Book title SIMPLY FLY

Book author Capt Gopinath

Year 2009
Publisher HarperCollins Publisher

There is a small village ‘Gorur’, located in the interiors of Karnataka. An 11 year old boy raised
his hand, even though he did not know the real meaning of ‘military’when the headmaster asked
a bunch of school kids if they were interested to write a competitive administration exam for a
military training school called Sainik School. The boy was G.R.Gopinath. His father was a
school teacher and a farmer by profession . Gopinath cleared the admission test and joined Sainik
school, Bijapur. The sainik school helped and prepared Gopinath to clear the ‘National defence
academy’ entrance exams. After 3 years of rigorous training, Gopinath completed education
from the National defence academy. He then went on to graduate from the “Indian Military
Academy”, Dehradun. After school, he earned a commission in the Indian Army, earning the
rank of Captain. He spent eight years in the army and fought in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation
War. Though Army life had been wonderful for him, it was, in his own words, “too regimented
and predictable” for his liking. He was not enjoying his stint in the Army and thus one fine day
he quit and came back to his village.

Capt Gopinath as a Farmer

Though he quit the Army, he had no idea what he would do for a living. At the same time the
government was building a dam on the Hemavathy river which would submerge Gopinath’s
ancestral land. As compensation the government had provided 10 acres of land each to his father
and his three brothers. The land was largely barren, with patches of jungle and scrub forest and
without any proper access route. That is why when the Captain declared that he would start
living there and set up his farm, his father could only utter two words, “Ningenu Huccha?” (Are
you mad?) Almost everybody tried to dissuade him from taking to farming, but the Captain was
adamant. He had a vision for the farm and he would not stop until he achieved it.

To begin with, he only had Rs 6000 with him and needed capital to set up the farm. But the
banks where he went to take the loan were rude, apathetic and indifferent. On top of that he also
had to face the hostility of the nearby villagers who were not too happy with his arrival as they
were using the land earlier for grazing their cattle, which obviously they could not do any more.
There were innumerable other roadblocks like lack of electricity, floods and drought But
Captain Gopinath, through sheer grit and determination and single minded focus on the goal,
was able to cross each one of these hurdles and went on to set up the farm successfully. He
started donkey rearing and then work on sericulture and coconut planting. He kept trying new
innovative techniques in agriculture .He was eventually awarded the Rolex award for Enterprise
for employing eco-friendly ways of farming.

About organization

Capt Gopinath main aim behind farming is to find himself and live a meaningful life. He started
sustainable agriculture. Developed a farm in which he has performed integrated farming. Beside
agriculture he has started animal husbandary with donkeys and sericulture. Capt follows
Organic structure in which he has used conventional methods of agriculture. Capt Gopinath and
his wife used to share by discussing things with each other. For further information regarding
agriculture he use to contact the agriculture experts and the farmers in his neighbor. Non routine
because of high variety and low analyzability.High variety because of the high number of
expectation i.e., high frequency of unexpected and novel events, also work activities are
differently performed every time according to the work and environment. Hence there are many
problems in the season. Low analyzability because work cannot be reduced to mechanical steps.

Along with the farm he also dabbled in other businesses like a motorcycle dealership, opening
a hotel business, working as a stock broker and setting up an Agricultural consultancy!

Capt Gopinath – Political journey

Soon thereafter, Captain Gopinath took a plunge in politics and stood for the election on the
ticket of BJP. His “can-do” spirit is further evident here as he faced a lot of challenges on
account of him being a first-timer and also because BJP was pretty much unknown in the state
at that time. Particularly interesting is his duel with Deve Gowda, one of the strongest leaders of
the state, where Gowda had to eventually retreat! Though he lost the elections, it did not sadden
him. As he writes ,Yes, there was disappointment, but there was also a curios sense of
exultation. I had discovered a strange power within me”.

Capt Gopinath – Deccan aviation

Gopinath soon shifted to Bangalore where he began socializing with his old Army friends. One
of them was Captain K.J Samuel. He was a freelance pilot, flying helicopters all over India. One
day he suggested to Captain Gopinath, “Why can’t we do something with the
helicopters?” The seed of Deccan aviation was planted on this day. Sometime later,
with Samuel’s words in his mind and inspired by the newspaper report of a Vietnamese girl
who flew investors and aid workers in a helicopter over Vietnam, as the infrastructure in the
country was totally devastated due to the war, Gopinath thought, “If helicopters can work in
Vietnam, so can they in India, where the infrastructure is as bad!”. He decided that he will start
a helicopter company and Deccan Aviation was born.

As he has mentioned in the book, setting up the new venture was similar to setting up his farm;
only that this was at a much bigger scale and the challenges much tougher. His ordeals with the
bureaucracy and his successful way past the labyrinth makes for a very inspiring read. Like the
instance where just to get a NOC from the government for the new company, he had to toil hard
for two long years. After years of relentless pursuit, hard work and sacrifices the helicopter
business was firmly established. It’s a tribute to his vision and courage that starting off with
such meager resources, he was able to establish the business in a capital intensive industry like
aviation.
Air Deccan – Low cost carrier

Upon the success of Deccan Aviation, Gopinath decided to enter the airline industry – by
starting a low cost airline, Air Deccan. If anything, this was a much bigger risk. For all its
challenges, one thing in his favor when he started Deccan Aviation was that there was
very little competition, but here there were established players and the sector was notorious for
its cut throat competition. There were also suggestions that the low cost model will not work in
India. But the Captain had complete conviction in his business model and had a novel dream –
to make the common man fly. The airline experienced exponential growth and within a very
short time it even overtook the national carrier.

About organization

Capt Gopinath main aim behind Air Deccan is to provide the low cost service air transport to the
people. So that everyone can use air transport. Capt follows Mechanistic structuren. He hired
pilots ,engineers and other staff with high formalization. Vertical information sharing is
hierarchical. If any problem occur they contact to Capt. For horizontal linkage a team is formed
which communicate between the different department. Team of pilots ,engineers and staff work
together. Routine because of low variety and high analyzability.High variety because of the less
number of expectation i.e., low frequency of unexpected and novel events, also work activities
are same on day to day basis. High analyzability because work can be reduced to mechanical
steps. Decision making is Centralized because all the decisions are taken by the Capt Gopinath

AIR DECCAN MERGE WITH KINGFISHER AIRLINES

However, new challenges emerged which throttled the growth of Air Deccan. The challenges,
among others, included poaching of its pilots and engineers by the rival airlines and the collapse
of its IT system. Gopinath had no choice but to seek external funding, even if it meant ceding
control of his say in day-to-day running of the company. Eventually the company had to be
merged to Kingfisher airlines.

After that he started new venture – Deccan360 – which he funded by mortgaging everything he
had, his house, his shares and his stocks. He started all over again!