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November 24, 2017 l #50 www.outlookbusiness.com

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Presented by

Women of Worth 17 women achievers share their successful entrepreneurial journey in a candid conversation with Outlook Business Celebrity Woman of Worth/Vidya Balan

| EDITOR’S NOTE |

Tough as nails 10

I am delighted to bring you the 2017 edition of Outlook Business Women of Worth. We have been profiling women entrepreneurs from different parts of the country, across diverse businesses for the past couple of years. Stories of top women professionals have been well-documented; entrepreneurial successes much less. Yet, when we decided to launch this special edition, we were a little nervous about its sustainability as we really did not know of too many women entrepreneurs.

But the space was emerging, funding was plenty and with a lot of younger women exploring new ventures, we thought we might just have many names to showcase in the coming years. It turns out that with or without gen next, there are enough and more stories of super women entrepreneurs that are yet to be told.

We are sure you will find the women featured in this year’s edition, very inspiring.

Many of them are lesser-known names who have stayed away from the media glare, until now. Among them is Sandhya Chandrasekharayya who quit a cushy software job to contribute to a trekking blog that gradually transformed into a sizable startup. At the other end, Lata Bajoria’s tale is of a parrot in a golden cage. The cosmopolitan girl got married into an orthodox Marwari family

and lost her identity entirely, only to reclaim it post her husband’s demise. When half your life is lived in a certain manner, it may just be impossible to re-orient yourself but Bajoria has done so. Consolidating her husband’s jute mills, and turning her attention to social issues, she now lives life on her own terms, unapologetically.

Then there is the incredible Monica Liu, a success story of sheer grit and back-breaking hard work. From being homeless and penniless, Liu went on to become a successful restaurateur, running five popular restaurants in Kolkata. Liu describes her journey as “arm-breaking” — tossing noodles and washing utensils all day when she started out, with just one helper to support her. But she endured the pain and never gave up. This tenacity is a common trait of all the entrepreneurs featured in the edition; hope you enjoy reading each story.

N Mahalakshmi www.outlookbusiness.com | email: mahalakshmi@outlookindia.com

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

Contents

Volume 12, Issue 24, November 24, 2017 | Released on stands on November 10, 2017

108 ZARINA SCREWVALA 90 SANDHYA CHANDRASEKHARAYYA 120 LARA BALSARA VAJIFDAR

12 14 AAKANKSHA BHARGAVA

72 MONISHA ADVANI

78 NEERU SHARMA

50 LATA BAJORIA 124 SCHAUNA CHAUHAN 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

58 MEENA KAUSHIK www.outlookbusiness.com Editor: N Mahalakshmi Executive Editors: Rajesh Padmashali, V Keshavdev

102 VIDYA BALAN

FEATURES Deputy Editors: Kripa Mahalingam, Krishna Gopalan Assistant Editors: Himanshu Kakkar, Jash Kriplani Correspondents: Khushboo Balani, Laveena Iyer, Shilpa Elizabeth Abraham COPY DESK Sub-Editors: Ahana Chatterjee , Naini Thaker Trainee Sub-Editor: Somdyuti Datta Ray ART Chief Designer: Kishore Das Design Trainee: Pallabi Sutar PHOTO Photo Editor: Soumik Kar Chief Photographer: RA Chandroo Principal Photographer: Vishal Koul Photo Assistant: Ram Dharne

64 MONICA LIU

Consultant: Rashmi Shinde

30 AMEETA MEHRA

96 VANDANA MOHAN

BUSINESS OFFICE Chief Executive Officer: Indranil Roy Publisher: Vidya Menon Associate Publisher(Special Projects): Ramesh S Vice President: Meenakshi Akash National Head (Special Projects): Archana Browne Senior General Managers: V Sridhar (South), Prashanth Nair (Zonal Head-West), Preeti Sharma (North) Deputy General Manager: Anuj Gopal Mathur Regional Manager: Monica Ghose Chief Manager: Ashish Narang Senior Manager: Sameer Sayyad MARKETING Head-Brand and Marketing: Shrutika Dewan Digital Team: Amit Mishra

44 DEVINA MEHRA

CIRCULATION National Head: Anindya Banerjee (Circulation) Assistant General Managers: G Ramesh (South), Vinod Kumar (North) Zonal Sales Manager: Arun Kumar Jha (East) Managers: Shekhar Suvarna PRODUCTION General Manager: Shashank Dixit Chief Manager: Shekhar Pandey Manager: Sudha Sharma

114 ADITI KOTHARI DESAI

84 RITU KAPUR

24 RAJNI BECTOR

COVER PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHER: ROHAN SHRESTHA SAREE: RAW MANGO CAPE: VARSHA WADHWA EARRINGS: H. AJOOMAL STYLED BY: WHO WORE WHAT WHEN ASSISTED BY: NIYATI GOGRI

ACCOUNTS Assistant General Manager: Diwan Singh Bisht Company Secretary & Law Officer: Ankit Mangal HEAD OFFICE AB-10, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi 110029; Tel: (011) 33505500; Fax: (011) 26191420 Customer Care: (011) 33505533, 33505607 Fax: (011) 26191420 Mumbai: (022) 33545000, Fax: (022) 33545100; Kolkata: (033) 46004506, Fax: (033) 46004506, Chennai: (044) 42615225, 42615224 Fax: (044) 42615095 Bengaluru: (080) 45236100, Fax: (080) 45236105; Printed and published by Indranil Roy on behalf of Outlook Publishing (India) Pvt. Ltd. Editor: N Mahalakshmi. Printed at Kalajyothi Process Pvt. Ltd., Plot No. W-17 & W-18, MIDC, Taloja, Navi Mumbai- 410208 and published from AB-10 Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi 110029 Published for 11-24 November 2017 Total number of pages: 126 + cover

13

14

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

15

AAKANSHA BHARGAVA/PM RELOCATIONS

Heavy Lifter AAKANSHA BHARGAVA OF PM RELOCATIONS ON HOW SHE SUCCESSFULLY GREW A BUSINESS IN A LABOURINTENSIVE MALE-DOMINATED INDUSTRY Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

T

By Himanshu Kakkar

he year was 2007. I was 21-

years-old, alone in Bengaluru and setting up the PMR office in the city. In the midst of one assignment, the workers didn’t turn

up. So, I drove to the tempo stand at night, all by myself, and picked up a few labourers to do the loading,” says Aakansha Bhargava, recounting her entrepreneurial beginnings. PM Relocations was actually founded by Bhargava’s parents Rajeev Bhargava and Archana Bhargava in 1985 in 16

Kolkata, six months before she was born. But the credit goes to her for scaling up operations over the past ten years. “Our revenue back in 2007 was #2 crore. This year, we are confident of closing with revenue of #65 crore,” says Bhargava.

The number of workers has also grown from a modest 35 in 2007 to 535 at present. When Bhargava joined, the company was present only in two cities. Today, it is present in 14 cities including Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad. “My father did have confidence in me right from the beginning, but he probably thought that I could maintain the business at the same level where it was. Even he didn’t think that I could bring it this far,” she says.

NASCENT STAGE Bhargava’s father decided to move his business from Kolkata to New Delhi in 1992, as Kolkata was fast losing its commercial centre status at the time. Her mother also joined in the business in 1994 when Bhargava was eight years old. It is therefore not so surprising when she says that she imbibed entrepreneurial values very early on as a child. “My father used to plan our vacations around his work. Summer holidays were never vacation time. For him, PMR came above everything. People preferred shifting homes on Sundays, and my father would never said no to anyone. When I was 10, he would take me to 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

these houses on Sundays, conduct surveys and come back,” says Bhargava.

Her mother managed the fi nance department, but still found time for her. “I never had the feeling that my mother wasn’t there for me. I participated in a lot of extra-curricular activities such as singing, swimming and learning musical instruments. There were no cab aggregators at that time, so my mother used to drop me to my classes on her bike, and then go back to the office. I learned a lot about work-life balance from her,” says Bhargava.

She finished her graduation in 2006 from Hindu College in New Delhi and, in 2007, completed her MBA from SP Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai. “I was always an extrovert. I was the president of the dance and drama school at Hindu and also the chief cultural officer for the culture fest,” she says.

Being so creatively inclined, her father never realised that she would be keen on pursuing a business that was labour intensive and unorganised. “He thought I would do something creative but his heart always wanted me to try out his business. I finished my MBA and chose not to be placed. At 21, I joined the office. Back then we were 35 people in New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata,” Bhargava recalls.

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She thought there would be formal training and handholding, but there was none. She says: “I expected him to sit with me and explain the business.

But the first thing my dad ask me to do was to start filing the 10 documents he gave me. He taught me that the way you archived your documents showed your commitment towards your work. That even such minor things mattered.”

The relocation services industry was predominantly male-dominated when Bhargava jumped into the business, and it continues to be so. It wasn’t easy for her, she didn’t feel comfortable initially. Nor did she feel accepted. “At work people assumed I would get

Her expanding business has taken Bhargava to 34 countries, where PMR with local partners has helped clients relocate to India 18

married in a few years and leave. I wouldn’t be taken seriously when I would go for a meeting. I was very young, and people kept expecting ‘my boss’ or a male colleague to turn up,” she remarks.

She soon realised that she needed to do things herself, “otherwise I would never know whether I could really do it or not” says Bhargava. So she packed her bags and moved to Bengaluru by July 2007 to set up a new office there all by herself.

There were three other people with her at the office.

Now, there are a hundred. Bengaluru would test her patience and entrepreneurial skills to the maximum. Her father though had faith in her. “While I was setting up the office in Bengaluru, I didn’t come home for nine months. My dad believed I could do it,” confesses Bhargava.

Accomplishments often rest on a foundation of challenges. Recounting a particularly trying time, she says, “In 2007, one of our peons was hit by a truck and died. A mob came to my office as a result. My father asked me if I needed him to come down, but I refused, telling him I would manage. And I did. There were several other similar challenges that came my way, which I managed on my own.”

During her 18 -month-long stay there, she learnt the tricks of the trade. “I learnt how to find suppliers, how to hire people, how to fi nd directions in a new 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

Rapid Fire Inspiration: My father Success factors: Intent, passion and lots of dedication

Memorable milestone: When we received an award for being among the top 35 movers of the world Best advice I ever got: Wherever you are headed, it is important to enjoy the ride

One thing I learnt the hard way: There will always be critics Best decision of my life: To step into this industry

One change that made life better: Becoming more patient Unwind mode: Coffee dates with my husband

city, and also the culture of the city along the way. I conducted my first sales call in Bengaluru. My first customer was the GM of Leela Palace, who is still a very good friend of mine,” she says. The recipe, she tells me, has been to travel, learn and understand the city and its culture. “In the relocation services industry, you enter a person’s home, so you need to care and be respectful.”

After Bengaluru it was setting up a new office in Hyderabad for her. Her ever-expanding business has taken Bhargava to 34 countries across America, Europe and the Middle East, where PMR , with the help of local partners helps clients relocate from different countries to India. Over the years Bhargava has learnt the art of thriving in a male-dominated bastion. “I feel if you respect others, they reciprocate.

There have been situations where I have been the only woman among 40 or so men. But I know about my business, I have learnt packaging and know everything about it,” she says. But it took a while to convince people that a woman can work her way around trucks and warehouses.

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CHEERLEADERS: Aakansha with her parents, Rajeev and Archana; celebrating with team PMR

realignment, that account was assigned to an international player. The business, close to #10 crore and a third of its topline then, suddenly vanished. It halted company’s growth for two years. “It shook me. I was just 26. But I didn’t fire a single person. We pulled back by adding more clients,” says Bhargava. Not only that, she managed to add over 30 clients in the next one year.

She feels that her balance and detachment to success or failure helped her sail through the crisis. “Intent is most important in a business, and so is accountability. Success and failure are very subjective, comes and goes,” she says.

The period between 2007 and 2009 saw a lot of struggle for the company. But it took off in 2009, when it cracked the global player’s account. Revenue scaled up to #29 crore by 2013.

Bhargava believes that while she spotted the market potential early on, the personal touch was needed to attract clients. “I travelled extensively to build my business. When you visit the customer’s office overseas and talk to the partner, they take you a lot more seriously as they see the effort behind your having travelled from a different side of the world to be there,” she says. For an entrepreneur, it is equally im-

20

Revenue has grown from # 2 crore in 2007 to # 65 crore now and Bhargava wants it to reach # 100 crore by 2020 TUMULTUOUS TIMES Within six months of joining the company in 2007, she sensed that the company needed to take a lot more risk. It had been a #2 crore business for too long. It needed to raise capital to expand. So, their only house was mortgaged to raise a loan of #1.5 crore. “At the time of taking the loan, any other parent would have been cautious. But my dad told me, if you believe in it, you must do it,” says Bhargava.

“That was quite a gamble. Thankfully, it paid off.”

Bhargava was officially made CEO in 2012, and was riding a growth wave. However on a certain day in 2013, that wave receded. PMR had a big contract between 2009 and 2013 with a global player that contributed to the company’s growth. Due to a global 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

portant to invest time and emotion in people, she feels.

“I invest a lot in my people and that’s helped me fight the tough times.”

The relocations industry in India continues to be very unorganised. When it comes to organised players there are companies like PMR and Agarwal. At the other end, every tempo and truck owner morph into a relocator. Bhargava feels that in this crowd their differentiator has been the way the company handles clients and the personalised customer support they offer. Even as she has scaled up the company’s revenue from #2 crore to #65 crore in a span of ten years, Bhargava is far from satisfied with her laurels. “By 2020, I want revenue to be #100 crore,” she boldly proclaims. b

24

RAJNI BECTOR/CREMICA GROUP

The Pathbreaker RAJNI BECTOR DID NOT LET HER DETRACTORS GET IN THE WAY OF BUILDING ONE OF INDIA’S BIGGEST FOODS COMPANY

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

25

VISHAL KOUL

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

A

By Himanshu Kakkar

t Rajni Bector’s spacious house in Ludhiana, we have just been served coffee and snacks. “Do you want to sprinkle some more coffee powder? I have a

feeling that it’s not perfect,” beams the 77-year-old self-made

entrepreneur. Even before we had taken a sip, she seemed to sense what was amiss. And, she was right. Clearly, Bector knows more than a thing or two about aroma, considering that the company she founded, 26

Cremica, is one of the leading manufacturers of bakery products and condiments.

PARTITION CHILD Born in Karachi in 1940, Bector grew up in Lahore.

Her father was an accountant general while other relatives were highly positioned in the Government.

Though this helped them cross into India unscathed, but not without witnessing the madness. Seventy years later, she recollects the paranoia around partition. “We were told that there would be a train at Pathankot. But none came for seven days and we waited under a tree for a week. Then a maal gaadi (goods train) arrived. I still remember seeing loads of dead bodies. On our way to other cities in Punjab, people would offer us lassi and food, and I would innocently ask my mother, ‘Why are they giving it to us? Do they know us?’” says Bector.

Later, the family shifted to Delhi and settled there.

A student of Miranda House, she got married in 1957 before she could finish college and graduated only after. Her husband belonged to a business family in Ludhiana. Bector describes her initial memories of the city, “Ludhiana was very small when I moved there. It was quite backwards compared with Delhi.

There were only four cars in the entire city.” Similarly, her mother-in-law, though quite in sync with her times, was also conservative. “I came from a very broad-minded family. My dada and nana’s families 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

were highly educated,” she adds. In her words, life was strange initially there.

Bector was very fond of cooking and throwing parties. She would attend courses related to food or cooking that were available in Ludhiana. Soon, she started experimenting with cookies, salads, and ice creams and started inviting friends and their children to taste. “Everyone appreciated the food. There were no caterers in the ’60s and ’70s, so I would do everything,” says Bector. Of those who praised her, she recalls two such persons, “Brijmohan Munjal of Hero Motocorp and the Pahwas of Avon cycles have complimented me: ‘Rajni, you have introduced Ludhiana people to good food.’”

Later, the local MLA insisted that she manage the catering at his granddaughter’s wedding. “I was a little stunned as I had to cook food for 2,000 people which I had never done before. But with the help of only two assistants, I managed and it was very well received,” she explains. Till the late ’70s, Bector was still doing it for family and friends but nothing commercially. She also started offering cooking classes to some students at home, but this only angered her mother-in-law. “She would ask me why I had to work when my family and husband were earning quite well,” she says. But Bector somehow

managed to have her way, and her husband was supportive of it.

Bector speaks of a doctor who steadily encouraged her to start a food business. “He always told me, ‘Do you know even McDonald’s started from a food stand and it is so big now,’” she says. Dr SC Jain of Punjab Agricultural University, an authority on food and dairy, later helped her install a hand churner and then setting up a small ice cream unit in her house.

Back in 1978, this set-up cost her #20,000.

There used to be several fetes in Ludhiana around that time. She participated in one of them and put up an ice cream stall next to Kwality. “I was very anxious but, surprisingly, people liked my ice cream a lot more than Kwality’s,” she says. And this was a big confidence booster for not only her but other women in her circle. “They were elated when they learnt that I had started working. They felt that would set the path for them to explore various career options,” she adds.

Meanwhile, her husband was very particular about branding and doing it the proper way. Say for instance, the day he called up Bector to register the business under a brand. “He asked me to quickly think of a name — whatever came to my mind. I used a lot of cream to make my products, and that is how Cremica [Cream ka] was born in the early ’80s,” explains Bector.

Cremica’s demand took off, slowly, as she started making breads and biscuits. “We took a bigger place on GT Road in Ludhiana and shifted our operations there,” she says. Even though it had only been a few years in the business, Bector never advertised her products much. It was mostly through word of mouth considering that she received a lot of orders for weddings, parties, and from caterers.

It was all going well until the politics of Punjab turned things awry for the family. First came Operation Blue Star, followed by the Sikh massacre in Delhi and terrorism across Punjab. Her husband’s fertiliser and grains business, which was more than 100 years old, was being threatened too. “We had to regularly deal with farmers. The insurgency was extremely strong at that point,” she remembers. Threats had become regular, so much so, that there was an abduction attempt on her eldest son. That’s when they decided to fold the family business in 1990, remembers Bector. This also meant that her own food business would get all the attention from the family.

Her eldest son joined her after finishing engineering from Manipal. When her business began to pick up, a biscuit plant was commissioned in Ludhiana in 1991.

At that time, she also opened an ice cream parlour in Sarabha Nagar in Ludhiana. “It was a small and dull

Rapid Fire Inspiration: My mother and friends Success factors: My taste buds and passion for food

Memorable milestone: Putting up my ice cream stall next to Kwality, mine was a bigger hit

Best advice I ever got: Always do your work right and be perfect

One thing I learnt the hard way: I wanted to do everything on my own earlier, that has changed

Mentor: My mother and my husband

Ultimate goal: Get ahead of everybody in the foods business

Motto in life: Work is worship and never compromise on quality

Work-life balance: Be sincere at work and you will find balance

market back then. But our parlour drew in a lot of crowds. Today, it is Ludhiana’s top market,” says Bector. Over the next couple of years, her other two sons also joined her in the businesss.

Things finally came full circle in 1995 for Bector. India had liberalised its economy and MNCs such as McDonald’s were trying to set up shop in the country. “They went all over India scouting for suppliers for their buns and finally selected us,” recalls Bector. But associating with a big brand like McDonald’s came with its own set of challenges. “For a year, we were put through constant trials. We were facing big losses and frankly, we were fed up. But we kept on. They scouted across the country for the right wheat quality but the gluten content was not right. Finally, they settled for wheat from Madhya Pradesh,” she remembers. Its first bun plant was set up in Ludhiana. Now, they have plants in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. More than two decades later, Cremica continues supplying to McDonald’s.

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

27

UNSTOPPABLE: Back then it was uncustomary for women in Ludhiana to work but Bector won against the odds B2C products business continue to be northwest India including Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Haryana. In 2006, Cremica sold a 21% stake in the company to Goldman Sachs for #70 crore. In 2010, when the company wasn’t doing too well, Motilal Oswal bought that stake for #44 crore. “They exited at #300 crore last year, several times their infusion. You can say that we are doing good,” smiles Bector.

HARD AT WORK There is no shortcut to success, feels Bector, a follower of Aurobindo and The Mother. “Work is worship. That is what Mother teaches us in her writings. I’ve followed that all my life.” She remembers the times when she would work for 16 hours, “I had put my children in boarding schools. When they returned, I used to stop work to give them sufficient time.” Today, the third generation has also joined her business.

Bector’s advice to them is to maintain quality at all costs and they are definitely paying heed.

“Food business is very tricky and safety measures have to be followed religiously. My grandson was here recently and we were discussing, how in the Delhi market, an insect made its way into one of our bread packets. This tends

28

Bector’s food business has knitted the entire family. Not only sons but also her grandchildren have joined it Around the same time, Bector’s company also began supplying sauces to Chicago-based Quaker Oats.

“McDonald’s introduced us to Quaker and we started a sauce plant,” she says. The JV was supposed to supply condiments and sauces only to McDonald’s. However there was an ownership change at Quaker, and its new owners weren’t interested in continuing the association. So they handed over the JV to Cremica for $1 around 1999 which introduced her company to the world of sauces.

Two years back, Cremica’s overall business was split between Bector’s three sons. Akshay Bector now handles Mrs Bector’s (sauces, bread and syrups), while her other two sons, Anoop and Ajay, handle the biscuits business under the Cremica brand. The overall revenue for both the businesses is pegged at around #700 crore and the company’s mainstay market for its 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

to happen when breads are sold at vegetable and fruit counters. Our team immediately visited the complainant’s house and resolved the matter,” she says.

While she did face criticism from society when she started working, her husband supported her to ignore the naysayers. “Back then, it was uncustomary for women in Ludhiana to work. So, it definitely raised a lot of eyebrows but mostly, it was just jealousy,” says Bector. She feels that people management can be challenging when a business becomes large. “Show them love, but also be strict when needed,” she says.

Bector may have stepped back from actively running the business a decade ago but she is still involved when it comes to her products. “My passion for food and my taste buds brought me this far. I still taste, select, and approve recipes for our products,” she smiles radiantly. b

30

A M E E TA M E H R A / U S H A S T U D FA R M

Turf Queen USHA STUD FARM HAS EMERGED AS A LEADER IN THE EQUESTRIAN TRADE OWING TO THE FIERCE DRIVE OF OWNER, AMEETA MEHRA 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

31

VISHAL KOUL

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

A

By Himanshu Kakkar

woman needs to be twice as

good as a man to be recognised in this world. I have been doubly good compared to my competitors,” emphasises Ameeta

Mehra, as we chat at her stud farm at Pataudi in Haryana (100 km from Delhi). The photo frames on the walls bear testimony to this 53-year-old master horse breeder’s journey. She gets up and walks to the walls frequently, to point out her milestones. We then proceed to the lawn and not afar the horses are being mustered. Soon, they begin rolling (A form of 32

exercise). And both the horses and their handlers look quite delighted upon spotting her.

EARLY MOUNT Mehra doesn’t recall any moment in her life without the horses being around. Her father Major PK Mehra was an international polo player in the army and an avid breeder. “Other people had pets like dogs and cats. I got on a horse at the age of two. My front garden had a Shetland pony and it had a little basket, so that I don’t fall. By eight, I was a show jumper. My life was always intertwined with horses,” she narrates.

She attended Loreto Convent in Delhi till class 10 and then moved to Modern School. Post this, she graduated from the prestigious Lady Shriram College. Interestingly, when she turned 16, Mehra wanted to have nothing to do with horses. She rebelled against her father, who insisted she try her hand at running the farm he had set up. “I wanted to become an educationist and study the Vedas,” she recalls.

Unable to make her see his way, Mehra’s father asked his daughter to make a choice — she had to either work on the farm or pursue social work and education. But, by then she had already joined Mirambika (Delhi-based free progress school) having followed Aurobindo and The Mother’s ideals. “I was the head of a UN youth international body also. I did a lot of 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

social, philanthropic and spiritual studies at that time,” she explains. However, when quizzed by her father, Mehra evinced the desire to build a university focused on spiritual education.

When asked how she planned to do that on the salary of a teacher, the duo worked out a compromise. “My father said that if I joined the stud farm and produced an Indian Derby winner, he would allow me to shut the farm down and open a university. But fi rst you have to train yourself. I am your guru and father.” The pact was put on paper.

“Though he was a tough taskmaster, I was confident of mastering things at the farm,” she adds.

To begin her formal training, she enrolled at the Irish National Stud in 1991, a premier institute for equine management. “I worked as a farm hand. You are paid for your work but it was pretty tough. At 5:30 in the morning you start, labour during the day and at 4 in the evening you have classes. I was a gold medalist, my project was on how to select thoroughbred stallions,” reveals Mehra. Post that she went to the USA for three months to learn equine nutrition in 1993, from the world’s leading equine nutritionists Joe Pagan and Steven Jackson.

Having been exposed to international stud farms, Mehra introduced those best practices back home.

“My dad started training me the old army way. I was

enlisted as one of the farm hands and worked with them in the beginning. My dad would always say, ‘You are only as good as your last victory.’ I still keep that in my mind,” she reminiscences.

RISING UP THE RANKS The young apprentice developed a liking for her current stint and soon brought in a fresh vigour to the process. “Earlier, they were not rolling the horses. At 4.30 in the morning, I’d roll the horses. Even if one person was slightly sleepy, I would pull him up for it. I would bond with them over a meal at the langar.

At 11 am, there would be a horse darshan, wherein all the stallions would be lined up for an inspection,” she describes the rigorous routine she put in place. Mehra feels her exposure to spiritual education helped her manage the 150 people at the farm.

Rapid Fire Inspiration: Sri Aurobindo and The Mother

34

Success factors: Divine grace, faith and trust in life and self confidence

Memorable milestone: When I first visited the Aurobindo Ashram in 1986

Best advice I ever got: You need three things to be succeed in life — a good lawyer, good doctor and a top accountant One thing I learnt the hard way: To control my temper Best decision of my life: When I decided to join my father

One change that made life better: Always do the right thing even if it is the most difficult thing

Support system at home: My dog Unwind mode: Playing the piano and tennis

Guilty pleasure: Red wine 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

“I had done a lot of work on how to motivate people.

I started conducting classes for syces (those who look after horses) in the evening. I’d treat them like a football team. They became totally loyal and attrition dropped. I would tell them if we win the Indian Derby, you will get gifts and I continue the practice till date,” says Mehra.

Sensing her growing attachment for the farm, her father hinted that the time was right to produce a Derby winner; something the farm hadn’t managed in the past 10 years. Thanks to the change she brought in, Mehra was prepared to execute in record time. “It takes 8 -10 years but I did it in four to five years after I joined the farm. In 1997, I produced my first Derby winner,” affirms a proud Mehra. Since the farm had won its last Derby in 1986, everybody was ecstatic. But, now it was time revisit the pact. Deep inside, Mehra didn’t want to shut down the farm. “My father said if you don’t want to close it down, I will give you 2.5 acres to build your university. He agreed to raise my salary from #6,000 per month to #100,000 and we didn’t close down the farm,” she smiles.

TESTING TIMES By 1996, her father had become an NRI and spent most of his time in London. “He said my daughter is equal to 100 sons. He was proud and confident. Except for selling the horses, I handled the rest,” she says. But on January 8, 2001, tragedy struck. Both her parents and sister passed away in a helicopter crash.

“It was a body blow. I lost everybody in one moment.

Now I feel that my father must have had an intuition.

He had trained me to take his job. Had I not been there, the stud farm would have shut down.”

Mehra recalls that period as the toughest of her life.

“A month after I lost my family, there was an auction.

I had never sold a horse before. There were 32 horses for sale. My stallions were highly sought after. But buyers assumed it would be a distress sale.” Luckily, her father had left a price list. “Initially, the buyers were making lower offers. I was devastated yet would only say yes or no and not indulge in a bargain. I ended up selling every single horse at exactly the price my father had written. I refused to budge.”

The buyers acted sympathetic that year but next year they formed a cartel. “My buyers decided I can’t demand the price my father could and if I did they won’t buy any horses from me. I had debts to repay but just when things were getting tough, a rumour about one of them breaking the agreement emerged and soon one by one they broke the cartel and started buying,” she says.

TAKING CHARGE: Ameeta with Major Mehra, her maternal grandmother and sister; ‘Indictment’ led by Ameeta and her father after winning the Indian Derby in 1997 After years of toiling in a sheltered environment, Mehra was dealing with hardnosed businessmen.

“They will push you to the corner, if they have to and it is a highly male-dominated industry,” she says. She admits that she felt undervalued. “It was a gender issue. When we had winners, people said my father’s manager was running the show from behind. Unfortunately, my manager passed away in 2003,” she says.

It was a few years later that after consistently producing results that she gradually gained acceptance.

“Then they realised I was not a walkover.”

LEADING THE PACK Mehra says Usha Stud Farm has been a champion producing stud farm every other year. No wonder, it has bred and produced 13 Derby winners in India, the highest for any farm. “Our next competitor (Poonawalla Farms) has eight and the next one comes in with two winners”. Mehra claims she has the champion stallion of the country ‘Multidimensional’, whom she bought from the UK in 2009.

“In this industry you won’t get winners if you don’t select the right horse. Industry people used to say, ‘She has no idea how to do it. Her father selected breeding horses.’ I bought ‘Multidimensional’ for $1 million, which was unheard of in the industry. My competitors would pay only half of it. I had the guts to put my money where my mouth is,” says Mehra.

‘Multidimensional’ was a small horse. Nobody had a positive thing to say about him in the beginning.

“The first crop from ‘Multidimensional’ started running in October 2012 and won the Indian Derby. It was also the end for our competition,” claims Mehra.

Since then, Usha Stud Farm has left its next competitor Poonawallas way behind.

However, when it comes to the growth of the overall industry, things haven’t been rosy. In India, the horse breeding and racing industry has seen a decline in the past few years. “Recently in 2015, three of our biggest buyers went away. MAM Ramaswamy of Chettinad group and Deepak Khaitan of Eveready Industries died, and Vijay Mallya is absconding. MAM alone would buy 200 horses a year,” says Mehra.

Between the three of them, they used to buy 300 400 horses each year. So, the annual sale of horses is down to 1,100 now from 1,600 from some time ago.

“In this scenario, I have also had to cut down on the numbers. My total revenue has taken a hit. Today, we produce 55 horses a year compared to 80 earlier. Everybody has taken a beating, I have been able to sustain pricing because of our quality,” she says. Around 20 stud farms have closed in the last five-seven years.

But through the ups and downs, Mehra has remained calm and sought answers from the divine whenever she is in a fi x. “I rely deeply on the fact that there is a higher power that can guide you to do the right thing,” she says. Mehra feels that her journey has been all about choosing right over easy. “Only the dead fish go with the flow. I don’t want to be a dead fish. Irrespective of what the world says, I don’t give a damn about people. As long as it is true to my principles, I go about my own way of doing things.” b Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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EntErprising EntrEprEnEurs Gone are the days when women were considered no match for all powerful men in this world. The new generation women across the world have overcome all negative notions and have proved themselves beyond doubt in all spheres of life including the most intricate and cumbersome world of entrepreneurship.

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omen-owned entities in the formal sector represent approximately 37 per cent of enterprises globally—a market worthy of attention by businesses and policy makers alike. While aggregated data is often challenging to find, the recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) found 126 million women starting or running businesses, and 98 million operating established (over three and a half years) businesses.

The International French Bank BNP Paribas, in its Global Entrepreneurialism Report revealed that India has

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

the maximum number of women entrepreneurs in percentage terms at 49 per cent, leaving countries such as Hong Kong and France behind. With women entrepreneurship on the rise in recent years, India can proudly say that women entrepreneurship is not an obscure concept any longer.

One of the most obvious reasons to invest in women leaders in India is that women control the vast majority of household spending. So, it is believed that women are more likely to better understand customer perspective.

Another is that women are often better at building long-

Program, a five-year programme in partnership with ISB to aid the development of women entrepreneurs.

Money Matters

For a very long time, the one factor that was a major hindrance to women entrepreneurship in the country was lack of proper funds, considering finance is the backbone for any business, and lack of adequate financial support can make sustenance invariably impossible. Great news is–the Indian banking sector has come together in a big way to ensure no enterprise led by women suffers because of lack of finance. Most banks now offer specialized loans for women entrepreneurs that have slightly different and more flexible set of terms and conditions pertaining to collateral security, interest rates, etc, to promote women entrepreneurs in the country. These special schemes offer flexibility in terms of collateral security as well as interest rates. Here’s taking a look at some of the most popular business loan schemes for women entrepreneurs:

term relationships than men. Lasting relationships benefit a business tremendously, as only so much can be achieved without trust… with employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, government, etc.

The Modi government was also quick to realize the potential of women entrepreneurs in the development of the country and hence promptly allocated `200-crore budget towards the empowerment of women. This included: • Exclusive women business funding organizations such as SAHA which also offers mentorship and active participation of the investors in the funded company; SAHA is India’s first SEBI approved, women’s venture capital fund.

• Support organizations such as Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs.

• Women entrepreneur-focused investors (Golden Seeds India edition & Calvert Foundation’s Women Investing in Women Initiative).

• Development programs for women entrepreneurs – NSCREL (IIMB), Wadwani Foundation, etc.

• Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Entrepreneurs

Annapurna Scheme: This scheme is offered by the State Bank of Mysore for those women entrepreneurs engaged in setting up food catering industry in order to sell packed meals, snacks, etc. Under this loan, a guarantor is required along with the assets of the business being pledged as collateral security. Further, the maximum amount of money that is granted is `50,000 which has to re-paid in monthly installments for 36 months, however, after the loan is sanctioned, the lender doesn’t have to pay the EMI for the first month. The interest rate is determined depending upon the market rate.

Stree Shakti Package For Women Entrepreneurs: This scheme is offered by most of the SBI branches to women who have 50% share in the ownership of a firm or business and have taken part in the state agencies run Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDP). The scheme also offers a discounted rate of interest by 0.50% in case the amount of loan is more than `2 lakh.

Bharatiya Mahila Bank Business Loan: This loan is a support system for budding women entrepreneurs looking to start new ventures in the fields of the retail sector, loan against property, MICRO loans, and SME loans. The maximum loan amount under this loan goes up to `20 crore in case of manufacturing industries and also a concession is available to the extent of 0.25% on the interest rate and interest rates usually range from 10.15% and higher.

Dena Shakti Scheme: This scheme is provided by Dena bank to those women entrepreneurs in the fields of agriculture, manufacturing, micro-credit, retail stores, or

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small enterprises; who are in need of financial assistance. The interest rate is also decreased by 0.25% along with the maximum loan amount being `20 lakh for retail trade; education and housing whereas `50,000 under the microcredit.

Udyogini Scheme: This scheme is offered by Punjab and Sind Bank so as to provide women entrepreneurs involved in Agriculture, retail and small business enterprises to get loans for business at flexible terms and concessional interest rates. The maximum amount of loan under this scheme for women between the age bracket of 18-45 years is `1 lakh but your family income is also taken into consideration and is set at `45,000 per annum for SC/ST women.

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Cent Kalyani Scheme: This scheme is offered by the Central Bank of India with the aim of supporting women in starting a new venture or expanding or modifying an existing enterprise. This loan can be availed by women who are involved in village and cottage industries, micro, small and medium enterprises, self-employed women, agriculture and allied activities, retail trade, and government-sponsored programs. This scheme requires no collateral security or guarantor and charges no processing fees. And the maximum amount that can be granted under the scheme is `100 lakh.

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

Mahila Udyam Nidhi Scheme: This scheme is launched by Punjab National Bank and aims at supporting the women entrepreneurs involved in the small scale industries by granting them soft loans that can be repaid over a period of 10 years. Under this scheme there are different plans for beauty parlors, day care centres, purchase of auto rickshaws, twowheelers, cars, etc. the maximum amount granted under this scheme is `10 lakhs and the interest depends upon the market rates.

Mudra Yojana Scheme For Women: This scheme has been launched by the Govt. of India for individual women wanting to start small new enterprises and businesses like beauty parlours, tailoring units, tuition centres, etc. as well as a group of women wanting to start a venture together. The loan doesn’t require any collateral security. If the loan is granted, a Mudra card will be given to you which functions the same way as a credit card. However, the funds available are limited to 10 per cent of the loan amount granted to you.

Under the Mudra Loan scheme, the State Bank of India has come forward to extend loans to help women entrepreneurs in West Bengal who are engaged in various handicraft activities. As reported by the bank, in a camp organized in January 2016, around 80 women entrepreneurs were extended credit under this initiative.

Orient Mahila Vikas Yojana Scheme: This scheme is provided by Oriental Bank of Commerce to those women who hold a 51% share capital individually or jointly in a proprietary concern. No collateral security is required for loans of `10 lakh up to `25 lakh in case of small-scale industries and the period of repayment is 7 years. A concession on the interest rate of up to 2% is given.

Punjab National Bank Women’s Initiatives: • PNB Mahila Samridhi Yojana – This scheme has been launched by the bank to provide financial assistance to women who wish to set up boutiques, beauty salons, cyber cafes, Xerox stores, telephone booths, etc.

• PNB Mahila Udyam Nidhi Scheme – This scheme aims to reduce the gap in equity, helping women set up new ventures in the small scale sector or enhance their current undertakings.

• PNB Scheme for financing crèches – This scheme aims to provide financial assistance to women for setting up crèches.

• PNB Mahila Sashaktikaran Abhiyan – This scheme provides credit to women who intend to establish small and micro enterprises in the non-farm sector, offering fee waiver and lower interest rate.

• PNB Kalyani Card Scheme – This scheme provides loans for women engaged in agricultural, farm or non-farm activities.

Akshaya Mahila Athik Sahay Yojana (AMASY): Loan under this scheme at the Bank of Baroda can be availed by women who are engaged in or wish to establish in retail trade, cottage industries and / or allied agricultural activities.

HealtH & Wellness for tHe modern Woman

Today, women down different hats as a homemaker, entrepreneur, office-goer, businesswoman, professional, corporate executive etc. which becomes quite demanding on her and stressful for her at times. It is therefore imperative to have women specific nutritional supplements, fitness regimes, health diagnostic centers and other products and services catering to good health and wellbeing of urban women in India. Since women are multi-tasking like never before, lifestyle companies in India have taken it upon them to provide support for the modern woman’s wellbeing like never before. Thus the markets have seen a spurt in nutritional supplements that cater specifically to women in particular, health and energy drinks, women-friendly hours and packages at gyms. Most leading hospitals and diagnostic centres

have also come up with special diagnostic packages for women at discounted prices, to stress on the importance of good health for women.

tHe smart Home

With women constantly on the move, and juggling multiple roles, it is almost imperative to fall back on gadgets and appliances that make managing the home a lot easier. The advent of modern appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators had a profound impact on 20th Century society, according to a Université de Montréal study titled “Household Technology: Was it the Engine of Liberation?”.

For instance, LG – which stands for ‘Life’s Good’ – has consistently developed convenience-enhancing features in their thoughtfully designed products to make life easier for everyone. Unafraid to push the boundaries of innovation, LG continues to surprise with its technologically advanced kitchen electronics that are functional, ergonomic, and environmentally-friendly. The whole range of refrigerators, microwaves, water purifiers, washing machines, have been designed in a way to make the life of the modern homemaker a lot more easier.

Despite the fast pace of modern living, with its uncertainties and challenges, many conveniences and small delights are the result of a network of ideas, concepts and inventions such as those from Bosch Home Appliances has a range of appliances that makes her life simpler and faster. Over the years, Bosch have some ergonomical and efficient, appliances that make everyday chores easier. Below is a list of appliances and their USP’s which make them appliances of worth. Lets take a look at few of the offerings: • ActiveOxygen: It is a revolutionary superior quality washing machine which is known to remove odour from clothes without using water only with active

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oxygen technology.

• Bosch Free standing Dishwasher: Perfected for • Bosch Washer Dryer: Bosch believes in turning good Indian utensils such as ‘Kadhai’, Pressure Cookers, into something extraordinary, which is why its washing Steel ware, Glass ware and Porcelain, Bosch dishwasher machines are made not just for a perfect wash, but are eliminates stubborn Indian masalas and oil residues. engineered with thepower to dry clothes just as perfectly.

The capacity of Bosch dishwasher ranges from 9 to 12 So in goes dirty laundry, and out comes 100% clean, & 13 place settings. (13 place settings: 1 Oval platter, ready-to- wear dry clothes, minus any kind of damage. (serving plate) 13 Dinner plates, 13 dessert plates, 13 This successfully busts the myth about not using saucers, 13 soup bowls 1 medium round bowl, 1 small washing machines to clean expensive clothes. round bowl, 13 cups, 13 tall glasses, 13 knives/ forks/ • Bosch Serie 4 Refrigerator: Its true combination of spoons, 4 serving cutlery). Its flexible basket system superior quality and great performance is specially allows you to replace the above with kadhais, cookware designed to suit Indian consumers. It’s a product that etc. It has additional top drawer to keep cutlery’s. promises to keep the food stored in it so fresh that it feels directly picked from the farm.

Similarly, companies like Samsung, Hitachi, IFB, Haier, too are working constantly to make life easier and better for the multi-tasking modern woman with their range of appliances such as microwaves, smart refrigerators, washing machines and more.

Looking ahead

With everyone working towards an economic setup where women entrepreneurs are completely empowered, such steps prove to be a push in the right direction.

Women entrepreneurs, with the support of their families, their husbands and even their children, are now successfully embarking on the fulfilling path of entrepreneurship. The number of female founders shining in our country will only rise, and we could not be prouder of our women.

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

Get ready to be pampered like never before.

Your body and mind are worth it.

Discover the wonders of alternative therapies at a centre for naturopathic healing, or be surprised by how flexible your body can be at a Yoga ashram. If you're more at home in a spa then take your pick from the fabulous spas we've selected for you.

Prepare to return home a brand new person.

Driving The green Way

Currently the only bio-automotive diesel fuel in India, that meets the Euro 6 emission norms, Indizel introduced by My Eco Energy, is currently the greenest fuel in India, a non-petroleum-based fuel made from vegetable oil as one of its bio components. So, get, set, zoom, the clean, green way!

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t a time when the world is battling serious environmental concerns, there is a concentrated effort in all sectors to come up with innovations that will help the cause for improving the climate, significantly. Consider diesel, for instance. The fuel is widely used in today’s day and age, but again, that is not without several ill effects on health and environment causing severe pollution.

But what if we told you that you can now get diesel that is actually green? Yes, you heard that right! In keeping with its mission of sustainable development which aims at delivering the best possible outcome of fuelling experience, My Eco Energy has come up with an innovative solution to replace diesel fuel in the form of Indizel.

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What is Indizel?

Mr. Santosh Verma,

Co-founder, My Eco Energy “Indizel is a preferred diesel as it is made from the biodegradable products. This initiative will bring value to the industry and communities, helping them solve some of today’s most pressing environmental concerns. It is not only a better alternative to ordinary diesel but is economical and suitable for the vehicle as it offers better fuel efficiency, ensuring a smoother ride as better lubricity provides longer engine life.”

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

Indizel is a non-petroleum automotive diesel fuel that will not only result in low emission but will also go a long way in ensuring sustainable energy. The product is an innovation created after long research & tests, to conform and surpass stringent automotive fuel quality standards and is fully compatible with existing fuel infrastructure, distribution systems and engines.

Indizel is the cleanest fuel introduced in Indian Market which meets European HSD EN-590:2013 (Quality Standards) & EURO 6 (European Emission Norms), and also BIS (IS 1460) Bharat stage VI strictest fuel quality standards, collating with World Wide Fuel Charter (WWFC – Worldwide Fuel Charter) Category 4 requirements, and later on they aim to meet category 5 requirements also. It is tested by various methods and agencies, & is proved to be a superior quality fuel, engineered to maximize any diesel engine’s performance.

It conforms to Petroleum diesel (HSD) EN590 and BIS 1460 specification for use with existing infrastructure, distribution systems and engines without any engine modifications.

INDIZEL outperforms other market available diesel(s) in performance, emissions, mileage, price, and value.

Mr. Santosh Verma, Co-founder, My Eco Energy says, “Indizel is a preferred diesel as it is made from the biodegradable products. This initiative will bring value to the industry and communities, helping them solve some of today’s most pressing environmental concerns. It is not only a better alternative to ordinary diesel but is economical and

suitable for the vehicle as it offers better fuel efficiency, ensuring a smoother ride as better lubricity provides longer engine life.”

What are the benefits?

Indizel burns cleaner than petroleum-based fuels, which results in lower emissions of carbon-monoxide, particulate matter and unburned hydrocarbons.

Generally fuels contain sulphur at a quantity of 50 ppm (parts per million) however Indizel contains sulphur at a quantity of less than 10 ppm. The reduction in the emission of sulphur leads to varied environmental benefits as the vehicles emit less polluted smoke. This overall leads to a healthier environment, thus resulting in reduction of health problems.

Where to find Indizel?

To enhance consumer convenience, Indizel will be widely available in 2 formats through MEE’s flexible models of Standalone Pumps & Shop-In-Shop Pumps, in 4 segments namely Urban, Sub-Urban, Highway & Rural. The Urban fuel stations are designed specially with well-designed simple structures and notable advantages like quick fuelling and check-out. SubUrban model is best suited for spacious plots. The Highway outlets, have all desired amenities of a highway traveller such as ample space for big vehicles, convenience store, rest areas, and mechanics.

Partnering this venture is beneficial for an entrepreneur, as it has one-time investment with ripe returns. Apart from benefiting the retailer, Indizel is also profitable to the customer as it is always priced lower than the market diesel rate.

My Eco Energy (MEE) also aims at making a chain of fuel stations converting already functional traders in other segments like grocery, supermarkets, hotels, motels, malls etc., to invest and become an Indizel

Retailer. The fuel station models are multi-functional and can be set up in their existing business premises or a stand-alone premise. Training, equipment and guidance from experts to start an Indizel fuel station will also be provided by the company in order to maximise storage efficiency and safety.

So, fasten your seat belts and hit the road without guilt! You will do both yourself and the environment a huge favour.

INDIZEL AT A GLANCE Quality benefits of Indizel on Engine • • • •

Faster ignition Higher power & torque Better mileage Better lubricity resulting in lower lubricity scar • Lower maintenance cost • Enhanced engine life • Faster ignition in colder temperatures

Environmental & Health Parameters

Being a 2nd generation biodiesel made from vegetable oils, Indizel is the cleanest diesel fuel fulfilling the Euro 6 / BS IV, V & VI emission norms norms: • Lowest Sulphur emission • Lower distillation • Lowest Carbon residue

Ease of Usage

Seamlessly usable in all diesel engines to replace diesel, without any engine modifications

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24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

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DEVINA MEHRA/FIRST GLOBAL

Market Maven FIRST GLOBAL’S DEVINA MEHRA IS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF NOT CONFINING ONESELF TO ESTABLISHED NORMS AND WINNING ON ONE’S OWN TERMS Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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By Khushboo Balani

n IIM-A gold medalist, a seven-year-long stint at Citibank followed by co-

founding India’s leading institutional brokerage firm, First Global, Devina Mehra’s illustrious career path definitely provides enough material for a blockbuster thriller. First Global, like many other things in the early 1990s, is a baby of liberalisation. Mehra recalls the 1993 Budget presentation by the then finance minister 46

Manmohan Singh, which opened up the market for foreign institutional investors. This triggered her to give up her job at Citibank and work towards setting up a brokerage house. With the market for equity research being relatively untapped at that point and the Bombay Stock Exchange selling membership at a relatively lower price, the environment was conducive for Mehra and her husband Shankar Sharma to start First Global.

“Shankar had left Citi by then and was working as a sub-broker. Till then the price for BSE membership was prohibitive around #2 crore and it was a relatively exclusive club. But when BSE announced a membership at #55 lakh, Shankar and I decided to apply for it,” recalls Mehra. Even in the mid1990s, research coverage was relatively unknown, and Mehra believes the entire process was a learning experience for everyone in the market.

While #55 lakh seemed like a relatively lower sum, it still was formidable for the duo to shell out. Mehra describes the next few years of her entrepreneurial journey as being a major work-life imbalance, requiring unwavering commitment of her time and mental acumen towards making the venture successful. She says it’s a price anyone aspiring for extraordinary success in their venture has to be willing to pay. While there was no real demarcation between work and home, Mehra admits that she wouldn’t have been able to 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

embark on the entrepreneurial journey without Shankar being part of it. In the initial years they relied on their intellectual capital, given the limited financial resources at their disposal. The limited resources were also a constraint in terms of attracting talent, resulting in the duo handling most of the work.

So much so, that they had also almost given up on the idea of starting a family. Mehra elucidates what PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi had mentioned a few years ago, that in case of women, the biological clock and the career clock are in conflict with each other, whereby the peak years of your career are in conflict with your plan to have a family. Mehra was the youngest in her MBA class and started working with Citibank at the age of 21. When she joined its investment banking arm in 1986, she was the only woman officer in the entire team.

Mehra, however, agrees that starting her career journey at a relatively early age helped her and by the time she decided to have a child in the early 2000s, the major trials of her First Global journey were far behind. As a first generation entrepreneur, Mehra says it is a long, grinding wait before you even see a speck on the horizon, which warrants that you are flexible as well as resilient. Things are never smooth and never go as exactly as you plan them but you have to keep going. “You

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also have to play to your strengths. Thus, as a firm, we always had a reputation of speaking our minds, having the courage of sticking to our convictions and being able to stay away from consensus,” she adds.

GOING GLOBAL

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About a decade later, once Devina and Shankar had entrenched themselves in the Indian market, they were trying to zero in on the next market they could start coverage on. Most of their clients advised them to pick up a couple of emerging economies, since India was an emerging economy. After obtaining the London Stock Exchange membership in 1999, they turned their attention to the largest market. “If we are expanding, we thought why go to smaller markets, why not go directly to the biggest market i.e. US.” The firm fi nally got its NASDAQ membership in 2001.

It was a relatively uncommon trend at that time to analyse firms in the US from India. “Even within US, we were advised that we restrict our coverage to small cap and regional stocks, as nobody would be interested in our coverage of say an IBM or Dell,” she says. However, unrelenting as Mehra is, the firm decided to focus on large cap stocks. “It opened up a whole new market for us and very gratifyingly, we also became thought leaders in some of the segments.

Our views on oil prices versus the dollar were being quoted on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal.”

Also, the late Alan Abelson, legendary columnist of Barron’s once wrote in his column, ‘By and large, First Global’s reports are quite credible, and on occasion, more than that.’

Since the beginning, they stuck to their template of deeply analysing fundamentals and not allowing consensus estimates or the comments made by management to cloud their judgement. “Since the start, we were on track about our analysis of Worldcom and Enron [firms eventually embroiled in major accounting scandals in 2001-2002], we were not able to reconcile their numbers, and we turned out to be right,” points out Mehra. First Global today provides coverage on stocks across US and Europe and is the only Indian brokerage house rated by Asiamoney among Asia’s top 10 international research houses, since 2000.

A CURIOUS MIND Mehra attributes her success to a variety of factors, but it is primarily her drive to learn new things that has kept her going. She believes if learning excites you, there are always new opportunities one can find. A graduate from Lucknow Univer24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

Rapid Fire Inspiration: My parents, Dr Verghese Kurien and Ila Bhatt

Success factors: Hard work, deep thinking, positive attitude, supportive family Memorable milestone: Getting the BSE card and expanding to large

Western markets

One thing I learnt the hard way: Things never turn out the way you plan, it could be better or worse

Best decision of my life: To go into business

Mentor: Books, entrepreneurship is a lonely profession

The book I learnt most from: Thinking Fast and Slow

One change that made life better: Becoming more resilient and flexible

Motto in life: Look forward, anything that doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger

Guilty pleasure: Reading for pleasure

sity, Mehra had no prior background in economics and finance when she got through to the MBA program at IIM-Ahmedabad. But Mehra very quickly mastered the ropes and went on to top her batch. Though the gold medal at IIM-Ahmedabad is something she cherishes, what really swelled her heart with pride was the remark of the director at the 25th alumni meet of their batch. The director told Mehra that in his 30 -odd years as a teacher, she was the best student he has had and particularly remembered her handwriting.

Another success which she is particularly proud of is her experiment with partially convertible debentures.

Most retail investors were buying these products for their equity component and were stuck with the debt

WINNING ALL THE WAY: A young Devina with her many gold medals; with husband Shankar and daughter Precia part. Mehra came up with a way to repackage the whole product so that the debt component could be sold to institutions like UTI, LIC and other insurance companies which were looking for such debt paper and the equity component to retail investors. It took some time to first sell the innovation within the organisation, then to corporate issuers and finally to retail investors, who were rather unsophisticated at that point in time. Despite the fact that the flexibility in terms of availability and pricing of instruments was limited, she managed to fi nd a lot of takers for the product.

Mehra has always been enthusiastic to learn and experiment. She recalls her Citibank days, where she was first working with the investment banking division for five years and later joined the credit analysis wing in 1991. As part of the credit analysis team, she was expected to periodically file reports on the firms and visit their plants. These plants were located at remote locations and her peers were generally not very keen about field surveys of say a steel plant or cement plant at remote locations. But she was more than willing to travel to these places, always more than eager to do things not necessarily in her domain, which has greatly contributed to her learning experience.

More than the support of one’s spouse, Mehra believes that it is the support of parents in the formative years of your life which is indispensable and the deciding factor of your success. She attributes a major part of her success to supportive parents. Growing up she saw her mother juggling work and chores at home, and her father also sharing responsibility. Her parenting in a way set the tone for the way she perceived her capabilities and majorly boosted her confidence.

GUIDING LIGHT Mehra is an ardent believer in the merit of hard work, deep thinking and Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule to master a skill. This style of functioning is not just restricted to her work life; she follows her favourite hobby, reading, with the same zeal. A voracious reader, Mehra describes her reading as quite eclectic. Off late, she has been reading up a lot on behavioural fi nance.

Her favourites being Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, Richard Thaler’s Misbehaving and Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons’ The Invisible Gorilla. She is also an avid reader of autobiographies and biographies, with her most memorable being Richard Branson’s journey (which in her words combines five lifetimes in one) and the Penguin collection of extracts from autobiographies and biographies of various women.

Besides reading, Mehra enjoys travelling. Even as a child, whenever she was asked about the two things she would want to do with her money, she always said two things – reading and travelling. On being asked about her advice to young woman entrepreneurs, Mehra retorts, “Not that different from my advice for young male entrepreneurs. Don’t let other people’s opinion about you impact your performance.” Mehra quotes research studies which surveyed entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and found that women are likely to be asked about risks and limitations rather than the prospects of their business, which is the way the questions are framed for women. This systemic bias leads to fewer women-led businesses being funded and women led businesses receiving lesser amount of funds. The more aware one is of these biases, the easier it is to deal with them. “The fact is it is man’s world”, quips Mehra, “and it is more difficult for women. We can gloss over it, but it is a fact as of today.” b Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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L A T A B A J O R I A / H O O G H LY M I L L S C O M P A N Y

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Free Spirit IN FIGHTING OFF A PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY TO CLAIM WHAT RIGHTFULLY BELONGED TO HER, LATA BAJORIA FOUND A WHOLE NEW MEANING TO LIFE

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

51

VISHAL KOUL

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

D

By Somdyuti Datta Ray

ressed in a traditional

saree, Lata Bajoria slipped on her chappals and walked

right through the gates of the jute mill — a place she owned but was still off limits. That was the day when she truly realised what emancipation meant. Having lived in her husband’s shadow for decades, Bajoria believes every day, since he passed away, has been a step towards finding her true self. Today, besides overseeing the family’s jute business under the 52

flagship Hooghly Mills Company, she is also engaged in social pursuits.

THE EARLY DAYS Born in Mumbai, Bajoria describes her upbringing as liberal unlike traditional Marwari families.

So clearly, when she got married into a conservative household at the age of 20, it was a change like no other. She moved to Kolkata right after. “When your husband is so well-known, you automatically have to be in his shadow. You couldn’t say, ‘I want to do this, I want to do that’. You couldn’t ask questions such as, ‘What’s going on?’ or ‘Where are you going?’ either,” she explains. Unlike her childhood in Mumbai where frequent visits to Shemaroo and Kamal Book House to buy comics summed up her life, living by the rules in Kolkata, meant stepping out with a woman everytime she needed to buy something.

Before his death in March 2008, Arun Bajoria had made headlines for his audacious takeover attempt in 2000 when he cornered 14% stake in Bombay Dyeing, sending the Wadias scurrying to the Sebi and seeking help from Ratan Tata and Keshub Mahindra to fend off the jute baron. However, Bajoria later sold off the stake in the open market. Counted among the most cash-rich barons of Kolkata, Bajoria’s was president of the Indian Jute Mills Association from 2004 to 2007, and his business once made up for 25% of India’s jute 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

production. Besides jute, his business empire also comprised real estate.

But the sudden demise saw Bajoria, whose daughters were already married, having to assert her authority over what rightfully belonged to her. She was 57 when she first came face-to-face with the empire that her husband had built. “More than half my life was gone before I discovered myself,” she says.

Despite living right opposite the jute mill that her husband owned in Garden Reach, Bajoria was never allowed to visit the factory or its office. “I had heard so much about jute; I always wondered what a factory of the ‘golden fibre’ must be like,” she says. That is until she demanded to visit the jute mill after her husband’s death. But her request met with refusals by senior staff at the mill. Yet, Bajoria wasn’t one to give up. A week later, there she was at the factory. “When the workers saw me, they were not only surprised but I also saw respect in their eyes. The only thing they said to me was, ‘You’re the maalik now. Please do visit us more often,’” recalls Bajoria.

Bajoria and her daughters may have been the legitimate heiresses to her husband’s properties. However, their rights were challenged by her husband’s cousin.

The protracted legal battle only strengthened her resolve in the years to come.

Earning the respect of those at the office wasn’t easy either. Stepping into the office, she describes the environment as a “patriarchal” one that refused to accept her as the new business proprietress. So much so, that she was repeatedly denied access to the meetings with lawyers because she was a woman. But a little courage was all Bajoria needed to stand her ground, and finally did attend a meeting.

If anything, Bajoria’s story is that of her determination to learn, to do things right and keep going.

Having been thrust into the business with no experience whatsoever, she recounts the initial days, “I did not know anything — nothing about jute or finance or legal.” And how did she turn things about for herself? Reading pink papers. It wasn’t the ideal solution, but a start instead. Sure, there are times even now, when she fi nds herself struggling with issues related to finance and the like, but she has found her foothold since her rookie phase. In fact, such was her curiosity to learn more about the jute

As she was a woman, many refused to accept Bajoria as the new business owner, but she stood her ground business that she would willingly strike up conversations with others in the business. “Earlier, when I attended parties with my husband, I would speak to the wives of other businessmen about home, children and such. But after I took over, I would talk to the men instead and ask their opinions about running a business,” she explains. Considering the conservative nature of her family, her actions were not short of being bold.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER The turn of events was a push for Bajoria to finally come out of the cocoon she had been living in since her marriage. “My husband bought a lot of properties that I was not aware of earlier,” she says. So to start with, she began visiting the jute mill more. Bajoria had her own vision on how to take the legacy forward, but there were obstacles that had to be faced, especially when it came to how decisions ought to be taken. Take for instance, when the director of Kolkata’s Max Mueller Bhavan approached her to organise a laser show at their warehouse. The manager refused, only for Bajoria

Rapid Fire Inspiration: Nature Memorable milestone: Being where I am today

One thing I learnt the hard way: Learning to do things my way Support system: Myself. I follow my own instinct on how to cope with everything Most gratifying moment: My time with girls at Apne Aap. Their love and gratitude

Motto in life: Work is worship Unwind mode: Solving crossword and jigsaw puzzles

Guilty pleasure: Sweets Ultimate goal: Teach and empower needy women

to realise that she was the one in charge, “I asked myself, ‘Why am I begging the manager [for permission to do the show]?’ They were accustomed to having everything done at their beck and call.

But something snapped inside and I realised, why should I be at their mercy?” That was the beginning to what can only be described as Bajoria calling her own shots. Today, the jute mill is a melange of activities — right from visits by the British High Commissioner to India to fi lmmakers and photographers such as Barbara Davidson.

For Bajoria, this marked not only her personal transformation but also one that brings the “jute story” to the forefront. Inspired, motivated and energised to do more, she sums it up, “I look at learning each day as a new adventure.” Bajoria doesn’t shy away from talking about “widowhood”. Instead, she feels it gave her the much-needed courage to break free of societal norms. As far as social gatherings go, she recalls the time she chose to stay away from a wedding — unlike the popular perception that demanded the presence of the city’s influenOutlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

53

TEAM POWER: Lata with Hollywood actress Ashley Judd at her Kolkata residence; at Apne Aap’s Sonagachi centre

54

tials. She adds, “It felt like getting rid of another shackle on my feet.”

SELF–REALISATION If Bajoria is not at the mill or working away at the office, she can be easily spotted at her organic garden at home or working hand-in-hand with Apne Aap, a Kolkata-based anti-sex-trafficking non-governmental organisation. Over the years, both these pursuits have come to define her as a person, much less the jute business.

Her organic garden is a different story altogether, the roots of which date back to her childhood. She recalls, “Whenever my father went for a walk to Kamala Nehru Park, he would always return with a flower or seed.” That ritual sowed the love for botany in her heart — a passion she credits to her father. So, when she moved to Kolkata, she took it upon herself to remodel the British garden in their home one step at a time — a pool, some vegetables and so on. But noticing the effects of fertilisers on plants made her instinctively convert the garden to a wholly organic one, about 10 years ago. Around the same time she also started rescu-

ing animals and harbouring them in a portion of her garden, what she calls the “zoo”. And what doesn’t it shelter: cows, goats, turtles, snakes, peacocks and owls. Such is the reputation that people hoping to give up their pets are sent straight to her. Her garden and zoo aren’t open for public, but she never denies a request for visit. “Organic farming was always on the back of my mind,” says Bajoria.

Her environmental initiative can also be spotted in the way she leads the jute business. She steadily encourages others to use jute as a substitute to paper and plastic bags. “My ultimate vision is to help jute make a comeback,” she says. And her words have spread across the country. She recounts the time someone in Mumbai ordered her jute bags to be distributed in her school or how Hotel Taj Bengal placed an order for 2,000 jute bags to be distributed among its guests. She calls each of these a small step towards making the most of the declining industry that jute is today.

For Bajoria, each day is a lesson in disguise — learning from life instead of succumbing to it. “At my age...

I’m doing whatever I can do.

I can’t be that radical. But whatever I can do, I’m pushing it, 100 %,” she says as she strolls out in the garden.

Among the countless life lessons, Lata Bajoria’s tale could well be one that reads: “It’s never too late”. b

Bajoria’s goal is to help jute make a comeback, and she is encouraging others to use jute instead of plastic bags

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

Heart

Matters With incidences of heart diseases showing an alarming increase in India, it is important that apart from regular physical activity and eating right, we supplement our lifestyles with the right nutritional supplements. OrganIc IndIa has a range of products that will keep your heart healthy and happy in the long run.

I 56

n today’s world, where we are juggling several tasks, staying fit and healthy is perhaps the biggest challenge.

Hectic schedules, sedentary lifestyles and increased pollution levels are a reality leading to increased cases of heart diseases, increased cholesterol levels, liver disorders, diabetes, and alarming obesity levels.

And if recent health findings are anything to go by, India is in the grip of a new health problem. According to an ASSOCHAM-Deloitte joint study, released this World Heart Day that falls on September 29, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) have emerged as the fastest growing chronic illnesses between 2007 and 2017, growing at 9.5 per cent annually, and accounting for the second largest number of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) patients after mental illnesses in India.

Yet another study from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has suggested that India’s younger population (those under 30) is at greater heart risk than the earlier generation.

Initial findings show that nearly 40 per cent of young people who have suffered a heart attack have had a history of tobacco consumption.

According to the Indian Heart Association, “50% of all heart attacks in Indians occur under 50 years of age and 25% of all heart attacks in Indians occur under 40 years of age.

Population living in cities are three times more prone to heart attacks than people living in villages”.

rising incidences of heart cases. However, at a time when the shelves are full of synthetic supplements and herbs, it is also important you choose yours with care.

And this is where ORgANIC INDIA can help. As the name suggests, ORgANIC INDIA products are grown organically thereby making sure you take care of your health in the most natural way possible. Over the last few years, ORgANIC INDIA has emerged a global leader in producing unique and highest quality of herbal medicines, made by some of the biggest global experts.

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It is made with well-known and safe lipid controlling herbs such as Arjuna (Terminalia arjuna), Harjor Amalaki and Vana Tulsi. Helps to lower harmful LDL & triglycerides, while promoting HDLin the blood.

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Among the many factors, some of which can be genetic, the cause for heart diseases can largely be attributed to the following: No preference given to Health Keep body fat in check: Obesity has for a long time been No time to exercise with a largely sedentary lifestyle associated with creating problems for the heart. So, it is Stress crucial to incorporate at least 30-minutes Junk food of physical activity into your schedule According to the Obesity and smoking every day. Additionally, studies suggest Indian Heart that drinking green tea tea may lower LDL Association, “50% What can be done? cholesterol and triglycerides, which may of all heart attacks in While regular exercise, taking brisk walks be responsible for the tea’s association with Indians occur under 50 reduced risk of death from heart disease and and a healthy diet are key to a good healthy heart, sometimes cruel schedules can throw stroke. ORgANIC INDIA’S Tulsi ginger years of age and 25% us off gear causing our bodies to revolt. So, green Tea Lemon ginger Tea, which blends of all heart attacks in it is being now medically advised doctors tulsi, green tea, ginger and lemongrass, is a Indians occur under to include a few nutritional supplements delicious blend that helps in fat-fighting and 40 years of age. as part of one’s routine to safeguard against in turn protects the heart. n 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

Good Beat

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FLAXSEED OIL n It’s abundant in heartfriendly Omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-Linolenic acid (ALA) which promotes good cholesterol. n Plays a role in burning body fat & supports a healthy cardiovascular system. n It is rich in antioxidants that help reduce the damage from stress & daily intake of this healthy oil offers a lot of goodness.

LKC n It supports healthy liver function and leads to better and faster fat metabolism, which in turn leads to healthier cholesterol level, thus a healthier heart. n Enriched with medicinal property of Bhumyamalaki (Phyllanthus niruri), Punarnava (Boerhaavia diffusa) and Katuki (Picrorrhiza kurroa). n Helps to repair damaged liver and kidneys by reducing toxicity and regenerating damaged cells.

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58

MEENA KAUSHIK/QUANTUM CONSUMER SOLUTIONS

Intuitive Scholar QUANTUM CONSUMER SOLUTIONS’ MEENA KAUSHIK DEFIED CYNICS TO NOT ONLY ELEVATE HER DISCIPLINE BUT ALSO EMERGE AS AN ASTUTE ENTREPRENEUR

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

59

RA CHANDROO

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

V

By Laveena Iyer

ivacious, cheerful and intuitive

– these three words probably are the best brief description for the

executive chairman at one of India’s largest qualitative market research firms.

Her words ring sharp with clarity and confidence and often come backed up with a deep study of the topic of discussion. It’s what multinationals seek her out for and perhaps, was also what impressed former British pharma company, Beechams, in her detailed report on the status

60

of Horlicks in India. “I decoded all the symbols of packaging and advertising and it was unlike the superficial response the client was used to. It talked about where the brand was located in the culture, why it resonated with people and what was working for it in a deeper sense. And they loved it!” says Meena Kaushik, of her fi rst market research assignment, with no formal training in the subject.

But she didn’t need any of it as her early course of study in semiotics had equipped her to be a natural in the division of qualitative research, the lesser loved unit of the marketing fraternity then. “Those were the days when quantitative research was at its prime, the agency was also hugely quantitative and clients also respected numbers over any qualitative input,” she recalls of the 1980s during her stint at India’s fi rst market research firm, IMRB. But the poor perception of the field didn’t dissuade Kaushik, she saw value in the unit when nobody else did. Like a true opportunist, she not only established India’s first solely qualitative research company but dedicated the next three decades perfecting the discipline, to give it the merit it deserved in the field of marketing.

THE OTHER SIDE Kaushik, who is now the executive chairman of Quantum Consumer Solutions, didn’t exactly yearn for a corporate career though. Born and raised in Delhi, 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

Kaushik earned a degree in economics from Miranda House in 1968. But, soon after her three-year course, she found herself less interested in numbers and statistics and instead drawn towards sociology and cultural studies. And so she completed her Masters in sociology from the Delhi School of Economics. “The switch was the best decision I made. The moment I began studying social anthropology, I knew that this is exactly what I wanted to do,” she recalls.

By this time, Kaushik was married, had her firstborn and moved base to Mumbai in 1979. Having to look after a toddler prevented her from taking up the job of a lecturer at Mumbai University, which is when she was offered the job of a consultant at IMRB. By Kaushik’s own admission, she wasn’t too pleased to switch over to the other side, “I was extremely derisive but my PhD, guide, Veena Das, who has been a great mentor told me, ‘Don’t fool yourself, academics is a place to hide. Go on out there and fi nd something that will inspire you.’” Post the Beechams assignment in 1979, she was called in for more work and despite being a novice at it, Kaushik describes that her corporate job required her to apply her academic learning, which only made the job interesting. Within a yearand-a-half, she was working full time as the director of its qualitative research arm.

But it wasn’t a department that got the limelight it deserved. She says, “That was my first experience of running a business. Qualitative research is more indicative of consumer trends and can always be corroborated with quantitative studies, so my fi rst job was to make clients see that”. Apart from that, Kaushik described the field as being perceived to be personality-dependent, with clients often trusting results only when it came from a certain researcher since they didn’t see it as a science. And lastly, was the gender bias in this field. Kaushik recalls, “It was believed that only housewives and women who have nothing better to do will get into this type of research — the men do the numbers, the serious stuff and the women do the softer part.”

Even as she went about trying in her own small capacity at IMRB, to change the attitude towards her chosen field of interest, she kept at refi ning the subject as well. It was in 1981 that she quit IMRB to start MARG, with her former boss, Titoo Ahluwalia. While the qualitative research fi rm is what paid the bills for the new venture in the initial years, Kaushik felt that it was still considered as the lesser entity within the organisation. That’s when she decided that if qualitative research as a discipline had to grow, it had to do so without the confi nes of a bigger marketing agency. Now, in the 1990s, a marketing agency solely offering qualitative findings was unheard of. Ahluwalia cautioned the budding entrepreneur then saying, “You won’t be able to survive on qualitative research alone. And you’re a great researcher but you don’t know how to run a business.” But this woman entrepreneur was passionate about her practice and she prepped herself for taking over the reins of her own company.

Kaushik recalls taking lessons in cash flows and accounting from her husband’s former boss, exchairman at Lipton India, Pradeep Dutt. She was confident that her clients who saw great value in her work, would also follow suit and they did. And so on September 12, 1990, this anthropologist along with a linguist (Meera Vasudevan) and psychologist (Srilekha Agarwal) set up India’s first qualitative research company.

KEEP HUSTLING However, fending off cynical peers wasn’t the only challenge the trio faced. Kaushik recalls meeting a Registrar of Companies official while registering Quantum, who asked “So, who is this shell company for?”. Securing finance from a local bank came with its own set of prejudicial requirements. But, Kaushik

Rapid Fire Inspiration: My father and my husband

Success factors: Working to my strengths and being comfortable in my own skin Memorable milestone: When I set up Quantum

Best advice I ever got: Be yourself, never give up. Follow your dreams

One change that made life better: Build a sense of equanimity and not get bothered by ups and downs

One thing I learnt the hard way: To accept failure Ultimate goal: To see many more women at the workplace

Unwind mode: Watching movies, reading books, walking or a glass of wine Guilty pleasure: If given a chance I’d watch a TV show non-stop for many hours

dealt with it in her own tactful manner. “The branch manager said he’d sign an overdraft once I got a letter from my husband certifying to be my guarantor. In return I asked the man to furnish a character certificate from his wife. He laughed then but having seen my point he not only signed the overdraft but turned out be one of our great supporters thereafter,” she narrates.

At a time when her peers were lacking encouragement, multinational clients switching their accounts to Quantum, kept them motivated. Citibank, Unilever, ITC were among the blue-chip clients, who helped the start-up gain a foothold in the industry. While this helped streamline their cash flow, Kaushik and her partners were cognisant that they had to sustain it so they could pay salaries and other expenses on time. And they managed to run a sustainable venture from the fi rst month itself.

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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LIFE PARTNERS: Meena and Vikram on a holiday; with her co-founders, Meera and Srilekha two children who joined Quantum in what she describes as a “comedy of errors” — one was pursuing her course in herpetology and the other waiting to start his MBA course, worked for the firm on a temporary basis, only to find themselves good at the job. Thus, they decided to take up a permanent role at the firm. While her husband is the only non-Quantum convert, his contribution as a supportive spouse finds frequent mention over the course of the interview.

Kaushik calls him a “woman’s man” who never offered any unsolicited advice or imposed any restrictions, “His own mother was a working woman so he understood. And he was a very helpful father especially during the early years at Quantum when I was always travelling for work.” Apart from a solid support system at home, the 66 -year-old grandmother has her passion and drive to thank for her successful journey so far — one with a fair share of ups and downs. But the lesson she imparts at work is, “If you don’t fail then how will you succeed?

I believe you must burn your hands once or twice.”

62

Inspiring women to believe that one can manage a home and successfully run a business, remains a constant pursuit The ultimate goal was to show how market research could be done differently and create a mark for themselves in the industry. And Quantum has been doing it for the past 27 years. Employing 250 people from diverse fields such as economics, history, sociology, linguistics, it has marquee clients across India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Indonesia, China with an office coming up in London early next year.

But the vision for her enterprise doesn’t stop at that. The future goal involves evolving the fi rm into a holistic design and insight solutions brand.

A vision she shares with several employees and her 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

After having achieved her career goals of enhancing the field of qualitative research and proving that women can run a business, is there anything left to prove? Introducing more women to the workforce and inspiring them to believe that one can manage a home and successfully run a business, remains a constant pursuit. And the woman, who showed it can be done, has one pertinent advice for other women who strive to stand on their feet, “Don’t try to emulate a masculine style of running a business. Be yourself, believe in yourself and follow your dreams. If it’s something you’re passionate about, then you’re bound to find success.” b

64

SANDIPAN CHATTERJEE

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

MONICA LIU/RESTAURATEUR

Gritty Woman FROM BEING A VICTIM OF WAR TO MOULDING HERSELF INTO A RESTAURATEUR, MONICA LIU IS A CLASSIC RAGS TO RICHES FAIRYTALE

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

65

A

By Somdyuti Datta Ray

mong the thousands of prisoners inside the fenced grounds of Rajasthan’s Deoli camp, a nine-year-old girl stood out. Monica Liu’s routine task still

retained few activities from her pre-confinement days: wake up, bathe her siblings, wash their clothes and feed them. Additionally, her chores now also included standing in the queue for a bowl of rice and mutton, that was almost always stale or raw, and fetching water from a faraway tap 66

within the grounds. Over the next five years that she spent in captivity — in not one but three prisons — the routine did not change much. Years later, infected by the urge to start something of her own, she fi nally broke free of the monotony. Today, Liu owns four successful Chinese restaurants across Kolkata — Kim Ling, Mandarin, Beijing and Tung Fong.

Born Leong Sue Yek (her Chinese birth name) in Kolkata to Chinese immigrant parents, Liu moved around a lot as a child — fi rst to Kalimpong and then Shillong. But long before she became a present-day restaurateur, Liu was an eight-year-old helping out her parents at their restaurant in Shillong. On days when her mother was busy, one could find Liu in the cashier’s seat. “Sometimes, I miscalculated the money because at that time, there was no cash register,” recalls the 64 -year-old. So, what was her accounting method like? Make 10 columns for the restaurant’s 10 tables, jot down the order amount and strike it out as soon as the customer pays.

Being the eldest sibiling in her family, the responsibility to manage the restaurant as well as her sister and two brothers, naturally, fell on her. All this, while balancing school too. If anything, Liu explains how this taught her to be self-sufficient from a very young age, “At that time, my parents used to be busy handling their business so that we could have a better 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

living. So, I would have to look after everything else.”

But then came the 1962 Sino-Indian War that uprooted not only this young girl and her family, but several other Chinese-origin residents like her.

TRAIN TO DEOLI When the police arrived at their door that November, they couldn’t have guessed that they would not be returning anytime soon. After spending about 15 days in a jail in Shillong, Liu’s family was taken to Guwahati and herded into a train heading for the internment camp in Deoli, Rajasthan.

From Rajasthan’s scorching days to barely edible camp food and mosquito-infested nights spent sleeping outside — Deoli took a toll on Liu’s family, she says. “We were free to move around, but we suffered everyday. We didn’t have work, we didn’t have education. They only gave us food,” she says. That’s when the camp residents took it upon themselves to bring a change. Liu’s family, like many, began planting vegetables inside for farming; collecting frogs at midnight and feeding it to the camp’s chicken to get better eggs; mixing flour with rice to feed more mouths — each alternative a lesson for her.

Eventually, people were released, but Liu’s family was one of the 150 still detained at the camp. They

were transferred once more to Nagaon jail in Assam, where they spent another nine months. This is where her family met a young man who persuaded Liu to write a letter to the Home Minister demanding why they were still being held. About 10 days later, they were finally released.

NEW BEGINNING Returning empty-handed to Shillong, the family sought shelter at their friends’ homes. “For a month, my sister and I ate bone soup for both lunch and dinner. But we didn’t complain because at that point of time, we were very thankful that we had a place to stay and food to eat,” Liu says. After about a month, Liu and her family moved into a rented house near a newly-opened school. With the help of about #100 from her father’s friends, Liu and her mother began selling homemade momos. “We bought 2 kg maida, 1kg pork and onions. After dinner, we would steam the momos and again the next morning, and sell it to the school children,” she says.

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Rapid Fire Memorable milestone: Starting Tung Fong

Best advice I ever got: Before you borrow money, ask yourself how you will return it

One thing I learnt the hard way: Nothing can be taken for granted, nothing comes easy

Best decision of my life: Entering the restaurant business, something I knew I could handle Mentor: My parents Support system: My eldest son and my husband

Unwind mode: Spending time with my grandchildren and once in a while, going out for movies with my friends

Ultimate goal: I am happy right where I am now. I don’t wish for anything more

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

While the earning was barely enough for the family of six, there were days when they couldn’t sell any.

But instead of wasting the momos, Liu recalls that her mother made all her siblings finish the day’s produce, “My mother used to go around trying to sell them anyway, but some remained unsold. So, she would make the five of us stand in line together, put five momos on a plate and say, ‘Sit there and eat.’”

When Liu started school, she was put in class six — even though she had been out of touch with education for five years. While Liu scraped through class six to class nine, she eventually dropped out of school when she reached class ten unable to cope with the difficulty. She aspired to become a nurse, and trained briefly. But she was married off, and moved to Kolkata soon after.

Over the next five years, after her three children were born, Liu recalls her urge to start something of her own to support her family, considering that her husband’s tannery business wasn’t doing very well either. She began buying leather chemicals and selling them elsewhere. “Atleast this way, I could pay my son’s school fees.” Later, she opened a beauty parlour and picked up the skills, despite no background in beauty and hairdressing.

THE ENTREPRENEUR WITHIN In 1991, Liu fi nally rented out her beauty parlour for #2,500 after working for four years. By then, she had her eye on a house that would soon become Kim Ling. The house then belonged to her aunt-in-law’s granddaughter. “I told her that I would put some machinery there. I had lied because had I told her I wanted to build a restaurant, she would have refused to sell it to me,” Liu says. She was eventually handed the property after negotiating for #10 lakh in March that year. For that, her brothers and parents offered about #8 lakh and she borrowed another #3 lakh from her friends.

But the restaurant was in need of much renovation. “My one wish was that the restaurant should be air-conditioned. So, we rented an AC for #5,000 every year,” she says. Two months later, Kim Ling started out as an eight-seater restaurant in Tangra, otherwise known as Chinatown, with one staff member besides Liu’s mother and brother. Unfortunately, she got into a quarrel with a customer on the first-day. “We did not have a menu card. All the orders were charged as per local charges, and the customer refused to pay us,” she explains. Exasperated, Liu offered to charge him nothing. “If you want to pay, pay me that much or else leave,” Liu recalls telling him.

EXUBERANT TIMES: Monica with her husband; playing host to the late chief minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu, at Kim Ling It was still a rocky road to success and they were often hounded by local goons, as well as police officers demanding to see their license. Liu says that rather than fearing them, she befriended the police. “If I’m feeling scared what’s the point of doing business. I had to stay strong because I had to do a lot of work by myself,” she says. Her courage cannot be lauded enough, seeing how she dared to keep her restaurant open even during the curfew of the 1992 riots. Her business took a hit on days the curfew stretched for six to eight hours or more. “I had debt to repay. All the restaurants would be closed, but I was the only one open for my business’ sake,” she says.

In 1993, she bought Mandarin from her cousin brother for about #20 lakh. Mandarin, which was originally launched in 1970 in Lansdowne, lost business over the years but Liu took upon the task to rebuild it. “I reduced the price of the food and ensured that its quality was at par with the others,” she says.

Over the next few years, she went on to launch three more restaurants. In 1998, came Beijing in Tangra, for which she bought the plot in three parts, over three years. “All my friends helped out with #1 lakh to #2 lakh each. But mostly, I saved up bit-by-bit from my two other restaurants,” she adds. Despite constant financial help from her friends and parents, the biggest investment so far, she says, was starting Tung Fong in 2001. Liu took out a hefty #75 lakh bank loan to buy an old shop selling salami in Park Street. Eight months were spent in renovating it. Later in 2013, Mandarin’s second outlet was unveiled on Lake View Road. From earning #600 -2,000 every day from each restaurant back in the day to about 250 staff working under her now — Liu has come a long way. Her restaurants can easily host 100 -250 foodies now.

But clearly, the restaurants weren’t enough to tame her impulses to start something new. Liu has been supplying sand and stone chips to Kolkata Municipal Corporation for three years now. “I am in business. I want to look at wherever there is opportunity to make money,” she says. Sometime ago, Liu went to China to explore options to import cheap electronics from China and sell here. “Smart television, for example, are very, very cheap in China. But I figured, the electronics market is intensely competitive, so I dropped the idea.”

Liu says, she will soon wind up her construction business as it is a “bad” business — the payment cycles are too long. Smaller players can’t survive with six month payment cycles. “You should choose a business that you can handle. I could cook and restaurant is a cash business, so it worked well for me,” she adds.

EMBRACING THE PAST Despite an unlikely journey, Liu owes her success to all the hardships she had faced in her life — be it growing up in a prison or near-starvation days postinternment. All her years of extreme poverty made her both gritty and enterprising. At the Deoli camp, she would teach the other children to sing, dance and enact Ramayana, and some elders how to plant onions and potatoes. “Leadership is about how to guide them, taking care of them and how to teach them. Only now do I know that back then I had become one,” she says.

No matter which curveball life throws, Liu is not one to shy away from facing it head-on. In a competitive industry like restaurants, she continues to stay true to the original Chinese flavours. As for what’s next on her list, she would like to open more Beijing outlets and perhaps, move into other cities as well. Clearly, when nothing could defeat her spirits so far, it would take a lot more to beat the ‘Don of Chinatown’. b Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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Look GooD, FeeL GooD With a wide range of high quality products, and absolute attention to detail in its service, Health & Glow, has emerged as the one-stop solution for all your beauty and wellness needs, with more than 120 stores across India.

I

f there is one thing that interests women, across ages and professions, it has to be cosmetic and wellness products, undoubtedly. The health, beauty and wellness Industry in India is now at an all-time high, and growing at twice the pace as that of the US and European markets.

According to an ASSOCHAM report, it is pegged to reach $20 billion by 2025 from the current $6.5 billion on the back of rise in disposable income of middle class and growing aspirations of people to live good life and look good.

Another report by the KPMG Wellness Sector

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

report released in April this year projected that the size of India’s beauty and wellness market would nearly double to Rs 80,370 crore by 2017-18 from Rs 41,224 crore, in 2012-13, which is a very optimistic trend in itself.

The reasons for such rapid growth of the beauty and wellness market can be attributed to the fact that consumption pattern of cosmetics among teenagers went up substantially between 2005 and 2015 because of increasing awareness and desire to look good. In fact, this product category is among the fastest growing segments for the manufacturers

of a range of products including body sprays.

Alongside, there is a rising aspiration among Indian men to look better groomed, which has led to the Indian men’s grooming market’s rapid growth of more than 42 percent in the last 5 years. The study further showed that this growth is faster than the growth rate of the total personal care and beauty industry in India. Additionally, as more Indian men are looking to remain competitive in the workforce, they are seeking products to help them maintain a youthful look.

Over 68 per cent of young adults feel that using grooming products boost their confidence. About 62 per cent of young consumers in big cities prefer to buy online beauty and grooming products whereas, 45 percent of consumers tend to buy cosmetic, apparel items from a trusted retail chain of their convenience. Both quality and value for money is being sought by consumers. This is where key beauty retail chains such as Health & Glow have a crucial role to play.

The healTh & Glow experience From being one of the finest offline beauty and wellness retail chains, Health & Glow offers a wide range of products for skincare, hair care, make-up, bath & body, wellness and personal care products,

thereby helping consumers meet their specific beauty and wellness needs. The best thing about Health & Glow is that it caters to both the grooming needs of both men and women.

The Journey What began in 1997, has only grown by foundation, service and meaning. Health & Glow, with its high quality products and absolute attention to detail in its service, has crafted a niche for itself in the industry and the hearts of its customers. Today, the retail chain has emerged as the largest network of beauty and wellness products with over 120 stores across Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, and Mumbai.

The brands Health & Glow hosts an unmatched and an everincreasing assortment of skincare, haircare, makeup and wellness products for both men and women. In addition to Health & Glow’s private label, the retail chain stocks brands that include but are not limited to Adidas, Azzaro, BBlunt, Chambor, Colorbar, Dove, Faces, Ferrari, Gillette, Hugo Boss, Jergens, L’Oreal, Maybelline, Revlon, park Avenue, Skin Cottage and Toni & Guy among others.

Did you know?

Over 68 per cent of young adults feel that using grooming products boost their confidence.

Did you know?

45 percent of consumers tend to buy cosmetic, apparel items from a trusted retail chain of their convenience.

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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M O N I S H A A D VA N I / E M M AY E N T E R TA I N M E N T

Box-Office Boss MONISHA ADVANI SHARES HER CHECKLIST FOR SUCCESS IN THE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

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SOUMIK KAR

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

I

By Naini Thaker

f a seven-year-old says she owns a business, what would be your first reaction? If she insists that she is an entrepreneur, would you believe her?

Probably not. This is the story of one such

seven-year-old who was inspired by characters in Enid Blyton’s books from whom she learnt the concept of earning pocket money for odd jobs. She drew inspiration from this and decided to start her own library 74

business, one that made a profit of # 2.25 over a month in those days. However, the housewives in the building complained to the girl’s mother about her taking money from their children. And this was the end of her very successful, yet short-lived business. When confronted, the girl proudly said, “I am running a business!” As a daughter of two working professionals, where she learnt the word ‘business’, no one knew! This born entrepreneur is Monisha Advani, and this is her story.

The co-founder of Emmay Entertainment got her hands dirty in the big bad world of business as a young 21-year-old. She dropped out of her college in the US when she was 19, because she “was insolent enough to think there was nothing in the classroom that cannot be learnt by oneself. So, I decided to drop out of university and return home like a true black sheep.” Like most families, Advani’s parents weren’t too happy about her decision, but eventually warmed up to it. Now, her mother is her biggest support system. Advani currently lives with her parents as flatmates, and enjoys the new equation.

In 1989, she set up her fi rst business in the student counselling segment, called Emmay Consultants, which focused on assisting students to fi nd universities to study abroad. Her work put her on the Persons to Watch For, Asiaweek in 1993 and got her featured as Savvy Magazine’s Woman of the Month in 1992. Though the business got off to a good start, 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

it was her relentless pursuit that made her look out for new and different avenues. “I was looking for something that had more longevity, and so along with my childhood friend Madhu Bhojwani, I decided to move into the human resources space in 1996,” Advani says.

DREAMING BIG After going through their fair share of difficulties the duo was able to procure a loan of #3 lakh from the Union Bank of India to set up their fi rst company. But why call it Emmay? Advani laughs, “As kids, Madhu and I would joke that if there can be a company called Essar, one day we’ll have a company called Emmay.” That joke turned into reality, and EmmayHR was launched in 1996. With pride and gleaming eyes, she talks about how they took the loan at 22% interest instead of 18% (the market rate at the time) since they did not have any collateral to offer at the time. “We paid back the loan with interest within three months, and I think that was the only debt exposure we ever had in any business after that,” she boasts, and rightfully so.

In those days, for two women to start their own business was rife with innumerable difficulties.

“Madhu and I have grown up very aware of the

world we operated in,” she explains. They like to refer to themselves as ‘dormant feminists’ who know when to channel their energy and use it correctly.

She narrates an incident that has stayed with her since 2000. “An employee decided to leave EmmayHR and when asked why, he explained that his elder brother said in Gujarati, ‘Aa su be nani nani chokriyo ni nani nani company ma kaam kare che?’

(Why are you working for such a small company run by two young girls?) It’s been 17 years now and I have not forgotten those words.” They took it as words of encouragement in their stride and decided to prove those men wrong. EmmayHR went on to become a pioneer in the HR space and was later bought over by Randstad in 2005. She continued as the managing director (India) and in 2009, she decided to quit.

Being an entrepreneur is no mean feat, but Advani enjoys every bit of it. “I’m good at making other people’s dreams come true. It is magical to see someone you have invested in do well and grow.

I look back and see the people who started their careers with us at EmmayHR and are today heads of companies and departments. For me, that’s the best kind of bank balance.” It was almost as though she was addicted to the idea of seeing people go, chase their dreams. From April 2009, she took a much deserved break and began groundwork on her next venture — MyFirstCheque, which they began as an experiment in 2010 with the hope of mentoring and investing in startups. Although the fund has ceased investing, its existing investments are being nurtured for exits by the three seed investors. Advani continues to invest in startups in her personal capacity though — some of her investments include, Jombay (human resource consulting company) and Ping Digital (television production company). She says, “The reason I invest in startups is because nobody invested in us. Madhu and I always wonder — had somebody taken a bet on us, would we have done even better?”

LEAPING TO ENTERTAIN The Bhojwani-Advani partnership has been going quite strong. Today they continue to rule the fi lm industry with Emmay Entertainment, a production company they founded along with her brother, filmmaker Nikkhil Advani in May 2011. Some of their work includes, Lucknow Central, Airlift and D-Day. “Businesses work best when they have been built by best friends or by family members, because the unconditional trust that goes with

Rapid Fire Inspiration: My mom Success factors: Waking up early, hard work, determination, decisiveness Best advice I ever got: Don’t be an employee, you’ll do better as an entrepreneur One thing I learnt the hard way: Education is important Best decision of my life: To work with my best friend and my brother

One change that made life better: Becoming a lot more patient Sounding board: Partners and family Support system at home: My parents, my housekeeper and driver

Unwind mode: Music, binge-watching and cooking

such bonds is not tradable,” remarks Advani. The transition from HR to entertainment was not easy.

She believes that when the product you’re doing business in changes, you have to start afresh. Did she have to change herself too, to survive in an industry as fierce as fi lms? “Absolutely. I’ve learnt to be an invisible leader and let others take the lead.

I’ve always been the face of all my other businesses. Here, I made a conscious effort to not be in the limelight,” she explains.

The trio’s new venture was an attempt to stand out in the already overcrowded entertainment business, and to do that they had to change the way they would work in the industry. So, their main objective was to professionalise it. When they started off, it was a challenge to get people to understand concepts such as financial accountability. With regards to the industry itself, they simply focused on the budget.

“This is a lifestyle business whose scale is limited since you are supporting the lifestyles of the people running the business,” she says. “People would come Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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PILLARS OF STRENGTH: Monisha with her brother Nikkhil and best friend, Madhu Bhojwani; with her parents

Monisha & Madhu are childhood friends & now refer to themselves as ‘dormant feminists’ 76

up to us and say yeh budget hai, picture banani hai.

To be clear and cautious, we would ask them about financial accountability, which would baffle them because they only understood the fi lm and its budget.”

She believes the science behind what works in the film industry and what doesn’t can be mapped out and embraced by producers. This, she feels, will help them scale up.

Advani believes there aren’t enough entrepreneurs in this business. “If there were, they would be putting back what they make into the business.

We have the kind of consumer demand that would enable us to grow 100% YoY. That is where we, as a small company, are disrupting the market.” She recalls a time when a fellow producer walked inside and asked them if they even needed an office. Most people in the industry rent a place when a movie is in progress and then shut it down. The 47-year-old says, “This would simply grow our bank balance and not a company. Being an entrepreneur and being a businesswoman are two different things. We are entrepreneurs.”

WIN SOME LOSE SOME Nikkhil heads the creative department, Bhojwani looks after the financial and legal aspects of things, whereas Advani looks over marketing, but jokes 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

about being the invisible glue — keeping it all together. Failure in an entrepreneur’s life is nothing new nor unheard of; the way it is handled by individual entrepreneurs is what makes it interesting. And Advani likes to deal with failure by sleeping. She feels it helps her shut off her brain, keep negativity at bay. But is failure in the fi lm industry any different from that in other business? “The glory is shortlived, while failure is permanently etched. You have to be tough, learn to take failure in your stride and move on. Tougher than that, however, is pushing your team to get back on their feet,” she says. While her passion is still the same, ten years down the line, she hopes to own only 10% of Emmay and wishes for the rest of it to be nurtured by the people handling the business currently.

For someone like Advani, who got into business at a very young age, there is no let up in pressure or stress, yet she is far from giving up. “It takes a lot of courage to be an entrepreneur,” she says. A major responsibility of an entrepreneur, after all, is to inspire people to keep going. “If you keep doing what you are supposed to be, you will get somewhere. I keep that faith,” she adds. The born entrepreneur, is an early riser and races the sun, no less. “I try to beat the sun.

The day I wake up, before the sun rises, I know it’s going to be a great day.” b

NEERU SHARMA/INFIBEAM

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Tech Merchant INFIBEAM’S NEERU SHARMA HAS BUILT ONE OF THE FEW PROFITABLE E-COMMERCE VENTURES IN THE COUNTRY

VISHAL KOUL

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

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Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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By Shilpa Elizabeth Abraham

eeru Sharma’s daughter

was four years old when she asked her mom what she did for a living. She was too young to understand that her mother had co-

founded the e-commerce marketplace, Infibeam, so Sharma showed her the e-tailing website, which carries the tagline, ‘Shop with a smile’. The little one then wanted to order an iPad from the website and Sharma agreed to buy it for her but only on the condition that she would have access to 80

it only during her travel time and holidays. A couple of days later, the four year old, all smiles and giggles, told Sharma, “Now I know what you do. You make smiles.”

It’s difficult to spot the 37-year-old Neeru Sharma without a smile. Almost every sentence ends with a laugh, her words ooze passion, energy and positivity.

Today she is the director of platform business service at Infibeam, the fi rst Indian online retailer to go public and one of the few e-commerce start-ups that are profitable. Its FY17 revenue stood at #440 crore with a profit of #44 crore.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS Sharma hails from a middle class family in New Delhi. Her father, an HR professional, tried his hand at being an entrepreneur, but that resulted in losses, which prompted her mother to step up and handle their small autolamps plant while her father looked for a job. Meanwhile, the responsibility of taking care of the household fell on Neeru, although she continued to do well in studies.

In 1997, she joined Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak to pursue computer science and engineering. It was here that Sharma met her best friend who would later become her husband. When she graduated in 2001 post the dotcom bust, the IT industry was in a slump and TCS was the only company that came to her college 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

for recruitment. Luckily for her she managed to get a job there, and worked for over two years before moving on to Alcatel.

At Alcatel, Sharma was exposed to the business side of things. A popular reality show had introduced tele-voting for the first time in Indian television history, and this was enabled by Alcatel. Sharma, as the product manager, had the chance to interact with the show’s marketing team. This is where she learnt that technology was mostly an enabler of business, but building a business was just something else — it required vision and strategy.

She got married in 2005, and wanted to start a business together with her husband. But they decide to pursue an MBA first. So, whereas other newlyweds would have preferred to go off honeymooning post marriage, Sharma and her husband were preparing for their GMAT. Both were accepted into Carnegie Mellon University. With an MBA in finance and strategy, Sharma worked directly with Jeff Bezos at Amazon. One of her team members was Vishal Mehta, now CEO at Infibeam. The team’s job was to evaluate the e-commerce market in India, something that was at a nascent stage then. Flipkart had just started out; neither Rediff nor IndiaMart, both in the market, was a full-blown e-commerce player. They realised

the space was wide open for new entrants. Hence Mehta returned to India in 2007 and Sharma in 2009 to found Infibeam.

Already amused by Sharma’s decision to pursue an MBA right after marriage, her mother was now downright worried about her returning back to India, leaving a job in the US with Amazon no less, to start something from scratch. It was only after Infibeam clocked their fi rst couple of orders that Sharma’s mother realised that her daughter was on to something bigger. “My father-in-law was very supportive. Being a businessman himself it was easier for him to understand what I was trying to accomplish, and was a good friend to me at home,” says Sharma. Her joint family provided a fantastic support system for her.

While Infibeam was headquartered in Ahmedabad, Sharma operated out of a small apartment office in Daryaganj, New Delhi, an area famous for books and publishing companies. She went from vendor to vendor and publisher to publisher, pitching Infibeam and explaining the digital side of the story to them.

“I remember having to use my Amazon and CMU connections to secure meetings with publishers, because nobody knew Infibeam then, we had just started after all,” she says.

Sharma had to educate people across the supply chain on the prospects of the e-commerce platform.

Frequently, she would come across comments such as: “You look too young to start a business.” People judged her even before interacting with her. But Sharma stamped out prejudices with her company’s clear strategy and plans to scale up the business.

After starting with books, Infibeam slowly moved on to electronics and other categories. Retailers and brands that wanted a piece of the e-commerce pie but didn’t have the technical expertise to set up something on their own started showing a lot of interest in coming onboard. “We understood that everybody was looking for a partner in the e-commerce space who could later build an online channel for them,” Sharma notes. So, she and her team created a B2B platform, which enabled brands to have an online presence. Their fi rst client, Crossword still runs on the platform hosted by Infibeam. Airtel was the first telecom platform partner, and clients from sectors such as travel and ticketing and theme parks soon followed thereafter. The company inked a joint venture with Sony for Jive, their digital music application that was being pre-installed in devices such as Sony Xperia mobiles and Sony Vaio laptops. The platform piece then went international. It opened its

Rapid Fire Inspiration: My mother Memorable milestone: When Infibeam got listed

Best advice I ever got: Nothing will work unless you work

Best decision of my life: Marrying my best friend

One change that made life better: I started giving myself some time Mentor: My husband Support system at work: My entire team

Support system at home: My joint family

Ultimate goal: Being a good human being and being perceived as one

Work-life balance: You cannot do it all. Learn to delegate

offices in Dubai and received clients from across the world. Its latest clientele includes Amul and GeM (Government e-market), Orient Electric, Daikin, Panasonic, Spykar, Saudi Telecom Company and GVK Mumbai Airport. The company also launched Pi, the first Indian e-book reader before Kindle reached India, and was also one of the first players to sell iPhones in India.

Sharma has her own cabin, which is where she is seen the least, preferring instead to sit among her team members. She counts herself blessed not to have encountered the problems that many women face at work despite being the only woman as part of the core team. So whom does she credit for inspiring her?

Jeff Bezos, Sheryl Sandberg, Jack Ma and Raghuram Rajan when it comes to work, she tells me, but in personal life her source of inspiration are her mother and her six-year-old and nine-year-old, who she believes give her fresh perspective.

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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FULL HOUSE: Neeru with her husband and children; with her Infibeam teammates after the listing

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A weekly family outing is a must and a yearly vacation in June when the schools are closed, mandatory But natural, Sharma has her crazy schedule with a lot of travel, but she makes sure that she is with her family on weekends. She also tutors her children herself and spends time with them every day as long as she is not travelling. A family outing is a weekly affair, and a yearly vacation trip in June when the schools are closed, mandatory. “My family rejuvenates me,” declares the mother of two. A Level 2 Kathak dancer, she finds time for running, sketching and reading.

STAYING AHEAD The e-commerce landscape is going through tumultuous times with even biggies like Snapdeal struggling to stay afloat. But Sharma is unfazed. Infibeam differentiates itself from other e-commerce players with its B2B e-commerce enabler platform, BuildaBazaar provides a comprehensive e-commerce framework, which include web and mobile applications, digital product catalogues and analytics. “It is a unique value proposition for merchants, both local and global, to use our platform and set up an online marketplace instantly with ready-to-sell products at an affordable 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

cost. The scalability of business is very high, which helps Infibeam acquire merchants without losing money and thereby growing revenue from services, remaining profitable and cash positive,” Sharma notes. In 2016, Infibeam became profitable and registered for an IPO from which it garnered #450 crore.

Today, Infibeam has around 1,000 employees.

“Challenges excite me,” smiles Sharma. “And I want to build things. Ten to twenty years down the line, you will still see me building something.” She admits that competition has been increasing, but points out that it also helps increase the market size. “Innovation is the key to survive when the market dynamics keep changing,” she remarks. She believes that her commitment to deliver the best to the end-customer, ability to manage time and a never-give-up attitude have helped her to not lose her grip on things during trying times.

She has managed to smile at the worst of times and believes they all happen for a reason. I point out that she hasn’t stopped smiling from the moment we met and she says laughing, “I’m always like this — it really takes something to pull me down!” b

RITU KAPUR/QUINTILLION MEDIA

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The Newsmaker AFTER CREATING A NICHE FOR HERSELF IN BROADCASTING, RITU KAPUR IS NOW TAKING THE DIGITAL WORLD BY STORM

VISHAL KOUL

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

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Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

T

By Shilpa Elizabeth Abraham

he Quint’s newsroom on the

eighth floor of BGR Towers in Noida is brimming with energy.

The youthfulness is quite palpable — scattered bean bags, funky wall decors,

colours thrown everywhere. A very young editorial crowd is busy at their desks, which are placed in a zigzag arrangement.

Some can be spied in the conference hall shooting a news video on a mobile.

Scurrying amidst all this is a 50-year-old full of vigour and enthusiasm. She is the

86

kind who worries about running out of tissue papers in the cafeteria and creating different types of news content at the same time. She loves re-decorating spaces, and The Quint’s office design bears her signature. But Ritu Kapur is more than all that. She is not the just the co-founder of The Quint, she is its life and soul.

“The entire team meets every morning here,” she tells me in the conference room. “It’s a very exciting and inspiring affair. Sometimes the most brilliant ideas come from the most junior employees because their thinking is fresh,” she adds. Every word she utters is imbued with her excitement about being part of the digital news world. Things have clearly changed a lot for Kapur who, only a few years back, knew zilch about the digital world.

BROADCAST JOURNEY Kapur was one of the founding members of Network18 in 1992. She secured a Masters in Film and TV production from MCRC at Jamia Millia Islamia University, and moved from reporting to producing, programming, ideating and leading a team. She started off on a high note producing The India Show, India’s first local production on a satellite channel, Star Plus.

In 1995 she started directing and writing screenplays for the docu-drama series Bhanwar where she worked with actors like Vijay Raaz and Deepak Dobriyal. At 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

one point of time, the show was one of the highest rated, garnering TRPs of 11 and 12.

Around the same time, she gave birth to her fi rst child, a daughter. Although she leaned more towards directing, she also wanted to spend more time with her child. As a compromise she turned to writing screenplays, something that allowed her to work from home. “Spending time with my babies was something I chose to do, and I feel you shouldn’t be defi ned by who you are at work alone,” she is quick to add, lest it comes across that her career was affected because of motherhood. “It needs to be defi ned more holistically. I would have hated it if I didn’t have the memory bank that I do of my children as babies,” she adds.

After her daughter turned two, Kapur went back to being a director.

When Network18 launched CNN IBN in 2005, Kapur became its features editor. She recounts the frenzy that came with pushing the channel’s launch a month before it was slated, just to beat a competitor to the finish line. In 2008, she pioneered a show named CJ (Citizen Journalist) Show, aimed at democratising news by allowing the viewers to contribute news content using their mobile phones. The show provided Kapur a glimpse of the direction towards which news seemed to be heading. “There was so much content

coming to us from the readers through their mobile phones. I realised that it was all going to go digital because people were participating now. It was no longer a passive consumption of content. I didn’t understand much of digital then. But the story was clear to me,” she says.

GOING DIGITAL A few years down the line, in 2014, she was still with Network18 but increasingly in a ‘been there, done that’ mode. When Reliance Industries took over the media company, Kapur and her husband Raghav Bahl exited with their kitty fatter by around #700 crore. After a career in media and content spanning 23 years, she couldn’t think of being in any other field. Certain that digital was the future of news and content creation, the couple decided to take a slightly different track with their new venture. They visited several newsrooms in the US to understand what was happening at the cutting edge of digital content creation, and discovered that it was all smartphones, interactive technology and multimedia. They were advised not to work with off-the-shelf content management systems (CMS) since it would turn clunky once the production became more mobile-oriented.

So, a tech team named Quintype was put together to figure things out under Amit Rathore. (Quintype has since gone on to become an independent data-driven publishing company where Kapur and Bahl have a majority stake.)

For Kapur, one of the biggest challenges was to unlearn what she had learnt over the years as a broadcaster. The news vocabulary was vastly different now, and smaller screens and a young audience needed to be kept in mind while creating content. Her cluelessness about the way design worked for digital resulted in quite a few mistakes on the user interface and user experience front. Fortunately, funding wasn’t a challenge because the exit from Network18 had left them with enough capital. Even as the tech team was still figuring out the CMS, the content that was being created by the editorial team needed to be put out somewhere. So the team launched their site on Facebook.

This helped a great deal in gaining good reach early on and understanding what sort of content was being accepted. The Quint built on this. “When we started out, 80% of our traffic came from social media, though now it’s less than 20%. But we were able to use social media platforms to build our brand, use it as our megaphones, as our distribution network to say we are here and we mean to do good quality content,” Kapur says.

Rapid Fire Inspiration: Worker ants Success factors: Lots of hard work and grit

Memorable milestone: Launching the docu-drama series Bhanwar

Best advice I ever got: Get back to work

One thing I learnt the hard way: Being assertive Best decision of my life: Staying creative

One change that made life better: When I stopped being self-effacing

Mentor: Raghav Sounding board: Rohit Khanna, executive editor, The Quint

Support system at work: My team

Support system at home: My mom and mom-in-law who together brought up the kids, and my dogs

Motto in life: Don’t give up Guilty pleasure: Shopping

She was familiar with certain aspects of entrepreneurship such as setting up a team, leading, strategising every day for content and product. It was not easy, but it was clear to her that if she were to set up something new, she better be in the driver’s seat. “I can’t just come in the morning, sail through and say I have a really good idea for a story today. When you are building up a product from scratch, that’s not an option. You are thrown into it. I’m still learning as I’m trying to do the job,” she says candidly.

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FOUNDING TEAM: Ritu with her husband Raghav and children. Her family and in-laws have been her biggest support system

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The Quint, which started with an initial team of 15 in 2014, has around 180 people working for it today across New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Lucknow and is trying to set up bureaus in more cities across India. During its early days, The Quint saw people leaving the security of their jobs to join a company which was nothing more than ‘Raghav and Ritu’ at the time. There was nothing in the duo’s track record to prove they could be great digital content entrepreneurs. But the initial team that came together with so much spirit and confidence egged her on and changed her way of looking at things dramatically.

NETWORK EFFECT On top of this was the immense support she received from her family. “When I leave in the morning, I have no idea how the house is being run, but I come back home expecting dinner on the table. I have a very supportive family not just in terms of taking a lot of responsibilities away from me, but also in constantly encouraging me. In that sense I’m possibly unfortunately a minority among women entrepreneurs,” says Kapur. While Bahl helped in terms of getting acquainted with business strategies, his mother took charge of the house and never demanded her bahu stay at home for the kids. Her kids even helped her grapple with the sense of loss after sailing out of Network18. The support ecosystem combined with Kapur’s ability to multitask and her drive to be on top of what was happening in the digital news world made sure The Quint held its ground. “Wild horses can’t get me to do broadcasting now,” she laughs.

So, Network18 or The Quint – which is dearer? “The Quint,” pat comes her response without batting an eyelid. “But maybe because of the recency effect. I 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

feel the highs that I have felt at The Quint are much greater than those I felt at Network18. The kind of camaraderie and spirit we feel when the whole team comes together is special. I think at Network18 we were a little scattered and too large a team to experience that,” she says.

In fact, there came a point when Network18 had grown very big and 85% of its management were men.

Although not by design, making her opinions count became a little difficult since she was part of the content team and not the management. But she blames herself and her self-effacing nature for it. As she grew in her experience and career, the trait became selfdefeating. She didn’t tackle it at Network18, but at The Quint, however, the change was inevitable since she was leading from the front. “There was always a sense of under-confidence I had, that made me think that guys who spoke assertively knew better than I did. My God, what a misnomer that was! I discovered that a little too late, but I think women should realise that they often have a better handle on things than others,” she points out with a laugh.

Today Quint Neon (Quint’s Buzzfeed like initiative which focuses on gender, satire, food, culture and so on) is faring well and its Hindi platform has been growing fast. Be it a small town or a metro, Kapur feels the youth look for quality content. So she has set her focus on capturing and reflecting their thoughts, voices and aspirations cutting across geographies. It’s definitely a lot more frenetic than television since there is so much to keep up with while just processing the news and the different digital narrative formats. But Kapur is game for all that and more. For now, wild horses can’t stop her from conquering the digital world. b

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S A N D H YA C H A N D R A S E K H A R AY YA / I N D I A H I K E S

Minimalist Mountaineer INDIAHIKES CO-FOUNDER, SANDHYA CHANDRASEKHARAYYA LEADS THE WAY IN SHOWING HOW YOU CAN CHANNEL YOUR PASSION TO BUILD A PIONEERING PROFITABLE VENTURE

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RA CHANDROO

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

S

By Laveena Iyer

ix days and some 10,000 ft

later, it is only human that you feel the strain in your leg muscles.

The shoulders aren’t forgiving either but it all gets overshadowed by your

racing heartbeat. For, there can’t be a better reward than to see yourself finally reaching the summit. Set aside all the physical pain, the victory of overcoming the challenge you set for yourself is a feeling unparalleled. Something 36-year-old Sandhya Chandrasekharayya has 92

experienced countless times as she conquered mountain after mountain. And having witnessed a moment so majestic, it was only natural that the former software engineer decided to turn her passion into her profession. “It’s important to have a career in something that is meaningful to you, not something that you want to retire from,” says the woman, who co-founded what is known as India’s largest trekking community, Indiahikes.

The seeds for the same were sown way back in her childhood when she grew up alongside her backyard farm in Mysuru. “My father was an English professor but he was very interested in tending to our farm.

It’s there that I developed this fondness for being outdoors,” she recalls. What further acquainted Chandrasekharayya with her future hobby was her elder brother’s first trek. That’s how the fantasy to one day explore a hidden landscape was formed and being an active member of the National Cadet Corps at school gave her that opportunity over several field trips. Then came the unexpected visit to Uttarakhand, in class 7 where, hearsay about the famed Valley of Flowers, made her determined to one day return for a trek.

PREPARING FOR THE CLIMB Once back in her hometown, a local trek was always part of long weekends when her course work at the National Institute of Engineering allowed it.

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

After she earned her computer science degree, Chandrasekharayya moved to the neighbouring city of Bengaluru and secured a job as a software engineer at IT services firm, Mindtree in 2003. From here she moved on to America Online (AOL) and soon enough formed a community of like-minded colleagues, “I bonded well with people who would go on treks. We hiked across several local trails such as the Sakleshpur railway trek, then we went along the Western Ghats.” It was along one such trek that love blossomed between Chandrasekharayya and her future husband, Sandeep Janardan, whom she introduced to the joys of trekking over several such weekend group excursions.

Despite the frequent local hikes, she continued to harbour a desire to embark on a Himalayan adventure. “Ever since that class 7 trip to Uttarakhand, I had developed this ambition to go to the Himalayas. And the Valley of Flowers trek was the first one I wanted to explore.” And that’s exactly what she did right after she got hitched in 2006, she giggles.

“It stretches for maybe 8 km wide, the flowers appear in layers and you have a sweeping view of the valley, with a cavernous glacier in the distance that feeds the pristine river flowing through. It’s an experience that is extremely satisfying,” she describes. Post her fi rst

tryst with Himalayan terrain, Chandrasekharayya browsed several travel blogs and portals to plan the next trek. That’s when she stumbled upon a problem that would form the crux of her future start-up.

The trekking enthusiast had mapped several trails across the country but with trip costs amounting to #100,000 and not much information available, she couldn’t begin ticking them off her wish list. That’s when she came across a blog titled Indiahikes that had details about a trail in the hilly mountains of Uttarakhand again, called Roopkund. There she found everything she needed to know about that particular region, what to expect in terms of scenery, detailed pointers on getting there and much more.

This prompted her to simply enter a request to tag along with someone else who’d want to explore the place, and she received a positive response from none other than the blog admin himself. Arjun Majumdar, an experienced trekker, ran an English learning centre in Bengaluru then. This he did alongside documenting several unexplored and popular trekking regions in India.

Having found a group to accompany and add one more name to her list of Himalayan trails, Chandrasekharayya set out for Roopkund in 2008.

Over the next week, she not only climbed 16,000 ft but found herself interested in Majumdar’s project of raising funds to organise more such treks and thus document these trails for the blog. “He informed me that there were a lot of people who were interested in Himalayan treks but there isn’t much information out there. Through the blog, he sought to collect more such enthusiasts, raise money to organise future trips and thus update the blog. Developing a trail takes a while, as the infrastructure and logistics might not be in place.

It interested me and I volunteered to be a part of it but nothing more than that as I had a job then,” she says.

But, destiny had more serious plans for Chandrasekharayya. Soon after she returned from the trek with Majumdar, the duo got cracking on ways to popularise the blog. Within a few months, they managed to bring together a group of 18 people and raised #9,000 from each of them. Post that, Indiahikes, which was just a travel blog, had 150 people signing up for more trips to Roopkund. “Indiahikes was nothing at that point in time, we were nobody. But our focus was to provide as much information as possible so people would find us credible. And that’s what made those 150 people sign up,” she explains. It took another four to five such successful treks for the founding duo to realise that they were in business and it was time to turn the blog into an enterprise.

Rapid Fire Inspiration: Pouring over maps and looking up new trails

Success factor: Minimalism — both trekking and business are all about it

Memorable milestone: In 2011, I explored a trail in Kashmir where people wouldn’t normally trek

Best advice I ever got: Difficult times will come and go. Hang in there, keep at it

One thing I learnt the hard way: Sticking to your ethics can sometimes land you in trouble

Best decision of my life: Quitting my job at AOL

One change that made life better: I started running. That helped me stay fit as I grew older

Mentor: My father Sounding board: At home, it’s Sandeep and at work, my partner, Arjun

Work-life balance: If you like what you do and you’re invested in it then both are the same

LONG ROAD AHEAD Chandrasekharayya and her partner had it all figured out by June 2009. They would meet up in their spare time and chalk out plans for the next trek.

In addition to writing code at her day job at AOL , the budding entrepreneur was doing the same to ramp up Indiahikes’ website, spread the word via online marketing and getting more people to sign up. “It was difficult but I managed to balance it well for a while. Meanwhile, I had informed my team at AOL that I wished to move on and they suggested splitting my time between the two companies. But, I believe that if you want to grow something then you must give it your 100%, otherwise it doesn’t work,” she describes her clarity in thought then.

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WANDERING ABOUT: Sandhya pottering around the family farm with her father; with co-founder Arjun Majumdar on a trek

By January 2010, Chandrasekharayya had quit

AOL and worked in a tiny room in Majumdar’s home

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to build Indiahikes. The start-up was doing fi ne for about six months till heavy rainfall on their only trek offering in Uttarakhand delivered their first business challenge. “This happened in September 2010, we hadn’t foreseen this. It was out of our control but we had taken money from people for the trek, the only right thing to do was return the money. So we pulled on somehow till October and refunded the fees. We had also hired two to three trek guides. These were people who had completed a mountaineering course. But we couldn’t pay their salaries, so we had to let them go by November,” she recalls. “We stopped drawing salaries ourselves from Indiahikes but we kept at it. The fi rst few successful batches showed us that our model worked. We just had to figure out other trails that would help us tackle the seasonal issue.” And that’s how Indiahikes introduced its first winter trek to Kedarkantha.

Today, it runs six such profitable winter trails among its 30 identified treks. Indiahikes now employs 60 people, has popularised the concept of sustainable trekking and has encouraged environmental-friendly initiatives such as Green Trails (managing waste in the hills), equipping campsites with solar lamps and monitoring the consumption of water and other resources during a trek.

Despite trying to run a business that on one hand makes money and on the other fulfills the founders’ vision of an ethically-run company, issues cropped up time and again. And Chandrasekharayya 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

seems to have only emerged stronger from each of them. She recalls one such incident, “Indiahikes earlier would organise treks to Chadar, in Ladakh, which is a hugely popular trail. Compared to what is arranged by other tour operators for a fortune, we would accomplish the same at half the cost. But that didn’t sit well with the organisers there who claimed our costing was too low. Soon enough, the rivalry turned into a bad working environment and we decided to discontinue the trail.” Turns out this incident only ended up benefitting Chandrasekharayya’s team for it led them to discover a couple of more unexplored trails in Jammu & Kashmir. She concludes, “Sometimes when things don’t match your principles, you must not go ahead with it.”

Chandrasekharayya reiterates how this learning has defined her entrepreneurial journey so far. “I knew right from the beginning that we had a prototype that worked. We wanted to organise affordable treks for the Indian middle class unlike other tour operators who catered to the Western crowd alone.” The passionate trekker, who suffers from an autoimmune disorder, finds herself most at peace when she is up in the mountains. The number of treks she participates in may have reduced to only three, but that’s because Chandrasekharayya is focused on building an organisation that scales newer heights.

While she is cognisant of the need to maintain a healthy bottomline, she reveals how monetary aspects often take a backseat. “We’re here to do something bigger, business at any cost is not our motto”. b

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24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

VANDANA MOHAN/THE WEDDING DESIGN COMPANY

Wedding Belle THE MASTER PLANNER ON HOW FANTASY WEDDINGS TURNED OUT TO BE A VERY LUCRATIVE BUSINESS

By Shilpa Elizabeth Abraham

T

he wedding day is the most

important day of a couple’s life.

But thanks to Bollywood’s infamous ‘big fat Indian weddings’ it is now every couple’s — and more so every bride’s dream.

Making these dreams come true is India’s ace

wedding planner, Vandana Mohan. And mind you, ensuring all the taam-jhaam is in place is no cakewalk. This is the story of a lady who majored in political science, aspired to join Jawaharlal Nehru University and wanted to work for the United Nations. But as fate would have it, she went on to become one of India’s

top wedding planners. Looking at her eventful journey thus far, one might say she does have a Midas touch — not everyone has the ability to steer things in their favour at every turn of life.

It all began around 28 years ago, when Mohan became India’s first woman event manager by starting her own company, Backstage Productions. Few years into the business, she had her hands full doing corporate events and luxury brand launches, when one of her clients asked her to manage his daughter’s wedding in 2003. Mohan’s initial reaction when asked to plan this wedding was, “Weddings? I don’t do weddings!” Sensing her reluctance, he asked her VISHAL KOUL

to treat it like a corporate party with 600 people and no branding.

Nearly two and a half decades later, the board outside her office in the crowded Masjid Road in Delhi still reads Backstage Productions. But its big blue door opens to the ethereal and classy setting of The Wedding Design Company (WDC), which has now become the face of its parent company. Today, Mohan makes weddings a dreamy affair for Indians across the world and has to her credit some high profile clients, such as the weddings of Prince Shivraj Singh and Princess Gayatri Kumari, Vikram Chatwal and Deepak Parekh’s son, amongst many others.

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BRANCHING OUT Mohan hails from a middle class family in Delhi and was interested in modelling and TV compering during her college days. As time went by, she started working more on documentary filmmaking, scripting, writing and anchoring and from there on, progressed to production. And in the 1980s, a Hong Kong-based production company, hired her as a consultant where Mohan eventually went on to become the production head. But soon the entrepreneurial bug bit her and she decided to branch out on her own.

When she launched her company in 1989, event management was not popular, but she was determined to take that risk. Daughter of an army man, she had no one in the family with any experience of running a business. Being new to the world of busi-

Rapid Fire Inspiration: To be the best in whatever I do

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Success factors: Hard work and integrity

Memorable milestone: The day I started my company

One thing I learnt the hard way: Maintaining impeccable integrity One change that made life better: Learnt to delegate

Sounding board: My children

Support system at work: My colleagues

Ultimate goal: Not to rest on my laurels

Best decision of my life: Getting married

Guilty pleasure: Chocolates

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

ness was not her only challenge; she was also a woman in an industry dominated by men. Mohan recalls, “I would lose contracts only because people didn’t know how to approach a woman for business or they were simply embarrassed to do business with a woman.” It was even more frustrating when she had to explain what she did — people often thought she was a caterer or ran a tent renting business.

Backstage Productions started off as a six member, all women team. Mohan remembers Fanta’s launch event that her team organised in Delhi in 1996, where the team got into some trouble with the police — a riot like situation arose as those in attendance went berserk after being denied an encore of Daler Mehndi’s performance. Mohan narrates her experience of walking into the Hazrat Nizamuddin police station with her colleagues. “The gentleman first looked at me and then behind me to see if somebody else was coming. He asked me where are the men? I curtly told him, there are no men,” she says. After initially being taken aback, the surprised officer finally helped clear the entire mess. Things got easier once she bagged international clients like Moet Hennessy, Gucci, Ford Motor Company and Chanel.

FINDING HER FEET Once Mohan began working in the wedding industry, she discovered that it was highly unorganised and there was no finesse. But Mohan decided to ensure a degree of structure, processes and responsibility. People tried to dissuade her by saying that the business works on trust, confidence and general figures being thrown around. Mohan though stuck to her plan and brought in a format where there was an estimate sheet and a fee for every service that was being provided.

Even the first step of putting a team together, came with its own set of challenges. Since she wanted an only women team, she had to convince the girls’ families about their daughters’ safety. The work involved late nights, so she ensured that all women were dropped back after work. Being creative especially in terms of design wasn’t easy. These were times before the internet and 3D tools; there was no help in demonstrating venue settings. So Mohan used to refer books on architecture, theatre and movies for ideas and she hired artists to sketch out venue layouts.

The business of wedding planning is not as glamorous as it sounds. She recalls an assignment where she had to deck up an 80x150 ft space. Although, everything was planned, when she reached the venue a day before the event the place looked empty. The décor covered only the floor and understandably, Mo-

MADE FOR EACH OTHER: 20-year-old Vandana all decked up on her big day. She got married to Vikram Mohan in 1983; WDC has designed sets for over 500 weddings till date. han panicked. She ran to Sharma Farms, a popular antique furniture seller to fi nd some chandeliers. “We nearly died that day. When people came in later and said it was fabulous, my team and I had a good laugh because only we knew what we went through to make the place look fabulous,” she recalls.

About 10 years back, WDC started getting requests for destination weddings. Initially it was only Goa and Udaipur, but since then Mohan has travelled around the world giving people their fantasy weddings. With a team of 25 -year-olds along with senior management, Mohan has done over 500 weddings till date. But what makes them stand out? Probably, the fact that Mohan overlooks details at every stage of the planning and ensures there is a signature of integrity in all of it.

FAMILY MATTERS All through the journey there has been one solid pillar of support — her husband. In fact, it was Vikram Mohan who pushed her to start something on her own.

She was only 20, when they got married in 1983 and he didn’t understand why life needed to change after marriage for a woman. “He was my biggest support, always. He would tell me to be sure of what I wanted to do and then never look back,” she says. Her husband has his own real estate business, but both of them managed their timings well to ensure at least one of them was always around for the kids. “I would start early and be home by 1pm. If I had to get out, I would do so by 3 pm and Vikram would be home by 6 pm. I would be back for my kids’ playtime, homework and head out again at 10 pm if I had to,” she reminisces. She loves cooking and continues to cook on Sundays. “In my personal life, I know for a fact that it’s a very equal re-

lationship. I contribute to the house as much as Vikram does. I truly believe that’s the way life should be?”

But then, who planned the wedding of India’s master wedding planner? “My mother did it all; I didn’t do a thing,” she laughs. Mohan believes a lot of her work is inspired by her mother. Her mom used to work in boutiques and taught in schools and set up a beautiful house with limited resources. Mohan believes her love for flowers — which is known to be WDC’s signature — comes from her mother who was very creative with her flower arrangements. Meanwhile, her dad was a great stickler for templates and following processes — a trait, which Mohan picked up later in her life.

But does she think she could have achieved more if she was a man? “May be I would have received more awards,” she laughs. “I didn’t face any restrictions, neither did I hesitate to go out. Often I needed to get government permissions for some events. Although, I had no clue how to go about it when I started, I would just pick up my bag and ask around,” she notes. She wasn’t worried about her safety, neither did she notice if people were uncomfortable when she walked into spaces where women didn’t at that time. “Even if there were problems it was in somebody else’s head, not in mine,” she smiles.

Today, she draws inspiration from Coco Chanel, who moved away from the crowd and thought out of the box, and respects Anand Mahindra for his multifaceted genius. After nearly three decades of running a successful business, Mohan has enough confidence that nothing really fazes her anymore. “I have never felt less equal to anyone. We are all human beings after all,” she says. So is there anyone she truly reveres?

“Just Amitabh Bachchan,” she breaks into a laugh. b Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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V I DYA B A L A N / A C T O R

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Eternal Optimist IN THE WORLD OF GLITZ AND GLAMOUR, VIDYA BALAN HAS LEFT AN INDELIBLE MARK WITH HER INCREDIBLE TALENT AND BY STAYING TRUE TO HERSELF

PHOTOGRAPHER: ROHAN SHRESTHA OUTFIT: AMY BILLIMORIA NECKLACE: RITIKA BHASIN JEWELLERY CONSULTANCY SERVICES RING: H.AJOOMAL STYLED BY: WHO WORE WHAT WHEN ASSISTED BY: NIYATI GOGRI

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Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

W

By Naini Thaker

hen Satyajit Ray passed

away in 1992, the world mourned one of the greatest

Indian filmmakers, and alongside, a 13-year-old girl found herself unable to get out of bed for the next two days.

Having never met the man, the girl’s parents thought she had lost it, but

such was her love for the legend and his work. It was his films that inspired her to become an actress, and even while her family thought she was living in a fantasy

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world, she knew where her passion lay. The young girl is today a National Award winning actor, who has claimed a place for herself starting off, with absolutely no connections in Bollywood.

As we entered the photo studio where Vidya Balan was being shot, RJ Jhanvi’s familiar voice from Lage Raho Munnabhai rang in my head, “Good morning, Mumbai!” Hidden behind all the cameras and the lights, there she was smiling and laughing. Sitting in a corner waiting, I was reminded of all her iconic roles, from Silk Smitha in Dirty Picture, to Begum Jaan; a pregnant wife on a quest for her husband in Kahaani to finally Lalita in Parineeta. I caught myself humming Piyu Bole, Piya Bole, a song I grew up listening to. Snap snap, click. Balan owned the camera, not even the slightest hesitance. Maybe, she really was born to be an actress.

Yet, it was only after her breakdown following Ray’s death that her parents started taking her passion for acting seriously. Until then, her father would always say, “We will cross the bridge when we come to it.”

For Balan, her best support system has always been her family. Like most families, Balan’s also had their concerns about the film industry but they continued to support the passionate teenager in her endeavour.

At 15, her mother and sister accompanied Balan to her first audition, and sat through 12 long hours. And not 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

just one, her mother went along to all her auditions, when she was just starting out. “I remember my mother often asking me, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’

We have had our differences, but my family continued supporting me through it all,” says the 38 -year-old.

After every rejection or a flop, her sister, Priya Balan, an advertising professional now, would encourage her with all sorts of stories, “Amitabh Bachchan had 11 flops before he became a superstar, Tabu waited six years for her first big break...”

When asked about her first experience in front of the camera, she recalls how nerve-wrecking it was. “I looked at myself on screen, during the test shot, and I thought to myself, ‘Amitabh Bachchan and Shabana Azmi watch out!’ But I hope no one ever fi nds those tapes, because I was horrible,” she laughs. But it was her sheer instinct and passion that built up her confidence and acting skills in the field. Unlike most other established actors, she was an outsider, with no formal training. As a young actor, she recalls how, often she would pick up the wrong skills and proudly flaunt them. For instance, after reading a piece somewhere about theatre acting skills, she assumed it was important to enunciate every word, without realising that it didn’t work in front of the camera. It was only after she started doing commercials that she understood

the various facets of acting and the industry she had chosen to be a part of.

THE FAME GAME While she was absolutely determined to work as an actress, the journey to stardom was not at all easy.

With 12 shelved projects in Malayalam and Tamil between 2000 and 2003, her confidence was completely dented. “As an established actor today, I have some backup when a film doesn’t do too well — it’s comparatively easier to recover. Back then, I would be shattered, and to constantly have so much rejection was absolutely disheartening,” shares Balan. Her way of dealing with setbacks and coping with failure was verbal diarrhoea. “My family got to hear every little detail, even things that they could do without,” she laughs. During those times, a Sai Baba temple near her house became her safe haven, where she would go and cry for hours together. Out of protectiveness, her mother would sometimes voice her disapproval, which only made Balan a lot more anxious. She would pray, “If this [film industry] is not for me, then please show me some sign.”

But through it all, no part of Balan was ready to give up — every night she would go to sleep thinking she could not continue on this path anymore, only to wake up wanting to become an actor. “I desperately wanted to express my feelings as an actor but, I never chased fame. I knew very early on that fame was only a by-product, it was never my end-goal.” After a few months of failure, she did try her hand at being an assistant director, but soon realised it was not something she could pursue. In fact, she considers it to be the toughest and the most thankless job.

She knew within her, that she was meant to become an actor. So, she would take up any work she would get. Even when the Film and Television Institute of India would call her for small projects, she would ask for conveyance, stay at the college hostel, finish the project and come back — all she wanted was some form of exposure in the fi lm industry.

It was however, a TV show — Hum Paanch, in 1995 — that got her into the limelight. Produced by Ekta Kapoor, this light-hearted, Indian family sitcom also happened to be a show that Balan’s family watched regularly. She remembers her mother saying, “If you were to pick a role, you must act in a family show like this.” It was almost like her mother’s prayers were answered when Balan was asked to audition for a replacement role for one of the five lead actors. “I was extremely calm when I got the call. Ekta asked me why I was so calm, when others

Rapid Fire Success factors: My belief in myself and the universe

Motto in life: Every day is a new day One thing I learnt the hard way: Not to listen to voices, other than your own

Inspiration: Anyone who can live life on their own terms, unapologetically

Greatest fear: Losing loved ones Unwind mode: I sit by myself in my balcony, facing the beach and eventually I stop thinking One assignment that tested my patience: Photo shoots used to, not anymore

Favourite book: Tuesdays with Morrie Favourite movie: Before Sunrise and Before Sunset

would’ve been overjoyed hearing about the opportunity. And I told her ‘I take everything with a pinch of salt.’ But now when I look back, it sounds preposterous to me,” she laughs. Although, it wasn’t a very popular character, people started recognising her.

That’s when the bug of fame first bit her, and she knew, it was just the beginning.

GLITZ AND GLAMOUR It was as Lalita in Parineeta that Balan made her grand entry into the world of Bollywood in 2005. Like most debutants, the response was extremely overwhelming for her. “The phone at our place would just keep ringing, non-stop. The media, who had never heard of me, couldn’t wait to get an exclusive with me,” she remembers.

After Parineeta, her entry into commercial fi lms like Heyy Babyy and Kismat Konnection, made her realise that ‘fluffs’ weren’t meant for her. “At that point, I was a 26 -year-old, who was new to BollyOutlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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wood and I felt, commercial cinema was the way to go. However, it only made me realise what I wanted to do,” she explains. Dealing with flops is never easy, and Balan thinks of it as a breakup, she says “You don’t want to listen to the songs from the fi lm and you don’t want any memories creeping up, you just want to push it.” After few such flops, she realised that her instinct is the only thing she should rely on instead. Her sister would often tell her, ‘acting is not just about facial expression, it is about how you feel and how that gets expressed.’ Balan took this advice very seriously and went on to bring about a revolution in Hindi cinema with her unconventional and female-centric films such as The Dirty Picture, Ishqiya, Kahaani and Begum Jaan.

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While criticism is part of the business, for a newbie to hear, “I don’t know how [Balan] can walk out of her house with clothes like that. She should just be kept under house arrest” could not have been easy.

She talks about how with active social media users, trolling is even more prevalent now. “I have a huge problem with people giving unsolicited opinions on social media platforms and delivering unwanted sermons on everything,” she explains. But she reveals her coping mechanism for this: venting it all out to her support system or being conveniently deaf. “It had only been two years into the fi lm industry; it is all hunky-dory, until you suddenly feel like a victim — like everyone is out there to get you. And at that time I stopped listening, reading or watching entertainment news entirely and even now, it stays.” But overtime, she believes, the key to success is accepting yourself and being true to yourself.

Ishqiya, she believes was her fi rst instinctive choice and probably what became the turning point of her career in 2010. While researching for a role is an essential part of Balan’s preparation for films, it is also the effort that she puts into understanding what the director wants. She explains, “I sit with them and talk for hours, sometimes about things that have nothing to do with the film. It is to simply ALL IN THE FAMILY: Balan believes her family is her greatest support system and strongest sounding board. Balan with her sister, Priya, husband, Siddharth Roy Kapur and mother, Saraswathy

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understand what the director is thinking.” So, what has been the toughest role for her? The Dirty Picture, hands down, she says. There had already been enough talk about Balan playing the role and if she could pull off a character like Silk, in those skimpy outfits. “Such speculation made me question my decision to actually do the fi lm — could I pull it off ? But a part of me knew, I wanted to do the film. So I sat down with my family to ask for their consent, since there were sex scenes and partial nudity involved.

But once my family was alright with it, I had all the confidence I needed,” she explains.

Surviving in Bollywood, let alone being successful was not easy for Balan — especially since she was a late entrant. Her passion and hard work came through, when she fi nally managed to carve out a niche for herself. Balan has been a lone ranger in the world of glamour where you can’t get ahead easily without connections. “I have never understood how people manage to maintain friendships.

The work consumes so much of you.” She has some

friends in the industry, but none she would call her ‘sounding board.’ She feels, being involved with a particular group of people on a fi lm project for about three months, doesn’t leave you with much time to socialise. While she does have her family, in terms of professional advice she now turns to her producer-husband, Siddharth Roy Kapur.

“Siddharth empathises with me and gives me informed advice, since he knows how the fi lm industry works.”

More recently she has been asked to join the Censor Board, something that she is very much looking forward to. As a strong believer in ‘to make a change, you have to be the change’ she feels it’s her time to make a change. In the future, she wishes to do biopics such as Indira Gandhi, MS Subbulakshmi and Meena Kumari. Balan’s personality and passion is reflected in the way she talks, and as her famous dialogue goes, she has a lot of “entertainment, entertainment aur entertainment” in store for us in the coming years. b Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

ZARINA SCREWVALA/SWADES FOUNDATION

Passion Personified SWADES FOUNDATION’S ZARINA SCREWVALA ISN’T ONE FOR A PREDICTABLE PATH AND THAT’S WHAT MAKES HER THE SUPER ACHIEVER SHE IS

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SOUMIK KAR

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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By Khushboo Balani

alking away from

something you love is never easy. And Zarina Screwvala had spent close to three decades nurturing

an organisation she started. It was February 2012, when the media veteran and her co-founder husband,

Ronnie, had sold UTV Soft ware Communications to The Walt Disney Company. Needless to say it had a profound impact on Screwvala, who struggled to extricate herself from the enterprise. “The only thing holding me back was the fear of

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letting go — my entire identity was wrapped up in UTV,” she candidly shares.

A few months later, a tiny piece of paper plastered on the wall at her philosophy class helped her gain a fresh perspective about her scenario. The post displayed a quote by a Chinese legend, Lao Tzu — “When you let go of who you are, you become what you might be”. A fairly small sentence but powerful enough to make her contemplate her next step.

A month later, she bid adieu to the media company and in her own words left behind “a kickass” team in charge, that she was confident would outperform her.

Once the painful part was taken care of, Screwvala had attained the clarity to envision her next enterprise. Taking a leaf out of the charitable arm of UTV she set up in 2001, Swades Foundation was established in 2013. Screwvala elucidates how her one-year extensive research, which involved field visits across various NGOs (including the biggies like SEWA and BRAC), gave her a multipronged strategy for Swades.

The NGO that has empowered close to 500,000 people so far focuses on health, education, sanitation, community mobilisation and creation of livelihood.

Based out of Mumbai, the foundation managed to reach out to 2 ,000 villages across six blocks in Raigad in Maharashtra. It has set itself an arduous target of empowering 1 million more in rural India over the next five years. “We are trying to create a 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

model of development that can be replicated by others and scaled,” she explains.

Swades’ design follows three key elements — a 360 -degree multifaceted approach as it believes there is no silver bullet to eradicate poverty; second is collaboration and third is defi ning an exit strategy. Screwvala, who worked with several diverse teams over her long media career applies her lessons from the boardroom, “We believe there is no point doing something by yourself, if you can get someone else to do it better than you. We are clear that we have to bring people’s standard of living to a given threshold and then stop any kind of intervention.

Because we are not just aiming to empower a million people, we want to empower many more, which is impossible without a well-defi ned exit strategy”.

THE OPPORTUNIST Screwvala didn’t set out to become an entrepreneur, she simply believed in her abilities as she relentlessly followed her passion. After completing her undergraduate degree in Economics from St.Xavier’s College in Mumbai in 1984, she followed it up with an additional course in marketing and advertising at Xavier Institute of Communications (XIC). It was around this time she fi rst met her husband while

doing theatre with stage doyenne, Pearl Padamsee.

And after a few months she found herself working on the production team of India’s first independent show for Doordarshan titled Mashoor Mahal. This was again produced by ad man Alyquee Padamsee, directed by Ronnie and managed by Deven Khote, who ended up co-founding UTV with the duo.

Not only did the show become a huge success, but it also helped the trio form the genesis for what was launched as UTV in 1990. They continued to do shows for Doordarshan until liberalisation brought in foreign broadcasters. UTV was commissioned to produce 250 hours by Zee TV making the budding enterprise one of the largest content providers in India. Screwvala was responsible for programming across genres and UTV adopted an unconventional approach by introducing game shows, chat shows, daily soaps with strong progressive women characters that set a new precedent in Indian television.

Soon enough in 2000, Zarina and Ronnie were married. When asked how it was to share the workspace with her spouse she admits that it was not easy and also something she would not recommend to other people. “We seem very similar on the outside, high energy and very communicative. We value the same things, but our approach is totally different.” So, for instance, Screwvala says she is more contemplative and action-oriented. “Ronnie will just say how are we doing it, I will ask why we are doing it. I think that is the biggest difference between us.

But, if you put us together, we are phenomenal.”

But apart from her personal life, Screwvala didn’t fi nd the daily soap era of the new millennium very exciting. She was increasingly getting uncomfortable with what she was doing. Finally, in 2005, she took a sabbatical for a year, which unfortunately, ended up lasting for only a fortnight. She began her break with a 10 -day vipassana program. When she returned, Ronnie offered her the position of head of programming at Hungama, a Hindi kids and entertainment channel. UTV had just turned broadcaster, which meant it could decide which content would make the cut for broadcast. And with few India television channels catering to kids and teenagers, Screwvala decided to get on board.

“I absolutely enjoyed the whole experience. I felt like I was more in control.”

AIMING FOR THE STARS Screwvala soon realised that there was a great deal of difference between producing content and broadcasting. Her relentless pursuit towards mastering

Rapid Fire Success factors: Enthusiasm and energy for whatever life brings

Memorable milestone: Getting married

Most inspirational quote: “When you let go of who you are, you become what you might be” - Lao Tzu

One thing I learnt the hard way: Learnt to control my temper the hard way

Best decision of my life: To

switch

from UTV to Swades

Ultimate goal : To be happy, make others happy

Mentor: Ronnie Unwind mode: I read Guilty pleasure: Chocolate and cheese

anything new ensured that Hungama scaled new heights. “I knew nothing about broadcasting, but I studied and went up to everybody I knew to understand what should I watch out for. We were a small channel and nobody’s competitor,” she recalls.

Before she took over the reins at Hungama, it garnered a dismal 23 gross rating points (GRPs), while its major competitor, Cartoon Network clocked a massive 200. Within a year of joining the team, the Indian channel managed to outperform global behemoth’s India offering, Disney. “That was really gratifying,” she describes. Besides, the domestically produced shows like Hero and Saniya, her introduction of international favourites such as Shinchan and Doraemon popularised the channel amongst kids. Hungama’s content ‘spoke their language’.

Thanks to Hungama’s rising popularity, Screwvala was invited to supervise the creation and launch of the leading kids channel in Indonesia and Malaysia called Astro Ceria in May and August, 2006, respecOutlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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WORK MODE: Zarina at a field visit in Raigad with Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan; with husband Ronnie at a Swades event

Apart from the zealous spirit, it was Screwvala’s dogged determination not to opt for the tried and tested path that helped her stay ahead in an extremely competitive industry. While UTV continued to create differentiated content, Disney began steadily increasing its stake in the company post the Hungama acquisition. It finally culminated in $454 million buyout by Disney in 2012 leading this entrepreneur to her next venture, Swades.

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tively. She repeated the same drill there, which involved doing extensive research to get a true flavour of their culture. It was no surprise that she had the same degree of success – defeating Disney in those markets. Beating an international media conglomerate like Disney in India, Indonesia and Malaysia continues to be something she is proud of.

Disney eventually acquired Hungama in 2006, for $30.5 million. While that deeply saddened Screwvala, she knew it was the right thing to do given that it was a single kids channel in their portfolio.

She didn’t stay idle for long though. Soon the concept for a local Indian youth channel was in the making, which resulted in the launch of UTV Bindass by mid-2007 with Screwvala as the CEO. And thanks to its differentiated content, the new player was rated as the number one youth channel in India by 2010.

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

With one successful stint after the other, what keeps Screwvala going? She believes it is her enormous sense of passion and purpose. And she points out that is what sets women apart. She strongly believes that only when you have a tough time, do you learn anything. “So everyone goes crazy when things go wrong, but I start waking up then. I get bored when things go right,” says Screwvala, hurriedly clarifying, “I like it, I am not saying I don’t like it, but it’s boring.” She emphasises the secret sauce to success is really about how you deal with challenges. “When life is talking to you, saying I am giving you a challenge, giving you an opportunity to grow, you grab it with both hands.

It matters what your attitude towards difficulty and challenges is; you should see them with joy.”

But riding over the wave hasn’t been an easy one.

The term work-life balance didn’t apply to her then.

She reveals, “In the beginning when UTV was a baby, I used to work all day, even over the weekend.

I neglected my family as I wasn’t married then. I regretted it, but now I am making up for it. It’s a tough call, but a choice I made naturally.” She further on elaborates on the need for women to be open to help as they juggle several responsibilities.

“I think women don’t ask for help. I always build that ecosystem where somebody is around when needed. And then you can be a super woman, seriously. But without it, you can’t,” she cautions. While the world of television and social work maybe on different ends of the spectrum, understanding the aspirations of the end customer is paramount to success in both fields. And given Screwvala’s past record, she clearly knows a thing or two about getting the pulse of her audience right. She acknowledges that Swades is her most challenging assignment to date but is totally geared up and is leaving no stone unturned to ensure her dream of empowering a million comes true. b

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24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

ADITI KOTHARI DESAI/DSP BLACKROCK

Owner-Manager ADITI KOTHARI DESAI DRIVES PERFORMANCE WITHOUT RANCOUR DESPITE NOT HAVING THE TOP JOB IN A COMPANY OWNED BY HER FATHER

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Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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By Khushboo Balani To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

—ee cummings

T

116

he words of this leading 20th

century American poet resonate deeply with Aditi Kothari Desai — the daughter of Hemendra Kothari, one of the pioneers of investment

banking in India — and the great granddaughter of one of the founders of the Bombay Stock Exchange. As we are about to begin the interview at the DSP BlackRock office in Nariman Point, we notice an amusing list pinned on her whiteboard. Never bullshit, always do your homework, under promise and over deliver, make up the whacky and non-trivial one liners up there.

A realistic personification of the sassy and straightforward person she is.

Desai first obtained a bachelor of science degree in Economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in the US. It’s here that she learnt the nitty-gritty of finance before graduating in 1998. Post this, she joined the investment banking group at Merrill Lynch in New York, working with the mergers and the acquisitions department, specifically handling financial institutions such as banks and insurance firms. At the time, Merrill Lynch was in a joint venture with Desai’s father’s DSP Financial in India.

She later went on to join the fixed income sales team in the same firm in 2000 and worked there for two years before joining the mutual fund business in 2002.

Rechristened DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund after Merrill Lynch sold off its stake, the Kotharis continue to hold 60% of the firm, where Kothari is the non-executive chairman and Desai is the director.

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

Despite the financial stake in the company, she has climbed the corporate ladder step-by-step, rising from being the head of channel in retail sales to now the executive vice-president and head of sales and marketing at DSP BlackRock. For someone who belongs to the family, the 41-year-old is clear that she will do whatever it takes to maximise shareholder value. “Ownership does not equal entitlement. Right now, we have a very capable management team running the business and I don’t see why we should disturb that. Ideally, if I do get the chance, I would like to be on the board and have the most capable person run the business,” she says.

Speaking of capabilities, Desai’s resume includes several professional milestones with launching the first offshore India fund in 2005 being the most memorable one.

She describes how the plan was set in motion. It all began in 2003 - 04, when India was witnessing good growth and the firm had good managers on board. Desai worked

on making the dream a reality, which involved convincing Merrill Lynch and Sebi over long, arduous meetings.

After almost a year, she launched the fund, which pulled in an initial $90 million. Within a year, the fund grew to a size of $1.5 -billion, and is still going strong. Recognising the need to sharpen her business acumen, Desai went on to pursue an MBA from Harvard Business School, only to return to the mutual fund in 2007.

Ever since she has taken charge of the sales and marketing division, assets under management have more than doubled from #37,378 crore in October 2015 to #85,305 crore as on October 2017. Ask her how she managed to contribute significantly to the growth and she says, “I had a really good team to work with, I just had to make them feel energised, secure and motivate them. And I was pretty strict about holding them to their numbers, which had not been done before. It was necessary to clearly lay out my expectations and ensure the team delivered”. The tough taskmaster firmly believes that leadership is about empowering, trusting, listening to one’s people.

TAKING THE LEAD Desai fondly recalls her fi rst instance of tasting success as a leader way back at the John Connon and Cathedral School, Mumbai as a house captain in the 12th grade. She says she was not a competitive student but discovered she performed better in a supervisory role. Leading the victory of her house across all events was something she was extremely proud of and it continues to motivate her even today. This was also the moment when a young Desai realised the importance of collaboration and that she need not always be the strong one, but sometimes can let her team bridge the gap. She elaborates, “You can’t do everything on your own. You need to have people on your side”.

Desai has also managed to take on additional responsibility during stressful times with ease. This is evident from the seamless transformation she went through in April 2015. At a time when she was to be picking out the wedding outfit for her big day that was three weeks away, Desai was instead figuring out how to go from managing a team of seven to a team with 300 employees as she was given additional charge of the sales division. Being a fi fth-generation business leader did come with a sense of responsibility in the beginning, maybe even a degree of obligation. But, today this executive enjoys her job.

Desai, who’s on the board of her father’s Wildlife Conservation Trust, credits her refined people skills

Rapid Fire Success factors: Generosity, trust, empowerment and ethics

Inspiration: Melinda Gates Memorable milestone: Starting the first India-focused off-shore fund

Motto in life: This too shall pass; Where there’s a will, there’s a way

Sounding board: Husband One change that made life better: Focusing more on spirituality Work-life balance: Running a successful organisation and still being home at 6pm Guilty pleasure: Desserts 117 to her father’s teachings. She says, “I learnt to trust people and not be cynical. My father told me, to have faith in people’s abilities people but not to be too naïve. My parents were uncompromising where ethics and values were concerned.”

Married to Vikram Desai, the founding director of the India office of Toronto-based Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, she admits that having a supportive spouse has made a huge difference to her life.

And despite their hectic schedule, the couple always makes time for each other.

Another contributor to her success has been her ability to be indifferent to gender bias. Desai admits that she never felt her gender prevented her from achieving more, but she adds that often men don’t like to be told what to do by women. Sometimes the aggression in the boardroom feels different coming from a woman than from a man, but she’s used to it now. In fact she’s pushing for more. “I want DSP BlackRock to be among the top five asset management companies in the country in the next five years.” On a parting note, Desai urges women to not let marriage or any other event alter their career trajectory. She advises, “Find a career, not a job and strive to be the best at it”. b Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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LARA BALSARA VAJIFDAR/MADISON WORLD

Quiet Flier THE SHY AND RESERVED LARA BALSARA VAJIFDAR HAD BIG SHOES TO FILL, BUT WITH HER INDEFATIGABLE APPROACH SHE HAS TAKEN MADISON WORLD TO GREATER HEIGHTS Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

Y

By Krishna Gopalan

ou just have to broach the

subject of the Mumbai suburban rail network to see the glint in Lara Balsara Vajifdar’s eyes. For five years, she religiously took the train at

7:05 AM from western Mumbai’s Jogeshwari to get to St

Xavier’s College, a forty-minute ride. “We travelled as a group and that was a lot of fun,” she reminisces fondly. Sitting in her expansive living room, Vajifdar points to a building a couple of metres away. “That’s the house where I

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grew up. This is a Parsi colony and we all know each other quite well,” she says. Being the daughter of Sam Balsara, who set up Madison Communications in 1988, she had large shoes to fill and Vajifdar was acutely aware of that. At 36, she is the executive director of the now re-named firm, Madison World, which boasts of a client roster including the likes of Asian Paints, Marico and Levi’s. She has been involved in the diversification of the firm into newer areas such as digital, sports, entertainment and entry into overseas markets.

THE MAD AD WORLD The initial tryst with Madison was not long after college in 2003. After acquiring a degree in economics, Vajifdar was still undecided about her next move.

She briefly enrolled for a masters degree at Mumbai University, but later decided to enroll for a masters abroad. She enrolled at Bristol University for a masters program in marketing.

Two months before flying out to the UK , she spent a fortnight at Madison as an intern. “I was exposed to media, creative and PR as part of my assignment.

These departments were in different parts of the city and I had to travel around,” she recalls. That brief stint was devoid of mercy and she had to clock long hours, quite typical of the business. “I enjoyed the whole experience,” she says.

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

None of that surprised her though, since she had seen her father work. “When my sister and I were in school, we saw him only on Sundays. He was asleep when we left and he would always return way past our bedtime,” she says. The Sunday was, however, sacrosanct, and reserved for an outing to Juhu beach and occasionally, Essel World.

Vajifdar thinks the Bristol stint did her a world of good since she had lived in a cocoon for the most part, until then. “I went to a bank for the first time and had to take care of things like cooking and cleaning,” she recalls.

Left to her, she would have liked to work for a year in the UK before returning. A bout of chicken pox changed that plan and she was back home early.

Once back in Mumbai, Madison was the obvious choice. “Working in any other agency would have been difficult, since everybody knew my father.”

She joined Madison in 2004 as a management trainee and worked very closely with Balsara or as she says, “just followed him everywhere.” But being the boss’ daughter didn’t get Vajifdar any special treatment. In fact, her dad gave her a rating of 2 out of a maximum of 5 in her first year of work, indicating the high expectations he had from his daughter. She didn’t disappoint him for too long, coming back with a 4+ rating the next year, as she quickly learnt the

ropes of the business. “I would not have had a job otherwise,” she chuckles, “Seriously!”

She then moved to client servicing in 2005 for close to two years. “It was a great phase, since the whole gamut of advertising was widening around that time.

We were looking to diversify and that was the beginning of putting in place Madison World,” she says.

Vajifdar was part of the firm’s forays into new areas such as events, analytics, mobile and sports entertainment. In 2007, she moved to the corporate office and focused on strategy, looking for avenues of growth for the fi rm in newer areas such as digital and brand consulting. Over the past seven-eight years, since she has fully taken up a corporate role, Madison’s gross billing has increased from #2,500 crore to around #4,000 crore. Vajifdar says, “It’s not just about how much billing has increased by. What is more important is the strategy, which has allowed Madison to venture into areas, where we have either not had a significant presence or no presence at all.”

Today, the new business areas comprise 40% of Madison World’s revenues.

For someone who is reserved, having a father as a mentor meant a quick and steep learning curve. “I greatly admire my father’s thoroughness with the smallest of things,” she says, describing what all she had tried to imbibe from him. “He is a workaholic but is extremely passionate about what he does and enjoys it thoroughly. That’s so evident even now.”

Rapid Fire Success factors: Hard work, integrity and values

Memorable milestone: My daughter’s first birthday

Best advice I ever got: Lead by example

One thing I learnt the hard way: Don’t take anything for granted One change that made life better: I started exercising Sounding board: My husband Support system at home: My mum, husband, sister and staff

Motto in life: Do good and be good Work-life balance: It doesn’t exist Unwind mode: I play with my kids

A WORLD OF EQUALS A confident ad professional who wears her work on her sleeve, Vajifdar does not buy the notion of gender bias. “My belief is that women need to focus on their job and not make excuses. It’s hard for any organisation to make things easy for you,” she says.

Of course, she admits that being a mother of two has softened that stance, somewhat. “I am defi nitely more sensitive when a female colleague says her child is unwell,” she says calmly. There is no doubt in her mind that a proper support system is at least half the battle won. “One has to create that, and focus on work when in office,” she says. To her mind, any organisation is constantly in the need of talent and will go the extra mile to ensure those folks stay back.

“That is irrespective of gender or age and it is left to the person to demonstrate that level of competence.

It’s a world that belongs to professionals and not to a man or a woman.”

Speaking of a support system, having her parents in the vicinity has been a huge plus. “My mother takes care of dropping my daughter to school and

bringing her back as well. But for her, things would have been extremely difficult,” she says candidly.

“Even though Kaizad (her husband) is very supportive,” she adds.

Kaizad Vajifdar, a pilot with Air India, largely flies overseas. The couple met through common friends.

They married in early 2015 and have a daughter, who is a year-and-a-half; and a boy, who is threemonths-old. “The last two years have been only about babies,” she says with a laugh. “Kaizad is extremely hands-on at home and with the kids as well.

With his schedule, we now plan life one-two weeks in advance. I guess when time is limited, you tend to manage things well.”

Vajifdar comes across as someone patient and not bossy. “I am not a micro manager and like to let people be,” she explains. Equally, she opens up on a limitation, which is about the need to develop strengths on the social side and building relationships. “It’s something I need to work on. I will get better at it,” says Vajifdar with quiet confidence. b Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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SCHAUNA CHAUHAN/PARLE AGRO

Beverage Baroness AFTER LEARNING EVERY NUANCE OF THE BUSINESS FROM HER DAD, SCHAUNA CHAUHAN HAS DRAWN UP HER OWN AMBITIOUS BLUEPRINT FOR PARLE AGRO 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

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SOUMIK KAR

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

T

By Krishna Gopalan

he colour pencil marks on the

wall and the large sofa does not really give the impression of a

meeting room. The petite Schauna Chauhan is quick to notice the curiosity

on our faces before breaking into a wide smile. “This is the handiwork of my son. He comes by in the afternoon after school,” she says. Jahaan, the four year old, is the apple of his mother’s eye and she clearly can’t have enough of him. He visits her in the office after the workaholic mother,

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by her own admission, is done by 6.30 PM. Chauhan is at her desk by 8.30 AM and often begins her day with an early morning meeting.

Wearing several hats — boss, daughter, mother and wife — is something most working women are adept at; Chauhan is no exception.

As the first-born to Prakash Chauhan, the 41-yearold has a job on her hands in a hyper-competitive market where her brands such as Frooti, Appy and Bailey are up against other nimble-footed Indian rivals and the deep-pocketed multinationals. But it is not something that worries her. “One has to be aware of competition but it is more important to focus on what one is doing. I like to compete with myself,” she says calmly.

Having taken over as the CEO of Parle Agro in 2006, Chauhan works closely with her top team and her two sisters. Responsibilities are clearly divided between the siblings, with each focusing on their strength. While Chauhan takes scare of manufacturing, compliance, quality, finance and technical functions, her younger sister, Alisha oversees the CSR work. Nadia, the youngest of the three, is in charge of strategy, sales and marketing and R&D. “My sisters are my back up and I can rely on them for anything,” she describes.

CUTTING HER TEETH Having such a well-known surname ought to have been an advantage and the lady does admit it. “I do 24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

take advantage of it sometimes at work when I want something done or even to reach out to a person outside. Just saying Schauna does not work always,” she says as she breaks into a laugh. “On a serious note, the Parle Agro name is really the clincher, it opens a lot of doors and that is a constant realisation of how strong the brand is.”

When Chauhan was 12, she was sent to a boarding school in Kodaikanal, which remains unforgettable.

“I really blossomed there and got interested in sports and music. It broadened my mind, which would not have been possible in Mumbai,” she thinks. Other memories are of being a prankster, with her parents soon getting a note from the school authorities. “My mother was called in by the Principal. I wish I could tell you what it was all about,” she says with a mischievous smile.

Chauhan was always clear she would be joining the family business in Mumbai. Since that decision, she moved to Franklin College in Switzerland in 1995 for a degree in international management. “That experience of meeting people from across the world was very special,” she reminisces. A day after classes were done, she was airborne to Mumbai to start work at Parle Agro.

A big source of comfort was in having her father oversee her in the early days. “He was fully involved

in the business. I was only 22 and spent a lot of time watching him in meetings,” she describes. Chauhan’s job title was executive (operations) then. One of the memories from that phase, she remembers, is endlessly signing vouchers.

Though there was no formal reporting to her father, Chauhan made it a point to chat with him religiously over lunch. “It could have been about labour negotiations, capacity constraint or a greenfield project. There was never really an agenda but I was with him most of the time,” she explains. That stint lasted for about two years before the family split in 2001. Chauhan does not remember much from that except having to do up the office building that she currently sits in. “Things were moving so quickly that I had very little time for anything else,” she recalls.

In her mind, none of her colleagues viewed Chauhan differently just because she was the boss’ girl.

“My father always watched what I was doing. When I came up with an absurd idea, he would very politely ask me to “focus” on work,” she narrates.

Two gems that she picked up from him during that phase still mean a lot to her. One was the emphasis on understanding the business and grasping every nuance. “The other thing was to go along with my sisters,” Chauhan recalls him saying. “The job cannot be done alone and you will have to work with them all the time.”

One of her father’s traits that she admires is his quest for reason in everything. “He is always questioning things and that bit about probing is something I have picked up too. It helps in getting to the root cause and makes the process of understanding better,” thinks Chauhan. Much of that, in her view, can come only from meeting more people and not getting bogged down by daily responsibilities.

Narrating an instance to drive home this point, she speaks about chatting with one of the company’s carton manufacturers last year. A casual conversation turned deeper with her trying to understand the business in more detail. “We figured that our cartons could be redesigned, saving us more than a couple of crores. We got cracking immediately and that was possible only because of our desire to reach out to more folks in the business.”

Chauhan’s stint as the executive director saw Frooti’s market share to bounce back in 2004. The beverage was under pressure because of the onslaught from Slice, when her team decided to launch a 65 ml triangular pack for the rural market to increase consumption. It was an instant hit that increased the

Rapid Fire Success factors: Dedication, commitment, perseverance

Best advice I ever got: Question everything

One thing I learnt the hard way: Not listening One change that made life better: I started getting healthier Mentor in life: My father Mentor at work: My sister, Nadia Support system at home: My husband, my son, my mum

Ultimate goal: To be the largest beverage company

Work-life balance: Don’t take your work home

Unwind mode: Spending time with my son

product reach as well as outlet base by 30%. This was a critical phase since there was a high level of dependence on just Frooti.

The following year, Appy Fizz was launched, which managed to create a niche as a sparkling apple drink.

Both Appy and Frooti now have a market share of 24% and 46% in their respective apple and mango categories in Fruit Flavoured Still Drink. But Chauhan is not happy with status quo and now dreams of making Parle Agro one of the largest beverage companies in the country.

THE BEST AND WORST OF TIMES She credits a lot of the success to her family and also the teams she has worked with over time. If her father was the mentor at work, Chauhan says her mother was the one who always encouraged the girls. Her message was clear — you are blessed with a surname but do not take anything for granted.

Outlook BUSINESS / 24 November 2017

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STRONG BONDS: Schauna with her father Prakash and sister Nadia; with her husband Bikram and son Jahaan

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“It helped that I had a very normal childhood and money was never discussed at home. I think my mother managed to give us that balance without saying very much.”

In late 2004, she married actor and model, Bikram Saluja. Chauhan describes him as an open-minded person and flexible as well. “We hit it off quite early and I liked him. He has been a great support and is someone with an independent mind,” she says.

While it has been a great run for her professionally, there have been moments of despair. She speaks of the period around 2002 - 03 right after the split in the family. The restructuring that followed was stressful. By this time, the large brands such as Thums Up and Gold Spot were sold to Coca-Cola.

“The organisation had to be rebuilt and it was a critical period. Everything till then had come to us, and now we had to work many times harder,” says Chauhan, adding that there was a huge focus on cost optimisation and increasing productivity.

“That period made me tougher as a person and professional,” she says. At that point, the company exported to just the US and Dubai. Now, its products are sold in 50 countries. From a turnover of #450 crore in 2008, Parle Agro is today a #1,600 crore company.

As far as her transition to the CEO’s role is concerned, Chauhan explains that belonging to a promoter family had instilled the levels of accountability in her. Working alongside her father meant that she was given more responsibilities, and only when she began feeling more confident in her own decisions that she stopped approaching him for advice, she reveals.

24 November 2017 / Outlook BUSINESS

As the boss, she maintains her biggest strength is that she doesn’t go around in circles. “You ask me a question and you will get a straight answer. I will say it as it is without hiding anything,” she elaborates. That worked well for her company, especially as it helps in bringing in clarity and direction to every issue. That trait is useful when it comes to dealing with bad news, which Chauhan says, she is “excellent” at. “What irritates me is terrible news not conveyed to me at the time the issue was building up but brought to my notice when it becomes a crisis,” she explains. Her passion for work means she is quite pushy as a boss, but only with the intention to get the best out of a person. “I want them to think beyond their day-to-day responsibilities,” she says.

Chauhan is as open about her setbacks as her successes. She cites a recent instance of shifting preform manufacturing machines from the Khurda plant in West Bengal to Sitarganj in Uttarakhand.

Things went awry when there was a delay in the completion of civil work. “We suddenly had a situation with an idle machine sitting there, while there was a demand in the market. That was a disaster and it was the result of poor market intelligence,” she says sheepishly. Her father did not take it too well and as she admits, “everyone was pulled up.”

For Chauhan, each day in business is learning something new and with experience, she has developed more patience.

On a recent vacation to Singapore, she spent time at a local supermarket observing what people were buying. Clearly, life is rarely devoid of work for this lady.

Even, when it’s holiday time. b