Early Days......No Business School yet Unique business system-- by Abdur Razzak Thaplawala

Mr. Sergy Levin, a Soviet Writer, writing in the book “Soviet Scholars View South Asia” has said that :

“Memons have long been famous in India as very enterprising tradesmen. Merchants from this community have engaged in trade with the most varied goods, on land and on sea. In the 16th and 17th centuries they settled throughout all of Gujarat, and set up a number of factories on the Malabar coast. The Memon merchants played a particularly important role in the trade of the city of Surat, which was at that time the leading trade center of western India.

From the end of the 18th century and the first quarter of the 19th, a mass settlement of Memons began throughout India, and a few decades later they also emigrated beyond its borders, chiefly to the countries of the Indian Ocean basin. By the end of the 19th century, rich communities of Memons were appearing in the ports of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, in Ceylon and Bruma, and in East and South Africa”.

The Memon traders or professional businessman of those days had a unique system of organization and management. Many well known Memon firms had hundred of branches spread over the entire country and when none of the present day means of communication were available, they had evolved a system which kept the head offices of these firms in constant touch with all the branches. Apparently these firms were owned by one family but they had evolved a system of what we may call a contributory and participatory management. The Manager of each branch also contributed to the capital of that particular branch. His share in the investment was nominal from half an anna to four annas in terms of currency units of those days i.e. 1/32th to 1/4 of a rupee. Most of the Managers stayed at their branches for 10 months in a year leaving their families in their ancestors’ towns. When they returned to their native places for a two months leave every year, they would find their share of profit and the salary duly worked out by Mehtaji or Accountant of the firm and which was promptly paid to them. How could they keep control of the hundreds of branches and maintain their accounts in those days, is a delima to us today but it is an example of high professional & business acumen of the community. These Memons had not gone to a business School and yet they were able to evolve a unique business system. May be some of our professionals in accounting and business management profession will do some research on the subject one day.

Some people, with their own axe to grind often try to malign the community as hoarders & profiteers but it is a matter of common knowledge about our ansertors that very often they never hesitated in doing business when the gunnymmy bag or the bardana used for packing of the commodity was the only profit left to them. They believed in high turnover and small profits for overall success of the business. Many Management Gurus of today advocate this strategy.