Our Business Partner, LEAP India, provides solutions for pallet and container pooling. The company has 22 warehouses and 1.5 lakh pallets in all. It has also supplied four lakh totes to its customers, which include major online marketplaces. It has more than 3,000 touch points across the country.
Sunu Mathew had spent nearly 15 years working in multinational companies, mostly in India. It was while he was attending a management development programme at INSEAD, France, that convinced him to turn into an entrepreneur. He says three of his professors told him that his outlook to work was more like an employer’s than an employee’s. He was also looking to start a business where the entry barriers were high and one that was knowledge based.
He had handled supply chain in his corporate career and the second job he held was with CHEP, an Australian company that was probably the world’s largest in its business of pallet and container pooling. There were only four other companies that had a global presence. And, LEAP, which he started in 2013, is the sixth in the world, he says proudly. It was during his stint at CHEP that he realised that most multinationals do not understand the Indian mindset and psyche. The Indian market, Sunu emphasises, is relationship based. You have to be available 365 days a year; you cannot switch off your mobile phone at 6 pm on a Friday to again switch it on at 9 am on a Monday, as most multinational companies would do. That just doesn’t work here, he stresses.