Dreams come true

With inspiration and dreams in hand, Jayapriya Group of Companies propelled forwards towards success as their company grew by leaps and bounds, making them a one of a kind name to be associated with

Head Office Building

As quoted by Napoleon Hill in his book “Think and Grow Rich”, Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve”. This has been proved time and again by worthy people who have done mind-blowing jobs and have scaled unprecedented height in their lives.

This is true to the last word in the case of Lion C.Rajagopalan, Founder cum Chairman of Jayapriya Group of Companies. It was three decades ago while working as a clerk in Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) had the aspirations of becoming a successful businessman. His dream ha became real and has in excess of 1000 direct staff, 4000 agents and 50 branches across the state which is no mean achievement. The turnover by chit auction is in the verge of 1500 crores by virtue of which Jayapriya is reckoned as one of the leading chit fund companies in India.

On asking him as to how he started his company and what were the ideas behind the whole business he retorts, “While I was working in NLC, I was vested with the mantle of running my friend's furniture agency in my spare time and that increased the sales through customer-centric approach and this, in turn, yielded a sizeable profit to the company. How, by virtue of having earned a profit for his friend was given a sizable portion for the services he had rendered and this triggered his passion for business. When his friend gave him an option to take over the agency he readily accepted the offer with both hands thereby becoming a full time businessman.

In a small way he was all set to sell furniture and home appliances on an installment basis and subsequently set the business in motion. It was a colossal success. The prospective customers were mostly NLC employees. This way of buying household articles did not pinch the pocket of the buyers and they found a scheme to be pretty easy to pay and intern buy the household articles most essentials.  This motivated into starting cycle spare shop. Which also added to his success.

A masterstroke and a turning point

Nothing succeeds like success and it is infectious! It was at Thiruthuraipoondi in Tanjore district that he got the vision for the future mission. His brother was a teacher there and he used to frequent his place to meet him. It was here that he befriended his brother’s friends who were successfully running a chit Fund Company there. It was they who gave him the necessary inputs about the chit business and its success slogans. This triggered the curiosity in him on this business and thereby acted with dexterity in the direction to achieve success in this business. Thus was created Jayapriya Chit Funds. It was started as a partnership company but at a later date, the partners were constrained to leave as they had their own business interests and had to take care of it. Despite the partners leaving the company, he singles handly dedicated himself to the growth of the business with full vigor and enthusiasm and thus the company was made a private limited one.

It was a marathon struggle in the early stages and collecting members for the chit group was and arduous task to enroll customers, the basis of the business. When quizzed about the struggles he faced at the time of the business’s infancy he had this to say “Each day he used to fix a personal target which was getting at least one customer before noon, but it turned out that even on one whole day the toughest errand was to get one customer. People needed to be goaded but with kind words and possible promises and not improbable ones to invest in a chit scheme and that it is a profitable way of saving their hard-earned money which would be useful to them on a rainy day. He convinced the people to the extent of joining the chit and that his hard work started yielding desirable results”. This saw a dramatic extension of the chit groups, increase of the chit denomination. The flagship company Jayapriya Chit Funds of the Jayapriya Group got a firm and unshakable footing to cruise steadily in the business large as the largest ocean.

Integrity and honesty proved

What is the formula for his success? He immediately retorts that unflinching hard work, total dedication, honesty and integrity is the formula he used to epitomize success. “Honesty and integrity play a crucial role in selling the product which itself is money. People are looking forward to an institution with conviction and integrity to invest their hard-earned money. This is what prompted us time and again to be honest and forthright in our business at whatever cost it maybe”

There arose a situation which would test his integrity. In the mid0nineties there was a financial crisis of a large magnitude in Tamilnadu. A heap of finance and chit companies downed their shutters all of a sudden and the investors were left high and dry as they were not repaid their investments even on the maturity of their deposits. Having been promised high rate of interest for their deposits which is impractical in practice and hence could not repay the deposited amount. The spate of closures of these companies which acted without conviction affected even those chit and finance companies which were working to the practical norms which could facilitate a smooth transactions between the company and the investor. This act of the companies which closed on the face of the depositors robbing them of their hard earned money rose a suspicion in the minds of the depositors and they decided to fore-close their deposits without waiting for the date of maturity. This came as a bolt from the blue for finance companies adhering to conviction and integrity and Jayapriya was a exception to this. But he at Jayapriya proved its honesty despite being in dire straits and repaid the depositors to the last paisa. This was a blessing in disguise and a windfall to enhance the trust, people had in the company gave the people a reliable institution to invest their precious money.

Inducting fresh mind to lead

To survive the onslaught of the market and the changing trends, any organization is in need of fresh and young blood thirsting for success. He at Jayapriya gave a thought for the necessity to induct an able and a fresh mind to head the company and take it forward in its journey towards success. His son Jayasankar armed with a master’s degree in business, the administration was given the mantle of the Managing Director. His elevation to the highly regarded post was not got in a day, He had to come through the cadres starting off as a collection clerk and climbing several steps en-route to climbing the pinnacle of the corporate ladder. Jayasankar was a man with a mission and vision and always felt the need to diversify the business. This thought process paved way for the genesis of a spate of group companies. Jayapriya with an eagle-eyed vision spread its wings in various other fields’ viz. property development, education, insurance, money transfer, retail petroleum outlets, entertainment, media, etc.,

He envisioned several avenues for savings, People had a variety of choices to select which spanned from chit funds, benefit funds, deposit schemes, monthly savings, daily savings, etc., and this apart they had the option of investing in plots, apartments, individual houses. This scheme caters to the various economic sections of the society which encompasses the roadside vendors to company’s CEOs to choose schemes tailor-made for them.

Caring hand

The company’s assets, investments apart are the staff and agents. They enjoy a personal rapport with the Chairman and the Managing Director and share a cherished bond with them prompting the Chairman to state time and again that, “I am for them and they are for me and that they are the family members of Jayapriya Group”. Staff members have access to all the benefits as per the norms at by the Government and this apart, incentives, motivational gifts and foreign tours for achieving the nominal target is also given to boost the efficiency and dedication levels of the staff. Agents also form a part of the schemes enlisted for the staff viz. gifts and foreign tours. With a mind for charity the group has established a corpus fund by opening a charitable trust to help the less fortunate students in their educational pursuits and help them see the light of the day and become responsible citizens of tomorrow. This is a very noble exertion on the part of Jayapriya and laudable at all times. In addition to this eye camps and blood donation camps are organized on a regular basis. On every given year lakhs of rupees are being spent to ensure the betterment of less fortunate people and help them join the mainstream of life.