‘I like to be continually challenged’

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

: His voice almost speaks of his one-time ambition. Kapil Kapoor’s intonation and baritone could have been a rage on radio and television, but life had other plans for him. Today he works and lives in Hong Kong as Timex group’s senior vice-president for Asia Pacific and travels often to India, as the group’s India president. And if it’s the long flights that trouble him, his love for food and fine wine keeps him happy about travelling, even if it’s for work.

Kapoor might have joined Timex when it was going through the worst of its phases, but his excitement about a new challenge made him wind up to get great times rolling at the company. Soon his sheer grit and determination rubbed on to other colleagues as well. But it’s not an attitude he developed overnight, he swears during an evening chat after he has just rushed back from a meeting in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi. But the 44-year-old face doesn’t show the tiredness of the hectic day. “This is how my days are,” he says with a warm smile that shows on his face pretty often.

He has a hint of an accent, shuttles between time zones but his passport bears testimony to his humble beginnings. His early childhood days were spent in a small town called Busawal in Maharashtra . “Most people haven’t heard of it. My family pulls my leg about it. But that is where my early childhood days were spent. It is a railway junction and my father was in the Indian railways and he was posted there,” he explains.

Early schooling was in Jabalpur, a few years in Bombay and then the family moved to Delhi. “I studied at St Columbus, lived in Chanakyapuri. So yes, when I come here for work, it’s a familiar territory.”

Though he was officially studying at Sri Ram College of Commerce, it was his fascination for broadcasting that kept him busy with radio and television. “ I did programmes for radio and television. I did some reporting programmes. I interviewed Rajiv Gandhi, Zail Singh and a lot of famous personalities, roamed around the city covering various events. Those days are a very important part of my life. All India Radio was virtually my second home. In fact, my heart still lies in broadcasting. If the media scene had taken off the way it has now, I would have probably been in the media.”

Life, of course, had other plans. Kapoor puts it simply, “In those days, media didn’t pay as much and that’s when service class insecurities come to the fore. I thought I should get a professional degree and at some stage do what I really wanted to do. So I went to IIM-Ahemedabad to do my MBA in 1985. And once you get into a business school, there are opportunities that come your way that seem to pay well.” But even then Kapoor didn’t lose sight of his dream. He edited the college magazine and anchored most shows.

In fact, Kapoor would have probably been a famous broadcaster, if luck had not played a little trick. While trying to weigh his career options, he even wrote to famous voice-over artiste Pratap Sharma. “He was supposed to be the voice of God. So I wrote to him saying that I thought I had the necessary requisites and wanted to train under him. In those days it was like singing. If you made it big, you’d made it really big. Unfortunately or fortunately, he was travelling to England for six months.”

And by then, Kapoor had enough offers to lure him to the corporate world. He finally decided to join Nestle as a management trainee in 1987 and left the company as a brand manager in December 1991.

The years in between were enriching and even humbling at times. For example, Kapoor still remembers a posting from Nestle to Patna. “So, I travelled to places like Chapra, Sewan, Bhagwanpur and Haat that I’d never heard of to meet my dealers.”

A lot of people dropped out from the programme. And Kapoor still remembers calling up his classmates from IIM in desperation. “And I’d imagine them in their cushy offices, people who had gone overseas. And there I was travelling in the worst possible way. I was having a really bad time, carrying my bag, trying to take orders from all kinds of people to learn about sales. And here was this guy sitting in his striped underwear, eating his khaini (tobacco) and I’d be taking orders for Maggi noodles and Nescafe. I’d never thought I’d have to do all this.”

But today Kapoor looks back at those days as a great lesson. “I was humbled like never before and I think I was very lucky to have gone through experiences like that. I was very lucky to have become managing director at Bausch and Laumb at 33. At 36, I was running a public company like Timex. I got those milestones early. Some people think that I had smooth ride because I was from IIM. But it’s not true. My stint at Nestle as a sales representative and then as a sales director have been great teachers.”

But he is frank enough to admit that he appreciated the tough Patna experience only after he was out of it. “It made for lovely stories. It was not like war wounds but like war medals of sorts that none of my friends had. It’s like a diver wanting to show off his shark bite,” he chuckles.

In 1991, Kapoor thought it was time to take up another challenge and this time around it was launching a brand that didn’t exist in India. Kapoor joined Bausch and Laumb. In fact one of the reasons he left Nestle was that it had become a cushy job after the initial harsh training, something that the young Kapoor didn’t enjoy after a while. In fact, it was a six-week leave from Nestle that made him decide to put in his papers. “I came back and nothing had changed. And that’s when I wondered if my being around was really making a difference. Nestle was too big, too process driven and my ability to make a difference at the level I was at was very limited.”

Also in 1991, things were changing rapidly. Companies were coming in, job opportunities were opening up and Kapoor had a chance to bring a brand into the country that didn’t really exist. It was just the kind of challenge that the daredevil in him needed. “ If I look back at my early days in Bausch and Laumb, it was an exciting, passionate, kind of a place. It was a great feeling to launch a business. And the sense of being able to contribute was a great feeling.”

After four years in India, Kapoor was given the task of launching the business in Russia, East Africa and Ukraine. His success made the company move him to Thailand as the country manager. In 1997, at 33, he was given the responsibility of MD and asked to look at South East Asia. But then suddenly the business got sold. “Someone moved my cheese. The business itself was sold to another group. Soon I wasn’t enjoying myself as much.”

In 2000, Kapoor got an offer from Timex and it was just what he wanted: a new challenge. So he moved back to India. “It was in pretty difficult circumstances that I joined Timex. My predecessor had been asked to go, a lot of senior management had gone and the company was running into huge losses. I knew it was a troubled business, but I also knew the brand had potential.”

Kapoor also admits that he wasn’t aware of the degree of the problem but once he had taken the plunge, there was no getting away from it. “I found a lot of energy in people. Adversity, I think, creates great work environment.”

In 15 days, as Kapoor puts it, he was totally immersed in work. “I tried to get totally caught up with what was going on. And it was very exciting. We had to change the brand, change the product, relook at the kind of product we wanted to design and hire new designers. You had to give everyone hope and keep all the fears inside. You had to be completely convinced and convince others that we would pull it off. I guess self-beguilement leads to self-fulfillment. So, you hypnotise yourself into believing. Also, I never even considered that failure was an option.”

All the talking did help. The first fiscal, 2001, showed a loss of Rs 48 crore. The next year, he brought it down to Rs 32 crore. By 2004, the company had broken even. In fact the company, by then had enough confidence in Kapoor to move him to Hong Kong to take care of five countries and a year later the entire Asia Pacific region. 2007-2008 closed with revenues of Rs 136 crore from India.

Ask Kapoor what keeps him going and pat comes the reply, “The sheer challenge of something new. I like to be continually challenged.”

Kapoor is now settled with his wife (Anjli) and son (Roahan) in Hong Kong, which like a lot of foreign countries has a considerable number of Indian professionals. “I guess people realise that Indians make good managers, they work well in complex business environments and that there is pretty good level of education here. Every sector is seeing a huge influx of Indians. Sometimes being outside India, you a prouder Indian.”

When Kapoor is not working, he loves reading, spending time with his family and going hiking. Running and tennis are what keep this 44-year-old fit. He’d like to find time to play golf and cricket. And given the luxury, he would also love to go back to his dream of broadcasting.

Fact File

* Kapil Kapoor is from IIM Ahmedabad.

* Kapoor began his career with Nestle as a management trainee.

* He was an MD at 33