Srinivas Gummideli Technocrat, Through And Through

In this age where technology is now in the mainstream of human life, there
are two sets of people. The first who are skeptical and therefore scared to
experiment and hence slow adopters. The second openly embrace technology and
welcome every new element that has technology infused in it.

Gummidelli Srinivas from Hyderabad falls into the latter category. He loves
technology in all its forms and tries to learn as much as he can. “The real
challenge comes from the technology. We have to live with that and therefore
should try and acquire a fair knowledge about it,” said Gummidelli Srinivas,
CEO, Cache Peripherals. He studied technology, worked in the technology space
and now is offering technology solutions to his customers.

Starting a computer-based company in early 90's was a challenge for Srinivas.
But with his extreme hard work and abundant knowledge with a small order,
Srinivas Cache Peripherals made six million in the very first year of its
inception and since then, there has been no looking back for Srinivas and Cache
Peripherals.

His company has witnessed a phenomenal growth from Rs 6 million in the year
of its inception to Rs 41 crore this year with a 100+ support team.

Education gives one the confidence to do whatever one wishes for and achieve
success. So believed Srinivas who is a graduate in BE Electronics and
Communication from the Osmania University in Hyderabad, after which he went on
to pursue his higher studies in the US. “My father was very particular about
studies. He wanted me to get good educa­tion and felt it should be implemented
too. My fathers motivation spurred me to go in for higher studies to the US,
where I did MS in Computer Science,” added Srinivas with gist.

Srinivas had a vision for the future and his calculation did not go into
mess. Speaking about his master's degree selection, he said, “I did my
graduation in electronics. Computers have always fascinated me and I thought
that one day I would make a similar machine. But incidentally, today I am
assembling smaller ones (he laughs). In the year 1987, I returned to India with
a strong technical education and a dream of making it big.”

Gummidelli Srinivas, CEO, Cache Peripherals

Srinivas always dreamt of being an entrepreneur. “I always wanted to know
more and more about computers. Also, I thought that Computer Science could help
me realize my dream of being an entrepreneur. As soon as I completed my higher
education, I wanted to make it big immediately. But destiny won the match. I
worked in a company called East Coast Computers as a partner for nearly three
years and learnt the basics, which later proved very beneficial. Without that
experience, I would have had a very tough time. With the sudden demise of my
father, the whole responsibility came on my shoulders,” he remembered.

Srinivas advised that before venturing into a business, one should have the
basic knowledge about the trade. He also stresed that a plan should be
formulated and analyzed meticulously before implementary, Srinivas launched his
own company in Secunderabad. “It was in the year 1990 that I started Cache
Peripherals,” said Srinivas.

Back then; there were no venture capitalists. Also, bank loans were not
easily available. But Srinivas' work experience helped him tackle the tough
times and achieve success. The contacts he developed in his earlier job and the
mark he made in the trade helped him in taking Cache Peripherals to new heights.
Speaking about his investments, he said, “I started my business with the advance
I got for delivering products to the customer. Initially, I just had a small
room. I didn't want to procure more goods and dump it. Since I didn't have my
own capital, I did not want to take such a risk by investing more in stocks.”

It was the software that made Srinivas move ahead in his new venture
initially. “Those days, the hardware products used to be very expensive. A
minimum configuration would cost around Rs 80,000 to 90,000. Also, not many
initiated to buy stocks. The real challenge was in picking the orders,” he
reminisced.

Srinivas' skill as that of a software engineer also helped him overthrow the
hardships. “It was really difficult work; even to get an order for a PC or other
peripherals. We had to run behind the organizations. The software was in a great
demand then due to the lack of skilled professionals in the domain. I also
started assisting the organizations in running various software applications,
which helped me in getting more orders,” he said.

Srinivas' journey to where he stands proudly today has not been an easy one.
To get an order, he recalled, he went from pole to post convincing people,
making them aware of the product, organizing presenta­tions and only then, after
getting a fair knowledge, the organiza­tion would acquire the product, be it a
solution or hardware. Without a fair amount of knowledge, one cannot sustain in
the industry, is what Srinivas felt. “It would be rightly showcased at some
point of time when it needs to be ascertained,” he claimed. With increasing
orders, Cache Peripherals started recruiting more people.

Sailesh technical support with Srinivas' business manage­ment skills yielded
good results. Cache Peripherals' success is the result of the combination of
time and performance, believes Srinivas. “Sticking to terms and time has played
a crucial part in the development of our business,” he added. Starting with
software, Cache Peripherals soon ventured in hardware, which took a prime phase
when it tied up with major partners like HP, Compaq, TVS-E, Idea Cellular and
Tata Indicom.

Slowly, channel was inducted into the business and within few years, Cache
Peripherals became a leading distributor in the state. But educating the
partners was a major challenge for Cache Peripherals. Srinivas used to hold many
sessions for the partners and he would address the gathering and train them.
“They were the major carriers for technology products. And we felt they need to
be well educated and trained to deliver those products to the customers. But
they too showed great amount of interest in learning things, which made things
easy,” he commented.

As the business started pouring in, the challenges grew for Cache
Peripherals. Slowly Cache increased its head count and started taking government
projects. Recently, Cache Periphe­rals bagged a major project of computerizing
the new Interna­tional airport, which is going to come in Shanshabad and also
Andhra Pradesh school education project.

Increase in the numbers of customers has urged Cache Peripherals to make many
expansions in and around the state. After a long and stabilized run, Cache
Peripherals has touched Rs 40 crore in year

2006-07. “As we have grabbed many major projects, we are expecting to touch Rs
50 crore this year,” Srinivas comments.

On the road ahead, Cache Peripherals plans to make it big in the retail
industry, which it is proposing to start in the near future. “Providing
value-added services has been our motto and we are providing that to all our
customers. In that way, Cache is unique in its way and it would be in future
too,” said Srinivas with confidence.

Behind all the achievements, there has been a front-runner called vision. It
has been proved right again in the case of Srinivas.

Sethuraman NR

(sethuramannr@cybermedia.co.in)