Sitting in his all glass cabin in Emami Towers, the company?s headquarters in Kolkata, 33-year-old Aditya Agarwal, initially comes across as someone who has still not emerged fully from his cocoon. The influences, which the founders (his father RS Agarwal and his friend RS Goenka) of the Rs 1,500- crore Emami group have wielded on him, are written all over his face. But the moment the elder scion of the Agarwal family starts talking about numbers and strategies, he displays the business acumen of a seasoned player. He is a director at Emami.
Unlike many of his counterparts, he doesn?t boast of any fancy foreign degrees. Instead, he has learnt most of his lessons by roughing it out. Aditya has a concept of his own. He says he has done an MBWA (management by walking along), which means learning by working.
However, it wasn?t as if he was thrown into the ocean and asked to swim. ?Basics are taught for some time. You start with the pool and then gradually move to the river.? This is exactly how Aditya learnt to swim?both ahead and against the tide.
His journey with Emami began in the early nineties. The initial tasks for Aditya and Manish Goenka (son of RS Goenka) were small jobs like checking vouchers or opening the mails of their fathers. ?This helped people to know us and vice versa. Also it gave us a fair enough idea of all our group businesses,? he says. This induction process stretched to three years. But Aditya?s t?te-?-t?te with the company affairs had began much before he even crossed his teens.
Since they did not have a very big house, it gave young Aditya a chance to witness business dealings and high profile discussions. ?The things that you learn and absorb when you are very young stay with you all your life,? he says.
To go back in time, RS Agarwal and RS Goenka gave up their jobs with the Aditya Birla and KK Birla groups respectively to start a cosmetics manufacturing company, Emami, in 1974. What followed was a series of innovations and diversifications. Boroplus was one of the first products from the company?s stable that took on established market player Boroline and came out with flying colours. Since then the company has moved on the same path of experimentation and breaking the rut. If Boroplus was the first, then Fair and Handsome, a men?s fairness cream, is the latest. The revolutionary product was launched in 2005 and led to a spate of similar launches from FMCG giants. ?One has to learn from Mr Agarwal and Mr Goenka about how two people of totally different nature and working styles can successful lead a company. I believe that tolerance, patience and selflessness have kept them going all these years,? he says.
Not just products, the company also gave many new business strategies to the FMCG industry. In-film placements (with Rajesh Khanna-Rekha starrer Agar Tum Na Hote) and Buy-One-Get-One free are only some of the innovations that were mooted at Emami?s boardroom. Moreover, there are only a few Indian companies, which have a brand ambassador list as big as theirs. From Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor to Sourav Ganguly, Emami has them all endorsing its products.
The company also started diversification pretty early. While FMCG surely forms the core of the business, Emami also has business interests in areas like paper industry, writing instruments, real estate, etc. It has also ventured into edible oil, bio-diesel and cement. ?We have never been conservative. Doing new things has always been a priority as we are not scared of failure. Incidentally, the philosophy has worked perfectly for Emami,? he quips.
The company is now aiming at gaining a larger footprint in the CIS countries, Middle-East, some parts of Europe and the African market. Next on its radar is the power sector. In its existing businesses, the year will mark new launches in the baby care, hair care, ayurvedic medicines and the men?s segment. The company?s Q4 results, which were released last week, show Emami Limited?s (the listed FMCG arm of the group) turnover increase by 19% and its net profit by 52% for the quarter over the corresponding period in previous year.
The real estate business of the company contributes 15% to the company?s turnover as of now. Aditya informs, ?At this point of time, we have around two/three crore sq ft of land under construction.? And it is growing, considering the lack of many organised real estate players in eastern India. However, all businesses of the company are not just for the sake of increasing its topline. The company also has bookshops and an art auction house, driven purely by the passion for all things cultural.
While RS Agarwal and RS Goenka lead the company jointly, Goenka?s brother Sushil is the managing director. Aditya, his brother Harsh, RS Goenka?s sons Manish and Mohan are among other directors of the company.
Though the founders have been a source of great inspiration for Aditya, he says that the mantras for management have always remained the same. ?The ingredients for success have remained the same since the times of Mahabharata and will continue to be so in future. We feel that if you are truthful and have respect for people, there is a certain balance in your life and you can definitely manage other things better,? he says philosophically.
When it comes to building a team, their philosophy is to get the good people among the best. ?The employee should be like Hanuman. He should be someone who is ready to jump off the cliff for you, knowing you will save him,? he smiles. Aditya says that a good leader is one who creates good leaders. Somebody who has a simple way of life, Aditya?s hobbies include listening to music, reading and bowling. A fan of Pandit Jasraj and Rajan-Sajan Mishra, he likes listening to Hindustani classical, ghazals and bhajans. A gadget freak, Aditya is very possessive about them and confesses that they lead to a lot of trouble at home. When it comes to reading, he loves short stories and Hindi poems. Ramdhari Singh Dinkar and Mahadevi Verma are some of his favourites writers.
But what he loves most is talking to people. ?I am not too good with words when it comes to businessmen or politicians,? he admits candidly. ?I try and talk as much as I can to hawkers, drivers and helpers. It is to understand how they think. After all, this business is running because of them,? he comments. Even his father RS Agarwal is wowed by Aditya?s sensitivity for the masses. ?He is very ambitious in life, yet down to earth. He has that human touch, which is required to make a business run,? he says.
Aditya is a great believer in consumerism and inflation doesn?t worry him too much. ?Many people say we spend too much money on marriages or to build offices (his office was designed by Hafeez Contractor), but the fact is if we don?t spend money, how will people like flower decorators or carpenters earn? Moreover, they will definitely spend a part of what they earn on buying our goods,? he says.
Ask him about big players like ITC and he has an interesting take. ?Generally players have one or two pack muscles, but they have all six packs. Some have money, others have brains but they have everything,? he says. He adds that there is enough space for all players especially for value-for-money products like theirs.
Moreover, with Emami?s brand makeover in the offing and their perfect mix of traditional values and modern outlook, Aditya is not all that worried about increased competition.