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It was while serving in the armed forces that Colonel Hardeep Singh Bedi picked up the rudiments of technology. It interested him so much that he took an early retirement and set up his own company in 1992. Tulip grew from being a software reseller to the largest MPLS VPN player in the country. An industry leader in provisioning and managing multi-location WAN, it is also the only service provider in its domain that provides end-to-end connectivity services. Here is the story from the entrepreneur himself.

BY Col H.S Bedi,
Chairman and Managing Director, Tulip Telecom

We started in 1992 as a software reseller. As the business got commoditised, we diversified first into system integration, and later into network integration. Within a short span of time, we became leaders in the network integration space by becoming Cisco’s largest reseller in India.

We were hungry to excel. So we experimented – successfully – with wireless technologies and extended our niche in the area by implementing large, mission-critical projects. We created India’s largest wireless last-mile network infrastructure, which along with our redundant fibre backbone, provides reliable data connectivity to some of India’s largest enterprises.

Tulip’s IP network today reaches more than 1,300 locations and according to Frost & Sullivan, we are the largest MPLS player in the country with a market share of 38.5%. We have further evolved our business models to address managed services and total outsourcing services.

One of the main reasons for our growth has been our focus on constant innovation. I believe that just being steady cannot take you forward. You have to constantly experiment along different lines of businesses.

I believe that success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. We stumbled many times throughout our journey, but we continuously learnt from our failures. In the initial phase of the company, there were rapid changes that brought significant challenges in terms of managing cash flows and building operational efficiencies.

Every time we stumbled, we learnt a new lesson. We realised the need to have multiple business lines in order to hedge possible downturns in some line of business. We also learnt the importance of taking calculated risks to become successful.

We had decided to scale up our business from the day we started operations. To us, scale was a logical extension of the work we had been doing. But we learnt that it is important to scale up in phases, and use processes that are stringent enough to deliver quality, yet flexible enough to cater to growth requirements. We realised that if we gained customers prior to making substantial investments in that category, it smoothened the scaling up process.

Personally, the most important lesson has been that as a business leader you have to continuously measure and counter measure the short- and long-term perspectives of any crucial decision. And having taken a decision, it is important to provide thrust to the same and not revisit it time and again.

I firmly believe that “people, and not machines, build a company”. So I have encouraged our HR team to hire people who are swift, enthusiastic and productive. A highly-motivated workforce contributes to higher profitability as well.

We’ve strived to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship among all Tulipians. The ability to take quick business decisions and foresee what will happen next has been the hallmark of our managers. This has enabled us to leap across levels and reach where we are today.

Today's generation is far more risk-oriented and willing to step out of their comfort zone. Those who aspire to become successful entrepreneurs should look at implementing their ideas innovatively and create niche business opportunities that enable them to compete with situations rather than competing head-on with competitors.