allowed him skip the course and go ahead
with the contest. To start up with he had sufficient amount, a plan to follow,
accordingly he hired a designer, planned his travel to meet the suppliers,
pandits and retailers. With an organized execution he was able to submit the
business plan within timeline. But it wasn’t that easy, format of the contest
was “may the best win”. Post submission more challenges were rope in which led
to eliminations. Jury selected three people for the title “Mini Bazigaar”, and
Prakash was awarded with the title because the jury felt “Idea main dum hai”.
Post
the astonishing win Prakash came back to campus to complete his degree. By that
time campus placement has begun and he being perplex about the path to take as
his career, agreed for campus placement. Bagged the job with two known ventures
ICICI Pru & Essar. However his mind was simultaneously working on modifying
the “Shubh Labh” puja kit as an outlet. His perseverance to do something
innovative kept him going with his puja kit, and he participated in six more
contest out which won 5 of them[TAPMI, IIM Lucknow & IIT kharagpur].
Soon
the time came to decide what it is that he is and to stay true to it. He
decided to seek independence from a career that is controlled by others. On 06th
May ‘2006 he declined the offer which led to the inception of “Sacred Moment”
on 07th May ‘2006.
Blessingz:
“Beginning of new life with a hope of ray”.
To
start with amount of Rs.4 lacs was required. However Prakash had Rs. 2 lacs of
winning amount and rest he managed from his near-dear ones. Now plan was in
place, expenditure planned, but what was still to figure out was strategy to
execute the plan; how to market the product by creating value. He started with
developing an assembly line to maintain the time line as there were forty
suppliers across the country and it was a challenge to coordinate with all of
them for timely delivery. He named his puja kit venture as “Blessingz”. It was
designed for Diwali .Initially he displayed the kit in a Giftex Exhibition,
Mumbai between 03rd Aug’06 to 07th Aug ’06. Kit comprised
of God idols; Roli; Turmeric; Honey, Gangajal and a booklet to take you through
the process of puja. Received good response and even won the award in the
category of “best new product”. It was just the beginning but has to go a long
way, initially received no bookings and received inquiries.
On
receiving no bookings initially made Prakash once again decide what it is that
he is and to stay true to it. No booking didn’t mean that the product was
rejected, indeed it was a challenge which he took up with full enthusiasm and
decided to manufacture 12,000 such kits for Diwali. He received lot of inputs
to be incorporated in the kit, due to cost concerns all of them could not be
included except a small stand for the idol picture and a silver durva (green
grass) was introduced. Soon the orders started pouring in from corporates such
as Aditya Birla Group, Times Of India Group, Linc Pen & Symbiosis society.
Diwali being around the kits were stocked at Asiatic & Akbarallys outlets.
Yes it worked wonders and 10,000 kits were sold. Post Diwali also 500 orders
were placed to be given as a return gift to baratis, to give as token of
appreciation after “Bhagwat Katha”, IMT Nagpur gave it to delegates.
The
result was astonishing, got a revenue of Rs. 35 lacs with an Rs.5 lac profit.
Great news but question arise what next? Prakash still require to set in the
pattern for his brand line, so he approached his consumers to understand the
requirement meanwhile he continued with his puja kit on an off season price now
being catered for “Grih Pravesh”and many more such events. Output of gathering
the requirement he found that corporate section was finding a big time
challenge in getting a customized textile items such as towels &
handkerchiefs. It proved to be a bingo for him as he had a family business of
textiles, there was a need of personal touch by adding the company logos on the
prescribed items. Orders started floating in which made Prakash shift the
production to Ahmedabad, due to manufacturing cost being moderate there.
Now
after tremendous efforts Prakash has turned into a true entrepreneurs, who’s
hunger to learn and expand his venture to the next level kept him moving and
discussing with different merchants & suppliers. He being an opportunity
seeker got an idea to export Diya with safety packaging and it led to another
idea of manufacturing articles for auspicious occasions such as Toran, Rangoli
& Thali. This time he strategically targeted the NRI market to project his
products. His approach to importers from US, UK, Australia, Zimbabwe &
South Africa got him orders in bulk.
In
the year 2009, a family friend of Prakash joined him, who was the authorized
distributor & importer of imported perfumes. Imported perfumes are in
demand but the purity of products are of concern. His idea of projecting them
at a discounted price with a guarantee tag to the corporate client worked out. Breaking
the tradition of partnering with 100 clients for 100 products he chose to
partner with 1000 clients by restricting his venture to 8-10 products.The
latest line of business is transparent plastic packaging products such as PVC /
boxes / bags.
By
March 2014, Sacred Moments had a whopping turnover of Rs. 4.5 cr, which
included 20% of income from puja kits.
Strategy:
Prakash’s belief to be quantitative being qualitative has brought him long way.
He is assertive to take up only those products as a line of business which are
easily manageable, and always does a SWOT analysis of products before
finalizing them.
Personal:
Prakash got married to Shweta in the year 2007,
and the couple are blessed with a beautiful daughter Yashi, 5 year old and a
lovely son Laksh, 10 months old.
Reward
& Recognition:
Mini
Baazigar in Business Baazigar Show of Zee TV.
Winner
of 7 National Level Business Plan Competition during MBA at SCMHRD.
Best
Product Award at Giftex 2006
Star
Entrepreneur Award by Indira Innovation Council
Finalist
in Tata NEN Hottest startups
Young
Entrepreneur Award by Mahesh Industrial Group - Pune
Featured in ‘Arise-Awake’ - book on student entrepreneurs by Rashmi Bansal.
