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ENTREPRENUERSHIP MANAGEMENT

Chetan Mairi,

REVA Electric Car Company

from the book Connect The Dots

SOUMIT GHOSH

PGDM (09-11)

Roll No. - 42

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Summary

Chetan Mairi since his childhood was a fanatic of electronics and cars as he was brought up in family

who were reputed ancillaries suppliers to large OEMs, the passion came to him easily.

He received support from his parents, who encouraged him and supported his endeavours monetarily

and other wise. His father Sudarshan Maini arranged for his friends to come over and help Chetan out in

his projects on building remote control planes and cars. Chetan had converted his terrace to hobby room

where spent hours milling machines and lathes.

Chetan spent one entire summer vacation building a go-kart from various spare parts and a budget of Rs.

1500.

Chetan was enrolled into preparation for the IIT-JEE, but some how he felt he needed something more

hands-on and not theoretical learning of the IITs.

He then applied for the Mechanical Engineering course at the Univ. of Michigan. Where he spent more of

his time in practical projects than on classroom learning.

He was deeply involved in the Solar- Car project for which he spent nearly 15-16 hours a day in the

General Motors Plant where he was an Intern then drive two-hours away to the Michigan International

Speedway to test his cars, his team came first among 35 other teams from reputed universities.

His Solar Car then competed in the World Solar Championship in Australia where he came close to

matching cars from automobile stalwarts like Mazda and Honda.

Chetan Mairi came in touch with Dr, Lon Bell through his son, Dave, who was Chetans classmate. He

decided to join Dr Bell in 1991 and started to build a platform for a electric car. Chetan Mairi felt his

learning was restricted so he decided to do his Masters from Stanford later he joined Lon Bell again and

continued to work on the Electric Car project at Amergion in the US, but he now longed to return to his

native country, India as he felt the time was perfect to realise a electric powered car in India where oil

was getting expensive and pollution was high.

Mairi while touring US and Europe realised that not only the technological aspect but also the sales or

marketability of the electric car was important.

The ambassador to India at the time suggested to Mr Sudarshan, Chetans father at party to name his

new project as Reva after Chetans mother.

Chetan, aged 24, started work on the project in the US with development team and also co-ordinated with

his engineering team in India, who would visit the US frequently. They worked for 5 long years on the just

the tech aspects of the REVA car.

In1996 the first Reva car was shipped into India, in the meantime regulatory changes in the US made the

launching of a electric car fairly useless and not commercial viable, hence Chetan after obtaining the help

and support of his family for resources, in 1999, decided to shift base to Bangalore to produce and sell

electric cars.

Chetan after shifting base to India decided to get some funding as the project had gained popularity, he

approached Venture Capitalist for funding and was successful. He hired young employees and

empowered them with skills as it was impossible to find people who had experienced working on such a

electric car project. He managed to produce the car and sold 40 cars in 2001.

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Government regulations were turned aganist electric cars taxes on the same were substantially increased

while that on normal cars were reduced, Chetan then realised that he had to rally support for his Project

and was able to get the IIT and IISc involved for lobbying for his project but not resulting in great results.

REVA Car company did sell their cars in 2001 and their customers varied from the young to the old to the

middle class to the affluent class. Infact, Reva themselves did spend on advertising but got it through PR

and word-of-mouth. Reva in 2004 shipped cars to the UK where they were a big hit, as the electric car

was exempted from paying congestion tax and was also allowed to get its charging done free of cost

around London City.

Reva in the UK sold under the name of G-WIZ and made huge profit margins there. Reva was launched

in a big way in India and was endorsed by many popular personalities as well.

Chetan felt the overseas venture helped them grow as well as they now understood many specifications

and requirements to make this global and also improve its acceptability in India.

In Septemberr 2009, General Motors, became the first auto major to produce an electric version of the

Chevy Spark with tie-up with Reva.

LEARNINGS:

An Entrepreneur needs firstly to love what he does as converting his vision to a substantial project and

then to a profit making business required Chetan Maini full efforts and time and commitment, he was

required to spend days on end at the factory perfecting small details of the car, this would not be possible

if he did not poses the craze he had of electronics and cars from his childhood where spent 3 months of

his summer vacation building a go-kart.

An entrepreneur should always getgood guidance from experienced or experts at nascent stage as

this would help him look at problems differently and help him develop a unique way of thinking.

Entrepreneurship demands one to be a fearless risk-takeras Chetan did in his youth when he opted out

of the exams of the prestigious IITs of India, to take up a more hands-on course at University of Michigan,

or when he worked for 5 years without even producing and selling the electric car while he could have

obtained a very good salary working for any major global organisation. He also convinced his father and

brothers to invest surpluses from the family manufacturing businesses into the Reva Project.

An entrepreneurneeds to be a master of all trades, i.e he should an in depth knowledge of each

specific roles of the organisation like Marketing, Finance, HR and R&D.

Working on important feedback from customers was the key to improve the car and make it more

acceptable to the masses.

While facing problems Chetan would sleep over them and try and discover the opportunity the

problem presented in terms of developing new skills or creating systems or processes in the

process stretching your own limits. He also believed that it is better to break down projects into smaller

pieces it is easier to handle.

Also while promoting a concept an entrepreneur needs to get popular opinion on his side as his

Electric car would make normal fuel-consuming cars less desirable and phase them out, and hence his

project faced major regulations challenges.

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