Lalit Bhise, CEO and co-founder of Mobisy Technologies, has always been passionate about creating impactful change that influences millions of lives. A Computer Science engineer, he worked with corporates like Siemens Mobile (San Diego), Sendo Mobile (UK) and Infineon Technologies in the early years of his career. During this time, he gained significant experience in the fields of supply chain, sales and mobile technologies.
Lalit always wanted to be an entrepreneur. It was not until 2006 when he met Chhavi Gupta that he finally decided to take the plunge. The duo started Mobisy Technologies in 2008 along with two other co-founders – Shree Kulkarni and Vasudeva Manjunath.
The venture went through its ups and downs. Lalit believes the turning point came when he met with a cycling accident in 2011. While on bed rest for three months, he had an epiphany to work only on projects that he loved and were meaningful. He decided to build products that could make a significant impact in the lives of other people.
After building products, selling them became Lalit’s interest and passion. He enjoyed turning sceptic customers around and helped them to see the value of Mobisy’s products. It became vital to gain user and customer perspective, learn the art of negotiation, understand value vs pricing, face competition, and so on.
Now, Lalit focuses on scaling his company. A critical element of his growth strategy is to create teams of intelligent, passionate and entrepreneurial people.
The CEO’s Day
Lalit’s day is generally jam-packed. He thoroughly enjoys the part of the job where the company is building something of value to tens of thousands of users. To manage the challenges of a growing company, Lalit has a set of rules and beliefs that help to invest his time and energy in the right places:
- Make decisions based on data and at times on pure intuition. Sometimes the choices can be wrong. However, by not making them, one cannot move forward. Focus on executing rather than on endless debates about the right decision.
- Believe in learning. Keep changing to stay relevant.
- Customer delight comes before everything else, including revenue.
- Always look for next-gen leaders within Mobisy. Organizations scale when people adapt to change. Be a people-first company which believes that great people build great products which result in high revenues.
- Remember to take time out to:
- Explore new growth opportunities
- Set direction to Mobisy teams
Leading the growth path to a successful company
By 2010, Mobisy Technologies had a profitable business of building custom mobile apps for Star TV, Vodafone, Intel, Samsung, Nokia etc. From the steady base, the founding team started looking for opportunities that could accelerate growth. Their first breakthrough came when they built a Van Sales automation app for Hector Beverages. The success brought more customers, and Bizom was launched officially in September 2012.
In 2014, Mobisy Technologies was a seven-year-old technology company that pivoted from building mobility solutions for companies. This journey was chockful of challenges.
The biggest challenge was that the company couldn’t pay fat salaries. Still, Mobisy’s business potential attracted talent by the drive. Today, almost all its 150+ employees are entrepreneurial and driven, which creates an atmosphere of energy and joy at the workplace.
Continuous innovation that keeps the success story running
After the success of Bizom, in 2015, the company introduced Distiman, an advanced innovation that integrates the downstream supply chain in the retail ecosystem. The app is aimed at retailers who can order stock directly from hundreds of brands and secure the delivery within 24 hours.
Digital products of the company have helped customers increase revenue, profits and save time. These products have also helped small businesspeople and retailers rotate their working capital leading to increased revenue and market access.
Achievements
In a decade of its inception, Mobisy launched three brands, fought off bankruptcy and built a profitable, fast-growing business. Its products serve over 350 brands, including global FMCG giants like Reckitt-Benckiser, Coke, Pepsi, Mondelez and Hershey. Mobisy’s products have over 150,000 users and reach 5.5 million retailers (one in every third retailer). They are India’s leading sales automation company.
In the past few years, Mobisy has achieved consistent growth year-on-year and built a reputation as an innovative problem-solver for the FMCG industry. It’s now exploring new verticals and markets. They have set up an office in Manchester, UK and are looking to build partnerships in Europe and beyond.
The roadmap to impacting a billion lives includes leveraging exciting new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (MI) and image recognition to create a comprehensive retail intelligence platform.
