A PROFITable venture
This post shows a glimpse into what was then a profitable venture in Madras, run by my paternal great grandfather, Shri. K. Ramaratnam Aiyer, B.A., in the early part of the 20th century.
Though brief mentions were provided by my grandfather, much of the facts are from the invaluable 1914-15 book Southern India : its history, people, commerce, and industrial resources by Arnold Wright and Somerset Payne. I had the pleasure of searching painstakingly for historical references, finding and reading this book1. I was impressed by the level of detailing by the authors.
K.Ramaratnam Aiyer moved to Madras2 from his native place, Kathiramangalam, somewhere around the beginning of the 20th century and ran a successful general bookselling and publishing company till its eventual bankruptcy somewhere mid-late 1920s.
Through his lens and with some liberal interpretation, I present a few perspectives for a successful venture using the mnemonic PROFIT:
Passion: Ties to the ‘what you love’ / passion circle in the Ikigai framework. Ramaratnam had a life-long passion for reading and writing, both in Tamil and in English. When his business eventually collapsed, he took to writing full-time, prolifically writing in literary magazines of the time e.g. He wrote early modern explanations for Tamil classics Kurunthokai and Choolamani in the literary magazine, Kalanilayam, run by the erudite Shri. T.N.Seshachalam (a Wikipedia entry for this scholar is overdue, will attempt some day). The Kurunthokai collections were later published as a book.
Resourcefulness: Having a passion is one but developing the business skills and getting good at problem solving is another. Ramaratnam Aiyer might have dreamt of starting his own book store and/or publishing and might even have had the capital to go in directly (thanks to his wealthy father, K. Kalyanasundaramaiyer) but he knew he had to make himself resourceful. He started off in 1904 as an assistant at a bookselling firm, V. KALYANARAM IYER & CO., learning the business and later stepped up as the General Manager of the firm overseeing all aspects of the business.
Opportunity:
There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune…(Shakespeare)
When the founder and owner of the firm decided to sell his business, Ramaratnam Aiyer saw and took the opportunity, buying the business somewhere in the late 1900s and became its sole proprietor. That it was a flourishing venture under his leadership can gauged by the fact that the firm purchased over rs.40000 worth of books annually about 110 years ago, covering a wide genre of books in Tamil and English.
Flair: In marketing terms, the business had its flair:
Position: Absolutely top-notch location on No: 190, The Esplanade3, one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares then.
Product placement: Elegant lay-out (refer p672 of the aforesaid book for a beautiful visual) of the showroom of the company!
Product and Price: Covered a wide range from penny readers to best-selling periodicals and novels4 to collectibles! From standard government publications (steady business) to business reads (more dynamic assortment). In sync with the location and its customer base.
Improvement: Book selling has always been a very dynamic business. One must make constant changes to the assortment and ride the waves. Sensing the growing popularity of motivational and personal development books, the firm became publishers of the special Indian editions of Orison Sweet Marden’s motivational classics. I would think the 1911 new editions of Marden’s Pushing to the front on popular demand might have been the trigger.
Title:
Resisting the temptation to re-brand, Ramartanam Aiyer retained the name5 of the firm as V. Kalayaram Iyer & Co. The value of the brand, its titles and trademarks were quite known to him! Why change a name when it has a good reputation in the market and established connections?
Some interesting trivia:
1I borrowed what looked like the first edition print from the nearby Leiden University library which has an impressive collection of rare books!
2When he moved to Madras, Ramaratnam Aiyer set up his establishment in the then famous Vellala street in Purasawalkam (of R K Narayan and Malgudi fame!) where so many eminent writers have lived over the years. I could not trace this ancestral house when I visited this street a few years back but could see the Srinivasa Perumal temple from 1850!
3The Esplanade was an undeveloped plot of land that acted as a physical boundary between the English settlement of White Town (around Fort St. George) and Black Town, where Tamil merchants and weavers settled. This later developed into a busy street later renamed Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Road in 1961.
4My cherished memories as a child was listening to bedtime stories from my grandfather. I suspect direct access to a wide range of books and periodicals through his father’s bookstore gave my grandfather knowledge of so many topics and incidents from that time. E.g. of some stories he recounted: Arunagirinathar and Thirupugazh, Kalamega pulavar, Papanasam Sivan and his margazhi bhajans in mylapore, flying doctor Rangachari, Madras Kutcheris, Sherlock Holmes adventures, Dickens classics, PG Wodehouse, Shakespeare, Goldsmith and Blake, pehelwan Gama and his wrestling bout with Stanley Zbyszko, the Tunney-Dempsey boxing classic, Houdini’s escapes, Emden’s shelling of Madras, sinking of the Titanic, Lakshmikantan murder case, Karunguzhi parcel case and so much more!
5For some reason, my grandfather only made a fleeting reference to his father’s business and did not mention the name of the company! May be the pain of the eventual loss was too much to bear but not knowing the name (and I would have never guessed the name Kalyanaram) made the search for facts incredibly difficult. Thanks to recent efforts in digitizing old books and republishing them, I could finally find the links!
References:
Southern India : its history, people, commerce, and industrial resources by Arnold Wright and Somerset Payne.
Comments
Post a Comment