NC: I was living in UK and working as a management consultant, and Naveen in Australia running his own business. We married and I moved to Australia and joined Naveen in his business. We were doing well but the recession that hit in the early 90s, combined with an aggressive price-cut driven push of the Chinese in both our business lines, and we lost over half a million dollars due to our clients going belly-up. Meantime we had decided to diversify into the service industry and had become aware of the student flow into Australia as many Indian students applied to us for jobs.

“People were constantly coming to us and telling us that so-and-so has told us to go to The Chopras, and hence the brand”

We spoke to a few Australian universities and they were extremely encouraging telling us that they were fed up with their Indian “Agents’” unethical practices. This led to our move with contracts in hand, to India. We shifted base in 1995 though Sydney continues to be our second home to date along with London.

The PIE: How was the transition?

NC: There were no professional education consulting organisations in India. The market was primarily dominated by small timers with no regulation or watch bodies for quality standards and hence unethical practices were the norm with few exceptions. IDP entered India at the same time. We were amazed to find that there was no career counselling in Indian schools or educational institutions. The career counselling, as well complete integrity and working in the student’s interest, became the core of our business practice and operating philosophy. We changed the market and set benchmarks that are now industry standards, or what many in this line of work aspire towards to be successful.

The PIE: At what age did you start your company?

NC: Naveen was in his mid-forties and I in my late thirties when we started the company that came to be branded as “The Chopras”. In fact it wasn’t us who came up with this brand name; it was the market. People were constantly coming to us and telling us that so-and-so has told us to go to The Chopras, and hence the brand.

“The company’s vision: Shaping Lives and Careers through Education”

The PIE: How has The Chopras agency grown to become the size it is now?

NC: Key factors that have contributed to the growth of The Chopras include our core philosophy of students’ interest first, even before the commercial interest of the company. This stems from the fact and realisation that the business of student counselling and consequent processing for universities cannot be run on sales and marketing platform and chasing commissions. Such an approach would inevitably compromise the students’ best interest as if a student were sent to a wrong course or institution, it would impact negatively on his / her life.

Thus, we have over the years advised for and sent students to dozens of institutions with whom we have no commercial interests and banked the student’s goodwill. Our goodwill bank is very deep, hence a positive word of mouth.

The PIE: What other factors make your company stand out?

NC: The company’s emphasis of caring for its staff and training has resulted in staff retention because they see a future and growth with the company. The emphasis on values; integrity, truthfulness, hard and smart work, quality and striving for excellence as core values has also contributed to the success of the company. The company’s vision sums this up: Shaping Lives and Careers through Education.

The PIE: How many students do you counsel and place overseas?