My dual-benefit plan worked: Amar Kainth

Amar Kainth
Age: 51 years
Age at starting business: 35 years
Company name: Dr Kainth and Associates
Seed capital: Rs 15 lakh
Source of money: Own funds

Instead of expensive, experienced hands, Kainth hired freshers—they were affordable & fast learners.

Many years ago when I came to Delhi to study law, I was very keen to go abroad to pursue higher studies. I had picked up the German language as a corollary of my interest in literature, during my days at Delhi Law School. This being a prerequisite to study law in Germany, I was able to enroll myself in the Magister Legum course (LLM) in the University of Kiel in Germany. Having successfully completed my LLM, I went on to do my PhD from the University of Kiel. After my doctorate, I worked in a law firm in Hamburg. I returned to India in 1992 and started my legal practice with a law firm, run by AN Jayaram, former additional solicitor-general of India and also former advocate-general of Karnataka. I started my own law firm in 1995.

Having worked in Germany and in India, I had moderate savings but I had a family to look after. My wife, a German, was very supportive but financially speaking, I had only myself to bank on. However, having taken the plunge, I decided to use all my financial resources to set up my first independent office, essentially comprising a few computers and a good library. I wasn’t from a business family; that had its own handicap—there were no savings to fall back on; but I knew that the die was cast, that there was no looking back, and come what may I had to make it work.

It took me 12-18 months to get started, after hiring and training fresh graduates, a strategy that had dual benefits—I could easily afford their pay, and for them, it was a chance to be part of the launch of a new organisation. That I was the only experienced hand was never a disadvantage because my colleagues were fast learners. I had worked in a law firm abroad, handled corporate clients and knew German; all this also helped. My first client was a German multi-national company, Rittal GmbH & Co. Next was a Danish investing fund called IFU. Both companies remain my clients to this day.

I lay a lot of emphasis on quality work. There is also a conviction that the focus level of a human mind is effective only for a certain period and stretching working hours beyond a reasonable limit will only lead to overworked and sleep-deprived employees. But in the first year of being at the firm, which I (effortlessly) named as Dr Kainth & Associates, all such convictions took a backseat. It was a do-or-die situation, a Herculean effort which had to be undertaken. We worked on a nine-to-nine schedule, and sometimes more hours to build up the firm’s practice.

On the family front, things were compromised unintentionally. Friends and close relatives were not amused at this metamorphosis. Though my wife was largely cooperative, my mother-in-law once told me something that was far from flattering—watching me change from a literature and classical music freak to a cut-and-dried professional, she remarked, “You were so nice before.” This made me reflect on a way forward.

At work, our little firm began to grow, along with our list of clients. The first batch of payments we received was used to buy an office in Bangalore. Over the next few years, a major portion of our earnings were diverted towards expansion, and we now have branch offices in all the four major Indian cities.

Looking back, I think having a close-knit team of freshers and keeping focus on the setting up of new branches with our own properties has helped me in building up this firm. Being a law firm, since we were not supposed to advertise, we relied heavily on word of mouth. I had ultimate faith in the concept of the multiplier effect as we serviced each client, a strategy that worked excellently.

The busy first year also taught me that you can’t go on and on forever at the same pace of work. I realised that one must invest as much in one’s personal life as in the professional one. The cobwebs around my hobbies—trekking and literature—cleared up in the subsequent years and I am now pursuing them with vigour and interest.

To sum it up, the toil of initial years has certainly paid off. But it is with self-discipline and conscious effort that one blends professional life and efficiency with personal life and flexibility and continues the engaging journey to find that much-sought and elusive middle path.

(As told to Ullekh NP)