My Tryst With Hector Beverages Pvt Ltd - Shanko Bag - IIM Kozhikode

As is the beauty of working with start-ups, I was given complete freedom to go about my project after some initial guidance. Doing business in railway platforms is quite different from general trade and modern trade. All the stations in the country come under 17 railway zones, each headed by a Divisional Railway Manager. To start the activation at a particular station, a business has to first get an approval from the railway zone that it is under the purview of and only then can they start supplying to the vendors on the platform. The scope of my project involved fast tracking the activation in stations which come under 3 railway zones, namely South Western, Southern and South Central zones.

The initial phase of my project, as mentioned above, involved submitting the required documents in order to get the approval to the Commercial Departments of the 3 railway zones. This was my first tryst with the infamous bureaucracy which is often blamed for hindering the ease of doing business in the country. Contrary to my anticipation, the Commercial Managers were very cooperative and gave me an estimate on when I could expect Paper Boat to be approved. The next phase involved travelling to various railway stations and interacting with the vendors who operate there. With some secondary research, I made a list of high priority stations which have the maximum footfalls and targeted them. The interactions with the vendors at these stations mainly involved getting their insights about the brand, doing a first level negotiation and convincing them to start selling Paper Boat once it gets approved. Some of them who were connected to the kirana stores outside the stations and had heard about the brand, were very enthusiastic about selling it while there were some who weren’t aware about it and would agree to sell in return for higher margins.

Over the course of my project, I interacted and made a database of over 190 vendors across 20 stations in South India. These stations were in cities like Bangalore, Hubli, Mysore, Coimbatore, Erode, Chennai and Hyderabad. The challenges involved in this brand of hands-on field work gave me an insight on how a typical FMCG company operates. My internship ended with a Final Review with the top management and a creative certificate which brought a smile to my face. The overall experience was very enriching and Hector Beverages is definitely a great company for anyone looking for a career in Sales and Marketing!