With leaving no stones unturned and overcoming all the tough challenges in life, Mr. Mahesh Gupta is today the founder and owner of the huge business group, KENT RO.
And with this he has turned out to be massive success! His achievements are no new to us; he had already become a rebel in the water purification industry as early as in 90’s! He has today become an epitome of success defeating his failures. Let us take you to his venture of victory.
An exclusive talk with Dr. Praveen Tiwari!
“MAHESH GUPTA”: A NAME of success
Mahesh Gupta, a first generation entrepreneur, is known worldwide for revolutionizing the water purification industry in India. He is the Founder-Chairman of KENT RO Systems Ltd., India’s leading water Purifier Company. Mr. Gupta, an IIT graduate from Kanpur in Mechanical Engineering and an alumnus of Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, began his early career in 1978 with prestigious IOCL. With a minimal seed capital at his disposal, he went commercial under the brand name KENT OIL METERS which went on to be an unprecedented successful business.
KENT RO: PURE WATER MAN’S CREATION
In 1998, Mr. Mahesh Gupta entered the health care segment and launched the first domestic RO water purifier. Competing with the leading national & international brands, KENT RO Systems Ltd. is today the leading and most dynamic water purifier company in India, commanding a market share of about 40% in RO water purifier segment. For his contribution to the water purification industry, he is today known as the PURE WATER MAN of India.
Troughs of the journey
“When we launched KENT RO, purifiers of the strong brands already existed in the market. Where our’s purification system costed 20k each, other purifiers were also available at merely Rs. 3000 at that time. But there was a remarkable difference in their and our’s technologies! Their reverse osmosis could not eliminate soluble impurities as our RO did. And believing only on this difference we kept on moving and flourishing.”
“Many at times we were not entertained as we had a costlier machine than already existing in the market. But we remained confident enough, and accepted this challenge and continued our marketing.”
“To convince a customer door to door to purchase an RO system, which was far costlier than the one already existing in the market, was the biggest challenge for us. But we sustained that situation and this was our victory.”—Mr. Gupta
FACE OF WATER PURIFIcation
“When KENT RO was established back in 1998, We wanted, whenever, pure water is talked of, KENT RO shall always be remembered! And for this, 20 years back itself, we coined it with the name “KENT RO”.
“Today even if people buy any other RO water purifier, they say we have purchased “KENT”. Today, seeing KENT becoming synonymous to RO, makes me immensely happy”, says Mr. Mahesh Gupta
GROUND-BREAKING Marketing tricks
“We believe in innovating each thing each day”- Mr. Mahesh Gupta
He has more than half a dozen patent technologies to his credit. With ambitious growth plan and state-of-the-art technology, he has remarkable marketing strategies. Hema Malini is recognized as the face value of KENT RO since long! This has complimented her too in turn. The poise organization has also sponsored Kings 11 Punjab recently, which again adds to its innovative strategies.
“We have innovated in selection of media also. Besides, one should always believe in long term strategies. An example to this is, we had started campaigning in 2006 with our famous tag line “KENT DETA HAI SABSE SHUDH PANI”. But even after so many well wishers trained us to change the tag line, we did not. Our basic focus was to provide pure water and it remained our central point in the strategy forever!”, says Mr. Gupta.
A long to go
Mr. Gupta says, “Despite of the fact that KENT RO is an established brand, we are regularly innovating something or the other. Since our inception, we have been improvising our product regularly. Even today only 2–3% of people use RO for drinking purposes. So I feel, the major challenge for me lies in making the remaining 97% to get equipped with pure and healthy drinking water through KENT RO.”
“Yesterday we commuted on bull carts, today we roam on cars, and tomorrow we are going to travel on rockets!” This is how fast we are changing!”-Mr. Gupta
“Tips For Budding Entrepreneurs”
“An innovator should have a belief in his solution that he is providing in the market and only then he could imitate the same belief and confidence in the eyes of the customers”—Mr. Gupta
Failure is a by–product of an innovation; success being the prime. So, one should learn from the failures and focus on success! To succeed every day is a new challenge to the young entrepreneurs, he says.
According to the legend,
“Whatever new you innovate today is going to be old tomorrow! So you should be ready to brainstorm your mind with new ideas each day”.