Miles to Go...

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Mahendran
Srinivasan, MD, Pranaav Tele-Ventures can be shown as an example of a
man with simplicity, who believes in simple living and high thinking.
His office cabin showcases no lavishness like air conditioner or a
rolling chair, but represents an atmosphere which depicts hard work,
sincerity and right attitude. Srinivasan, having served more than a
decade in the IT industry, started his own firm Pranaav Tele-Ventures
with a couple of people in the year 1996.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">

INITIAL
DAYS

“We
cannot label our growth with the term 'success,' as we have miles
to go yet,” tells Srinivasan with a zeal to grow. “However, the
initial period was very tough for us, and we had to fight extremely
hard to bag the contracts. There were some incidents which made us
wait for nearly an year to bag a single project,” recalls
Srinivasan, who believes in giving the best-of-its-kind to its
customers. “We were very clear that we wanted to do something new,
and we were sure that we should find avenues that were not touched by
anyone,” he says. He also says that Pranaav is keen on bagging
sizable projects.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">SERVING
THE PUBLIC

“We
have never chased the projects from the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR),
a hub of IT companies, which is eyed by almost all the SIs in the
country. However, we want to serve the companies, which are serving
us. We chose public sector companies and bagged worthy projects,”
says Srinivasan, who also adds that in the government projects, the
expectations from us will be great and one has to work a lot for
meeting the expectations of the government officials. He also says
that his team has faced many tough situations like staying in a small
tent once, while deploying a project in a deep forest of Rajasthan.
Pranaav has a cluster of government clients like Indian Space
Research and Organization (ISRO), Southern Railways, Power Grid
Corporation, Indra Gandhi Center for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam,
Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) and the list goes on.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">BRIBE?
NO WAY

When
asked about the general myth among the channel partners to pay huge
money to crack even a small deal, he says, “I have never bribed
anyone for getting the projects done. I believe in quality and we
thrive to give the best quality,” he says. He also says that their
quality in the deployments made them stand against the odds. In the
last 5 years, Pranaav has got many projects from the defense
industry. He says that in the recent years, they have learnt to
manage different customers. “Right from the way getting into the
premises of a private firm is different from that of a public sector
company, where there will be unlimited security checks,” Srinivasan
says. He also added that his team has been trained to tackle
different clients.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">SOFT
LIFE

Srinivasan's
positive support comes from his wife Priya not only at home, but also
at office. He says that a type of commitment to work comes, when your
wife shares your life in both office and house. “Ours is a
love-cum-arranged marriage, and she has supported me in all possible
ways and helped me a lot to attain business goals,” he adds.
Srinivasan also says that his wife, who is heading the accounts team,
has always been a pillar of the organization.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">PLANS
AHEAD

Pranaav
is planning to give more importance to his employees, whom he
considers as the partners of the organization. “In fact, our
employees do not have any designations on their visiting cards.
Everyone handles responsibility with respect,” says Srinivasan. “We
are now in a plan of appointing a person exclusively to take care of
our employees' rights,” he says.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">GIVE
BACK TO SOCIETY

Pranaav
has an active track record of various social welfare activities. From
training to farming, the SI is involved in all types of CSR
activities. Srinivasan firmly believes that education alone can be a
coaxing factor for the society as such. Today, Pranaav is doing
extensive services in taking education to the underprivileged of the
society. “We provide training on various technologies at a very
nominal fee. We also invite leading industrialists as volunteers to
provide necessary knowledge for the upcoming executives,” he says.

“ style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">We
are in the process of adopting small schools from various remote
villages near Trichy district, where they are finding it very
difficult to run and manage the establishment,” he further adds.
Pranaav takes this as a social obligation. Srinivasan, along with his
team is involved in farming in a small way in the Pudukottai
district, Tamil Nadu in order to provide food to the school children,
where the entire donation is distributed through the schools and
temples as a small contribution. Pranaav is also giving employment
opportunities to the people with disabilities.