Tummalapenta Srinivasa Rao was at Coimbatore in connection with the promotion of the Non Resident Indian Vasavi Association ( NRIVA ) convention to be held on the first week of September 2017 in New York. His wife Dr.Nirmala , who happens to be a successful Geriatrician is from Coimbatore and she has been taking care of a couple of Nobel laureates over the years . TP as he is known, Srinivasa Rao did his Mechanical Engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology and worked as a diecast engineer with Escorts at Delhi for 15 months before moving to the USA for his higher studies. Subsequently he did his MBA and Masters in Industrial Engineering from the University of New Haven. Professionally he cut his teeth as a Receiving Manager with " Health & Beauty Aids " and within a period of 8 months he got promoted as the General Manager as a reward for having increased the number of stores from 3 to 11. TP got married at the Sree Annapoorna Hotel at Coimbatore to Dr.Nirmala by the year 1992 and it was around this time he got promoted as the Operations Manager in charge of a number of facets of work concerning a sale of about $ 325000 per week.
TP is glad to recall his early days as a professional who evolved into an entrepreneur, " My speciality was team building and I left the company thanks to its merger to another outfit and then I joined the 6 th Avenue Discount as a working partner and within a couple of years I took it over. From a business of $ 175000 per annum it grew about 7 times to $ 1.2 million in 3 years and reached a peak of $ 2.1 million by the year 2003. Success brought in more business in the form of opportunities and we signed up with Duncan Donuts and took up 4 outlets in Manhattan in the year 2004. Over the next dozen years we never had to look back and now we have reached a total of 30 outlets of which 13 deal with the products of Baskin Robbins and Duncan Donuts while 17 deal with just Duncan Donuts. 16 out of our 30 outlets are 24 hour outlets while one of them is a drive through. It was in 2014 that we took up 2 Burger King outlets and now we have a total of 32 outlets offering work opportunities to about 500 people in New York city clocking a turnover of about $ 30 million per annum ".
The dynamic work horse had also been dealing with Western Union money transfer and had run an Indian restaurant near Times Square between 2007 and 2014 in addition to running a gas station. He gave up on these activities for he foresaw a lot of growth in the food business that he had been involved with. Its surprising to see an engineer from the south choosing not to get into software at a time when it began to boom and when queried about this TP is frank and clear, " Software is a great field , however I wanted to be a businessman and therefore I took up a number of commercial ventures which have made me what I am. Once we understand our inner call it will be possible to focus and move forward. Plus the US is a land of oppourtunity for hard working and creative immigrants. One has to be hard working, passionate and determined in order to succeed. "
TP is an organisation man and works based on a pyramid management system which includes District Managers, General Managers, Store Managers, Assistant Managers and Crew members and one of his District Managers is available round the clock in order to sort out emergencies as and when they arise. The group is known as " Rao Network " and it operates the training programmes from 3 of its stores while making most of the stuff from a Central Kitchen. The readied stuff is transported to the stores with the aid of trucks say by about 1 am everyday. While the main office is at Manhattan, TP does a lot of his work from his 18000 plus square feet residence at New Jersey. While the daughter Radha is doing her pre med , the son Vijay is at school. He is really charged while talking about the products sold in his outlets, " At Duncan Donuts we sell 4 munchkins for just $1 and sandwiches for $5.99. A number of premium beverages are also sold by us. Through the Baskin Robbins outlets we sell milk shakes and other kinds of beverages. The double sheet cake here is priced at $ 109.99. People belonging to several nationalities have been working with us both part time and full time. We try our best to maintain both quality cum service all round the year and our work has been recognised well by the respective companies in the form of awards. "
The Coimbatore Mappillai is keen to give something back to the society and is on a visit to India in order to promote a service oriented conference for the benefit of the followers of Vasavi. TP gave a brief about his mission on the sidelines of a meeting with the locals at Coimbatore, " I have been in India for the last 1 week in order to promote the NRI Vasavi Association conference and our team has been to Hyderabad, Vizag, Bengaluru and Vijayawada. We want to create a network and connection that may help people to work, study or do charity in India or in the US. We are keen to help the poor plus nurture entrepreneurship. The conference will offer a window for understanding work and business in the US, matrimonial exchanges, fun, entertainment, taking care of the old and infirm, creating medical awareness among women and education in the US. Its going to be one stop oppourtunity to tap the potential of about 10000 Indian families in the USA at one go. There will be stalls, counters, souvenirs and many other things which will be of great help to everyone. We are here to request people from India to participate in this venture and harvest both friendship and success. A tour programme is being drawn out and an App will help each person who wants to learn more about the NRIVA conference. The conference is sure to foster friendship, fellowship and charity . " TP was chosen to lead simply because the team believed in his team building abilities and the choice was purely on the basis of merit. " We believe purely in merit and self affirmation. While merit is focused upon we believe in being helpful and humane. Its pure merit which helps us to nurture this trait " adds he.
The work culture and experience of Non Resident Indian entrepreneurs like T. Srinivasa Rao ( TP ) is sure to give yet another successful directive for young Indians nurturing business dreams the world over.
TP is glad to recall his early days as a professional who evolved into an entrepreneur, " My speciality was team building and I left the company thanks to its merger to another outfit and then I joined the 6 th Avenue Discount as a working partner and within a couple of years I took it over. From a business of $ 175000 per annum it grew about 7 times to $ 1.2 million in 3 years and reached a peak of $ 2.1 million by the year 2003. Success brought in more business in the form of opportunities and we signed up with Duncan Donuts and took up 4 outlets in Manhattan in the year 2004. Over the next dozen years we never had to look back and now we have reached a total of 30 outlets of which 13 deal with the products of Baskin Robbins and Duncan Donuts while 17 deal with just Duncan Donuts. 16 out of our 30 outlets are 24 hour outlets while one of them is a drive through. It was in 2014 that we took up 2 Burger King outlets and now we have a total of 32 outlets offering work opportunities to about 500 people in New York city clocking a turnover of about $ 30 million per annum ".
The dynamic work horse had also been dealing with Western Union money transfer and had run an Indian restaurant near Times Square between 2007 and 2014 in addition to running a gas station. He gave up on these activities for he foresaw a lot of growth in the food business that he had been involved with. Its surprising to see an engineer from the south choosing not to get into software at a time when it began to boom and when queried about this TP is frank and clear, " Software is a great field , however I wanted to be a businessman and therefore I took up a number of commercial ventures which have made me what I am. Once we understand our inner call it will be possible to focus and move forward. Plus the US is a land of oppourtunity for hard working and creative immigrants. One has to be hard working, passionate and determined in order to succeed. "
TP is an organisation man and works based on a pyramid management system which includes District Managers, General Managers, Store Managers, Assistant Managers and Crew members and one of his District Managers is available round the clock in order to sort out emergencies as and when they arise. The group is known as " Rao Network " and it operates the training programmes from 3 of its stores while making most of the stuff from a Central Kitchen. The readied stuff is transported to the stores with the aid of trucks say by about 1 am everyday. While the main office is at Manhattan, TP does a lot of his work from his 18000 plus square feet residence at New Jersey. While the daughter Radha is doing her pre med , the son Vijay is at school. He is really charged while talking about the products sold in his outlets, " At Duncan Donuts we sell 4 munchkins for just $1 and sandwiches for $5.99. A number of premium beverages are also sold by us. Through the Baskin Robbins outlets we sell milk shakes and other kinds of beverages. The double sheet cake here is priced at $ 109.99. People belonging to several nationalities have been working with us both part time and full time. We try our best to maintain both quality cum service all round the year and our work has been recognised well by the respective companies in the form of awards. "
The Coimbatore Mappillai is keen to give something back to the society and is on a visit to India in order to promote a service oriented conference for the benefit of the followers of Vasavi. TP gave a brief about his mission on the sidelines of a meeting with the locals at Coimbatore, " I have been in India for the last 1 week in order to promote the NRI Vasavi Association conference and our team has been to Hyderabad, Vizag, Bengaluru and Vijayawada. We want to create a network and connection that may help people to work, study or do charity in India or in the US. We are keen to help the poor plus nurture entrepreneurship. The conference will offer a window for understanding work and business in the US, matrimonial exchanges, fun, entertainment, taking care of the old and infirm, creating medical awareness among women and education in the US. Its going to be one stop oppourtunity to tap the potential of about 10000 Indian families in the USA at one go. There will be stalls, counters, souvenirs and many other things which will be of great help to everyone. We are here to request people from India to participate in this venture and harvest both friendship and success. A tour programme is being drawn out and an App will help each person who wants to learn more about the NRIVA conference. The conference is sure to foster friendship, fellowship and charity . " TP was chosen to lead simply because the team believed in his team building abilities and the choice was purely on the basis of merit. " We believe purely in merit and self affirmation. While merit is focused upon we believe in being helpful and humane. Its pure merit which helps us to nurture this trait " adds he.
The work culture and experience of Non Resident Indian entrepreneurs like T. Srinivasa Rao ( TP ) is sure to give yet another successful directive for young Indians nurturing business dreams the world over.