Enginepreneur – Engineering to Entrepreneur

Some say, do what you love and some say love what you do. But in the generation of AI and Rat race we are clueless on what we want to do and what we really love, because of this confusion we all end up doing something which may not be required to follow your dreams.

In an exclusive interview with Manomav Engineer, a team of young and inspiring folks, we realized that nothing is meaning less, one can do a lot of meaning full things with the skills and resources available and can love it at the same time.

How did you get this idea of Manomav Engineer?

We have to do internship after third year of our graduation at IIT Delhi. In 2008, I got an opportunity to work in Design team of Beca at Auckland in New Zealand. The infrastructure of New Zealand at that time was far more superior than ours. It made me think that India needs better construction sone professionally. After returning back to India, I continued to discuss my views with my closer friends from School and College. Eventually, to pursue this journey after graduation, I didn’t opt for any high paying job into software and joined Larsen & Toubro which helped to apply my learning in civil engineering in Mumbai, Oman and Chandigarh. It even gave me an opportunity to lead the construction of Chandigarh Airport as a Planning Head. My discussions on constructing a better India got synergised with Antriksh (my college mate) and Akhil (my school mate) who were also pursuing Civil Engineering. We discovered we had a common calling. Antriksh left his high paying job after graduation to learn more from Construction Industry, while Akhil kept on building our future road map. After dedicating 4 to 5 years to learning hands on from the industry, we decided to improve the construction scenes in India by staying ahead and implementing latest technologies. And that’s how we came up with the idea of Manomav Engineers (ME) which is a new generation of Project Managers and focuses on “Constructing with ME”

What is so special about Manomav Engineer than other existing firms?

We are integrating Automation, Virtual Reality and Project Management in construction which will keep end to end delivery to the stakeholders transparent, from engineering point of view. We are constantly adapting the most latest technologies for managing projects. For an Instance, we plan in advance on construction projects by using a virtually engineered model which gives better visualization, estimation and flexibility of working with changing teams. We are team of engineers who are building processes keeping Indian workforce and work environment in mind. At our core, we are the brain of India who is implementing Project Management practices on the basis of PMP guidelines.

Leaving a fancy package and a good job and taking the risk of doing something on your own, how hard was it?

Initially, it felt like the right thing to do and excitement kicked in to take a risk to have something of own and create a statement. Soon after, the challenges from the real world began to surface which started affecting us instantly. Our team was ready to face those challenges because we somewhere were prepared and backed ourselves up with honest efforts and focus for a very unorganized construction industry. The will of working together and the idea of constructing a better India has helped us to overcome those challenges.

Tell us about the hurdles you faced while working on Manomav Engineer.

Hurdles have always remained opportunities for us at Manomav. We faced most of the obvious challenges like any other entrepreneurs would face. Manomav is a bootstrapped organization and during its initial days it was difficult for us to recruit team members when our obvious deliverable was to provide engineering services. At that time, the only reason for joining us was trust over us which was shown by many people in our vicinity. It has helped us to overcome challenges of bootstrapping and we are actually happy to see Raj Vikas and Ravikant Kapil like team members who are growing in personal and professional life with their family and Team Manomav. The trend is still not over when we find our old friend Hitesh Garg joined us after leaving his high profile job at Shapoorji Pallonji Group.

Manomav Engineers has become the fastest growing company within a short span of time, how does it feel?

It feels great that we are fulfilling our commitments with responsibility. However, we still feel that we have a long way to achieve by playing a vital role in construction industry. We have promising plans of expansion and currently building scalable operations while ensuring better Quality during expansion.

Tell us about the uniqueness of your work.

Every construction project faces challenges on control of Time, Cost, Scope and Quality. We have our ready to install processes for those organization which are not into civil engineering expertise and construction industry. Our team comes with robust processes for in-situ construction from Day 1 and implements monitoring processes for Time, Cost, Scope & Quality with powerful integration of Automation, Virtual Reality and Project Management based on PMP.

Your biggest inspiration.

My biggest inspiration is an Ocean which actually expands beyond the horizon when you want to see its limit. There are plenty of resources and life in the depths of an ocean which varies as per the geography. The ocean is as calm as one can feel and as wild as one can see during high tides. The sea shores give me an opportunity to learn from the water and inspire me to build things around me in similar manner.

What is more important- Journey or the destination?

Journey is most important with eye focused on destination. I personally believe that we should enjoy and walk steady on the path which is visible to us. And at every horizon a new road gets visible to walk. I have a lot to build on the way to our destination. Lot.

How did this name Manomav Engineers came into mind?

We were fascinated about the idea of “Constructing with ME” and thus designed its logo which reads same from all angles. We feel it reflects our attitude and values towards integrity and transparency also, when seen or evaluated from any perspective. With these thoughts in mind and our ambition to create that space in the heart of construction industry we got inspired from the word Manomav which means “Winners of Heart” and named ourselves Manomav Engineers

What are your future plans?

We are going to build processes which will assure quality of our processes’ implementation during expansion. We are planning to spread our wings in few other states  of India also this year while educating professionals about construction management via our initiative of Manomav Academy which is free of cost for students.

How difficult was it to get the investment?

We are bootstrapped and working on our robust business model organically. Perhaps, we go through this phase in our next phase of growth in future.

Where does this generation lack when we see 100s of start-ups starting everyday but only 2-3 gets the success 

The success of start-ups lies in persistence of evolving products and services as per market requirements. Figures might show fewer successes on surface however the ecosystem brings a lot of learning for founders which is also a success from the point of view of learning.

One thing you love about today’s generation.

The urge of demanding more from life beyond money is a new trend of today’s generation. Today’s generation is fearless and willing to experiment more to find meaning.

From being employed to giving employment, what is the main difference you felt?

The main difference comes in form of responsibility. Earlier I used to earn only for my family and now I feel more responsible for all those families who are in a way associated with Manomav Engineers. We are inventing better financial controls to safeguard our team from any probable impacts which can incur due to financial complexities in current Real Estate Scenario.

Any suggestions/ Advice to young Entrepreneurs?

Two suggestions a) Persistence; b) Listen to Parents. Persistence is most important whenever you want to achieve what you dreamed of. People will give suggestions; you are the one who is going to chase the dreams. So persistence plays a vital role when you face any kind of challenge. Other than persistence, I suggest all to listen to your parents because whatever you are today, they are the reason for it. In my case, whenever i am struggling or have my shares of lows, my father Dr. Kashi Ram Sharma and my mother Smt. Usha Rani say, “You can do it, Son!”. The reassurance and energy of these mere words bring a whole new positivity and strength in me to once again work aggressively towards something what I always dreamed of.

One thing you love and hate about our country.

I love the abundance of potential opportunities in our country for making it a better place to live. I hate preference given to any social system over the humanity and development.

————————–An article by: Intrepid Ideas. (All Right reserved)————————————

Edited by: Aditya Agarwal