Saturday, September 01, 2007. moneycontrol.com CNBC showcases Shuklas The Writers Block triumph in IT heartland.
Rakesh and Helen Shukla have started something called The Writers Bock. It’s a company that services the need of the IT and ITeS sector as far as technical documentation is concerned. Teamwork is the key to their success. It is a game plan that this husband-wife duo have mastered to make their brainchild a winner. They met eight years ago while working for the same company in Delhi.
Helen a tech writer and Rakesh in business development soon their partnership at work place evolved into partnership for life and a year ago The Writers Block was born.
The lack of proper technical documentation like manuals and instruction guides was their inspiration to start the company. The agenda was defined to suitable people to tackle the small tech documentation market in India. So, they gave their comfortable MNC jobs to shoot for their entrepreneurial reigns.
Rakesh, 35, is the Founder and CEO of The Writers Block while Helen, 40, is the Founder Director. Five years from now he plans to grow the business aggressively abroad while she plans to build a community of quality technical writers in India.
Rakesh looks after the marketing and management while Helen handles the training programs, The Writers Block is the technical documentation company that aims at provides world class outsourcing and training services to leading IT companies including IBM, Wipro, TCS, Sun Microsystems, Intel, and Infosys.
With a 40-member team not only does the Writers Block provide tech writing outsourcing, but also has a retail training program as well as innovative placement programs like technical writing education and training in India.
Q: How did you come about the Writers Block name?
Rakesh: When we started off, we were sitting, talking, and figuring what are we going to call this thing. What came about were a couple of things. First, what we were going to do was fairly counterintuitive in how we were going about it. Second, we needed to have a name that would stick. We put it all together and said writers block is when people can’t write really well. If you change something about that name, it is a place where it has completely opposite meaning. It’s also a great icebreaker, because every customer we go to ask the same question. We get to tell them the same story and people never forget.
Q: How did the two of you actually meet and get together? Did the life partnership turn into a business partnership? I believe it was in Delhi when the two of you got together?
Helen: We used to work in the same company in Delhi, about 8 years ago. Rakesh was in business development and I was in technical writing.
Q: Did you ever imagine that you two would actually set up something and work together, not for somebody but for yourself?
Helen: No, not at all.
Rakesh: India is a big market. We figured out that there were a few things happening. There was a need that was felt from both our side, I used to manage the products for the company that I used to work for and they always had very bad documentation, and she had seen the same need but from a slightly different angle, which we couldn’t get right kind of people. We figured that we could put this thing together and get our resources together, because I can brand and go out and get the market while she can actually deliver.
Q: From idea to execution and implementation, how long did it take you to get things up and running?
Rakesh: Couple of months. It’s tough work for a couple of reasons. What we are telling people is listen guys you do something very well, which is create this technology or software, but you don’t do that well, which is what our core competence is. It takes little time for people to understand that, because we are trying to sell outsourcing to people, who understand outsourcing very well.
It is not necessary that the whole cost proposition-composition part work best here. It is the expertise and intellectual capability that we bring to the table, which is really the killer. It has taken a little time. What has also happened in our case is that we started without having any customers. We didn’t have any connects in the market. I am very proud to say that and say it to the business team everyday. We have started this business without having acquired any customers that came from the personal space. It’s purely the process of going and acquiring customers like Infosys, and Cisco. It’s purely a business process.
Q: Can you break down technical documentation for all our viewers, who don’t understand what this concept is? Do de-jargonize what is technical documentation today?
Helen: The formal definition would be that technical writing is compiling information with reference to a context, for a specific audience. The typical example, which most people relate to, would be the context being a washing machine, the audience being the end users or layman who uses it, and the actual information being the user manual or instruction guide.
Q: Just like every other industry, yours would be an industry which is faced with a huge supply crunch in terms of talent. I believe you are sort of doing your own thing to bridge that deficit?
Helen: The huge lack of supply was one of the key reasons why we started this, because technical writing at the end of the day is something that is a specialized skill.
Q: You have started three initiatives to sort off take care of this deficit. You have got the alumni program, mentorship program, and the sort of on campus program. How is that played out for you, are you already seeing results?
Rakesh: The company has three major offers that we have for the market. The first is what we just spoke about, which was the outsourcing part. Here we do outsourcing for all these large clients and hope to grow that much more this year.
The other is training that we provide to the same clients, because our customers is ultimately is always the enterprise. The same customers will sometimes give us outsourcing, a training opportunity, or they will hire. While it looks counterintuitive again that we should do outsourcing and provide that kind of talent at the same time, it works out for us. It is good for everyone, if the right kind of talent is available.
Though the road to success has not been easy, the Writers Block is riding smoothly now. Growth projections for the next financial year are million-and-a-half dollars, with groundwork of references laid. Writers Block is now looking at pushing their international cliental up by 50%. However, they are keeping a keen eye on potential investors, who could add capital and value to their business in the coming years.
Rakesh: At the end of the day, it’s the colour of money that is usually important. We have spoken to investors and found that it was not the colour of money that we would want, because it was coming at a price in multiple ways. It was not suitable for us. At the same time, there are few very serious people, who are also very canny.
Q: What is it like working within the same organization and working as team leaders because you’re not reporting to anybody anymore? That’s a different equation, what has it been like?
Rakesh: I think it’s interesting situation. Everyone now tells me that it’s a bad idea to work with somebody who’s your life partner. But it has never been like that with us. It is not a thought out decision that we are going to be professionals, but it is kind of just evolved. When we are in office we are at work, we both have interest to protect, which is the company. But everyone has a perspective, so it’s sometimes pretty aggressive and very combative.
Q: Who is the more aggressive of the two?
Rakesh: I wouldn’t say she is more aggressive. The other part, which works fine, is that we never bring work home and even if we might bring it home, we don’t discuss it.
Q: What are your priorities as the company goes into its second year?
Rakesh: We have been able to create a healthy buzz where people call us up and look up to us. The initial chase of trying to chase the customer has eased a bit. Now, people call us and say this is what I want to do etc. For the next 3-4 quarters, we have to stabilize ourselves in terms of our resources and how we plan our people and business is the key thing.
