The most effective office-spaces are not only those devoid of walls but a ceiling too! Three hugely successful entrepreneurs realised early on that their ‘mentor’ was right under their noses-in fact, all around them-Mother Nature!

Most entrepreneurs search high and low for mentor/s that have the right network, industry experience and the time, to help them monetise their ideas.

Three hugely successful entrepreneurs realised early on that their ‘mentor’ was right under their noses-in fact, all around them-Mother Nature!

Outdoor entrepreneurs Somit Doshi, N. Sreekumar and Girish Deshpande of Strawberry Outbound, Aria Holidays & Resorts and Moving Clouds respectively, took us willingly on their adventure-filled ‘journey’ lined with Nature’s hints, leading up to their booming business model.

Moving Clouds is a name that Girish Deshpande came up with, for his designer travel company, while trekking in the Himalayas. “I have always been a seriously outdoors person having criss-crossed India’s underbelly, far & out regions, having trekked over 2500 kms in the Indian Himalayas, Trans Himalayas & Nilgiris. Moving Clouds is a concept ahead of its time,” says this “vacation-scientist”, who has devised innovative tours ranging from action-packed adventure sport tours to spiritual sojourns and everything imaginative in between-high altitude desert safaris, textile tours, heritage stays in refurbished havelis, even swiss tents in the Himalayas! Having conducted nearly a hundred tours across India and Bhutan, the promoter of this designer travel outfit is confident about the growth opportunities for newcomers as long as they can think out-of-the-box.

While innovation is Nature’s cue to Deshpande, Kerala’s backwaters gave some winning cues to Sreekumar six years back. A hotelier earlier, Sreekumar tried to replicate luxury, past hotels, to houseboats. Sreekumar has also popularised the traditional Kerala country boats which were phased out by modern transport. He explains, “Two of our six houseboats are designed similar to the Kettuvallam, a boat that was made by tying together pieces of wood- and no single nail! Eco-friendly bamboo poles, coconut fibre ropes, bamboo mats, coir carpets, all of which are available locally are used to make our houseboats”. The design has been adapted to meet the luxury requirements of today’s tourist. Despite a short peak season (mid December to mid January) that this industry experiences, most of Sreekumar’s boats have touched their desired occupancy of 200-days per year. Besides the Kettuvallam-styled boats, Aria Holidays is also the proud owner of the largest houseboat in Kerala-Celebrations which accommodates 150 passengers!

STRAWBERRY OUTBOUND
Somit Doshi, Founder & Director, Strawberry Outbound
Started in	1997
Founder & Director	Somit Doshi
Located in	Mumbai, Haryana, Uttarakhand and in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Nature of business	Team building activities, adventure programmes and out-of-the-box corporate outdoor initiatives
Initial Investment	INR 35 lacs
Team size	16 + freelance trainers
Break even	After 4 years
Regulations	*Safety gear to be UIAA approved *Instructors to hold qualifications from govt-approved mountaineering institutes
Break up of running costs	R&D-60%; Promotion-20%;Administrative-20%
Tariffs	Customised on demand
Business promotion	Word-of-mouth; participants are their greatest advocates
Conversion ratio	3 out of 5
Challenges	Hiring the right people
Customer profile	Corporates
“The best decisions will always be ones with the highest risks. Stay fearless- run your business with love”.

Somit Doshi, Founder and Director of Strawberry Outbound says, “I was brought up in an environment of outdoor culture and sports lifestyle (14 years in the UAE). My family took me to beaches, national parks and mountains and I was naturally inclined towards the outdoors”, and modestly adds, that “I was miserable at anything else so for me it was make money out of outdoor life or….get ruined”! Since 1997, Doshi has lucratively illustrated to the top brass of India Inc. that the most effective office-spaces are not only those devoid of walls but a ceiling too! Justifiably for Doshi, Strawberry Outbound has been about “having my cake and eating it too”!

“We use the outdoors as a vehicle for experiential learning, where the learning is real, with real successes and failures, and only genuine input will achieve lasting results. The great advantage of the outdoors is that it forces you to use your communicative and reasoning skills to confront problems head-on”, Doshi explains. Strawberry Outbound is one of the most experienced companies that has trained over 300 corporates through team building activities, adventure programmes and out-of-the-box outdoor initiatives. Using the outdoors as a vital component, it offers a host of programs on leadership, team development, performance improvement, facilitation workshops and young employee apprentice programmes among others. With a young team of 16, including technical people, creative heads, a finance controller and trainers, Doshi is convinced that flexibility is the key to their success. “The team is young and happy to experiment and keen to listen. When you listen, you can adapt quicker”. When asked if competion is stiff, Doshi, who, even today, never misses a chance to be outdoors, replies, “it is not stiffer than my back”!

MOVING CLOUDS
Girish Deshpande, Promoter, Moving Clouds
Started in	2004
Promoter	Girish Deshpande
Located in	Pune
Nature of business	Destination management/Designer Tours
Initial Investment	INR 0.5 lacs
Team size	2
Break even	From Day 1 of conducting tour
Regulations	*Verify credentials of third party specialists/operators *Permits in travelling to restricted areas
Safety measures	*Internationally-trained instructors for adventure sports *Imported equipment, checked prior to use *Guides to carry oxygen along on hi-altitude treks * For Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS): Briefing 4-6 weeks prior to a difficult routine Pre-departure preparations Medical kit Guidance provided on daily basis
Running costs	Restricted to travel (in search of new locations)
ROI	200%
Conversion Ratio	70%
Tariffs	Starts with USD 150 per couple/day CPAI (continental plan all inclusive)
Business Promotion	Print advertisements, Giveaways
Challenges	*Mindset of Indian traveller * Mid-level, clean, no-frills accommodation needs to up scaled everywhere
Customer profile	*U.S.,Australian, European nationals (premium guests) *NRI’s *High Net Worth & discerning Indian families
“India is a vast canvas for tourism of all kinds, with immense potential yet untapped; Respect the Elements and keep innovating”

How has the road from conception to profitability been? Bumpy, for Strawberry Outbound, in its first four years. Saddled with an initial investment of nearly INR 35 lakhs, taken as a loan from friends by mortgaging office space, Doshi speaks candidly about Strawberry Outbound’s 1997 days. “Early days were miserable with little or no business, and expenses on the other end. Then, India was not particularly for communities with outdoor lifestyle. It was tough and I often thought of shutting shop and working as a guide or running a tea-stall in the mountains”. Determined to create commerce out of his love for outdoors, Doshi’s venture broke even only after reaching a critical mass. With as much as 60% of Strawberry Outbound’s running costs dedicated to R&D (including safety, search for new ideas, props, equipment), Doshi encounters a expectation-returns conundrum. He explains, “When people talk about operational capability and safety, we are compared to the west. But if I have to do the same with what we charge, we fall back by 200-300%”. He agrees that manpower and office expense is lower in India but cost of operations continues to be high, as safety can never be compromised.

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

A new tented resorts
written by Manimaran, November 15, 2009

Hi,

We have developed a six swiss cottage tented resorts in a lesser known hill stations called Kolli Hills which is 275kms from Bangalore. Total expenses are 17 lacs.

Total bookings per year 100 days. 12000Rs. per day

12,00,000 Rs per year. Expenses Rs. 5,00,000/ and the profit is 7 lacs per annum.

But we need to put more efforts to develop the marketing to know this place.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +1