The wheel of life turned a full circle for Nimmi J. Chakola as she took charge as the convener of the Ladies Forum of the Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), on August 21. Years after her father-in-law, Joseph Chakola, founded KCCI in 1951 and was chairman, Nimmi is in the chair for the ladies forum to carry forward the dreams that he foresaw for the city and Kerala. Hailing from the well-known business family Chakola of Thrissur, Nimmi has been witness to the travails of running big businesses. Today, she runs her textile retail business successfully and is the face of Decorette, a pioneering furnishing store on Marine Drive.
“It has not been easy; from being a homemaker I was literally coaxed into learning the business,” she says. It was her husband who sent her to Scandinavia in 1993 to set up an export company, the year before he passed away. “He prepared me,” she says. Nimmi comes from an agricultural family from Pariyaram and after marriage found that the men in the Chakola family encouraged their women to participate in the business. “My husband John gave me a suitcase of samples and sent me to Sweden. I stayed there for two months with a friend and made contacts with people in the trade.”
The travel gave her exposure to great business opportunities. It made her take up and rise to the challenge. “It was my husband’s dream to have exclusive home furnishing stores in Kerala. I began to fulfil it with faith and determination.” says Nimmi, who opened her second store, two years ago, in Kottayam. She began with a business that was over laden with liabilities and with no capital to start with. “There was not a metre of fabric in the store.” Her husband’s words rang true in her mind as she drew future plans-- “Think that you are going to do business for 100 years, so don’t try to accumulate all your profit in a one-time sale.”
Nimmi realised that she had to negotiate the best deal at the purchase point to pass the benefit on to the customer. She introduced carpets, rugs and dhurries to the existing furnishing inventory of quilts, pillows and rajais from Jaipur. She added dohars which are soft and light day-quilts, and new to the South.
One of the other conscious changes she brought was to add products suitable for the local market. With Kochi opening up to tourists she began sourcing European colours, prints and sizes for furnishing. So she introduced the international size concept of King, Queen, Twin and Medium Double. Weavers working for European markets in North India began contacting her. Her travels to remote weavers in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan helped her source a mixed range of quality products. It became her store’s USP. All this hard work and strategy gave results in the very first year. “I almost proved the baniya (North Indian merchant) rule of 990 days wrong,” says Nimmi with a laugh. She revealed that her test of business acumen was tried when a mistakenly sent consignment of 3,000 plain coloured sheets landed at the store and by a quick move of putting it all on an attractive discount proved a sell out!
Nimmi attributes her success with Decorette to the goodwill the family has built over years of doing business. “You have a moral duty to give back to society that gives you success in your enterprise”, she says, disclosing that her faith and her spirituality have guided her. Her two children and good friends too have stood by her over her early years of struggle.
Through all this Nimmi remembers the flooding in her store during every monsoon and tackling such issues too. But it has been worth every bit, she says, looking pleased at the distance she has traversed.
Plans for KCCI
The ladies wing of the KCCI formed six years ago, deals with empowerment of women in commerce and industry and provides know-how for women in business. As its convener, Nimmi plans to take up issues of zero waste, venture capital for mid-segment businesses and creating awareness on the electromagnetic radiation from all electrical appliances, FM and TV towers, cell phone towers and WiFi.
As she embarks on her new role, she hopes that the work “whether it be lighting a candle in a corner or a lighthouse on a hill” will prove to be a sustainable effort, with a united team of the KCCI.
