DR.

KAILASH KATKAR

(QUICK HEAL TECHNOLOGIES )

INTRODUCTION:

Kailash Katkar is Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the leading IT security
solutions provider, Quick Heal Technologies. It is a 28-year-old company providing Anti-Virus
solutions based in India. Kailash also initiated a series of awareness workshops named “Rotary
Cyber Safety Initiative“ by bringing together cyber security experts, law enforcement authorities,
and academicians on a single platform. The main objective of this initiative is to focus on Internet
safety for kids and teenagers.

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Early life:

Kailash was born on 1st November,1966 in a small village named Rahimatpur in Maharashtra to
a typical Maharashtrian family. Later his family moved to Pune and his father used to work at
Philips as a machine setter.

Education:

Katkar gave up formal education after he passed the secondary school certificate examination in
the mid 1980s because of his family’s circumstances. His father was a machine setter in electrical
company Philips in pune and his mother was a home maker.Kailash has two siblings Sanjay and
Asha.

Kailash flunked his ninth standard and dropped out from school and took up a job at a local radio
and calculator repair shop. Although his brother, Sanjay completed class 10th, electronics
fascinated him and he decided to pursue his engineering in electronics. Kailash encouraged Sanjay
to study computers and the later finished his Bachelors in Computer Science from Modern College,
Pune. Alongside he began upgrading his skill set and began reading and attending short computer
courses.

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 PROCEDURE TO START QUICK HEAL TECHNOLOGIES:

In 1990 he started his own repair shop along with a seed capital of Rs.15,000 from his savings.
That was his first step to his entrepreneurial journey.

In 1993 alongside his calculator repair shop, Kailash started his new venture called CAT Computer
Services with an office based in a small one-room electrical device repair station.Within a few
months of starting his new venture, he also managed to break-in to the corporate world by winning
the annual maintenance contract for New India Insurance.

It was purely an estimate of kailash that the machines which he used to work on earlier were not
going to continue for a long time and computers are going to take over I started, computer
maintenance and started taking AMCs(Annual Maintenance Contracts).

By this time his brother Sanjay who was studying Computer Engineering in Pune had begun
writing software programs and he insisted Sanjay to start developing a basic model of antivirus
software for his own firm CAT Computer Services. That is how antivirus Quick Heal came into
existence.

In 1994, the first Quick Heal anti-virus for DOS was released followed by Win 3.1 in 1995 and
Windows 95 in 1996 as well and it was well accepted by the market. At that time the duo was
offering their product to other vendors for a fee of Rs.700 which was cheapest among his
competitors.

Through constant innovation and technology adaptations it established itself as a complete IT

security solutions provider and renamed the company as Quick Heal Technologies Pvt. Ltd. in
2007.

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Growth of Business:

Since then there has been no looking back for the company. Some of the major developments made
by the company till date are mentioned below-

 The company launched its own website www.quickheal.comin 1998.

 In 2002 company saw an immense growth in business and bought an office space of
2,000 sq.ft in Pune for Rs. 25 lakhs.
 Between 2006 to 2010 Quick Heal signed a deal with Microsoft for bundling of Quick
Heal anti-virus with Genuine Windows XP.

Today the company has more than 12000 employees with more than 17 million customers across
112+ countriesand has transformed into a globally-known brand with a turnover of Rs 187 crores.

SELECTION OF PRODUCT & ESTIMATION OF DEMAND:

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The main reason for Kailash choosing this product is the difficulty and issues that are faced by
the most of the computer users regarding virus attacks in late 1990s.

Kailash managed to see a future issue evolving which is computer viruses. Since the internet was
becoming popular, it only meant that the computers would be at great risk and would create
multiple channels for viruses to reach the machines. That is when he began working on a definite
solution for the same.

It was then Kailash suggested to Sanjay that he should concentrate on creating a program against
the computer viruses, which would help his existing customers who were facing virus problems.
So, while Sanjay was still in the second year of his Masters, he wrote his first anti-virus program.

Over the next three or four years, he managed to develop a set of anti-virus software to heal infected
computers. Kailash started using this collection of software in his computer repairs. In 1995,
Kailash decided to commercialize these anti-virus products.

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At the same time, he also insisted that his brother develop compact software with features to tackle
multiple viruses. And by year end, he had the first version of Quick Heal anti-virus software.

The brothers Kailash and Sanjay Katkar have been spending nights fighting malware threats to
the country. The team at Quick Heal Technologies has been constantly working on R&D to help
predict, identify and clean up such threats.

Startup of Quick heal didn't involve any market research, Instead kailash ventured into the business
by having strong customer base and having known that demand for his product will be high . Even
though the market was dominated by MNCs’ anti-virus solutions (like Norton), they couldn't clean
many viruses specific to people in India. But the program Sanjay created not just prevented virus
but also cleaned up the computer, hence the product stood out over others in the market.

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PROBLEMS FACED BY ENTREPRENEUR:

Finance problems:

1. Both brothers didn’t have enough finance to start up their venture on a big scale. Boot
Strapping was the toughest part.
2. Banks and investors refused to fund the company, as it being a software company.
3. Software vendors refused to buy Anti viruses from them giving various trivial reasons.

Marketing Problems:

1. Mr. Kailash Katkar was new to this field and had very little idea about how to market the
product. Marketing was a huge problem as Kailash was a technical person and distributors
didn’t pay on time.

2. CAT Computer Services had tough competition from leading Antivirus brands such as
Norton and McAfee.

3. The other reasons being rapidly changing customer requirements and increased
competition among vendors that makes it impossible to engage in premium pricing but on
the other hand it also makes the availability of security solutions to customers at lower
costs.

4. Market conditions continuously change, so it needs to keep on revisiting and updating

business plans regularly.

Human Resource problems :

Quick heal was started with a team of four employees which now includes more than 800 staff in
23 offices across the country

1. Initially he faced financial crisis and was unable to pay off salaries. It was a tough task for
him to manage employee turnover during the earlier stages.
2. In providing intensive training and skills required by staff in order to manage international
and domestic customers.

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GROWTH ALTERNATIVES AVAILABLE TO ENTREPRENEUR:

Kailash want to make Quick Heal the global leader in the field of IT security and currently seeking
the government support in this regard for domestic anti virus company.

He takes the pride in creating an Indian brand, taking it to global marketplace and making a
difference to millions of people worldwide.

His brainchild Quick Heal Foundation functions in the areas of community welfare, education and
creating awareness around cyber security. The foundation has provided training and guidance on
cyber security to millions of students

Kailash started working towards developing anti-virus products for mobile phones.

Awards and Recognitions:

Kailash brothers receiving Emerging India award

 S.G.S. Parkhe Industrial Award(Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and

Agriculture (MCCIA) - 2009
 Emerging India Award(CNBC-TV18 and ICICI Bank) - 2009
 Business Today's Best Innovation SME Award(Business Today and Yes Bank) - 2010
 Maharashtra IT award(Government of Maharashtra) - 2009
 Deloitte Technology Fast 50, India 2010 (Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu) - 2010
 Red Herring 100 Asia(Red Herring) - 2009

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  The Remarkables - Entrepreneurship Award(GVK Alliance Networks') - 2013
 Entrepreneurship Excellence Award 2012(Brands Academy) - 2012
 Quality Brands India Award 2012 – 2014(Quality Brands India) - 2013
 Maxell Award for Corporate Excellence(Maxell Foundation) –2012
 Young Entrepreneur(Army Institute of Technology) –2012

In 2017, Chitkara University felicitated Kailash with the Honorary Doctorate for his
outstanding contribution to Business, Education and Humanity.

Lessons to learn:

This entrepreneurial journey of Kailash Katkar teaches us many lessons – of being tenacious,
focusing on developing the right skill sets, looking for the perfect opportunity and space in the
market, using your instinct to guide your judgment, and of course, hard work.

1.He always pushed his product as a service (we will clean it for you) and demonstrated value,
rather than trying to push a box.

2.Always remained close to the customer, designed service organization around what
customers wanted.

3.Solving a customer’s problem in a way your competitor is not doing, is the most memorable
thing for your customer or partner.

Conclusion:

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Kailash Katkar is a brilliant example of how keen observation of the market, hard work,
passion, focus, and building expertise can make you the leaders of any chosen landscape.

As a true visionary, his strategic business approach has continuously produced significant
business value for Quick Heal Technologies in the form of financial performance, customer
satisfaction, market share and productivity.

His strong commitment to operational excellence, an innovative approach to business

problems, and an aptitude for partnering cross-functionally has made Quick Heal the most
preferred consumer security solutions brand.

NARLA VENKATESHWAR REDDY

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 (LEOPRO TECHNOLOGIES)

INTRODUCTION:

Venkateshwar reddy (middle) with his branding partners at HITEX expo

Venkateshwar Reddy Narla was born to a poor landless farmer ,He is from Bhimavaram
village of East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh.He was so poor that he sought government
subsidy to go through school and college He was graduated from Government degree
college, Rajamundry in the stream of B.Sc .

He started his career as a lab technician at local hospital in 2008 and earned a measly sum
of Rs.1500 every month.In 2010 he got a job in Hetero drugs, Hyderabad as laboratory
information system analyst.

Today, he is co-founder of India’s leading manufacturers of customized Laboratory

equipment,“Leopro technologies”.

Becoming an Entrepreneur:

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He always thought of setting a business on his own but doesn’t have enough funds and
complete knowledge.

After 5 years of servitude at Hetero, He decided to channel his expertise into his own
laboratory manufacturing company with his two other friends and started working on it to
give a well defined outlook.

They started Leopro technologies on Nov 1st,2016 as a partnership firm.

.Procedure to Start a Business:

Leopro technologies was started in the year 2016 .The business was set up with an initial
investment of Rs.15 lakhs with help of his friends Raj kumar and Durgesh. They agreed for equal
share of profits and capital.

Choose the Product and Estimate the Demand for the Product:

During those days there was no much competition in this field.With his strong experience he found
the opportunity to gain advantage over others by having good clientbase and developed tools for
his as per their requirements and specifications.

He doesn’t have any market forecasts and estimates, executed the orders on Contract basis.

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The Problems Faced by Entrepreneur:

Procurement of raw materials:

Their raw material includes Stainless steel, fine quality wood, high pressure plastic and other
components to manufacture their varied set of products depending upon customer needs

It is always a major problem to get these inputs in timely schedules and at lowest possible prices.

Marketing Problems:

They haven’t made high investment in marketing their brand, due to lack of resources.

Their business was grown by means of “word-of-mouth”, rendering quality products and services

In present scenario, the number of competitors for this business are more comparatively, changing
customer preferences seems to be a challenge.

Human Resource Problems:

They faced difficulty in scheduling and routing employees for various job tasks until there was a
separate project & service division and HR personnel.

There seems to be no issue now ,they are managing employees efficiently.

Finance Problems:

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When they started their business ,they were left with less funds after investing their capital into
machinery and Inputs.

In the start up stage they were not able to undertake major projects due to lack of enough working
capital.

However now they manage to have good clients for their business from top leading pharma
companies.

Growth Alternatives Available to Entrepreneur:

They started with lab equipment ,now offering a wide range of products such as laboratory
furniture, wall and storage cabinets, Customized doors etc.

They are planning to extend their services to other states and set up new branches in coming years.

Conclusion:

Venkateshwar reddy faced many obstacles in the Business, but his hardwork and commitment
paved the way for its success.

The Design and sales team who are passionate in improving this service and skilled in various
aspects are an added asset to the company.

This start-up has gained popularity with in no time for the kind of service it is providing to its
customers in various places and cities.

The investments are also flowing in from various local companies, showing interest in the
company and its projects and giving it a way to expand its business.

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FAMOUS ENTREPRENEUR

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 REAL TIME
ENTREPRENEUR

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