After completing an MSc in Physics I took up the post of a trainee supervisor in an electric and electronic manufacturing company in Trivandrum

for a stipend of Rs 150/-. Gaining experience in their R & D department stood me in good stead. Though I dreamt of being a research assistant in BARC and ISRO, and despite many applications sent, I received no response. I spent three years at this company, gaining much knowledge and experience and had been promoted to Junior Engineer with a salary of Rs 850/- (which was a tidy sum at that time). Since the company was not doing well and with no job offers on the horizon, I decided to start out on my own with a small scale stabilizer unit. I had the confidence that I could compensate the Rs 850/- salary by selling 50 stabilizers a month.

With borrowed capital from my father, two unskilled workers and a lot of help from my friends, I began this unit in a one room tenement in Ernakulam. Culling the 'V' from 'Volt', and a kangaroo mascot to indicate 'protection', 'V Guard' was on its way. In a short span of one year the staff strength grew to 20 and sales increased. We were competing with leading brands, finding niche markets in refrigerator sales and its dealers. The consumer boom of the 80's lead to a swell in business. A severe labour problem in 1984 saw V Guard outsourcing production to charitable units. It remains largely the same till this day.

V-Guard Industries
In 1977, I borrowed Rs 1,00,000/- from my father and set up a small manufacturing facility for stabilisers. I had two workers to assist me. Those days the market was flooded with low quality stabilizers from north India with the exception of brands like Voltas and Keltron. Sensing the need for a reliable and quality product with a good after sales backup, I set about manufacturing the V-Guard stabiliser. Quality and reliability being my focus and armed with an effective marketing strategy, I was able to capture the market quickly. V-Guard soon became a household name. The company grew slowly and steadily and now enjoys a pan Indian presence

Wonderla
Having set the company on wheels I toyed with the idea of diversification and a completely new course- a water theme park. I had travelled extensively to Europe and America and assessed the potential. The thought of replicating it in Cochin where the terrain was ideal and water was plentiful was exciting. Delivering on the quality of the rides, meeting international safety standards were all a daunting task but I decided to take it on with a firm belief that with perseverance, optimism and a positive attitude all things were possible. A few years down the line and as a natural progression to Veegaland, I embarked on a larger and more refined water theme park in Bangalore - Wonderla

V-Star Creations
V-Star is another venture from the V Guard stable, manufacturing inner wear for ladies and gents. With manufacturing facilities in Kerala and outside, Valero for men and Vanessa for women have quickly captured the market with its high quality and innovative design sensibilities

Veegaland developers
Veegaland Developers is my foray into the real estate sector. The company will focus on construction projects that emphasise quality living standards in the urban landscape

Kidney donation
I watched a close relative (my daughter-in-law Priya's mother) battle with kidney disease and observing the agony of the patient, the immediate family and the difficulty in finding a donor. I began making enquiries if I could donate mine. After consulting my doctor friends and finding myself healthy, I saw no harm in it. Though my family and friends initially discouraged me I managed to convince them. Meanwhile I read about Rev. Fr. Chiramel who was an inspiration to me and joined hands with him to find a recipient and eventually formed a donor program. The program enables easy access to donors, legal and documentational assistance

Euthanasia
I feel very strongly about "leave the world with dignity". When death is imminent and obvious in case of terminal illness or failure of your body systems, I feel it is cruel to prolong life through ventilators, painful surgeries and even bringing on financial and other burdens to your near and dear. Hence I have approached the judiciary for legal sanction for a natural death

Unique Business Model In the mid-1980s, when trade unions forced his workers into strike, Chittilappilly shut his factories, but not his less-than-a-decade-old business. He was upset by the fact that the strike was instigated by "outsiders", but he took a quick decision to outsource work to small enterprises that Kerala's militant labour unions didn't have on their radar. Nearly two decades on, several such units continue to work for him, and more new entities have joined the 60-plus-strong pool of small units that make products, including voltage stabilisers, for the brand that Chittilappilly built from scratch. "Each step in the making of a V-Guard voltage stabiliser is monitored by Chittilappilly's team, and these units are happy because they make a good profit," says long-time associate V Sathyanarayanan, senior partner at Varma & Varma Chartered Accountants, auditors for V-Guard.

V-Guard, now the country's largest maker of voltage stabilisers, does the final assembling of its productsother than its cables, the company doesn't make any product on its own. It runs factories that make cables, in Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and in Uttaranchal. Most of the enterprises that make voltage stabilisers for V-Guard are located in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Chittilappilly, the man who gave V-Guard its name and made the first voltage stabiliser for the company, finds more opportunities in crisis situations, notes CJ George, a V-Guard director and chief promoter of Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services. In the '80s, Chittilappilly saw outsourcing as a ruse as well as an opportunity to keep trade unions at bay, he adds. "Trade unions were highly disruptive back then. Things have improved now," recalls Chittilappilly. Industrial disputes have given Kerala a bad name though there is a decline in such strikes lately.

Perseverance is the key to success. Initially, he would ride his scooter to distribute voltage stabilizers to shops in and around the city. Though his product formed part of a fragmented industry with many competitors, Kochouseph had the vision to build a brand based on the core values of quality and service