Dhaneshwar's Genesis Management and Market Research has just completed the industrial/ economic outlook survey for the quarter ending December 1997 by the RBI.

This was the first time that the RBI had engaged a private agency for carrying out this kind of work in a time-bound manner. RBI had enough confidence in the five-year-old outfit and shortlisted it despite the presence of heavyweight agencies/institutions among bidders.

With recession overstaying its visit, RBI decided to undertake the survey for the period and spread the word it wanted the data as quickly aspossible and competitively too at that. This clinched the deal for Genesis. It quoted a lower price for the project and the company was small and agile enough to tear through internal bureaucracy and complete the work at nearly breakneck speed which the other players could not do.

The task was gathering data from 1500 large scale companies in India covering a broad spectrum of industries. The focus was on capital utilisation, total production, requirement of bank finance, investment levels and industry's suggestions for dealing with the recession. This data plays a critical role for Reserve Bank of India while evaluating performance of industry and deciding on bank rate, CRR, SLR and the credit policy.

It was not an easy task and there were plenty of operational problems, says Dhaneshwar. "Many of the companies did not take the survey seriously and were not responsive enough. They just did not understand the speed at which the information was required."

As all the companies did not respond the coveragewas not 100 per cent but he and his team of 25 managed to execute the project successfully. Genesis has now landed contracts to carry out similar surveys for the remaining three quarters ending March 98, June 98 and September '98 for the RBI. The company hopes to have 80 percent coverage for the next quarter.

Eight years ago, Dhaneshwar could never have visualised this situation. As an officer with the Bank of Maharashtra, he had a stable job and a decent salary but he felt there was something missing. A chance meeting with doyen of industries SL Kirloskar turned out to be the turning point for him and marked his entry into the area of market research.

He was inspired by Kirloskar to change tracks and took up a job with Kirloskar consultants. Talking to truck drivers was his trial run. The field investigations were for Vikrant Tyres and covered the Western region. He passed the trial, landed a job with Kirloskar and rose to head the market research and feasibility studies section.

After three years,Dhaneshwar decided to move out and set up his own business as he saw the potential growth in market research. A certified associate of the Indian Institute for Bankers Dhaneshwar was confident he could set up his own outfit and Genesis was born in 1993. Armed with a typewriter, it was a one-man research outfit. A city-based builder D S Kulkarni offered him office space at no cost.

But business did not come easily and he almost wound up operations in the second year. Opportunity beckoned through the newspapers when he read about the Goipuria Committee recommending banks to undertake surveys on customer requirements. He wrote to the banks offering to do such surveys and used his banking and research background as his USP. The Central Bank of India was the first to respond and assiged him to do an all India customer satisfaction survey covering 100 branches.

State Bank of India, Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation followed suit. Industrial research offers also came from Sterlite, Indo-Gulf Fertilisersand Godrej. Genesis has also executed some social research projects for the Maharashtra state government. In the first year, Genesis did business worth Rs 3 lakh. This year Dhaneshwar hopes to achieve business of Rs 50 lakh and is set to pursue consumer research.

Dhaneshwar thinks there is opportunity for outfits like Genesis as the market size is growing. As of now, the market comprises a few big players and many small outfits and there is a big vacuum in between. Says Dhaneshwar, the bigger agencies are able to cater to the growing market and many of their services are out of the reach of many customers. The smaller agencies do not have the werewithal to perform quality work and this is an area where mid-size agencies have great business potential, he adds.

His outfit can edge out the bigger agencies and research outfits on costs as his overheads are low. Operating from Pune also keeps his manpower costs low. All these strengths helped Genesis complete the RBI survey in a small time frame and at halfthe cost quoted by some players.

Genesis is evolving into a finance and banking market research outfit though Dhaneswar wants his company to be a one-stop shop for all kinds of research, especially in the area of retail audit.