Book Review - Intrapreneurs @ mjunction: The Making of an E-Commerce Giant by Rajeev Kumar. New Delhi: Rupa Publications, 2014. 140 Pp. (ISBN: 978-81-291-3007-5)

Intrapreneurs @ mjunction: The Making of an E-Commerce Giant by Rajeev Kumar. New Delhi: Rupa Publications, 2014. 140 Pp. (ISBN: 978-81-291-3007-5)

This book is the summary of the birth, growth and development of mjunction services limited, a classic example of public-private partnership for jointly pursuing growth and marketing of steel. It is also about entrepreneurial skills of a man i.e. Viresh Oberoi, CEO and Managing Director of mjunction. It talks about how Viresh’s leadership, initiatives and innovative thinking has inspired his team and how mjunction as evolved as world largest e-commerce platform for steel from a modest start up.

This company was started as metaljunction.com in 2001 as a joint venture of Tata Steel and SAIL with a start-up capital of Rs. 8 crore and handed over to its founder CEO and MD with a mandate to change the buying-selling behavior of steel products in the market and develop a financially sustainable company. The challenge was to develop a policy neutral set up which could handle sensitivities of both public and private sector. This book discusses how Viresh and his team started transparent IT enabled procedures in sale-purchase of steel and gained support of Central Vigilance Commissioner of India for adopting e-procurement methods in Steel Authority of India (SAIL), a nearly impossible task considering resistance within the government sector to bring out any change in established practices.

Viresh convinced the companies to see the cost benefits by moving to mjunction platform for selling their products but also procuring their spares and stores. Under his leadership, mjunction ventured into other sectors like Coal, scrap, air strip, pesticide plant and many others. It is given in the book that by financial year 2011-12, its market valuation has reached to Rs. 800 crore.

This book is about intrapreneurial and leadership qualities of Viresh and his team. Viresh left a successful career in Tata Steel and took risk of owning responsibility of starting this new venture of public-private partnership at a time when policy roadblocks were abundant. Moreover, he was assigned task of generating own resources and make the venture self sustainable and profitable. Also discussed in the book are various challenges that came in their way like limited capital, shaping business environment, breaking monopolies and winning over buyers, overcoming rigid mindset of PSUs, tapping secondary markets, attracting and retaining talent, corporate governance, frequently changing technology platforms, environmental concerns and social sustainability issues. At the same time, this group had to deal with competition and changing mindsets of client companies.

The company, metaljunction.com, adopted strategy of aggressively venture in new services beyond its original mandate by adopting a new corporate identity i.e. mjunction services limited in January 2007. It diversified into several new segments like e-auction of coal, automobiles, e-finance, e-retailing, publications and conferences and so on. It has now entered into B2C segment as well for consumer goods and automobiles.

The book is divided into nine chapters. The first chapter is about birth of metaljunction.com. It mentions how world leading e-commerce companies were simply not interested in coming to India due to policy hurdles and how Tata Steel and SAIL joint venture came into existence along with a third party Kalyani Steel as minor stakeholder.

Second chapter ‘Click and Mortar is in’ deals with how this coming together of competitors was seen with skepticism and venture was even termed as a sign of ‘coopetition’ – now you compete; now you cooperate by a leading business daily. It further discusses how integrities were worked out to ensure integrity, security and confidentiality of all transactions. Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) prepared the business plan. Later Kalyani Steel backed out of the plan. It also discusses how Viresh overcame resistance from both within Tata Steel and SAIL and how did he break ice. It mentions how SAIL managed to save 14 per cent from this initiative.

Third chapter is about growth story of mjunction. Its business volume reached from Rs. 94.35 crore in FY 2002-03 to Rs. 41,134 crore in FY 2012-13, amounting to compound annual growth rate of 74 per cent. It discusses how metaljunction.com resulted in benefits to buyers and suppliers both. It also discusses how company adopted a new corporate identity, about its international tie up and overseas ventures and its adoption of three-horizons of growth model.

Fourth chapter ‘The Intriguing Case of the Public Sector’ deals how mjunction played role of change agent in PSUs selling and procurement procedures and how it overcame resistance to change from established practices. It also deals with mjunction venturing into the coal sector.

Fifth chapter ‘Innovative Intrapreneurs’ is the crux of the book. It deals how business model of mjunction relied on technology to provide customers with simpler, more convenient and less expensive solutions which led to higher revenue realizations and expanding consumer base. It discusses various business foray handled by mjunction and the key achievements which provide a sneak into the versatility of mjunction and entrepreneurial spirit of its team.

Next chapter six ‘The Challenges of Entrepreneurship’ deals with various challenges that are faced by mjunction as an entrepreneur and how it overcame those challenges with skill, determination and focus.

The seventh chapter ‘The DNA of an Intrapreneur’ is about what it takes to be an intrapreneur and how Viresh Oberoi inculcated these qualities and proved himself a successful intrapreneur. It also discusses how as the CEO of mjunction, Viresh was able to define the vision for the company and make all employees co-owners of the vision.

Chapter eight ‘Culture and Citizenship’ is about the organization culture at mjunction; an open and supportive culture that focuses on creating value for all its stakeholders. It discusses how mjunction ensures retention of talent and employees career development. Innovation and ethics are two key drivers of the company.

The last chapter ‘The future’ discusses how India’s e-commerce market will grow further and how mjunction has planned its future growth strategy through development of new product and services; expansion into international markets; development of market share in B2C segment; acquiring strategically fit organizations; increasing e-customer base and ensuring customer delight besides aggressive growth in the existing product market.

Authored by Rajeev Kumar, an organizational communication expert who is currently working as General Manager, Learning and Development, at Tata Group Corporate Communication, this book is an excellent compilation of history, growth and development of m-junction and reaffirms how entrepreneurial capabilities and ‘out of box’ thinking of an individual can result in venturing into unexplored territories and take organizations to new peaks. It is a highly recommended reading for anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur or intrapreneur or someone who wants to start a new venture.

Jitender Sharma

Librarian and Joint Editor – Jaipuria International Journal of Management Research