It all happened so fast. Starting with a three-line classified ad in Bombay's Mid Day Times and before he could say 'Abracadabra' Kamal Sodhi was selling iron and steel. In the next two years he touched base at all metros - Delhi, Chennai, Calcutta and finally, Mumbai to complete the home run. Then he quit to study for his post graduation.
A campus recruitment drive led him to the corporate office of Arvind Mills in Ahmedabad where he was surrounded by opportunities and challenges, plus phenomenal exposure to management and technology. But perhaps the most memorable was meeting his life partner. Both joined as management trainees on the same day. Both were hardcore marketing-oriented, though Kamal's leaning was more towards sales. Cupid struck and the knot tied. Now Kamal's career thoughts went beyond Indian shores. The dotcom drums were just about beating and as the crescendo grew louder, he headed for the land of opportunities - the US of A. He joined a B2B setup, started as a program manager and ended up as Director, Sales and Marketing.
Meanwhile, the scenario had shifted to Bangalore where his wife had moved. Kamal returned from the US and in good time before the dotcom crash. He ran into Bijal Mehta. A one hour meeting stretched on for four hours and wasn't too long before Kamal found himself at Icode as VP, Sales and Marketing. His mandate? "To start the Indian operations and take it through South East, then the Middle East and then Africa. I had the support from everybody and slowly, slowly things were taking shape," says Kamal. Within a month of his joining, he made contact with Compaq for an alliance. They were invited to Compaq's Reseller Meet held at Kathmandu and made a presentation to about 360 Compaq's resellers including key Compaq people.
They didn't exactly hive off snow from Mount Everest, though they did achieve a fair amount of success. In fact, they learnt a valuable lesson. Explains Kamal, "We generated an interest in the resellers which went beyond belief. But what went against us was that we weren't prepared for that kind of overwhelming response. Icode till then was a direct marketing company and we wanted to sell out off Bangalore. We needed a relationship in place and we didn't have a relationship program." The other important factor was that though the product was available, its label read, "For American Markets Only". It wasn't customized for Indian businesses. In that sense, the Kathmandu experience was an eye opener and it was back to the drawing board for fine-tuning. What's good for the Goose isn't necessarily good for the Gander? Is it?
Time dissolved and soon the South African Markets opened up as did the Middle East. "That was like the honeymoon period," says Kamal as his eyes gleam in jubilation. "You've done a lot, you've slogged it out in the first year and in the second year the results begin to come in. Its all so very exciting." SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) are their market and Kamal has met 'each and every customer' because that's so important.
What next? "You cannot rest on your past or your current laurels. You have to have a vision of the future and one way for companies to grow is by having new products, which address issues that are more broad-based and 'Everest' is the perfect example." What does the wish list look like? "We want Icode to be as well-known as say, General Motors and possibly Wipro and Infosys. Or what Microsoft is to the software world. We want to be that for the SME," says a confident Kamal Sodhi.
Now we know why they call their product 'Everest'. These guys are really aiming high.
