Datta Deshpande of Pratham honoured with MMS Lifetime Achievement Award

Datta Deshpande, the founder of Pratham Technologies,  was conferred the prestigious MMS Lifetime Achievement Award on 29 January at the Sahara Star hotel in Mumbai, a recognition that not only honours a distinguished career but also celebrates a unique, entrepreneurial journey in the Indian print-packaging industry. The award ceremony highlighted a three-decade-long career built on self-belief, resilience, and a fundamental principle: listening to the customer, especially when the advice is brutal.

Deshpande’s early foray into manufacturing was marked by a brutal quality assessment. Bipin Tanna of Printmann, examining one of Pratham’s first folding machines—described as a "masterpiece of early Indian engineering" that was "mostly rust"—declared it fit for only one purpose: “throwing it in the Arabian Sea.” This brutal feedback provided Pratham with its singular, guiding performance metric: the machine must not be thrown into the ocean. The anecdote underscores Deshpande's deep-seated belief that success is often born from facing and conquering harsh, honest customer feedback.

The early years were also defined by the company's sheer ambition, bordering on audacious vision. Before Pratham was a big company on the factory floor, it was one in Deshpande’s head. When a customer called with a complaint, Deshpande, with the conviction of a seasoned Fortune 500 industrialist, declared, "Hold on, I will transfer you to my Spares Department." The reality was that no such department existed, but the vision—to invent the bureaucracy before the product—was key to becoming a tycoon.

A defining strategic pivot came when Pratham moved away from trying to be the cheapest. Realising that their INR 10,000 machine, priced against European counterparts at ten times the cost, was worth exactly its price, Deshpande and his team made a tactical gamble. They decided to use better material, charge INR 50,000, and give the customer a "reason to believe." It was the moment the company recognised that its customer was not a fool, only an intelligent buyer looking for value.

The journey was not without its failures. Attempts to diversify into shrink-wrap, flexo printing, and other verticals invariably hit a wall, often due to unpredictable external factors. From these setbacks, Deshpande distilled a vital piece of entrepreneurial wisdom: “Stick to your expertise. Don't jump into businesses that you don't really understand.”

While Datta Deshpande stood in the spotlight, the Lifetime Achievement award also served as an opportunity to acknowledge the vital, silent force behind Pratham’s technical triumphs: his partner, Sanjay Dandekar. Dandekar, the silent engineer, is credited with building the company's complex 24-fold outsert systems and figuring out the critical patents. While Deshpande is the hero on the stage, Dandekar is the engineer who makes the hero’s promises work.

Today, Pratham boasts an international-standard factory in Pune, a presence in the USA, and a new operation in the UK. It is an example of manufacturing maturity—even establishing a bus service for employees, a recognition that quality infrastructure is ultimately cheaper than constant customer complaints. When asked for a single piece of advice he would give his younger self, Deshpande offered the simplest, most potent of maxims: "Believe in yourself." 

The MMS Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates a career of innovative engineering and a relentless focus on customer-driven, value-based manufacturing.