‘The Jewel of Mamallapuram’ - Ken Sekhar FT13141

From the snow covered mountains of Kashmir to the hot sunny beaches of Mamallapuram the protagonist of my story made the long trek to make a name for himself and start something that he would be proud to call his own. Ashiq came to Mamallapuram with a dream to set up his very own store but since he did not have the capital, the skill sets or the understanding of the local market he decided to work at India Bazar first to make himself worthy. He worked there for a couple of years until it closed and believes till this day that everything that he learnt came from that first experience. Once India Bazar closed it gave him the push that he needed to start his own store and he purchased a 100 sq ft property further down Othavadai Street for which he is currently paying a rent of Rs 4,000. For the lat five years he has been running the ‘Jewels Inn’ and he will swear to anyone who is willing to listen that it has been the best few years of his life.

The Jewells Inn is a store that sells jewellery, handicrafts, carpets and shawls. He gets the jewellery and handicrafts from Jaipur and sources the carpets and shawls from his contacts in Kashmir. The thing I found most interesting when Ashiq was sharing with me his life story, like an enlightened man sitting under some tree telling his subjects how to attend nirvana, was his views on competition. Most entrepreneurs would want a market in which they are the only player so that they could enjoy the monopoly position, but not Ashiq. He wants a situation where there is a lot of competition around his store. On further probing of this most absurd statement he told me that when there is a bigger market there is a much bigger incentive for more customers to come. After that it’s anyone’s play. The man with the best product, most competitive price and most importantly best customer relations will usually come out on top. He let out a small smile here saying that for the most part it’s usually him. It was at this moment that I understood his love for competing and winning.      

Since he is just a small player in the market he doesn’t really have the financial backing to advertise his shop and therefore relies completely on word of mouth. He treats every single customer like a brand ambassador knowing full well that the time that he spends with them in his store is equivalent to if he were a big corporation with huge budgets for marketing. With every interaction he therefore aims at the highest level of customer satisfaction and believes that they will then go out and do the rest for him. One of Ashiq’s biggest strength is that he understands the importance of being customer centric rather than
 production centric, even though he has not attended a single lecture on Marketing Management, and makes all his decisions accordingly. 







The suppliers who bring the goods for these stores usually come once in 2 months and the most important decision for the store managers is what to select. Most pieces are unique and the decision to pick up one over another could be what keeps him happy near the warm beaches of Mamallapuram or sad and depressed in the cold foothills of Kashmir. Ashiq has complete faith in his ability to understand what his customers want and see the trends to pick the products that even they don’t know they would want. Majority of his loyal customers come from Pondicherry and Chennai and they give him business throughout the year. During the peak season, which is from November to February, he gets a lot of business from the visiting tourists. His timings for his shops are also completely centred around his customers. During the peak season he is opened from 8 am – 11 pm and during the off season from 10 am – 9 pm. This timing is completely flexible based on the foot traffic he has on his street.

Ashiq also mentioned to me that he spends a lot of time building relationships with the suppliers who bring him the goods. In some cases he has been able to build such a strong connect with them over the past 5 years that they have agreed to supply to only him in the area. In other instances his rapport with them usually gets him a first crack at selecting the products as soon as it comes to Mamallapuram. And for the suppliers in which he has not been able to create this bond as of now it operates as a complete free for all wherein his keen eye needs to be at its best in order to beat his competition.

His inventory at any point is between 10 – 15 lakhs and makes a profit of approximately 2 lakhs during the regular months and 4-5 lakhs during the peak season. He told me quite passionately that he would have been able to do much better if he was located more in the center of Mamallapuram. I think he judged my face here and saw that I either did not believe him or just assumed it was a statement that anyone in his position would say because he further went on to say that there was a 10:1 ratio of people who actually passed the invisible border of Othavadai Street, which is Moonrackers, and venture beyond to find what they are looking for. 

From my experience of talking to him and observing him in action I firmly believe that Ashiq really seems to have his act together. He understands who the most important person for his success is, the customer. He understands where he gets his biggest competitive advantage from, the suppliers and his ability to pick the right products. And finally he has enough confidence and ambition to make the Jewls Inn ‘The Jewel of Mamallapuram’.