Back on course

Vipin Kumar

ONE area that has taken the maximum beating because of the global tech-wreck is computer education. When reports pour in from all over the world about technology companies firing their employees left, right and centre, no wonder students are averse to taking up courses on computers. This negative sentiment has severely impacted Indian IT education companies such as Aptech. Nevertheless, the CEO of Aptech's Training and Education Division, Pramod Khera, is bullish on the prospects of his business as he believes this downturn will give Aptech enough time to recast and consolidate. eWorld recently caught up with the soft-spoken Khera. Excerpts from the interview.

In the last two quarters, we have seen Aptech's net profit plummeting to new lows. What is your outlook for the near future in view of the current economic crisis?

I agree there was an impact in the second quarter. What happens is that the students pay their fee in instalments. So the effect of a previous quarter spills in to the subsequent quarters. It was bound to happen. However, in the last quarter, we have, in fact, seen the situation stabilising. Students who are interested in a career in IT are now coming forward. Even in the case of short-term courses, there is a change as students are now interested in specific courses such as networking, which are quite high-end. Overall, the education business may have come down, but it is also helping us to consolidate and put processes into place. And next year should be good.

Could you elaborate on how you consolidate in this scenario?

When the slowdown happened, the confidence of the students was shaken. So we spent a lot of time talking to them and telling them what kind of future they have in IT, and also about the future of the IT industry. That helped us a great deal in understanding their mindset and coming out with new products. For instance, we launched a course called 'Profit'. It is for using IT for jobs in the non-IT industry. We also launched a course on call centres.

So what kind of courses do students need now?

The students are basically looking for a job. We have realised that the issue is not one of teaching IT alone; we also need to teach them a lot of other things that they need for a job. For instance, in call centres, one requires skills in communication, handling telephone calls, etc. So we have built these things into our courses. We've looked into the overall processes in an organisation and tried to build those things into our curriculum.

What changes are you bringing about in the curriculum now?

We have an R&D cell which researches continuously on the methodology and the fundamentals required for our curriculum. What is coming out now is a hybrid model, which uses a bit of the online model, technology-based training and instructor-led training. We have realised that a combination of these three is the best model, especially when you have a large number of centres distributed across the country and abroad. We have also centralised the examination system by automating it fully to make it online.

Are you launching new courses to suit the new needs of students?

We have already launched several new courses. Still, there is work going on in introducing new courses in areas such as back-office services, back-end tech operations etc.

Then there is the financial segment, be it banking, insurance or credit-card processing. We are planning dedicated courses for these areas. Another area is animation. We recently tied up with the US-based Discreet to provide a course on gaming. There are a number of organisations that look to India to outsource gaming content.

Will these strategies alone help you weather the slowdown in the next two quarters?

We are also creating better efficiencies in Aptech, leading to better productivity. We are focussed on increasing our productivity rather than cost-cutting. Given the current situation, we are looking at increasing the revenue and profit per centre as well as per employee. We believe the slowdown is a temporary phenomenon. We are not looking at the next three months like an analyst; we are looking at the long term and we have a strategy for that - a five-year strategy.

We want to build a global corporation in that period. So we are benchmarking ourselves against the best organisations in the world. For instance, when it comes to franchising, we are studying the models of McDonald's and Dominos. Six months ago, we started this process by creating some 25 task forces within the company to achieve our targets. We believe that the margins in any industry can be improved by bringing in better efficiencies. It is not correct to describe education as a low-margin business. It depends on how well you do the business. We strongly feel that over the next two-three years, we will be able to match the margins of the software business.

How do you plan to build your international operations?

We have identified six regions: China, South Asia, South Africa and West Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Of these, in China, we have a joint venture with the Ministry of Science and Technology. We already have 53 centres in China (we are also the largest private training firm there). We have translated our courses in Chinese and are also teaching them English. We are looking at the next three years to establish ourselves as the market leaders in these geographies. We can go for acquisitions, strategic or equity alliance with local players to gain a headstart.

Pic.: Pramod Khera

Picture by Ramesh Sharma

(vipin@thehindu.co.in)