CEO Insights Magazine

As the name suggests, our company offers complete sourcing solutions to our clients from the apparel industry, and we facilitate the overall sourcing process. After working in China for years, I have come to know that mostly, the clients were worried about communication gap, quality assurance, smooth manufacturing, and merchandising process as well as getting the best prices from Chinese factories. That encouraged me to venture into a company that can provide a cushion and extensive visibility to our clients. We do everything from scratch for our clients starting from price negotiation to quality, color approval, getting bulk on time, and so on. Soon, I realized that there is room for our company to build the business and introduce them to our highly efficient and vertically integrated manufacturing partners to offer real manufacturing costs. Recently, we have also ventured into manufacturing, and along with my team, which is quite experienced in handling the technical aspects of business, we have been able to create a niche for ourselves.

If we talk about our industry position, we have been working with many global companies and brands such as ZXY Inter national, Express, Belk, Kappa, Walmart, George, Guess, Chico’s, S. Oliver and so on. The Sourcing Place has demonstrated an exponential growth graph so far, and we have been receiving overwhelming responses from our customers.

What are the unique services that make The Sourcing Place standout from other competitors in the market?
Our specialty is market research, market intelligence, and our diversified mill base to offer quick turnaround and best prices to our buyers. Being a converter, the type of fabric is not a constraint for us, as we can handle all kinds of fabrics. For manufacturing in China, you need smooth communication and constant monitoring. There is a

need for value addition based on the client’s core concept on daily basis,and we ensure the best aesthetical values with the help of our experienced team. We always try to give priority to perfect sync between the buyer side and the manufacturing side. Working on a ground level, we provide easy visibility to the buyers and even share open costing to our clients if required. I have always maintained a customer oriented and quality oriented approach with my customers, as I mostly worked myself as a customer in my career and our company also inherit the same motto. We are committed to never compromising on the quality of our products even if it ampers our margin of profit, and this strategy has ultimately fostered my long term relations with my buyers.

How do you apply your expertise across this domain to lead this company ahead in the market?
Due to the long supply chain and fierce competition within the country and at the global level, negotiation skills, relationships, and quality assurance is the key to keep getting orders. Our company holdsthat skill as I have been exposed to China, India, Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Turkey for a long time. After completing my engineering degree in textile technology, I worked in India for about a decade and got a deep understanding of the apparel industry. I have moved to China in 2011 and it eventually helped me to get a fair idea about how this industry functions. Since we are holding above the mark relation ships with our partnering factories as well as buyers, that helps us somewhere down the line to win their trust.

When I started, I always worried if our company can compete on the prices. But soon, we could win over this worry. You will be surprised to know that I am even doing orders for the companies which are based

in China as they found my prices are workable and our services are much better. We have a unique style of negotiations to make sure we can earn profit without impacting the targets of our clients. In another way, we earn our profit from manufacturers and not from our clients. We are also working on a project of making garments in Indian factories for buyers in China to reduce the garment costings. Owing to our geographical advantage, we are exposed to a real understanding of the process and raw material used in China factories. Since we can handle the manufacturer side as well as the buyer side, it boosts the confidence of both parties.

What would you say is the success mantra that has been constantly helping you derive positive outcomes?
As one of the Sanskrit slokas goes 'Yo Dhruvani Paritajya Adhruvani Nishevtey, Dhruvani Tashya Nashyanti Adhruvani Nashtameva Hi'. It roughly translates into choosing something you are certain about rather than something you are having doubts about. If you don't catch certain things and believe in the uncertainty, then certain things will go and so will the uncertain. Starting from my education to my career, I have followed this mantra in my life, when ever I am in dilemma. My second motto of success is ‘coming out of the comfort zone’. When I came to China, it was a big risk for me. But I stepped out of my comfort zone, and despite facing many hurdles due to language, culture, eating habits, and various other things, I remained fixated on my goals.

Naveen Jha,Founder & Managing Director, The Sourcing Place
Coming from a small town of Bihar, Naveen has completed his B.Tech in textile technology in 2002. Leveraging his expertise across the segment of fabrics, garments, and textile, he has been able to establish a complete fabric sourcing solutions platform, that goes by the name of The Sourcing Place. Exclusively influencing the international textile and fabrics industry, the firm is one of the top emerging companies in Changzhou, Jiangsu province in China and is gearing-up to cross international borders under the guidance of Naveen.