T he late 1960s werenot the best of timesto kick o� one’s own

business venture. Certainlynot for two young boys,who did not hail from abusiness family and whowere already engaged incushy jobs in a large andrespectable corporategroup (Birla Group). Butthen, if you love being theboss rather than beingbossed around, if you have

a desire to be in control, things will always be dif-ferent. And that’s exactly what happened withme and my childhood best friend RadheshyamGoenka. So it was by choice that we left our jobsand stepped into business.

The entrepreneurial journey has never beensmooth and certainly not in the initial days. Wehad the toughest ride in the initial years. Thegreatest challenge was to get the right productline and control our losses. In 1974, we �nallyset up Kemco Chemicals, an ayurvedic medicineand cosmetics manufacturing unit with an initialcapital of ~20,000. Well, that was the beginning.

The mid-70s were marked by the story of ‘thegreat Indian middle class’ with its growingpropensity to consume and increasing purchas-

ing power. That was the time we rolled outEmami vanishing cream and Emami talcumpowder. We did not taste success initially. But ourfailures gave us the most vital insight — if you areto capture the consumer’s mind space, there is noalternative but to stand out in the market. Andmind you, this particular market was dominatedby multinationals with deep pockets.

I must also add here that the idea ofstanding out in the market is easiersaid than done. The task was eventougher because we were constrainedby limited resources, a truly lean work-force. We had to put on several hatssimultaneously — strategists, mar-keters, door-to-door salesmen, pay-ment collectors and what not. Werealised (and rightly so) that the only way to sur-vive and grow would be through innovation andintroduction of new products. For the �rst timein the history of Indian FMCG industry, we intro-duced products with imported French perfumeand innovative packaging in plastic containerswith imported Japanese labels that had goldenmotifs and printing. The strategy paid o� andshortly both the products became immenselypopular and by 1978, Emami vanishing creambecame the market leader with 22 per cent mar-ket share and Emami talcum powder becamethe No.2 brand in its category in India. We

realised we were on the right track.People say the art of entrepreneurship lies in

the capability of �nding opportunities that otherswould not �nd, �nding solutions that others can’tcreate and �nding a silver lining and makingsome good out of chaos. And the same year (in1978), we sensed a great opportunity in the cen-tury old, ailing Himani Ltd. Himani, which had astrong brand equity in eastern India and a welllaid out factory in Kolkata, was up for sale and we

took a somewhat revolutionary step byacquiring that company, notwithstand-ing the fact that inorganic growth was notthe order of the day for FMCG companiesin those days.

The �nancial risk was also signi�cant.But eventually the move proved to be aturning point for us. Subsequent to ouracquisition of Himani, we saw enormouspotential in the antiseptic cream market,

which was then monopolised by Boroline. Wewere aggressive and came up with our �rst �ag-ship brand Boroplus antiseptic cream from thestable of Himani in 1984. Three years down theroad, BoroPlus, the only antiseptic cream withayurvedic ingredients, became the market leader.

The next decade (the 90s) was extremelyeventful for Emami and we started o� with thelaunch of our next �agship brand, another inno-vative product Navratna cool oil, again from theHimani stable. It was also an industry �rst. Themarket, dominated by traditional hair oils, actu-ally had a latent demand for a therapeutic oil

that could also act as stress buster. We came upwith a second plant at Pondicherry to ramp upcapacity. Navratna, the ~500 crore-plus brandtoday, is the market leader in cool oil category inthe country.

We were on a roll and in 1995, KemcoChemicals, our �rst partnership �rm wasconverted into a public limited companyas Emami Ltd. In 1998, Emami Ltd wasmerged with Himani Ltdand its name waschanged to Emami Ltd asper fresh certi�cate ofincorporation datedSeptember 1, 1998.

Our business strategy,over the years, has thrivedon continuous ideation,innovation, spotting ofthe right opportunity andon-time execution. Whenfairness creams weremeant for women onlyand our peers and othersnever thought that menmight also desire to look‘fair’, we realised that a whopping 30 per cent offemale fairness cream users were in fact menwho were actually closet users. Call it a market-ing history or something else, in 2005, welaunched Fair and Handsome, the �rst fairnesscream for men.

Then came the acquisition of another cen-

tury-old ayurvedic major, ZanduPharmaceuticals, which has been yet anotherlandmark and turning point in Emami’s his-tory. Before we �nally bought over a control-ling stake of 68.9 per cent in Zandu for ~713crore in 2008, almost all key players in theIndian FMCG business had tried their luckand failed. The Zandu takeover brought to ourfold some of the popular and prominentbrands like Zandu Balm, ZanduChyawanprash, Zandu Kesri Jeevan, ZanduPancharishta, Sudarshan and Nityam Churna.The Zandu business grew rapidly, and webecame debt-free within two years of the deal.

We also pioneered the concept of celebritybrand endorsement and in-�lm advertising tocreate a noise and make our products known inthe market. Marketing gurus will always recallmatinee idol of yesteryears — Rajesh Khanna’sreel role as the managing director of Emami inthe 1983 �lm Agar Tum Na Hote.

Over the years, our products have beenendorsed by celebrated and acclaimed enter-tainment and sports personalities like MadhuriDixit, Sri Devi, Sonakshi Sinha, Kareena Kapoor,

Sachin Tendulkar, SouravGanguly, Mary Kom andso on. We are possibly theonly brand in the coun-try to have both AmitabhBachchan and ShahRukh Khan as endorsersfor the same brand,Navratna. Today, we area homegrown multi-national with presencein 63 countries.

With a groupturnover of ~8,000crore and a market capof ~18,000 crore andsupported by a strongworkforce of 20,000,

we now stand tall, notonly among Indian business conglom-erates, but both Radheshyam Goenkaand myself feature amongst the topForbes 50 billionaires of India.

But what is more satisfying, as the secondgeneration promoter directors from our two fam-ilies gear up to take this Group to the next level,is the fact over the last 40 years we did not havea single day of labour unrest.

The show, or shall I say, the battle to excel goes on.

Connectingwith the massconsumerWith the acquisition of Himani, Emami enteredthe mainstream personal care categoryin the late seventies

40 YEARS AGO... AND NOW

RS AGARWAL

CO-FOUNDER &JOINT CHAIRMAN,EMAMI GROUP

A �le photo of the Sri Lalji Store in Kolkata. This is where Kemco products were sold before Emami was born. Later, the store also sold Emami products

29-09-2014, PAGE 4.

SOURCE: http://www.business-standard.com/article/management/40-years-ago-and-now-connecting-with-the-mass-consumer-114092800748_1.html