Abhishek Mohan, a 34-year-old Indian executive who studied at the Makati-based Asian Institute of Management, now considers the Philippines his home, where he takes a leadership post in a fast-growing online company.
Mohan is the new managing director of Carmudi Philippines, an online car classifieds platform, which thrives amid the double-digit growth of the local automotive market.
He says among the countries in Southeast Asia, the Philippines offers the most relaxing environment, one of the reasons why he calls Manila his home. In fact, he has already visited Sagada in Mountain Province thrice.
“I can clearly see that it’s the other way around now—me staying in the Philippines and go on vacation to see my mother in India. I’m kind of settled here already,” he says.
Mohan spent 10 years of his school life at the Lawrence School, a British boarding school considered one of the best in India. After that, he attended St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai for a degree in Economics. He was 23 when he studied at AIM for graduate courses.
He accepted an offer to head Carmudi in the Philippines after working for several IT companies. “Carmudi, by far, is great. I walked right through the top automobile classifieds scene, and this much I found. This year we’re taking on more strategic directions. We will be largely moving into more and more activities that will bring buyers and sellers closer together,” he says.
Mohan says aside from being a buy-and-sell site for vehicles, Carmudi has become an important source of information for buying new cars. “In our site, they compare and research cars and pricing. We are a strong source of leads for new car purchases,” he says, adding that the company focuses on both used and new vehicles.
Before heading Carmudi, Mohan worked for the IPVG Group as vice president for strategy, incubation and start-up investments. He was also a project head of IP E-Game Ventures Inc.
“In my last portfolio, I’m the head of all incubation and investments. We invest in a bunch of technology start-ups either listed or sole ownership. Then I moved on to head a Danish mobile security company. I moved on to a publicly listed Japanese technology company. Now I’m in Carmudi, but I’m also involved in the start-up investment scene in the Philippines. I sit on the board of a couple of companies in technology and Internet scene,” he says.
He takes pride in working hard every day, a value he also expects from his 63 staff members. He spends a lot of time talking with colleagues from other markets for possible leads in automotive and even on insurance and financial trends.
Mohan says he usually rises 6 a.m. to read the papers and goes to work at 8 a.m. from San Miguel Village in Makati City, in anticipation of heavy traffic going to Carmudi office in Pasig City.
Tuesdays, not Monday, are the days when the staff meeting takes place at Carmudi. “During Mondays everybody has a weekend hangover. In Carmudi, we don’t evaluate how long you stayed in office as long as you get your work done. Like I said, we have very strong systems in place. We strongly focused on measurements that makes us, I guess, output-oriented,” Mohan says.
He sees himself as a facilitator. “Everything else, I prefer to facilitate rather than micro-manage because you tend to accomplish more. I’m okay to mentor and teach but what is important is to put a structure on the organization and be unemotional with decision making, so things are professional among us,” he says.
Mohan, who is still single and an avid traveler, witnessed the most beautiful places in the Philippines. “My personal favorite is Sagada. It is one of the most calm places to go. The weather is cold and food is always fresh. Although the travel time takes me about 13 hours, I’ve been there thrice,” says Mohan who had actually been to tourist spots in Bohol, Boracay, Baguio, Bukidnon and Puerto Galera.
Carmudi sees tremendous growth for the automotive industry because of the growing business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines. Mohan says the life aspirations of those employed in the BPO sector will continue to drive the growth of the economy in general and that of the automotive sector in particular.
Mohan says given that the Philippines still has a low motorization rate, the opportunity for growth is enormous. “We also have a pretty young population and many would-be first-time buyers given the Philippines’ young demographics. We see that segment of business growing. This is really a great time to be in the Philippines, in every sense of the word,” he says.
Carmudi has expanded beyond Metro Manila to Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo and Davao. The expansion of an office in Davao is deemed crucial in time for the expected deluge of listings this year, he says.
Carmudi is considered the single, most popular go-to online platform for selling and buying used cars as well as new cars in the Philippines, he says. It brokers services to site users who are either buying or selling cars online via the Carmudi website.
In 2015, listings in Carmudi reached 27,000 posts a month while revenues grew over 100 percent. Carmudi, which generates revenues from listing fees, is looking at increasing listings by 75 percent in 2016.
“This is a huge increase but we are optimistic that the market will catch up. Economic growth is certain to hit high despite the qualms of an election year and auto sales is continually on the rise several years in a row now. But like any auto classified, we’re looking at gaining critical mass before we start to monetize. And in as much as we want to release revenue figures, we’re holding this close to our chest,” says Mohan.
As an information provider, Carmudi is also looking at providing leads for the financial sector. The company generates about 20,000 to 25,000 financial leads a month.
“This is tremendous data for the financial and insurance sectors. We therefore see ourselves going in this direction,” Mohan says.
It is thus important for Carmudi to establish reliability, which according to Mohan, means the company maintains a strict quality assurance process before posting photos and details on the website.
He says quality assurance guys are always up early to check or verify details, photos and physically inspect the vehicles to make sure that everything is above board. “Our focus is that the site has more and should have more reliable information. We haven’t grown the company at the risk of or the cost of security. We’re not just any classifieds that let anybody posts anything. Our best effort is that we want to make sure that every time a buyer goes on the site, the information he sees is reliable,” Mohan says.
He says the least they need is to encounter scam problems on the website. Among the issues that the company was able to filter and resolve are cars that don’t exist; people posting cars at ridiculously low price; and buyers asking for instant downpayment.
Mohan says the company tries to have all information on the website correct by doing regular clean-ups to allow buyers and sellers transact business much quicker.
Carmudi also started a corporate social responsibility exercise by sending three to four students to college. Mohan says the scholars also get to spend time at the company, familiarizing themselves with how the organization works and taking in important tips from Mohan himself.
Campaign for road safety is another endeavor the company is currently pursuing with car manufacturers and the Land Transportation Office.
He says Carmudi is thinking of better ways to drive home the importance of safety on the road especially for the upcoming Holy Week, a time when most metro-based people are leaving the city for a long drive to visit their provinces or go elsewhere for a temporary respite from urban living.
“We’ve 12,000 accidents in the Philippines every year. The idea is that if we have to ride the growth of the auto industry, it has to be responsible growth. We’re working with manufacturers, and the LTO to implement safe traffic. From an industry point of view, that’s what we want to give back,” says Mohan.