Brigade's History

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Brigade’s beginnings The founder-CMD of Brigade Group, 55-year-old M.R. Jaishankar, comes from a reputed family of coffee planters from the hill town of Chikmagalur, in the Western Ghats, Karnataka. For over a hundred years, his family has been well known in the region for their business integrity and philanthropy. Jaishankar completed a degree in Agricultural Sciences (University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, 1974), following which, he earned an MBA degree from Mysore University in 1977. After a brief stint as a Management Trainee in UB-MEC Batteries, Jaishankar started MLR Industries in 1980. It was a small-scale unit that manufactured chicory (used for blending with coffee powder to add richness and flavour to the famous South Indian coffee). MLR Industries soon became the largest supplier to Brooke Bond India Ltd. In 1984, the company faced serious industrial relations’ problems and Jaishankar decided to diversify his entrepreneurial efforts. However, he continued to run MLR Industries till 1991. Selecting a new domain for diversification Scanning the horizon to find a channel in which to diversify, the then nascent industry of property development appeared on Jaishankar’s radar screen. It was in the pre-liberalisation and pre-IT days. But Jaishankar had the prescience to see a great emerging opportunity in this yet-to-be organised industry and also in the potential of Bangalore. His market research confirmed his intuitive grasp that property development would be a sunrise industry. Challenges faced in launching Brigade At the same time, property developers were a suspect group; not known for trust and reliability, and notorious for focusing on short-term gains and totally lacking in long-term vision. There were just a couple of organisations in the sector, struggling to earn respectability. Expecting people to pay even before

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