Steve D'souza's five mantras for Indian printers

D'souza began his presentation as he thanked God, his family and all those who have been a part of his life story. The CMD of Kalamazoo Group, D'souza was born and brought up in Mumbai. He joined TechNova at the age of 17 and spent a significant span with the company before moving to New Zealand in 2001. D'souza said, "Best time of my life has been in the arm of another man's wife. She is my mother and she taught me how to love my wife. Mumbai is my mother and New Zealand is my wife."

About Kalamazoo Group, its revenue is in excess of Rs 2600 crore with print revenue being excess of Rs 325 crore. Steve shared his basic principles that formed the pillars of his success. 

1.      "The secret lies in not to fear because fear is nothing but 'false enemy that appears real'," said D'souza. He advised printers to not to be afraid of failures. He shared his experience of recession. The recession in 2008, said D'souza, was a false enemy. "Not that recession was not real, but you must choose not to participate in it. Take the first step to make a difference"

2.       D'souza believes in holy trinity. He positions himself in the middle of the triangle whose corners are father, son and holy spirit. "Similar is with business. I am in the middle of a triangle whose corners represent my customers, my suppliers and my team." He
challenged people who say "only if I had right people (customers, suppliers or team members)". He said, "Be the right employer (or businessman) and right employees (or suppliers and customers) will get attracted towards you."

3.      "Don't look at it 'as is'; look at it 'as it can be'," is D'souza's mantra. 

4.      E+R=O. D'souza one's reaction to an event results in the outcome. He shared an instance when an earthquake struck Christchurch, Newzealand.  "I was advised to shut shop, encash and move on. I decided that even if one employee wants to continue with me, I will not shut down and four years down the line, ours is the most successful print and logistics firm in the country."

5.      Steve also spoke about Indian printers' sentiment of printing being a sunset industry. He says it's great to be in a sunset industry. "Eight years ago, business forms was a Rs 300 crore industry in New Zealand governed by 25 companies. It was a sunset industry then. Today, the scenario is that it is a Rs 100 crore industry with two players and our company holding 98.5% market share. So I love sunsets." D'souza invested in high end digital machines. There arefour such machines in the world and  Kalamazoo Group owns three of them.

D'souza highlighted that Mumbai has world's finest logistics system - the dabbawalas. He said, "You people must ideate how to leverage this system to deliver small personalised packages everyday." D'souza concluded his session with Bible Mark Chapter 8 Verse 23: All things are possible for him who believes.