The road to entrepreneurship is full of minor speed bumps, distracting road blocks and pot holes that could swallow you! Since most people perceive entrepreneurship as a means to make money, they get frustrated and seal the doors for good when they fail to achieve the target amount of money in initial years. Not Ashok DM, MD & CEO, Avi Solar Energy – a leading O&M service provider for Solar PV power plants in India that has developed innovative wireless, cloud-based remote monitoring solution for PV power plant & rooftop energy generation monitoring using web/mobile apps. This self-made entrepreneur endured the losses for an extensive span of five years, passed startup barriers and with unswerving passion chased his dream of generating green energy from sunlight to help save the environment by reducing carbon footprints, because money was merely a by-product of his vision and mission, as opposed to other money-minded entrepreneurs.

The Bumpy Road to Success

Though Ashok’s unquenchable desire to venture into business world and contribute to society began budding during his student life itself, he delayed the entrepreneurial journey due to lack of financial support and limitation of skills, knowledge & experience. He was fortunate enough to work in projects that he loved to do, which helped him to gain vast experience in building high performing teams, managing customer expectation, delivering quality in services/work with

integrity & ethical practices. However, witnessing the 2002 & 2009 recessions propelled him to create jobs than seeking one and thus Avi Solar was born in 2010 in Bangalore.

Ashok is known in the industry as a hard working, simple, disciplined and determined person, who believes in sharing the wealth & success with team

As the world eventually woke to Avi Solar’s prowess after the successful completion of various turnkey projects and consultation work in diverse countries such as Indonesia & U.S., Ashok started making ample profit by magnetizing customers akin to Tata Power, TerraForm Global, Shapoorji & Pallonji, ReNew Power &Pragathi Group among others across ten states in India. Under his helm, it also won Gold Award in RE Assets India 2017 as Solar Technical O&M Service Provider for the year and Rising Star award for its monitoring product EagleSUN SCADA by Solar Quarter

“We have a lot more to achieve to pass on my learnings as tips,”humbly refuses Ashokwhen asked to share a piece of advice to his fellow peers. With further push he suggests,“Align on long term goals with team, give them freedom and don’t micromanage, unless it’s critical for business survival”. And to budding entrepreneurs, he recommends, “Chase your dream, do not worry about the result but focus on the effort”. Ashok frequently participates in the panel discussions conducted by Solar Quarter and shares his views.He also spreads his knowledge during the meetings organized by Association of Karnataka for the solar renewable energy sector as well as during the interactive sessions of FKCCI & CII.

An Honest Perfectionist

Ashok is known in the industry as a hard working, simple, disciplined and determined person, who believes in sharing the wealth & success with team. He is straight forward and a perfectionist, which counts as his strength and weakness as well. Amidst his feverish work pace (from early morning till falling asleep), Ashok finds 30 minutes to walk after dinner at least four times a week. While Narayana Murthy inspires him on building world class companies & team, Mahatma Gandhi & Sri JagadguruBasavanna have high influence on his life principle of improving living standard of human life.He instils his hard-learned values such as being truthful, honest, humble& not running away from challenges to his 150+ employees. “I learn from every mistake/setback and convince my team on the importance of not repeating them,” remarks Ashok.

Besides the unwavering support of his proficient team comprised of Somashekar TH (CTO), Sunil Antony (COO), Vidyasagar (Director), Naveen Kumar (VP), Archana Bhat (GM), Ravish DN (VP) and Ganesh H (GM), the credit to his roaring success can also be conferred to the great support he received from friends, family and relatives, who not only offered funding, but also joined hands during the tumultuous times. Even his kids (14 years old daughter & 11 years old son who is a football enthusiast) learned to understand the limitations of spending and controlled their desire and temptations. In fact, his daughter wishes to follow his entrepreneurial footsteps. No surprise, Ashok finds this journey highly fulfilling. “I enjoy everything I do and every minute of my time spent for business,” ends a contented Ashok. Such determination will help Avi Solar to improve its market share in Remote Monitoring Products & Solutions in India and abroad.