The four hundred new saffron-colored carts rolled out not as a trickle, but as an invasion. They descended upon Nagpur, Indore, Bangalore, and Surat like a uniformed army, their arrival synchronized and deliberate. Sanjay had orchestrated a military-grade logistics operation, hiring regional managers who trained and deployed the new vendors with dizzying speed. The "Swaranjali" jingle, once confined to Mumbai's airwaves, now echoed in railway stations across Western and Central India.
The financial hemorrhage of the first month began to slow, then staunch, then reverse with breathtaking velocity. The economies of scale that Harsh had bet everything on started to kick in. The cart manufacturer, faced with an order for 400 units, dropped his price to 1,150 rupees per cart. The Chennai speaker supplier, seeing his volumes triple, offered a price of 8.5 rupees per unit. Every paisa saved was a bullet in Harsh's financial war chest.
End of Month 2 Financial Report - Bharat Electronics (Radio Division)
· Units Sold: 162,300 (141,000 Standard, 21,300 Deluxe)
· Total Revenue:
· Standard (141,000 units @ 110 Rs/unit): 1,55,10,000 Rs
· Deluxe (21,300 units @ 165 Rs/unit): 35,14,500 Rs
· Total Revenue: 1,90,24,500 Rs
· Cost of Goods Sold:
· Production Cost (162,300 units @ avg. 86 Rs/unit): 1,39,57,800 Rs
· Gross Profit: 50,66,700 Rs
· Operating Expenses:
· Salaries & Factory Overhead: 9,00,000 Rs
· Logistics & Distribution: 5,50,000 Rs
· Street Cart Program (400 new carts @ 1,150 Rs + Stock): 18,60,000 Rs
· Total Operating Expenses: 33,10,000 Rs
· Net Profit (Month 2): 17,56,700 Rs
Seventeen Lakhs profit. The number was a silent thunderclap in Harsh's office. Deepak stared at it, a slow grin breaking through his usual stoicism. Sanjay let out a whoop of triumph. They had not just broken even; they had catapulted into profitability in a single month, erasing the initial loss and then some. The street vendor network was no longer a cost center; it was a profit-printing machine.
But Harsh's eyes were fixed on the "Units Sold" breakdown. The Deluxe model was gaining traction, but the Standard was still the volume king. And volume meant vulnerability to supply chain blackmail.
"The speaker," Harsh said, tapping the report. "We're still exposed. Doshi or someone else can pressure Chennai tomorrow. We solved this problem with plastic casings by threat. We need a permanent solution."
"A permanent solution?" Deepak asked. "We can't make our own speakers. That's a completely different industry."
"We can," Harsh countered, his gaze turning inward, calculating. "We have the capital. We have the land in Dholera. We will build a speaker driver factory. A small, efficient one. We'll start by supplying 100% of our own needs. The initial investment might be twenty crore, but it would make us immune. Calculate it. Raw materials: magnet, copper wire, paper cone. Labor. Overhead. Give me a projected cost per unit."
The audacity of the plan left them speechless. Vertical integration wasn't just a strategy for Harsh; it was an obsession. He was building a fortress where every brick was made in-house.
As Deepak retreated to run the numbers, a different kind of report arrived, hand-delivered by Rakesh Rao. It was not financial, but intelligence.
"The Doshi CEO, the one you sent the radio to," Rao said, his voice low. "He did not laugh. He had the radio taken to his R&D lab. They stripped it down. The word is... he was impressed by the 'Bharat-1' chip. And terrified by the price point. He's stopped trying to strong-arm our suppliers. He's changing tactics."
"What tactics?"
"He's launching a new radio. The 'Doshi Jawan'. It means 'young soldier'. A direct copy of our 'Swaranjali Standard'. They're aiming for a price of 120 rupees. They are taking a loss on every unit, just to undercut us and bleed us out. They announced it to their distributors yesterday."
A price war. The oldest, dirtiest trick in the book. Doshi, with its deep pockets from decades of profitability, could afford to lose money for a year to crush an upstart. Harsh's newly profitable venture was about to be tested.
Sanjay looked alarmed. "One hundred twenty rupees! Our cost is eighty-six. If we match that, our profit vanishes! Our entire business model collapses!"
Harsh remained calm. He had anticipated this. A giant, when pushed, tries to crush you with its weight.
"We don't match it," Harsh said, a cold smile playing on his lips. "We ignore it."
"Ignore it? But they'll steal our market share!"
"Let them try," Harsh replied. "Sanjay, I want you to launch a new marketing campaign. Not about price. About pride. The slogan is: 'Why buy a copy, when you can own the original? The only radio with an Indian heart.' We will plaster this on every cart, on every newspaper ad. We will emphasize the 'Bharat-1' chip, our in-house technology. We will frame Doshi as the old, outdated company desperately copying the true innovator."
It was a psychological gambit. He was reframing the battle from price to value, from cost to patriotism.
"Secondly," Harsh continued, "we accelerate the Deluxe model. Add a new feature. An auxiliary input jack. Let people connect their cassette players through our radio. Market it as the '2-in-1 Entertainment System.' We'll sell it for 180 rupees. The increased margin will help offset any slight dip in Standard sales."
The room was electric with the new strategy. They weren't retreating; they were flanking the enemy.
"And the speaker factory?" Deepak asked.
"Begin the feasibility study. Secure the land within the Dholera campus. Get me the quotations for the machinery from Japan and Germany. We may be in a price war today, but tomorrow, we will own every component inside the box."
Harsh walked to the window. The symphony of the assembly line below was now the soundtrack to a war. The Doshi Group had thrown down the gauntlet, thinking they could win with brute financial force. But they failed to understand the nature of their opponent. Harsh Patel wasn't just a businessman; he was a strategist who had built his empire from nothing, one ruthless, calculated move at a time. The profit from this month wasn't just money; it was fuel for the next, greater offensive. The calculus of conquest was complex, but Harsh had always been its master.