Billionaire Harsh Mariwala On Understanding INDIAN Consumers DEEPLY | Marico Story| FO25 Raj Shamani

if. [Music]. marico has to enter a completely new. industry like leave fmcj yeah and you. have to lead it again okay. what would that industry be today and. why our today's guest is someone who i. have aspired and looked up to since i. was a kid because i wanted to build an. fmcg business and this guy turned a. small family business and made it into a. multi-billion dollar industry today he's. a billionaire he's an entrepreneur he's. an oil king of the country he made oil a.

synonym with his brand most of the. people don't even know that there's a. thing called coconut oil which exists. people only know that this parachute oil. people don't even know that there's. edible oil which exists people only know. that it's saffola oil this guy has built. brands which has become synonymed with. the entire category and he keeps on. building brands after brands after. brands and kept on investing in so many. different things so you need to. understand this person because he. understands something about indian.

customers which many few people have. been able to decode so how can you. understand indian customers how can you. identify the right strengths and. problems which you have as an. entrepreneur how can you go for those. problems try to find out solutions and. capture the entire market how is india. different how can you create wealth and. in the end we've also talked about his. book where he is written down everything. about his life about his entrepreneur. journey about his next ventures and how.

any of the people who want to grow and. excel in their lives can start doing it. from today itself make sure that you. watch this episode till the end and you. buy his book as well because the book. has so many more golden nuggets which. you can't even imagine. so we're going to dive in directly into. the question answers sure i have a very. like very cliche question in the. beginning because there are a lot of.

young entrepreneurs and young business. owners are watching this and maximum of. them are family business owners right. they're all starting small businesses. and your journey started similarly yeah. right. what is that first step which somebody. should take in order to build like a. billion dollar business from their small. family business. so i think it just. doesn't happen automatically. there is a certain process as you said. one has to follow. and that process starts with identifying.

what is the opportunity okay and if you. have to identify an opportunity to. create a new business. then you have to have very deep. understanding of consumer needs. so the first step is. broadly in what area what is my strength. what am i good at. and depending on that identify some. broad. business opportunity it could be i.t it. could be pharma it could be fmc it could. be anything or it could be a service. industry but that broad identification.

is required that where do i need to go. i think that is the starting point. having done that then within that. category of business. what is the unique thing you're bringing. to the consumer. because it's a highly competitive. environment. and if you offer me to product. you will not succeed. because the consumer will ask. what is unique about what you're. offering yeah i can get the same thing. from my current. whatever supplier or wherever i'm buying.

from. and i want something unique innovative. pioneering. so. then the process starts with. interacting with consumers. if you have an idea of bringing in. unique offering. then you can explore that with the. consumer. and develop that idea because many times. you may have a blind spot yeah you may. think that you have a great opportunity. but the country it doesn't cut ice with. the consumer so it's very important to. have a close interaction with the.

consumer. refine the idea based on the inputs. received from the consumer again go back. to the consumer develop a product while. if you are in a product business while. interacting the consumers and again give. it to them so there is a lot of. iterations take place between you and. the consumer before you finally launch a. product or a service. i think that's very well invested. because if you don't do a proper. homework. in terms of identifying an opportunity. creating a unique offering which appears.

to the consumer. your chances of success are much much. lesser and if you are able to. identify what is that sweet spot with. the consumer is it big enough for me to. grow. then. i think. that is the starting point so i think i. call that how do you create a right to. win you have to create a right to win in. a highly competitive environment. and that can happen through innovation. it can happen through starting something.

new which nobody else has done. or it could be depending on the kind of. business you are and it could be a. patent if you are a pharma company who. done something research which you. patented which others cannot copy. or it could be some unique service. offering in a service industry which. others are not doing for example dominos. and there are supplying pizzas but the. uniqueness came in. terms of offering good pizza within a. certain time frame yeah and if they. don't deliver within that time frame.

they were willing to give it for free. for free and that to me is giving it for. free was the biggest. unique factor it was not 15 minutes they. would have said and then sometimes. they would have taken 25 30 million. years they had a clear. direction that okay if i don't deliver. within that time frame i will have to. give it free yeah and that cut ice of. course the quality of the pizza has to. be good you can't. offer. some optimal quality product but. the unique thing which they identified. was. a certain time frame and they were.

willing to back it up by giving a refund. so i think the key thing is to identify. what is unique which you're bringing in. and then. you know i explore that you will go. through a lot of learning curve because. most entrepreneurs when they think or no. idea it doesn't appeal to the consumer. or you need to refine the ideas you have. to go on prototyping that do it in a. small way when you have ultimately an. offering again learn from that because. you're offering many things you are. offering the product you are offering if. you are you are offering a packaging you. are offering a brand name you are.

offering a pricing. so it has to fit in with all the. parameters you know if you have price it. too high then the consumer will reject. they may like the product yeah. if they don't like the brand name or. packaging again it will not cut ice so. you are. testing all the parameters. if you are in a product business. starting with the product itself. packaging pricing. [Music]. communication advertising. so everything. and. again in that prototype phase you may. want to.

change. something which doesn't appeal to the. consumer. and once you get a good grip that yes. now this is cutting ice then you can. start expanding and putting in more. resources too to succeed in the business. but it's a very iterative. process and many times the. entrepreneurs they themselves don't have. all the answers so you have to interact. with the consumers you have to interact. with the people you are. you are working with. and that's how an idea develops and you. know that's how it gets executed so now.

i have two questions based on your. answer okay. number one the first question is that. when you started okay at that time most. of the young people what they think is. oh i have a family business i have to. join this only yes okay they don't think. about what are my strengths they don't. think about how can i help my family. business grow or what is that thing that. i can find out in the customer or the. problem or the consumer need right yes. at that point. what should they do before joining the. business yes so that.

they learn and they have a certain. understanding at least this much. self-awareness that okay this is my. strength yeah i'm gonna go and change. this maybe if that takes turn around the. entire business into something new or. maybe doing something inside the. business operations which are going on. yeah and what was that one thing for you. yeah how did you identify that so it's a. very good question because i think most. young people. they don't identify their strengths and. many times. most of us don't know what our strengths.

are. you may have it in you but you're not. identified that this is my strength. so my first step whether you are. joining a business family business or. you are taking up a career. is to identify your own strengths. and that can come. when you interact with people who know. you. your family members your close friends. the best thing is to. get them together about 8 10 of them. whoever your they know you very well i. mean you can't just get any outsider but.

they have to know you well. and ask them to brainstorm. what are my strengths and what are my. weaknesses. and hopefully that will give you a. picture in terms of what your strengths. are. and many of us as i said have blind. spots. so that blind spots will be overcome so. it's not only necessary to identify. strengths but which areas you're not so. good at okay. so my second hypothesis is that if you. are leveraging your strengths. and doing something which is based on.

your strengths your chances of enjoying. that journey are much more. because your strength is something. normally it gets converted into a. passion yeah. if you're good in talking to people now. you've gone into this. podcast and all because that's that's. you enjoy doing it yeah. so i'm you have to enjoy what you're. doing your career your business it has. to be fun. and if it is based on your own strengths. then there are higher chances of you. succeeding. than looking at something because it's.

the flavor of the season or flavor of. the decade for example a few years back. i.t industry or now digital revolution. of course there are great opportunities. in digital space today but if you're not. good in digital space you should not go. into that because that's not your. strength yeah and you'll be competing. with many others who have strengths in. the digital space you may not have it so. your chances of success may not be there. true. so but i strongly believe that. every person in this world has some. god-given gifts every person okay.

and the key thing is to identify what. those god-given gifts are. and to improve on those god-given gifts. because if you have strengths and if you. start improving on that. and that improving learning is a. perpetual journey i mean you can go on. learning until the last day of your life. but most of us they tend to look at okay. this is my weakness so let me try and. improve on my weakness. i have 75 25 rules 75 percent of your. effort should go and improve your. strengths. 25 percent in improving your weaknesses.

well that's interesting because your. chances of success in improving your. strength are much higher than your. chances of success in improving your. weaknesses unless you have some fatal. flaws if you have some fatal flaws then. you have to improve that weakness yeah. but if you don't have any fatal flaws. then it's better to concentrate on. improving strengths and leveraging your. whole career business whatever your. future based on your strengths this. makes sense because you know i remember. like as a kid. my mom and dad they used to tell me.

number one. and that eventually turned out to be. like my go-to. ticket to start learning more about. talking learning more about the entire. business of talking and that eventually. became my strength and then eventually. we ended up having a passion to do the. business. but i'm glad you know i'm just. interjecting i'm glad your parents asked. to do. something which appeal to you. unfortunately in the indian society most. parents are asking children to do.

something because it is their passion. yeah or because it is a flavor of and. there is great opportunities in digital. business variety business but you have. to look at does it is it for me or not. you know. and they expect that every person will. succeed if you go into it that doesn't. happen you know. you have to have an offering. irrespective of the potential in that. space. and you have to be good at it so now. that you talked about like you were you. always wanted to build a consumer-led. business okay. what is that one thing about indian.

customers or in the consumers which. every young person should know today so. i think first of all india is a big. country it's like having 30 different. countries because each state. has a different consumer profile it has. a different user profile depending on. again and what kind of. can your product you are going in. especially when it comes to food. state has a different food preference. you know some gujaratis may like sweet. food some androids may like spicy food. so the key thing is not to look at.

indian consumer from one lens you have. to look at it from different lenses. depending on. where you want to market that product. and each state may have a different. preference for example. a product like i was told like horlicks. does mainly well in south you know yeah. because that's the preference of that is. that area you know so you need to. identify what. works especially when it comes to. consumer preferences. where and not to treat indian consumer.

from one lens. you have to look at indian consumer from. virtually from different segments you. can look at state wise cut you can look. at uh because the consumer is changing. very fast urban rural you can look at. young old millennials. ze customs so there are i think many. many segments one can look at and. because the consumer size is very large. you will just need to identify what is. the opportunity you want to pursue and. do inciting with that sharply defined. opportunity rather than looking at.

indian consumer from a wide lens. but isn't it difficult to build like a. national brand when you are. dealing with so many diverse set of. consumers especially let's say language. barriers right i've seen i went to up. bihar that side they have a very hindi. oriented packaging which is not relevant. in the south market south has a very. local language. you know packaging yeah so different. colors appeal people different perfumes. different fragrances appeal different. kind of people yeah so how do you build. like one brand like parachute is one.

brand which connects india. i was talking to this to about my dad. that you know my dad was like. most of his friends don't even know that. it's called coconut oil yeah like they. know it's parachute so how is it and. it's same from south to east to west to. north yeah so i think again good. question depending on the category. you're present in you may. do with a product which appeals to. across india luckily in coconut oil. that product appeals similar product. appeals to people from south west.

northeast so. there is no. differentiation but as i said earlier in. terms of food food is. highly localized you know and i'll give. you an example you know we launched. safola masala oats. and we said that can. so we said that how how do we decide the. taste what kind of. flavors do we need to give so we did. inciting. with consumers in south. and different parts different states and. try to determine what are their.

preferences. so. we have regionals within the suffola. masala what's we have regional offerings. for example in tamil nadu we will have a. pongal roads okay which will not sell. well in so and but maybe in in uh. in west you'll sell pav bhaji watts you. know because pav bhaji is so so you try. and determine those variants. but there are some variants which cuts. across. all india for example must plain masala. votes. normal like a masala out it cuts across.

every state every state but then there. are certain other variants which are. only specifically required for that. particular state and the key thing is to. identify them depending again on. consumer insight into your preferences. so your first big product was parachute. oil right parachute and support oil yeah. so was it difficult for northern. customers to convince them because. coconut is very well used and popular in. the south so not it's not that popular. right it was i think earlier it was. different kind of oils that they were.

using so i think it goes on varying and. the overall usage of coconut oil. varies from. different in different parts of india so. south and west are bigger markets. followed by east and followed by north. so one has to realize okay there is. a consumer preference and i need to. concentrate more. on. on the south and east south and west. market which are the bigger. opportunities so i have to so my first. expansion happened in west then we went.

to south. and then north and east okay so now. i have one more like is there a specific. rule or something which goes beyond or. which can be applicable to every fmcg. business or every business like i'll. tell you one rule like i had a rule i. read it somewhere that in order to build. an fmcg business you need to keep in uh. like when it comes to distribution you. need to keep in mind three things access. availability and awareness yeah like you. need to have products which are. available from small session.

awareness should be everywhere and it. should be available yeah this is one. rule do you have any certain rule that. should be followed by everyone or which. will make life easier for everybody no i. think a lot depends on the category. you're present and at what extent. is the opportunity for the category you. know there are certain categories where. the opportunity only will be in a. certain. parts of the country it need not be. whole of bombay it could be only in. south bombay for example okay. so a lot depends on what is your.

consumer. and you need to define that consumer the. profile of the consumer and how big is. the opportunity and depending on that of. course these three rules apply. but the. in the last two three years we've seen. emergencies with so-called d2c brands. which are direct to consumer brands. now they have overturned a lot of the. earlier shall i say. parameters of launching a new product. because many of the entry barriers which. existed earlier. entry barriers in terms of.

scale of distribution. in terms of number of shops wanted to. to cater to. in terms of advertising money required. to promote a brand especially in. national brands you know national. advertising television press which was. very expensive. now those entry barriers are gone. because you can market the product. through dtc d2c ecommerce sites you can. need not do mass advertising you can do. digital marketing. so we have seen importance of many.

new brands which have. uh. which have emerged out of this d2c. opportunity. and many of them have actually. gone into extensions which the earlier. mindset was brand extension should be in. a similar. broad areas now many brands have gone. beyond what the normal traditional. mindset was they have. they're disrupted and because they have. a very close relationship with the. communities they are catering to. and as long as there is a potential for.

that. them to leverage those communities they. are able to do so yeah so i have a fun. question before i ask you another. serious one is do you have a personal. fascination towards becoming like an oil. king or something. because you recently acquired a d2c. brand which is also dealing with a beard. all right so. is there anything like actually on the. contrary i don't want to get away from. the way and it's over a period of time. our our contribution from oils has gone. down okay because the.

the differentiation the value addition. in oils is limited. and if it is limited then others ability. to copy you. will be high. so you need to have a very strong brand. or some strength in the brand or. emotional connect with the consumer. which will help you retain the consumers. and if you go into more value-added. premiums category of personal care foods.

healthy offerings. then to that. extent uh. others ability to copy you because it is. complex will be limited yeah so on the. contrary i want to move away from and go. more into. healthy. beauty wealth and beauty. wellness and beauty are the two. parameters i would like to expand you. know oh yeah how like i've now been. analyzing and looking at all the steps. marico has made over the years it's more. towards wellness and. beauty because overall.

i think overall contribution of. parachute suffola has. percentage to sales also has gone down. over a period of time and one stage. parachute was like 70 of a turnover i. don't remember now but it must be about. 40 percent now oh yeah it's gone down. quite a lot that's insane yeah. so. now you said like in order to build a. brand or in order to stand out in the. competitive market you need to have like. a very good consumer inside yes right. in the beginning at the beginning like. now you have like a vas.

like a range of people you can go to. states you can go to you can have a. consumer sampling you have you have a. budget for it everything is there in the. beginning we don't have the budget yeah. we don't have like who are the people we. should go talk to is it like just like. go talk to friends and family or how how. is it happening like in the beginning. how do you talk and get the consumer. itself i think the key thing is what. what is your consumer you need to define. you know you may be offering something. which is for. a certain. income profile certain. uh.

educational profile certain um i mean. urban rural kind of a god you need to be. very clear what. broadly in terms of what is your target. audience and otherwise very large number. consumer. you need to define that and talk to them. you know the more sharply you define the. consumer the better it is because then. you'll get. a better. picture in terms you may say okay my. consumer is all india like parachute. everybody is. is consumed from the lowest parameter in. terms of bottom of the pyramid to the to.

the highest yeah. so it's uh but. most products when the new products you. will have to target your. your potential customer and you know. work with that customer and then you can. see okay can i go on expanding that. consumer from this to this you know so. do you feel in the beginning when people. start right they feel if i'm not. catering let's say men that are missing. out on like a large population if i'm. not catering on urban i'm missing out on. a large so that's why people say that i. don't want to define my customer my.

customer is everyone my product is for. everyone so do you think that's a bad. thing to do. so. you know. the more widely you define a consumer. the more difficult it will be for you to. have the right to win because those. categories would have been occupied by. somebody else yeah for example shampoos. you know shampoos everybody uses shampoo. you know urban rule now. male female. so. [Music]. but if you have something unique in that. category something which is like.

cut size. with all the leading brands and again. dominated by multinationals global. brands. very difficult for you to succeed in a. category like shampoo unless you have a. truly remarkable product which is unique. and which is cutting edge you know. so it's easier to say that let me go to. large categories. but difficult to succeed the chances of. success are higher in certain segments. where the larger players have not.

entered those markets for example we. acquired this brand beardo you know yeah. it is only products for beard now the. big players would not go into beaverton. because this is not a very large yeah. relatively small for them you know it's. a hundred qr brand now but. the large players would not want so. this newer segments. where there are opportunities to. to succeed to enter. are those segments which are not. occupied by others. so the key thing is to look at where can.

again i'll go back to do i have right to. win. and my hypothesis the right to win will. be easier in segments which are. not looked at by larger players because. it's too small for them to occupy. and that's where their potential may be. and that's if you look at your history. of acquiring it it has always been. like small categories which can be. turned into like live on happened yes it. was like a small category you're. absolutely right. so uh you know i don't know whether you.

read the book uh blue ocean you know. blue ocean is a book. talked about. again what is your right to mean you. need to identify oceans where you can. win. and these are the spaces where we. thought that you know compared to i mean. i could have said that i want to get. into wash category yeah wash category. means. basically wash category means in hair. wash. shampoos and conditioners yeah. highly dominated by mnc is multiple. brand each of them will have three four.

brands global brands global r d. your chance to win will be very limited. because you are not offering anything. unique and the scale with which they do. it the kind of money they're putting in. advertising again you'll have to fight. with big giants. so i don't have a strong right to win so. these are not these are red ocean spaces. for me so the blue ocean spaces for me. were. where they had those brands but they for. them it was like. not that conscious so we said that can. we look at pre and post wash hair care.

so post wash hair care is. hair gels hair creams hair serums. pre washes ayurvedic hair oils. some of the hair oil which are good for. nourishment. and i think our space was there so we. said let's not compete mainly in the. wash category. but go into pre and posh post wash and. we should get market leadership in. whatever we do in pre and post version. that's what we've been able to do so oh. that's a good thing that's. that's a very good insight for most of.

the small businesses who are like. regional players yes today we're running. family businesses they are in the. regional category they must be very big. in their own cities or states and now if. they want to go out they should think. about beyond like what is pre and post. yeah that's a very good insight because. let's say let's talk about detergent. right so my. my family business is very dominant in. one city yeah. for detergent we are leaders like. we are beating the mncs as well there. okay but outside that city or state we.

are not we are nowhere correct because. those the mncs are dominating so there. we can think about pre and post. and that can be a good way to enter at. least or at least let people know that. oh we exist yeah and once they know that. we exist and our products are good they. might end up buying our normal products. as well okay. that's a that's a great. uh you know advice for a lot of people. who are listening to this particular. podcast so now that you've built like a. big business right like this is not easy. to run and there are thousands of people.

involved in the business who are the. top five people you talk to every day. and what are their roles. in order to take like every day i don't. talk to top because now my role has. changed and earlier i was the managing. director. so as managing director i would talk to. people who are reporting to me yeah like. a functional structure head of marketing. head of sales head of hr whatever but i. think in each business you need to. determine what are the value creators. you know. because you have a functional structure.

but there are certain functions or there. are certain parts of the business which. add much more value to you. there will be some other functions which. are important but not. they don't add that much value for. example in fmcg business what creates. value. very good quality products so the. product development. consumer in sighting and marketing. because they create brands advertise. create them. and sales and distribution. so if i'm an fmcg business i have to.

invest best quality talent get the best. quality talents in sales. marketing. and. other functions. and of course hr will help me in doing. that but finance supply chain are. important i'm not saying not important. but these three are more important. because they ultimately create a lot of. value for you they create that business. you know. so normally. if i look back at my. marketing or my managing director days i.

would interact more with marketing and. sales. relatively compared to say factory. management and things like that because. that's where we were able to create. value. that's a brilliant insight because i. think everybody should look into their. business and their culture like what are. the value creators for me right and they. should. they should and it will differ depending. on the kind of business you are you know. for example pharma business will be. patents you know in a business like kaya.

it's customer service it is. it is doctors opening in value because. doctors create customers you know for. you so how do you deal with doctors and. things like that. so every business will have a different. value created and those value creators. correct i mean yeah media will have. different fmcg will have different forms. yeah. that's a good insight that's i think. after this podcast i'm gonna write down. like my value creators and then gonna. think about it a lot so. it's a hypothetical question which we. asked to every of our guests.

if. marico has to enter a completely new. industry like leave fmcj yeah and you. have to lead it again okay. what would that industry be today and. why. is it america is it me you let's say. just like let's say you again i'll go. back to my original thing i have to. be in businesses which are not. easy for me to understand not technology. that. licensing is not required b2b is not. required luckily in india now post 91.

all the reforms have taken place so the. licensing part has gone down quite a lot. you know. so i would. again look at consumer product because. that's what i enjoy doing it i. understand customers interacting with. them and i would look at consumer. facing businesses which either i. built it up on my own or to give an. example of my son you know. he is uh he's not. day to day he's not managing maricopa.

he's on board america but he is an. investor in many consumer-facing. businesses which are down exceedingly. well. so he is able to identify who are the. good entrepreneurs. can i help them in terms of not only. investing but otherwise adding value to. them so we are investors in uh naika. investors and mama we are investors in i. think mccaffeine many others you know. so i think that's the route he has taken. you know. not managing it.

on their own but investing in you know. helping those entrepreneurs succeed. so i would say anything to do consumer. facing is something which is my passion. and i would do that you would do that. you have not thought about like if there. is one thing one industry i'll pick up. no only consumer knows whatever that's. my strength i should not get swayed by. somebody else because they've done. exceedingly well in that area i don't. think one should do that you know what. are you enjoying you know ultimately. you should be able to succeed your. chance so success are much more if you. are enjoying or you understand that. certain category of business.

though the potential in that may not be. as much as some other businesses but you. should be able to succeed in that so are. you saying that let's say everybody's. talking about oh fintech is future. i don't know anything about cryptos many. people are wanting to invest i said i am. not going to touch crypto irrespective. of the potential it's just not investing. but meant to invest meant to divest i. don't understand that this is better to.

be out of that wow that's a very. that's i think the best answer i've. gotten till now i'm not kidding okay. because everyone i talk to every. entrepreneur they all have their. favorite industries they're like oh. india is leading towards this revolution. so people should look into this industry. people should get a health tech or this. or that you have given an answer stop. thinking about which is going to be the. biggest industry start thinking about. where can you be the biggest correct. absolutely yeah that's. that's the best answer anybody could.

give. well now talk about your book okay. the first thing i want to talk about is. when did you decide that you want to. cover your life story and write a book. so the seeds of writing a book came when. i started speaking at various. events or. various. companies or conferences wherever you. know. and every time i would speak something. and people would come to me saying why. don't you.

write your own thing and. so that was at the back of my mind. so when i stepped down as the managing. director. i said that okay now i may have some. time because i am not the kind of person. who cannot do and i have to work every. day. so i said now let me just. start. developing this idea. in writing a book but i underestimated. the challenge in writing book it's it's. a very tough thing especially if you. have to write a good book it's very. tough yeah. you have to appeal to the consumer.

you have to have the right language the. structuring of the book so. the idea came and then it took a long. long time for me to execute that idea. because i was not happy i went through. multiple iterations not happy. i went on changing people who were. helping me how much time did it take you. to rise it's long i mean it didn't. happen. the idea came in 2014-15 i mean i. started writing my first. 2015 but it's. and then again it took a little bit of a.

break i was not happy then i went to. somebody else not happy i went on. changing you know. who could help me so but i went through. i made some mistakes i must say i could. have done it much shorter time. but. i am now happy the way it's come out i'm. very happy actually the response to the. book also has been phenomenal. it's uh got a rating of i think 280. amazon uh. people have reviewed the book rating of. 4.6 on a five points scale so which is. very good those who have written read.

the book and i thought the book is only. for entrepreneurs but when i. a lot of my friends. i gave it their spouses i've read. they've told me phenomenal their. children never ate so it's actually. appeals to. not only entrepreneurs entrepreneurs. professionals who are working in. organizations. students in management but housewives. and things like that because there are. learnings in in the book you know and. very nicely captured learning from. professor ramchan was the co-author of. the book so after each chapter is.

summarized what are the learnings what. are the insights. in my journey which and many many. failures are also covered in the book so. now because of the failures you kept it. harsh realities why did you keep the. name yes to some extent i i mean i was. i wanted to write the book. love the name i also love the name and. not only the name but the cover of the. book also i love it i just ran up so i. i'm helping entrepreneurs you know. through my ascent initiative so i said. that let me just i gave them the. manuscript and ran an internal kind of a.

not a contest but from some independent. can you suggest names you know and i got. many many suggestions and one of the. suggestions of this had loved it so we. not only me my wife everybody loved it. so we decided to. and it's a pun on my name yeah which was. very very good and it's easily memorable. so it's. fantastic fit and same thing if you look. at the cover of the book you know. normally when you go to a publisher in. my case uh. random house.

they have a. department where they come out with. multiple covers and. they did that i was not happy and. then somebody suggested that there is a. lady who only specializes in book covers. nothing else okay so i went to her. and she read the manuscript she met me. she got a deep understanding of what. i was and said that can i reflect his. personality as well as what is written. in the book in through the cover so if.

you look at the cover it's very. minimalistic very simple yeah and i'm. relatively i think i'm a simple person. very. innovative because it has. outer and inner part. and very transparent. so it fitted into innovation. transparency and simplicity. and that's how the cover came in so i. i've got very good feedback about not. only what's written in the book but. also the name as well as the cover and i. think that makes it for the overall.

experience i i read the line judged the. book by its cover. right. so it truly reflects that so anyway i'm. ready to take a bet anybody who buys the. book today any of your reader or any of. your reviewer. buys the book and they're not happy i'm. willing to give a refund because i have. got. i mean. everybody loved the book you know wow so. now in your book you have also mentioned. about traveling across the india to. understand consumers and their. preferences yes right so how does this.

help. an entrepreneur. and where all did you travel in fact i. think we should better frame it okay. uh it's could you tell like a specific. story from your travel that helped you a. lot. so different parts of you know i i my. travel was for two reasons one is to set. up a distribution network i didn't have. any. i didn't have any shall i say. background in fmcg. so i had to set up i had to travel to. interior markets to identify distributor.

go to the trade. and. in my initial days i went to maharashtra. first gujarat and. one would not uh. there were no hotels available in small. towns like umravati and all i'm talking. of 30-40 years back you know so i've. traveled. i've stayed at distributed houses. themselves you know. so. you know those kind of the morning. really helped and once i remember i. traveled after a few years i went to up. and one had to travel and train and all. that so i've done all the rough work you. know. going to small town travel and train and.

then those guys some guys in the train. with guns and all that. i got really scared. so. i mean these are the two things which. come to my mind you know. actually. how was it like what was the first. reaction when you saw somebody with a. gun like it's scary but i mean they said. okay this is a part and parcel of what. happens. to someone who is like carrying a gun. because yeah. the people who are traveling with me in. field force you know but they said no. nothing happened to you. [Laughter]. so.

also in your book you have you've talked. about. and it shows that you're a lifelong. learner considering the way you have. innovated things that improved on your. products again and again and again right. so what is that one reason or what is. that one thing which keeps your. curiosity alive even today because even. today you are generating and talking to. a lot of innovative or innovation-led. businesses so what is that curiosity. which still keeps you alive i think. maybe it is genetic it's difficult for. me to. to identify what is it but i.

enjoy doing it. and i'm able to apply some of the. learnings to my own business or. something else. so i would say a competition combination. of genetic. the process of doing it is is enjoyable. and number three it's relevant for some. opportunity. that makes sense so this is the last. segment of our. conversation and this is you have to. answer like very quickly okay okay so. i'm going to ask you three questions. like a rapid rapid fire kind of thing. like very not rapid fire but like an.

elongated so definitely quickly okay. yeah the number one question uh which. one is a favorite chapter from your book. and why one chapter on culture building. because it's very unique and it's very. important to create a strong culture to. win in the marketplace is there any. personal reason for it. no i myself have. developed the culture in america many. many years back before many other. organizations started doing it and i. think that has paid off your dividends. okay. if you have to become an assistant of.

somebody for one day who would it be. i would say now the person is not there. somebody like steve jobs or elon musk. because they are very innovative you. know. and yes. and how they are able to drive that. skill which is like unimaginable. okay. so if. you have to charge somebody to become. their assistant and you need to have. your hourly rate what would be your. hourly rate for that. well i am currently i i get uh.

shall i say i get uh. i'm a part of some other. private equity companies as an advisor. so my rate is if i convert that. it's. about one lakh per hour okay. that makes that makes us a lot of that. gives us a lot of juice. the last question is you have to quickly. answer and this is a difficult one okay. what would be that one advice you would. give me to improve this. this particular entire podcast which i.

want to improve now. to identify the right entrepreneur i. think to me because ultimately it's the. story. i must say from whatever you've done. first time i met you. your questioning is very insightful. i have very little to add value but you. have done enough homework you've done. the right point out the right questions. your reactions are very good but the key. thing is to identify the right people. who can add value and i don't know how. good because i have not seen many of you. but you if you identify the right people.

then it will just cut eyes with the. with your viewers perfect thank you so. much it was pleasure having you. i. it's truly like an honor and a dream. come true because there were only four. or five people who i used to look up to. when i was building my fmcg business you. are one of them perfect it feels really. good thank you so much for doing this i. hope you your book is already doing good. it's going well and it should do like. way better than anything else. thank you so much.