Building a Global Learning Corporation...

Till the beginning of 2001, the IT training industry had witnessed heady

growth years. Industry players thought that this dream run would never come to

an end. Hence, when the IT slow-down and dot-com bust had their impact on the

industry, no one was prepared for it. Many companies folded up and disappeared.

Consolidation became the new mantra.

"A multi-branding strategy has paid us rich dividends, and some of the segments like multimedia education were able to tide over the slowdown" Pramod Khera

Actually, the reason for the turmoil was that the industry was entering a

maturing phase. When an industry matures, customers become far more aware and

demanding–-then segmentation sets in and companies with a long-term commitment

to the industry invest in building value for customers and stakeholders, while

the non-serious players exit or get taken over.

This realization was quick to hit us at Aptech and we re-oriented ourselves

quickly to the new market situation. Our multi-branding strategy paid us rich

dividends, as some of the segments like multimedia education, institutional

business and international operations were not impacted by the slowdown. In

addition, during 2001, we focussed on optimizing resources and instilling

confidence amongst students. This helped us maintain a positive bottomline and,

at the same time, improve service levels for our students. As a result, we saw

increased emphasis on placements and were able to clock over 30,000 placements

during the year.

However, the real challenge was Year 2002. With the market still not

stabilizing, it was becoming increasingly difficult to chart out a growth path

for the organization. We realized that we had to clearly communicate to all our

members and business partners that the market would not undergo any change in

the immediate future and we had to excel in the current market. We could not

keep waiting for a revival of the industry, for that was a distant possibility.

The message gave a new direction to the team and partners, and we evolved

strategies and tactics that were never thought of in the past. At the same time,

the lessons learnt from the previous year were not forgotten and the focus

remained on the bottomline.

Accordingly, new business models, new products and new marketing activities

were experimented with. Some of them worked very well. Markets that were not

affected–the government sector, multimedia education and international markets–were

given additional focus. We strengthened our internal systems and processes

through automation and IT-enablement. This resulted in further cost

rationalization and improvement of quality of service. Overall, as an

organization, we were able to grow our marketshare, as well as make inroads into

newer business areas.

Year 2002 also saw Aptech establish its premier ACCP World programme in 52

countries–an unparalleled achievement in the history of the Indian industry.

Clearly emerging as a global leader with a presence in the maximum number of

countries, Aptech today teaches its career programme in the Chinese, Spanish and

Russian languages, in addition to English. The contribution of international

business to overall company revenues has been increasing over the years and is

slated to cross 50% in the next few years, clearly establishing Aptech as an

international organization.

Students who have completed Aptech’s ACCP programme have found jobs in blue

chip firms the world over–in countries like Nigeria, the Philippines, Vietnam,

Columbia, Bahrain, Bangladesh and China, to name a few.

By the end of 2002, we became a 400-strong organization, with a network of

2,449 centres that was geared up to face the changed market, with a product

portfolio that had an offering for all, and a formidable presence in 52

countries across the globe. The IT-enabled services (ITeS) and business

processoutsourcing (BPO) industry opened up new training and employment

opportunities and we see good growth coming from this sector in the future. Our

operations in countries like China, Vietnam, Nigeria and Columbia were growing

fast and we see further growth from these territories. The government sector,

which contributed almost 15% to the overall revenue of the organization, is also

expected to contribute significantly to the revenues of the company in the

coming years. Multimedia education offerings from Arena were well established

for careers in the entertainment and design industries. Our e-learning and

content development group had notched up an impressive list of satisfied

clients.

The beginning of Year 2003 saw a new turn in the history of Aptech, which had

its humble origins in Mumbai in 1986. Two of the largest training companies in

India, Aptech and SSI Education, decided to come together to create a

mega-entity. The proposed merger with SSI greatly beefs up the combined entity’s

presence in the IT training segment.

We have made out strategies for the current year that will strengthen this

lead over our competitor and establish us as the indisputable leader. The

combined entity will have two very well-known brands of Aptech and SSI operating

independently in the market flanked by Arena Multimedia and Asset International.

The wide reach that these networks of centres offer with the combined strength

of the clients of both the organizations is sure to make Year 2003 a landmark

year in the history of the organization. The strategy and future direction that

we chart for the combined entity is bound to have a strong impact on the future

direction of the IT training industry as a whole.

It would not have been possible for us to achieve all this without the

contribution that our partners and team members have made during the last two

years. Our value of a "shared destiny approach" toward all our

partners has ensured that both of us work together to overcome this challenging

phase in the industry. Today, we have most of our partners with us and we are

operating with a trust and loyalty that is unmatched in the industry and a cause

for envy in the network of our competitors. The members at Aptech today are some

of the best in the industry and are constantly wooed by competitors.

Our partners have worked hard and resolutely to take Aptech forward towards

achieving our vision of "Building a Global Corporation and a World-Class

Organization".

Today, Aptech’s ACCP career programme is accepted by over 15 universities

world wide towards awarding a degree from those prestigious universities. These

include the University of Central England, Southern Cross University and

Sikkim-Manipal University to name a few. Aptech’s ACCP programme and Arena

Multimedia’s AMS career programme are designed and validated by an eminent

group of professionals and academicians under the aegis of TAG (Technology and

Academics Group) and SIGMMA (Special Interest Group for Multimedia).

Thus, Aptech students are assured of an industry-validated curriculum, which

assures them a job and also aids them if they are contemplating higher studies

after completing the programmes. Similarly SSI’s competence in Oracle

Education is unmatched in the country, which provides the student the best

course curriculum, content and international certification.

In the long term, we are working towards transforming ourselves into a

"Global Learning Corporation"–an organization that has

multi-disciplinary offerings both for the vocational training segment as well as

the education segment. While we have multi-segment offerings in the information

technology and multimedia disciplines through the brands of Aptech Computer

Education, Arena Multimedia, Asset International and SSI Education, we also

offer non-IT training programmes to corporates through our alliance with Tack

International of the United Kingdom.

Coupled with testing and certification services and content development

offerings, we should be a serious contender for the global leadership slot in

the next three to five years. We have the right ingredients–the team, the

partners, the brands and the strategy. During the last two years, we have

invested to lay the foundations for this transformation. We are confident that

the world-class team at Aptech will make this vision a reality in the near

future!

Pramod

Khera



The author is CEO & MD, Aptech Ltd