SUCCESS STORY

"Bangerada Manushya" - An Entrepreneur as an Ideologue

Knowing what makes a successful entrepreneur is a lot like knowing the secret formula of a box office film. By all means, learn all you want, put in all the efforts, but still the knowledge of what makes a successful entrepreneur will remain a secret. Perhaps deep down, lies another secret - than you can make your own destiny. 
It's a contentious proposition, but not when the successful entrepreneur model you have in mind is Sri JR Bangera. 
In his student days, Bangera was a union leader. As a youngster, he was an anti-establishment rebel (The young Bangera played an active role in the movement for democracy during the Emergency era of the mid seventies). As an ordinary employee, he served with a passion and purpose that would do an executive proud. As a manager, he was the envy of CEOs. As an entrepreneur, he managed to keep to the right side of his ideological underpinning. As an advocate of industry, he showed how working together works. As a citizen of free India, he showed how nationalism and globalism can share a seat at the same dinner table. And finally, as an individual, Bangera could have become anything - a politician, an ideologue, a CEO presiding over a $ bn company - but chose to be an entrepreneur. 
In Bangera's book, if you want to serve society, become an entrepreneur. 
As an entrepreneur, you provide jobs to the needy (and thereby ensure the survival of their families), train them to upgrade their skills and give them space to grow (thereby enhancing the quality of life of their families), take care of them like family in their hour of need (thereby earning their loyalty), thus contributing to the society and the national economy.
Looking at it this way, there can be no better way of doing social service - outside of charity. Actually, even charity has its limits. It doesn't contribute to nation building, like an entrepreneur can. Or like an entrepreneur like Bangera can. 
Bangera was not a born entrepreneur. That idea took almost 10 years to incubate in his mind, during which period he garnered experience in sales and marketing, working for a food processing products based multi-national company (today it is a part of Hindustan Lever). Within three years, he rose to become the Regional Manager, and his performance was so top notch that the company was even willing to shift its office from Chennai to Bangalore to retain Bangera. The high point of his career was when he commissioned a caramel unit in 40 days flat from the drawing board to a tested production-ready unit. And remember, we are talking about the late eighties when commissioning a startup to production stage takes years, not days. 
In 1987, when India was nowhere near being recognized as an economic powerhouse, Bangera took the plunge to reboot his own future, as an entrepreneur, establishing Premier Products Company, backing his own experience in the field. A year later, it was reconstituted as a private limited company, and after that, there was no looking back. 
A lone ranger in more than one sense, Bangera did - and continues to do - what an entrepreneur would never do: Hire someone because he needed the job! That's his ideological mindset at work. Take someone who's in really need of a job, train him, take good care of him, and he'll turn out to be a great asset to your company. An excellent example of how ideology can be compatible with business. 
A staunch nationalist, Bangera as the State Convenor of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, has fought for the oppressed and the voiceless in his own way. A terrific leader right from his student days, he continues to pursue his passion by mobilizing people on social causes to this day. As President of KASSIA before the turn of the millennium (1998-1999), he seeded the idea of the KASSIA Credit Cooperative Society. Before that, he co-founded the Bangalore North Small Scale Industries Association, served as Secretary of Peenya Industries Association (PIA), and currently is the Vice President of the FKCCI. 
His advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is: Know Your Three Es - Education, Exposure & Experience. If not, have faith in lottery. Well, better take the advice of this "Bangerada Manushya". 
Bangera @ work
Premier Starch Products Pvt. Ltd: Frontrunner manufacturer of Tapioca, Corn and Potato based Modified Starches, Dextrines and all types of starch-based adhesives for paper converting and packaging; innovated products in the field of specialised glue for paper packaging.
Principal product range/brand: STARGEL, STARDEX, FIBRODEX and GLUEGEL. 
Market presence: Diverse clientele stretched across India, predominantly in South India and Maharashtra; also forayed into the global market in the Asia- Pacific, Egypt, Middle-East and Europe. 
Infrastructure: Manufacturing facility, with a built-up area of 12000 sq. ft., based at Bangalore, with widespread operations in Bombay, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Coimbatore. 

Products' USP: 1) Modified starch products give an extra edge, the advantage being thin boiling, controlled viscosity. 2) Provide technical support to customers in the end use of products with special starch additives, Biocides and defoamers for optimizing the productivity and to obtain the best results. 3) A single-point solution for corrugation and pasting adhesive. Developed after much research and market study, it is comparatively easy to use, designed for both corrugation and pasting in corrugated box making. It has the advantages namely - No Cooking, Simple mixing with high sped stirrer, quick setting and quick drying, no irritation and smell. 4) Products are custom made with starch additives to enhance the basic properties such as adhesion, green bond, moisture control/moisture resistance thereby enhancing the special properties as measured by ECT (Edge Crush test), BCT (Box Crush Test) and PAT (Pin Adhesion Test). Biocides in the products prevent fungus and bacterial growth in adhesives to arrest the bacterial and fungal growth in boxes at varying moisture and temperatures. 
Product Applications: Mainly used in high-speed, single & double facer corrugating machines and corrugated paper boards, in boxes that store perishables & liquids, deep freezing packaging and outside storage containers, boxes for packing fruits, vegetables, flowers and liquids. Best suited for High speed Automatic and Semi-Automatic multi-layer corrugated board manufacturing. Used in making cones, paper cores & tubes, fibre drums, multi-layer paper bags, etc.  Quality: ISO 9001:2000 Certified for Quality Management Systems.