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Seminar talk by Mr. Sandeep Mathur, Vice President & Business Head, Fenesta

Topic: Emergence of Retailing in B2B Marketing

Date:August 30, 2010

Speaker Profile :

Mr. Sandeep Mathur currently is the Sr. Vice President & Business Head, Fenesta Building Products, Gurgaon. Prior to this he worked as Vice President Sales & Marketing with BlowPlast, Office Furniture Business (1992 to 2002), and has worked with Voltas for ten years. He holds PGDBM degree in Marketing and B.E in Mechanical. Mr. Mathur joined Fenesta, as its first employee in 2002.

Details:

A guest lecture was held for MBA 2nd Year Marketing students on 30th August 2010. The lecture was given by Mr. Sandeep Mathur, Vice President & Business head, Fenesta. Mr. Mathur was accompanied by Mr. Probir Poddar, Eastern Zonal Head, Fenesta.

FENESTA, a Rs. 200 crore company under DSCL group was started in the year 2002, basically for providing business solutions for UPVC products. The pipe manufacturing segment was too crowded with already established players. Therefore it was decided to venture in UPVC products in other category. The category chosen was a high risk and high return category. It was successful instantly becoming a niche and upmarket product. At first, FENESTA was strictly a B2B business, directly dealing with contractors and builders. Recently, they diversified into retail business. Fenesta is now Market leaders in UPVC products, which earned them the tag “The Window Experts”.

The lecture started in an interesting and unusual manner with anecdotes of businesses from the past that didn’t do well. Mr. Mathur showed that even established companies can be wiped out from the face of market if they don’t adapt to changes. There were examples from Metal box, Vaccumiser, Aarvy Power tools, Blowplast etc.

The lecture delved into how Fenesta increased its stronghold in a market where no one wanted to set foot. The same market which had no players has about 150 competitors now. Questions like, how the market became lucrative? What were the initial setbacks? How did the company decide to diversify into Retail market? How was the market responding to the Products? Were answered by Mr. Mathur and Mr. Bikas in a lucid manner. It was found that the substitute products were the major threats to the company. Rapid innovation and customization is the key success factor for Fenesta. Although the customer base is low, but the growth rate ensures that it has a large potential and the company would avail the first mover advantage. All the way it was emphasised by Mr. Mathur that, “Constant change is the name of the game”.

Mr. Mathur finished this informative lecture with a lesson that implies for everybody; “Opportunities come without knocking, grabbing it is easy, cashing on it determines the winner”.