Techno-Spark was a magazine conceptualized by Spark Consultants in the very early 1990's (pre-internet days).
It was a magazine that contained the summarized resumes of job seekers (alphabetically from 'A' for Accountants to 'W' for Welders).
The magazine was mailed out free of cost to over 8,000 organizations all over South India.
The Techno-Spark story is a very interesting one and starts with an elderly gentleman by the name of Mr. Achutha Rao, walking into the JP Nagar office of Spark Consultants one afternoon. This was in 1993. Achutha Rao was looking for a job and was at that time the general manager of an electronics factory in Peenya.
Achutha Rao was apparently impressed with the vision that Mr. Prakash Subbarao (CEO of Spark Consultants) had for the company because he started pressing for the opening of a Peenya branch by it.
Achutha Rao wouldn't take no for an answer and identified a very nice office in Peenya Industrial Area 2nd phase, near the bus stop. He even took the incredible step of paying Rs. 500 as a token advance to the landlord so as to prevent the office being taken by someone else!
Soon the rental agreement for the office was signed.
For those who are not aware of it, the Peenya Industrial Area (PIA) spans 1800 acres and house around 2,200 small and medium scale industries.
The obvious thing to do next step was to create awareness in PIA. It was felt that since the best thing to do was to release several half page advertisements in PIA's monthly magazine.
The ads ran but strangely there was no response. This expensive ad campaign was not working!
The obvious thing to do was to create a vehicle for one's own advertising. The question was......what should this be?
After much thought it was felt that this vehicle should be a magazine that carries useful material to the industry, such as management articles, summarized resumes of job seekers etc. The publication would also carry the ads of Spark Consultants Peenya branch.
The magazine was registered with the Registrar of Magazines new Delhi and named "Techno-Spark".
The initial print run was 2000 publications. These were hand delivered to all the industries in Peenya over a one week period.
Soon the registration approval was received from the Registrar of magazines. This enabled the publication to be posted with a stamp of just Rs 0.15. At this point, the print run was enhanced and techno-Spark started going to industries all over Bangalore. It was later enhanced to all over South India (Ambattur Industrial Area, Guindy Industrial estate, Ranipet, Coimbatore, Chennai Free zones, etc.)
Within six months of launch this publication started creating a strong pull for Spark Consultants. It opened doors of well known organizations such as Birla 3m, TVS Suzuki, The UB Group, a whole host of software companies etc.
Techno-Spark was discontinued in 1998 with the advent of the Internet and the shift to Dubai.
The magazine is remembered even today, a decade later, for its immense usefulness to the industry.
Achutha Rao was named the father of Techno-Spark and he was honored every year via a party at any hotel of his choice. There was no limit placed on what could be ordered and we, at Spark Consultants, spent these occasions with him at five star restaurants sipping scotch and munching cashews and listening to his amazing tales and jokes.
Long live Achutha Rao!
Techno Spark