Ravi Singhee, speaks about keeping traditional values and leapfrogging to modern technologies while keeping the relationships in business as core to business success.
Magnum Clothing Private Limited, based out of Chennai was set up in 1968 in Kolkata as a textile company, while the company itself was set up as an export house half a century ago. Setting up a successful textile business is one part of the story and mapping the future at the right time and making right decisions is what assures continual business success. Sailing through when headwinds are not supportive requires gumption. While the world is familiar with ROI and ROT (return on technology), Ravi shares a third acronym ROR, which is Return on Relationships that he thinks has proven the company surviving.
Ravi Singhee, MD, Magnum clothing shares three key ingredients to the art of sailing through. Three key things, Technology, Getting value out of the value chain and Power of collaborations & partnerships are the key advantages that Magnum could leverage to tide over what may be known as one of the worst crisis that it has faced since start.
Investment in Technology:
It may be called foresight or the right timing, the company had invested in cutting edge technologies such as 3D Optitex, digital colour approval system, Internet of Things (IOT) in the previous year. As they say luck supports the ready, the investment of 1.5 Crore just before the lockdown was announced helped in contactless operations which has immensely helped the company. One of the key areas where the help came timely was the 3D sample approvals which is the preferred mode by most clients today, and the digitization has proved very helpful. “We are future ready” asserts Ravi as the chorus for post pandemic changes is getting louder. As this was implemented at the right time, the work from home for the teams was a smooth transition unlike many companies. Everyone is going for contactless operations, which is exactly what the company invested in at the right time and could make use of that convenience during adverse timings. Similarly work from home was convenient as the company had already put systems in place for the same.
Getting Real Value out of the Value Chain
One of the key strengths that the company has is the relationship with partners such as ERP Solution Providers with which the company has more than two decades of association. When COViD started, orders were cancelling out, but some other companies’ helped. When it comes to supplies, the timely supply of thread, elastic, interlining etc. is important. “The power of partnerships and spirit of support has come handy and we are really thankful to our suppliers for not only the competitive prices, delivery on time and superb service.
Ravi takes pride in mentioning about all partners and the values they added during these times, be it trainings to smooth running of value chain. Some of the key partnerships that the company leveraged was with Coats Digital for thread solutions, Stage for ERP, Doodleblue for CRM and also with various value chain partners which range from IT Solution providers, service providers, raw material suppliers such as mills and also providers of accessories.
Power of Collaborations and Networks:
Mr Ravi Singhee appreciates collaborations with peers such as ITF (Indian Texpreneurs Federation) and the Apparel Handloom Exporters Association (AHEA). These forums help in knowing the knitty gritty of information required and is a platform for collaboration amongst Textile entrepreneurs and learning for all.
Return on Relationships is an important concept that needs to be recognized and appreciated and it is something the company claims it has worked for them just as other returns.
Traditional Values and Modern times
Ravi was educated at prestigious Doon’s School and is an alumnus of University College, London. At the same time, the traditional family values, memories of hands me down within the joint families helps in sanity check for sustenance and getting the most out of any clothing. Magnum boasts not only of technological upper hand but also complies with Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) Base Code for ethical and social compliance. Products are REACH compliant and one of the units have Gold certificate from “WRAP”. The organization works on an integrated ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system linking all functional departments to provide better visibility, control and efficiency)
While there is a definite lag in growth, but the company could pull through safely, suggests Ravi Singhee. Company is focused on high end value addition as a solid value proposition therefore competing with the markets such as Turkey. His goal as mentioned by him is, “We want to be a cheaper Turkey but not an expensive Bangladesh”.