In this interview, Srikanth Kodali, MD, Kapston Services Ltd narrates the story of his company, from inception in 2009 to listing on the NSE to its current 20,000+ member team.
What inspired you to enter the service business?
A great thinker once said, there are only two ways of living a fulfilling life, the first is by having a profound experience yourself and the second is by leaving a great positive impact on those around you. I believe that as an entrepreneur, one can have both in one go.
The service industry provides ample opportunity to explore, expand and experience. Hence, I ventured into establishing Kapston Services, a complete manpower solutions provider offering staffing solutions, integrated facilities management and security services.
We started operations in Hyderabad in 2009. Today, Kapston Services provides livelihood to thousands of families.
The journey of Kapston is a constant pursuit for excellence. This inherent trait has brought us many laurels, recognition and credibility, even earning us a place on the National Stock Exchange list in 2018.
We empower the finest talent pool to provide services with exemplary standards. They are duly trained and customised to fit perfectly into the specialised needs of our clients. With the values instilled by Kapston, hard work and integrity, these employees become assets for the organisations that they are deployed to. We have tied up with the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and National Skill Development (NSDC) for skill development programmes.
After establishing in 2009, we have been able to strengthen our presence in South India within a very short span of time. Our team has built a formidable presence in the northern sphere too, reaching out to a wider range of clients. Currently, we are serving 600+ clients at 1000+ locations across India.
From 2009 until now, what have been the top five high points of your business journey?
The journey of Kapston Services has been an eventful one since its inception. We overcame various challenges and constantly strived to achieve excellence, which gave us several high points right through. For instance, January 2018 witnessed Kapston entering the 100-crore turnover club while April 2018 saw us getting listed with National Stock Exchange (NSE). In December 2019, our family grew to be 10,000 members; in February 2020, we established our staffing vertical with a pan-India perspective. By April 2023, our family grew to over 20,000 members and turnover crossed the 400-crore milestone. We acknowledge each of our highs and we are confident that our best is yet to come.
How do you distinguish yourself from other players in the market?
The Indian economy is on a speedy and steady growth path. As the economy and businesses are growing, the need for manpower is also expanding in all segments. Our agile team marks us out in the competitive business landscape. Inspired by our core values, this team of committed professionals delivers customised solutions for our clients. This team ensures that this sense of family is instilled not just within the organisation but also spreads to partners, vendors, service providers and others, who collaborate with us in delivering the best to our clients.
Our strong team strictly follows well-defined processes, both internally and externally, ensuring that a fool-proof and error-free outcome is delivered, resulting in customer satisfaction every time. And this very team walks that extra mile to build trust, strengthening the relationship with our clients.
With the service industry now moving towards digitisation and sustainability, what is your take on this?
The one good thing that came out of the pandemic is thorough digitisation. How can the service industry remain behind? A lot of processes have found their way into automation, but still there are various aspects in the service segment that need human attention and presence. We have a long way to go yet as far as complete automation is concerned. A hybrid model is currently the best way forward, where technology works under the supervision of the human eye.
Being in the human capital business, I must say, automation is not something to be feared; it should be embraced and we should adapt to work with it. No matter how advanced automation becomes, it cannot replace humans because human workers will always be needed.
Attention is being directed towards sustainability. We have to handle business frugally and invest in processes, people and technology while considering socio-economic-environmental impact.
Our innovative staffing solutions would address dynamic needs to higher degrees of perfection in both the IT and non-IT sectors. Be it short term assignments, seasonal placements or workforce management programmes, we would bring the right talent with niche skills.
Where do you see your company five years down the line?
We have constantly diversified and tried bringing more services under our umbrella viz., General Staffing, Security, Housekeeping, Engineering, IT Staffing, NAPS & NATS, Hire-Train-Deploy and Permanent Recruitment. This agility to bring more for our clients keeps us among the favourites in the market.
The future does look challenging but we are ready and excited to take the eventful drive ahead. Five years down the line, we see ourselves as an active contributor to the staffing and facility management segment nationwide and will expand our footprint on a global platform. With the anticipated growth of the industry, the employment opportunities are tremendous. Since the majority of the workforce employed is in the unorganised sector, the potential for skilling is evident.
