CORPORATE PERSPECTIVE BY RAJVI GUPTA
A PASSION
CALLEDSECURITY
Manohar Bidaye is the man responsible for a good night’s sleep for many an Indian
household and offices. The success story, the challenges and the road ahead…
T
HE co-founder of Zicom, many iconic buildings and infra-
a pioneer in the field of structure of Government, Public &
Electronic security in Private sector undertakings. Dur-
India, Mr. Bidaye discuss- ing the last 17 years, Zicom has also
es how he saw his oppor- established successful business over-
tunity in a niche market like this. seas, in Gulf, with 160 employees.
HOW IT ALL STARTED VENTURING INTO A NICHE
I secured a Master of Commerce (M MARKET
Com) degree from the University of From various client visits and
Mumbai; I hold a degree in law and discussions over the years, I found
am a member of The Institute of Com- that while corporate firms were
pany Secretaries of India (ICSI). I co- getting increasingly conscious of mak-
founded Zicom in 1995, after I became ing investments in security technol-
a successful Consultant in Corporate ogy. Many companies have not been
Laws and Finance by servicing many able to optimally drive their security
mid-size organisations. programs for want of trained security
My vision of setting up this manpower. acterising the security industry.
organisation comes from my pas- b. A sound security program in
sion to make a difference to the soci- Our observations and conclusions companies is an optimal blend
ety at large. Today, Zicom is a lead- were: between efficient technology
ing brand in electronic security in a. Clients need to be better educated and well trained security
India. In Zicom we have executed to understand and handle tech- professionals.
many prestigious projects of city nology and more importantly so, c. At the first responder level, we
surveillance, railway security and given the dynamic changes char- have 7 million security guards
14 MANAGEMENT COMPASS APRIL 2011
CORPORATE PERSPECTIVE
nationally supplied from the pri-
vate security industry and they My vision of setting up Zicom comes
are mostly under-trained, under
screened, underpaid and under
from my passion to make a difference
supervised.
d. Most companies in India en-
to the society at large.
gage ex-service personnel for
their security function and even banks, malls, etc in the field of security Being a first generation entre-
they need proper training for management. Some of these students preneur was tough, as the available
the transition and reorientation, are greatly valued for their knowl- resources were always a constraint.
to work effectively in a civilian edge and exposure to electronic se-
environment. curity and are accordingly entrusted THE GREAT INDIAN MIDDLE
e. The continuing uncertainty and with the responsibility of managing CLASS VS THE CORPORATE
increasing complexity in the se- electronic security equipment. Some There is no organised research done
curity landscape along with rapid who have good supervisory skills on the security market owing to the
creation of new infrastructure and leadership abilities have joined dynamic characteristic of the market
space fuelled by the economic corporate firms as shift executives. and diversity in terms of organised
growth places strong demand for Graduates who have cleared our ad- and unorganised players in this space.
training, retraining and re-tooling vanced level security management We guesstimate the market size to be
of security professionals. courses have joined corporate offices `1200 crore approximately. It is grow-
All the above led me to think with as Security Officers. ing at a faster pace more so because
conviction that there is an ample The heightened security conscious- of the adoption of security among
need and a huge potential for secu- ness post 26/11 inarguably makes the the builders and developers who are
rity training in India and hence our hotel industry, with luxury chain of making it part of their raw material
decision to diversify into the security hotels like ITC, Leela, Trident, etc, one for the new complexes. The market,
training space. of the dominant segments regularly however, continues to be dominated
absorbing our students. It is gratify- by the Corporate bodies. Even with
ATSM: TEACHING THE TRICKS ing to note that the feedback we get the middle class starting to accept
OF THE TRADE is highly positive from both the em- electronic security, it continues to re-
There are hardly any security train- ployers and the employed students. main a luxury product and has not
ing institutes in India that offer struc- become a part of the common man's
tured, professional and accredited BREACH OF SECURITY: THE laundry list yet.
security training programs in India. SPEEDBREAKERS
Also, not many security training insti- Every new venture inevitably faces A MESSAGE FOR THE
tutes are in a position to offer train- some hurdles, more so, when it comes BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS
ing in electronic security. There was to business which requires a radical The first and foremost the entrepre-
this huge space and opportunity change in the mindset of people and neur should have high vision and
beckoning us to finally take the initia- the society in which business operates. should dream big. He should also
tive of establishing a security train- Security as a business and a profession have leadership qualities to enroll
ing academy, Institute of Advanced is not all that respected in the society. others in his dream and ensure that
Security Training & Management When we started business, awareness others carry the dream with same pas-
Pvt. Ltd (ASTM). Its vision is to fos- about electronic security was yet to be sion and dedication of entrepreneur.
ter a security environment in India developed. Initially, we had to invest In any business, customer is the king.
by imparting internationally accred- a lot of resources in building aware- The business needs to be built and
ited, world class, quality training and ness about our products and services. evolved to make the customer happy.
education in security, safety and loss Unfortunately, it took a spiraling While entrepreneurs try to achieve
prevention. crime rate and the increasing instances their dreams, they should take small
All the ASTM certified individuals of terrorism for the government and steps, keeping their feet on ground
secured decent placements with pres- the society at large, to take the secu- and gaining complete knowledge of
tigious corporate firms at respectable rity and safety of the citizens and the the their surroundings to achieve the
emoluments across sectors like hotels, infrastructure seriously. goal they aimed for.
APRIL 2011 MANAGEMENT COMPASS 15