Harish Bijoor launches consultancy outfit

agencyfaqs! News Bureau

BANGALORE

The entrepreneurial bug claims another victim.

Harish Bijoor, the ex-HLL, Tata Coffee and Zip Telecom hand, joins the entrepreneurship bandwagon with his new business, marketing and brand strategy consulting outfit Harish Bijoor Consults. "Not to be abbreviated. Never!," avers Bijoor, who formally launches his company on December 1, in Bangalore.

Bijoor, who quit Zip Telecom (as chief operating officer) recently, has tied up with New York-based venture capitalist (a $2-bn fund) The Smithsonian Group, which will seed his private label consultancy practise. The group has two other partnerships across the globe - one in South Africa and the other in Europe. "I will take on a set of clients for the Smithsonian, essentially start-ups in the region covering South East Asia and the United Kingdom," confirms Bijoor.

This exclusive agreement with the Smithsonian Group will cover 20-hours a week. "Which means I will have the balance 40 hours to do what I want, and take on new clients on a Build-Operate-Transfer basis," he says. The best part of the deal, according to Bijoor, is that he will be based out of his favorite city, Bangalore. The other is the money. He would be practicing his art on a retainership fee (his contract with the group runs for the next three years), over and above the revenue-sharing arrangement he has worked out with The Smithsonian Group on a per-client basis.

Elaborating on his gameplan, Bijoor says, "I have decided that this will be a zero-solicit consultancy. Which essentially means I will not go out and seek business; business will have to seek me out." He starts off with two clients - one in technology and the other coffee - who he doesn't want to name.

While he is yet to put together his team to service his first set of clients in Bangalore, Bijoor is already working on the blueprint for the future. As his plans stand now, the next stopover for his consultancy firm will be London, followed by Hong Kong.

As is apparent, after his 17-year career as a professional, Bijoor is quite gung-ho about the future. But two questions remain. One, why did he quit Zip Telecom? And two, is the time right for another start-up?

Bijoor answers the first questions without even stopping to think. "The excitement of setting up an entrepreneurial venture, the smell of good money and the opportunity to leverage my learnings and contribute in a global situation," is the gist of what motivated him to give us a cushy job.

As for the second, Bijoor says that this opportunity had been knocking on his doors for about eight months now. "And opportunities do not come by all the time. So I just thought to myself if I don't do it now, I might just not get another equally exciting opportunity in the next five years."

Clearly, it is a long haul ahead for Bijoor. © 2002 agencyfaqs!