My OperaBCIL’s principle
Friday, May 9, 2008 2:11:07 AM
The company bungled on the cost of the land. BCIL estimated it would be worth about Rs 1 lakh an acre but the market rate turned out to be Rs 2.5 lakhs. After some haggling, BCIL settled on buying 40 acres for Rs 97 lakhs from a doctor. It was mutually agreed that the money would be paid over18 months, after BCIL sold the plots. Hariharan paid Rs 1 lakh as earnest money and went home in an auto-rickshaw. Then the second problem surfaced. BCIL had set its heart on creating a ‘sensitive’ community who would move in within two years. Where were they going to find the members of such a community? It was decided to do direct marketing. “We would read or hear about someone and call,” recalls Hariharan. “We would make 300 calls. Out of that around 20 people would be willing to talk to us. Finally, we would convert one person.” BCIL sold six properties in the first year at Rs 100 per square foot. It took them five years to sell 30 plots. Plot sizes varied from 6,000 square feet to 2,600 square feet. Some customers like Kris Gopalakrishnan, the current CEO of Infosys, and his brother-in-law bailed him out by buying two plots each. BCIL, however, had practically no money left, yet it refused to sell land to anyone who did not seem to fit into the community and the eco-village.
