Koenig is today a successful IT training company serving a global clientele. Apart from being a pioneer in offshore training Koenig has the largest number of IT trainers in the world. Koenig was not always so successful. In November 1993, Koenig was born as an unremarkable training center located in a congested part of Delhi â Patel Nagar. The Indian IT training industry was highly competitive and Koenig struggled to survive. Koenig had its moments of glory but they were short-lived and far in between.
âIt was a challenge to pay the monthly salary bill and we could only survive because of financial support from my fatherâs company Essen Deinki ââ Rohit Aggarwal (Founder & CEO)
In short, Koenig was a loss-making enterprise.
The dotcom boom followed by the bust in 2000-2001 took down with it many an IT company. Koenig would also have met the same fate but for rapid âdownsizingâ and an âideaâ.
âWhen we were aggressively downsizing I could not ignore the fact that in almost every class we had 1-2 students from Europe. We thought that if we give a training package including a hotel, it will be more convenient for the student coming from Europe. We did our calculations and it seemed a win-win for Koenig and European customers.â - Rohit Aggarwal.
Andy Sau, an IT professional from the UK was Koenigâs first customer for the MCSE package. Andy was happy with the training and agreed to be our referral.
This gave us encouragement. We started receiving students regularly and the business grew exponentially.
Koenig kept on improving infrastructure and services. Based upon customer feedback, we established Koenig centers in picturesque locations such as Shimla, Goa and Dubai.
Competitors took note of us and many establishments tried to emulate us not only in India but also in China, Thailand, the Philippines and East Europe.
They met with varying degrees of success but Koenig maintained its # 1 position.
Initially, we thought that if we can get 10 students every month it will be a great achievement. This target was achieved in 2004. Soon the true potential of Offshore Training dawned on us. We set a target of 100 students per month which we achieved in 2009.
Then we broadened our focus. Not just classroom training, we also started offering Live Online training and Fly-Me-A-Trainer options.
Near-death experience #2
Business kept growing till 2015 and then we again had a near-death experience.
The oil crisis of 2015 hit us badly because of our dependence on economies of oil-exporting countries.
âMy father was no more for guidance and financial support. I looked heaven-wards, âwe went to the basics.â â Rohit Aggarwal
Over the boom years, we had lost sight of the importance of cost control. This over-sight was a time bomb that was now exploding. We looked at every cost minutely and relentlessly aligned them with business results. We were breathing again by the end of 2016.
Near-death experience #3
The COVID pandemic suspended classroom training, which was our main business, indefinitely. In April 2020 our revenue dropped to a nadir and we were again into losses with a bleak future. We were able to survive only because of financial buffers built after the oil crisis. We pivoted to live online. Fortunately, customers also made the same switch. It was a scare, but nothing compared to the first two NDEs.
In summary, the Koenig story is a story of survival despite odds, all self-created, which became evident when the external crisis struck. Hopefully, the company has finally learned its lessons and will survive in the long term.
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