EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Mahesh Gajjelli
Managing Director
Compel Consultancy
Editor: tell us about your journey. how did it all start?
Nothing was unplanned though and choice of first job even had essence to be entrepreneur, not easy as said, but co-workers and friends in act always helped me to think above ordinary and trusted me on concept and project which hit my mind. I am very ordinary when it comes to networking, but things changed meeting right breed of people. Entrepreneur always starts as hobbyist most of the time and that went true even with me, my hobbyist coder friends believed in me, which led to formation of firm to building true commercial software.
Making commercial software and making money out of it is again different, that obviously took lot of time, as every new concept had essential requirement of educating customer with its benefit. Compel from its inception made up its mind of not hitting market with similar product, which had its own tough competition from domestic and international products.
This gave us edge, took time but it gave us contentment that we were and are right with our thinking of being above “mundane”. Editor: What do you think it takes to succeed in this industry? Somehow and it’s true, Hospitality has been latent when it comes to technology and it requires huge knowledge sharing activity with every new concept to click. Franchisee model is adding more complication to be just operator rather applying creative side for anything, though now some brands have more autonomous than former.
Operators bat for you if you seriously showcase the value around it, value comes with understanding the pain area. A decade in Hospitality industry always helped us to diagnose the pain area. Moreover, everything in Hospitality works, if package is right, no complication of changing business process system, partnering with world class software and meeting the need to achieve serious milestones helped us to be very prominent in Industry.
Yet though, all has been not done, every initiative of uniqueness with ample of content to express and early adopters. We have been very good to find our early adopter and make them feel they are special always.
Editor : What are the attributes you look for while selecting or hiring?
Compel starting from 2010 decided on plan to act on way we want to be, out of many, we always imagined company to be small in size with highly efficient individuals rather having software coder factory approach. We never dreamt of working on projects, which involves writing thousands and millions lines of code, but to be purpose driven. Our tag line “Technology above Mundane” talks about not being usual and this is even true for hiring right breed. It’s tough to get fresher who can connect to the mind of entrepreneur. More than technical competency it involves strong emotional intelligence. Editor: Tell us a little about your average day Looking good and energetic has been mantra to start a day. Somehow, I am raring to do more out of given conditions.
There is no standard checklist to start work though, but had been frequent traveller since last year now and meeting different mind sets. Smart phones have become a boon to person like me and it always keeps me up to date about the latest happening. One thing which I love about myself is my passion to teach and this has just not helped my students to learn, but in fact made me a student who is curious to learn new things. The other pursuit that keeps me occupied is blogging. If I am not doing anything then I am whiling away my time with my kids and dearest friends.
Editor: How do keep abreast of all that is happening in hospitality?
The nature of business in Hospitality vertical makes them to collaborate and share some vital stats, if not business strategy. It has been very open, but rule is to not bad mouth anyone here, as you would soon bump into them. More than this, Hospitality has been very informatics and extrovert oriented vertical, sharing information has been part of it. Other than this, when you travel and your schedule involves meeting people, then I am sure you would be abreast with latest happening. To add more, Compel has been working with chain Hotels, which again helps us understand the strategy of opening new property, IT strategy, FnB strategy, Event strategy and more. Be here to know more by just keeping yourself open and simple.
Editor: What can we expect from compel in the coming future?
We want to live with Technology above Mundane as our mantra, this would not just attract technology, but even with service. Technology above Mundane is also meant for easing the life than just making them acquitted with latest technology. You would see Compel doing more of analytics now and in near future, as we strongly believe that business process software industry is much saturated or operators are happy with partners and company they have been working with. This industry has data which ages more than decade now, but don’t know how to use it. That’s where we have been working and increasing our competency on analytics.
If we compare other industries for sake of discussion, then retail, fmcg and bfsi is matured when it comes to analytics, but Hospitality couldn’t do this. Analytics would help industry to be creative yet logical when operator starts with something new. Moreover, we believe working for result rather than proposing fancy systems. Imagine this, why do we use software, obliviously to increase the efficiency by doing transaction and many more. Today, we have 500k software engineers in city, but just 5k mathematicians and statisticians. Compel with this competency wants to use it more efficiently and help industry with results. Time gone when decision are on gut, now you need solid stats backing to take decision and that’s the area we are going to address, in fact started addressing.
About Mahesh
Mahesh Gajjelli or more dearly known as MG amongst his pals and staff is a name quite well associated with Software and Hospitality Industry. Having graduated in Engineering, he had a cherished desire to have a company of his own. With the best of friends by his side, together they founded Compel Consultancy in the year 2000. The thought of cocktailing Software with Hospitality Industry made them develop their flagship product “ Cocktail World”. The product till date has been the most popular amongst F&B fraternity. MG meanwhile, also worked for ShawMan software from 2005 till 2010 in the sales team for selling HRIS product, and success kissed him there too.
The craving to learn more, made him attend college again and do a management degree from the renown Wellinkars College. With the time passing, dreams grew.
Expectations and needs also grew. In the year 2010, Compel Consultancy shifted to a flaunty office at Vashi, Navi Mumbai with a Development Team, Support Team and Sales Team in place. MG took over as a full time Managing director. His role today is ideation, spearheading the development of products, mentor and motivate the sales staff. In addition to this, somehow he isn’t able to detach himself from academics. Hence he is also a visiting faculty at Wellinkar College and ITM College.In his spare time, MG enjoys reading and he is an avid blogger too. In two words, he can be described as “perfection personified”.
Compel Consultancy has been in business since last 12 years. Have catered to the needs of hospitality industry in terms of softwrare. The aim has always been to ease out work without compromising on quality.
The Flagship product “ Cocktail World” had created waves across hospitality and is still considered as an ideal software to manage your bar inventory. With the passage of time, Compel has grown. We now boast of a bundle of products under our belt. Our Smart Asset Management Software “ UpKeep” gives you a powerful control centre for your whole maintenance operation, incorporating extensive features with system simplicity. With this Software you have the flexibility to implement functionality you require from it. Whether your maintenance operation services tens or thousands of resources, UpKeep gives you the power to take control using best of technology. “Future World- sense of wonder” compel’s new product is a step into working out and predicting revenue using statistics and simulation. It truly gives a sense of wonder to the users. We have a flaunty office at BSEL Tech park Vashi , Navi Mumbai which is our Development centre. In addition to this, the company also has sales offices at Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune