An Entrepreneurial Discovery - Emergence of PRP Group: A Case Study

Abstract

‘PRP GROUP’ is an Event Staffing, Model & International Artist Management Company operating from Bangalore, India. Since its operation from 2007, it has to its credit 5000 plus events associated with 200 plus Event management companies in Bangalore and 300 Companies across India. A 33year old Rajendra Prasad, a Bachelor of Engineering (BE computer science) Graduate is its CEO cum Managing Director. He was named as Rajendra Prasad because of the inspiration his grandparents derived when they happened to meet the first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad in their village and the proud lineage of thought pervaded down in the family and his parents named their son as Rajendra Prasad with the cherished dream that their son would become a great personality in the days to come. Rajendra knew the degree of importance that his name carries in the society and always dreamt big in his life. He always cherished that he should become a successful personality in his professional arena. A strong desire to be his own boss made him resign within three months from Convergys as a software engineer; and much against the wishes of his father, he pursued his entrepreneurial journey. The company which was started with zero investment in 2007 is now a one crore rupees net profit making company. He always tells, “My philosophy is that money is not the criterion for a business enterprise. It is rather a creative idea that holds the key”. The business idea conceived by Rajendra is unique. When he was in his third year of graduation, he had a strong desire to be financially independent by making use of weekends. He worked in a few events conducted and moderated by Event Management Companies and understood that there were no professional Event Staffing(Manpower) companies and converted this unique business idea into entrepreneurial opportunity. The manpower requirement is ‘event-specific’ and no event management company can afford to have permanent employees on roll. For example, the event of launching of an Audi Car required Foreigner/Indian model for brand showcasing, Hostess for Registration, and Bouncers for VIP security, volunteers for production help and event support & International Artist for Entertainment. Similarly manpower requirements for Conferences, Hosting, Exhibitions, Big Fat Weddings, Product Launch, Mall Promotions, Fashion Field, Ads & shoots etc entail the necessity of man-power at short notice of 3hrs -24hrs. Event Management companies conduct events on behalf of their clients but there was no company to provide man power for different occasions professionally. However there were cluster of individual manpower that support event management companies without professional commitment. Rajendra smelt a business opportunity in this small vacuum. There is a growing market and there was virtually no professional competition. Later he has employed reliable and committed fellow teammates and now he has 10 employees. He has at present 70,000 part-timers on his database and he is adding 2000 hostesses, 5000 boys, 500 models, 200 bouncers and 550 male & female foreigners, 60 international artists/ performers whom he can draft for different occasions of different event management companies. His major clientele include Lenovo, IBM, SAP, Microsoft, Amazon, ITC, Signature and Toyota through other event management companies. In 2008, when most of the cluster manpower companies were not technology driven, Rajendra being techsavvy, created a web page and Face Book profile for his company to connect to different clients. He is ethical in his business outlook and he used to pay the dues of college students first, who are on temporary payroll and then employees’ salaries before he could collect his own dues. His vision was not only to select the best young college students but also to provide Jobs to them. “My vision is to nurture and nourish the talented student force and make everyone realize the real value of life”, he proudly says. PRP GROUP is nurturing college students for financial independence and thus elevating their career graph. The authors have interviewed the entrepreneur and have recorded the conversation to build the case study. The case study explores the entrepreneurial journey of Rajendra.