Final figures are not in, but Kavelle Bajaj, the president of I-NET Inc., estimates that 1990 revenues were $23 million, up from $18 million the year before. Early projections suggest that this year\'s sales will be $40 million.
Based in Bethesda, Md., I-NET provides services in communications and information systems, as well as automatic data processing and telecommunications facilities management. As Bajaj puts it, I-NET \"brings together the right phone company with the right equipment for the right user.\"
Employees have grown from 275 a year ago to about 450. I-NET has expanded to 16 locations nationwide, and if Bajaj has her way, it will become \"a major `Fortune 500\' corporation. Everything that we are doing and planning for is in line with that goal.\"
Bajaj\'s life today offers a startling contrast to her life in earlier years. Reared in a conservative family in India, she earned a degree in home economics at Delhi University. Her parents-with her agreement-arranged for her to wed Ken S. Bajaj, who had a Ph.D. in computer science and was working at Wayne State University, in Detroit. Five years later, Ken Bajaj\'s career took them to the Washington area.
\"I came [to the U.S.] as a bride,\" Kavelle Bajaj recalls. \"I just had stars in my eyes, and the only dream I had at that time was to set up house and home with my husband.\" But after a while, that wasn\'t enough. She found herself wondering what kind of business she could start.
She tried designing jewelry and leather handbags and even did a stint as an Avon lady. (Last year Avon Products Inc. selected Bajaj for one of its six annual Women of Enterprise awards for her achievement with I-NET.)
She ruled out retailing or the restaurant business because neither offered her the control of her time that she wanted. After all, she had two young sons (now ages 11 and 14) to look after.
To keep her mind alive,\" she took some computer-science courses, and before long, she began to see an opportunity in telecommunications.
It was Ken Bajaj\'s encouragement-and the $5,000 she borrowed from him to start I-NET-that finally launched her. Bajaj originally intended to call her company Information Networks Inc.,\" but when she found out the name was already in use, she chose I-NET, which she had been using as an abbreviation.
She applied for certification under the so-called 8(a) program, through which the federal government sets aside a certain number of contracts for minority-owned businesses. Turned down, she appealed the decision and won. But when the letter of notification arrived, she notes with a laugh, it was addressed to Mr. Kavelle Bajaj.
Her first contract was a $130,000 job to help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration make the transition from word-processing equipment to personal computers. Over time, I-NET has done $600,000 worth of business with NOAA. The company also has contracts with the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as with such commercial clients as MCI and US Sprint.
Bajaj will graduate from the 8(a) set-aside program in 1994. It\'s a \"great program,\" she says, but \"you have to be careful because it\'s addictive.\" Many companies, she says, fail to plan for the day when they must operate on a competitive basis. To avoid that trap, Bajaj has built a mix of both 8(a) and regular government contracts. \"We\'ve been bidding competitively, and we\'ve been winning competitively,\" she says.
One reason I-NET is doing so well during the recession, says Bajaj, is that
it came into being just about the time the federal government was beginning to hold down its spending. From its inception, I-NET kept what Bajaj calls \"a tight belt,\" while other companies, used to fatter days, had to learn to cut down big overhead costs and markups. \"We\'ve been able to give the customer outstanding service at very competitive prices,\" says Bajaj.
Despite leading a high-technology company, Bajaj never expected to do the technical work herself. \"You can hire people for that and bring on talent to do that,\" she says. One person she hired two years ago was her husband, who left a position as a vice president of EDS, the information-technology-services division of General Motors, to become I-NET\'s executive vice president.
Being a wife and mother first gave her an advantage as a manager, she contends. A homemaker, she says, has to manage budgets and resources-\"maybe on a smaller scale, but it\'s pretty much the same.\"
To advance her march toward becoming a major factor in U.S. business, Bajaj is moving to expand her commercial market base and become less dependent on government contracts, which now make up about 90 percent of her business.
Back in the days when she was experimenting with handbags and jewelry, Bajaj says, \"I didn\'t have that much confidence in myself.\" Like many would-be entrepreneurs, she needed that extra little nudge-the one her husband finally gave her-to push her into action.
\"Most of us have a lot of talents which we really don\'t recognize or are afraid to open our eyes to,\" she says, \"because we\'re afraid of what we might find. The tiger in us! And ready to leap!\"
She found her tiger, she says. \"Now it\'s untamable.\"
Sikh Press
1 comment:
Really those who don't indentify the tiger within themselves remain struggling for real success. Congrats for excellent success. Your hubby also deserves my thanks for pushing you in the career you loved and liked.
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