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"I want to do things the Indian way"

Famous words from a person who is as different and unconventional as somebody can be.

He preferred to stay back in India rather than going to the US for higher studies after obtaining an engineering degree from IIT-Madras.

He refused to join Ponds after getting the offer as Hindustan Lever (HLL) had bought Ponds by then after doing MBA from IIM.

He quit the high earning investment banking job in Citi Corp within 15 days of joining as he realized that the bank was making him too comfortable.

He joined Enfield, a sick company of that time.

This is the early story of R. Subramanian who continued this madness by entering the disorganized and chaotic Indian retail industry by opening Subhiksha .

BUT there was a method to this madness. You cannot become successful if you cannot take risks and chart your own path. He felt that doing more and more of the same work and earning more and more of money is not what he wanted from his life.

The Enfield stint where he was a special officer reporting to the Chairman brought immense exposure to a trainee, he sat on negotiations with the Union, laboures, raised money with financial institutions etc. Enfield got taken over by Eicher and he was invited by the CEO of Eicher to work with them, Subramanian declined.

He wanted to work on his own. He wanted to open a financial services company and due to his relationship with the CEO of Enfield - Vishwanathan he was funded by him with no strings attached.

The company Vishwapriya started off and created services and products which were later duplicated by the major banks and financial institutions. The products and services like Asset securitization, IPO financing were pioneered by R Subramanian and his team.

(Asset securitisation is a process of converting illiquid assets to liquid assets by converting longer duration cash flows into shorter ones. The person, who holds the assets, sells it to an intermediary who in turns breaks the asset into marketable securities. IPO financing is the process involved in giving loans to people who applied for shares, that too without any collateral or guarantee. )

The company became very big and 2.5 crore investment created a 80 crore company and then the stock market collapsed in 1996. They had money but no borrowers.

The money they made were fetching adequate return, for a common man, a wonderful state to be in. But R. Subramanian was different, he claimed he was not fully occupied, he needed work so he decided to enter organized retail but in a typical Indian format of the neighbourhood store with the promise of value.

The name Subhiksha was chosen as it means prosperity and it reflects Indian feelings.In March 1997, the first Subhiksha store was set up in Chennai.

The biggest problem, Subramanian faced was opposition from the Chemist Association and Drug companies as they were against the selling of medicines in Subhiksha at low prices. The matter was taken to court and the decision came in Subhiksha's favour.

Today, the chain has over 1000 stores in 90 cities, with a turnover of around Rs.2300 crores.

His advice to people Join small companies to get more exposure. The bigger the company, you are less likely to see the bigger picture.