Ringing in change: Shringar Cinemas' Shravan Shroff (centre) with his team of professional managers at Mumbai multiplex Fame Adlabs

At 25, most people want to change the world. Shravan Shroff's ambition was more modest: he wanted to change Shringar Films Private Limited. Given that it was a family business, and given that his father, Shyam Shroff was (and still is) its Chairman, changing the way the film financing and distribution company worked was well within his reach. And Shravan did have a locus standi of sorts: he was studying management at Melbourne University and had worked for Australian multiplex chain Greater Union for three months, serving popcorn and ushering in visitors, something that had given an up-close-and-personal look at the multiplex business. So he put together a blueprint on the company and sent it to his father. Back in 1996 (which is when the events of this paragraph are set), however, Shyam's response was prompt and succinct. "It is good management jargon, but implementing it will be a challenge."

Circa 2003, Shravan runs Shringar Cinemas, a motion pic exhibition company he founded in late 1997, which manages Fame Adlabs, Mumbai's hippest multiplex (this is a 50:50 joint venture between Shringar Cinemas on one side and Manmohan Shetty and Vasantji Mamania on the other). By 2005-06, if Shravan's calculations are right, the company will own eight multiplexes (41 screens) across six cities and boast a turnover of Rs 270 crore. And in June 2001 GW Capital (a company promoted by Gary Wendt, the former CEO of GE Capital, HDFC, IDBI, and Ambit Corporate Finance) invested Rs 18 crore in Shringar Films (Shringar Cinemas is a wholly-owned subsidiary) for an undisclosed stake. "The readiness of the Shroff family to accept and imbibe change is what stands out," says Sanjay Arte, Business Manager, GW Capital.

Those aren't just words: in 1996, when Shravan came back from Australia with what must have then been revolutionary ideas, his father Shyam, and uncle Balkrishna Shroff who ran the business didn't throw them out. "Looking at other family-owned businesses, we soon realised that if the new generation doesn't get involved and diversify the business, it soon falters," says Balkrishna, Director, Shringar Films. And so, Shravan had his way. He was surprised that the film exhibition business hadn't changed with the times. "The middle class was growing and spending more, foreign brands were being launched, but the quality of service and profitability in the exhibition business remained poor," he says. Service and profitability were the two significant strands in Shringar Cinemas' business model and the GW investment gave it a war chest of sorts. But Shravan still had to professionalise the business, in terms of people and processes.

It didn't help that Shringar Cinemas had to carry what Shravan calls "deadwood" from the parent. What did was his conviction that property, systems, and people were the three factors critical to the success of an "exhibition business". "The movie itself," he adds, "is ancillary." It wasn't easy convincing professionals to sign on. Jaydeep Bakshi, Head, Product Development, Shringar Cinemas, met Shravan five times and his father once before he decided that the Shroffs exhibition vehicle was going somewhere. "I had to make sure the business plan was credible," he shrugs. "And I had the usual suspicion about the film industry's links to the underworld." Today, the company has a senior management team of 20 hired from top-notch companies: its finance head is from Novartis, it head, from Star TV, and key marketing honchos from Seagram. And the average age of the team is 30.

Non box-office channels (think SMS, online portal and kiosks at BPCL petrol stations) account for 25 per cent Fame's sales

Managing people at the corporate level is one thing; doing the same at the front-end, at the multiplexes, an altogether different one. And if the Fame Adlabs model is anything to go by, Shringar has learnt the latter fast. Understanding that retaining, rather than recruiting employees is the challenge for the retail trade (and in many aspects, the cinema exhibition business isn't very different from the retail one), the company has created the Fame Institute of Learning and Management (clever, the acronym reads film) to train its employees. The entire hr function of Shringar Cinemas (and Fame) is outsourced to Vin Management Consultants, a company that does similar work for Castrol, Datacraft RPG and Schiller Healthcare. "We have been associated with this company since 2001," says Vinaya Shetty, President, Vin, "and its professional organisation and the freedom to implement ideas really stand out."

Systems lie at the core of the Fame Adlabs model. Today, non box-office channels (think SMS, online portal and kiosks at BPCL petrol stations) account for 25 per cent of tickets sold; Shravan expects this to increase to 50 per cent soon-an interactive voice recognition booking service over mobile phones goes live next month and Shringar Cinemas is working with Citibank and telcos to implement a mobile phone based payment system. The investment in technology set Fame back by around Rs 90 lakh, but it has gained in return a database of 150,000 patrons, a marketing mother-lode. And Fame's back office, thanks to a .Net platform, has the ability to track bookings for each of the five screens, the quantum of food and beverage sold, seat occupancy, call centre activity, and margins.

With Fame Labs returning net profits, Shravan plans to invest some Rs 35 crore in five multiplexes, which will be operational by 2004 (two in Mumbai, and one each in Kolkata, Nashik, and Surat). Then, by mid-2005, he plans a presence in Bangalore and Pune. The immediate expansion is funded from internal accruals, but Shravan doesn't rule out an IPO or a second round of private equity funding. Money, it is evident, isn't a problem. Nor is people: Shringar Cinemas is expanding its workforce by around 400, but is finding it a lot more easier to attract professional talent. Shroff lists maintaining "the system and processes and offering the same customer experience as Fame Adlabs across the new properties" as his biggest challenge. Still, it looks doable.

The Selling Of Salvation
A growing number of new age gurus is adopting modern-day marketing techniques.

Sri Sri Ravishankar: His Art Of Living has become a global brand in just 10 years

The growing legion of Indian direct marketers has a favourite marketing ploy: organise a seminar at a large hall, preferably an auditorium, spread the message, and sign people up in droves. Some direct marketers prefer a little more subtlety, organising private parties where an informal sales pitch is made, small gifts handed out, and people converted. Neither ploy is new as even a casual perusal of the history of the evangelical will prove.

If marketers are borrowing ideas from professional proselytisers, then the latter are doing the reverse. Take Lane Wagger of the mystic swagger. He wears an impeccable off-white suit, is driven around in a spanking new Ford Ikon, sports a silver Sharp notepad, and has an hypnotic way with words. One look at the 53-year-old American and he'll pass off as any average day wager. But Wagger isn't a salaryman; he got drawn to the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (remember The Beatles) as a student in the US and is today an International Director at the Maharishi Corporate Development Programme in India.

Transcendental Meditation (tm), something the octogenarian Maharishi has been preaching since the early 70s, is a "technology", says Wagger. And like any other piece of technology, tm has a business model, and a channel to market, besides well-designed publicity campaigns. Consider the Maharishi satellite network: its channel beams tm content 24X7; the eight satellite backbone is also used by the Maharishi to organise two media briefings a week. He has a significant presence on the web, with several portals to his name, and has personally taught 40,000 teachers. These teachers in turn initiate other followers into the tm fold-much like the way direct marketers function.

Swami Sukhabodhananda offers customised corporate development programmes

Tathagat Ray is yet another disciple-teacher-he considers the Maharishi's one-time secretary Sri Sri Ravi Shankar his guru and preaches the Sri Sri's 'Art of Living' brand to corporates such as GE, Bharti, even IOC. The Art of Living is a programme under the Sri Sri's flagship Vyakti Vikas Kendra. AOL has become a brand in 10 years. Today, the guru's message is taught in 140 countries. Even better, there's a slew of AOL merchandise: books, cassettes, CDs, candles, incenses, even pyjamas.

So what are the things the gurus have learnt from marketers? Well, communication is one: across cities, a guru's visit is accompanied by a media blitz of the intensity one normally encounters during a product launch: posters, banners, one-on-one interview opportunities across media vehicles, press releases, even events. Then, there's merchandising: clothes, books, CDs, and assorted paraphernalia. Most gurus have also realised that they stand to gain by targeting corporates; after all, institutional belief is better than individual belief. Wagger counts the likes of Hutch, DCM, and Hughes Software among his clients. Another guru, Swami Sukhabodhananda has customised corporate development programmes branded Life, Existential Lab, and Corporate Harmony. Finally there's the message itself: one would expect a salvation-nostrum to be complex, but then, that would limit its audience; so, these days, most gurus make their messages simple. Simplicity sells.

-Moinak Mitra additional reporting by Sudarshana Banerjee