New book tells story of an Indian vision on the ophthalmic front

Dec. 3, 2010 - PRLog -- GOA: Fifty years after entering the field, the once small Indian ophthalmic family-run firm called GKB has built its skills, spread its wings, taken on challenges and marketed its product to over a hundred countries worldwide.

GKB has today spawned a number of respected companies -- dealing with ophthalmic lenses and eye-care products. It further hopes to grow further into a leading Indian multinational in the field, according to a new book authored by K.G. Gupta, chairman of the Goa-headquartered GKB Ophthalmics Ltd.

"GKB's is a story about a set of young persons who dreamt of immense opportunities in free and democratic India," says the just-published book that traces the history of the technology-driven firm, and penned by one of its co-founders.

Gupta's story chronicles the unbelievable growth of the firm -- amidst all odds -- in a competitive global economy, and amongst some impossible situations back home. Further, it did well in a field where India had little or no known skills.

Petty corruption, bureaucratic hurdles, import blockages, scarcity of foreign exchange, and a badly-plagued economy were some of the challenges of the 1960s and 1970s specially.

But companies like the GKB faced up to all these woes and sustained.

Gupta's story starts with the partnership firm called Gopal Krishna & Brothers (and hence its GKB name, which still puzzles many even today).

Prompted by their father, an insurance professional, the fresh-out-of-college Gupta brothers started the firm literally in the backyard of their home in 1960 in Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal. It completes five decades this year.

Finding markets was a struggle, but one taken up.

Gupta recalls fondly how his first attempt to "scout for orders" saw him move from Agra to Bhopal, the "orange city" of Nagpur, business centre of Vijaywada, and a range of other places in south and central India -- including Madras, Trichy, Madurai, Nagercoil, Tiruneleveli, Trivandrum, Kottayam, Alleppey, Cochin, Coimbatore, and Mysore.

In his engaging style, Gupta tells of how they battled the inspector and license raj -- which affected everything in this field from getting imported raw material to accessing technology. This also shaped policy and led to curbs on growth.

But in impossible times, GKB did indeed survive the sixties.

Fighting off the option to go in for well paid jobs, the Gupta brothers stuck to building the business. Their vision grew, and instead of just launching a retail showroom, they thought in terms of chains.

With help from many in the field, and early successful operations in Calcutta (now Kolkata), the business grew. In his narration, Gupta talks about official policy which, though probably well intentioned, only helped stymie the growth of this sector nationwide.

KG Gupta discusses the operations of the government-run Bharat Ophthalmic Glass Limited, in Durgapur, and the challenges them of accessing technology or getting permissions.

By some luck and a lot of persistence, they managed to buy equipment stuck in a bank godown and push up quality appreciably.

Following the advice of their father -- Shiv Narain Gupta (1908-1975), to whom this book is devoted -- GKB thought big and kept its focus on the export market from early times.

Gupta's story of his early trips to the Gulf region are insightful and entertaining. These hold out lessons to the modest if innovative businessman looking for markets beyond India.

Hotels were few and far between in Dubai then. The RBI, struggling against foreign exchange shortages, had fixed an exchange quote of just US$100 per day for middle-ranking businessmen.

His early experiences were hostile in the Gulf region, with outlets there virtually cursing Indian quality -- rather the lack of it -- and citing their bad experiences.

But persistence did pay, and the inroads that GKB made in the Gulf, and particularly Iran, is an instructive story even today.

Iran turned out to be a bitter-sweet love affair for GKB. While it brought in a whole lot of orders for the firm's lenses, the 1979 Islamic Revolution and subsequent war with Iraq hit the company hard.

Mixing personal narrative with background details and outlines of business strategy, Gupta goes on to tell many a fascinating tale. He makes it clear that the story is as he remembers it, and suggests that this could be his "first and last" book.

Encounters with Pakistanis in the Gulf, unexpectedly warm Arab hospitality after initial suspicion, and the charm of encountering a new world out there... all these get outlined in the hard-bound book, titled 'Mansion of Glass: The GKB story', priced at Rs 395 in India.

A reluctant trip to Egypt opens new doors, and Africa and the Far East also enter the firm's order books. But a charming tale is the struggle to gain a toe-hold and more in Europe. Over the years, the company opened its branches in the Gulf, Europe (Germany) and even took over an American firm.

GKB made a "habit" of winning export orders, the author notes, and it opted to set up base in Goa too, where a large part of its operations are now focussed. Keeping quality high has always been a goal, and this yielded good results.

While Gupta looks back to savour success after five tough decades, he does not gloss over the rough patches of this period. He talks confidently of the company's plans to stay ahead in the race to access technology.

Gupta avers that all the brothers -- today running their own independent companies and groups -- were inspired by their father's goal of maintaining quality, building up a chain of professional retail showrooms nationwide, and to "set our vision beyond the boundaries of India and make exports our mission."

Today, the GKB exports its products to over 100 countries globally, and has subsidiary companies in Sharjah (UAE) and New Jersey (US). It also has a joint-venture with Indo Intercional of Spain, a prominent name in the field.

GKB Ophthalmics Limited itself counts six group companies in its fold -- GKB Vision Limited, Prime Lenses Pvt. Ltd., GKB Ophthalmics Products FZE, Sharjah UAE, GKB Ophthalmics Gmbh, Germany, Indo Prime Visual technologies Pvt. Ltd. and Lensco, NJ, US.

The book is published by Goa,1556 of Goa.

Further details:

Author: K.G. Gupta
kggupta at gkb.net

Publishers: Goa,1556
goa1556 at gmail.com

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A book publishing venture in Goa, India. We mostly focus on non-fiction books related to Goa. So far, Goa,1556 has published 18 titles, and aims at creating options for authors to publish -- in Goa and on Goa.