The company?s name is very much a part of his personality, or at least that is what it seems like. Adarsh Gupta, executive director of the Liberty Group, is satisfied playing the second fiddle to his CEO brother in the company because he is very confident of his contribution to the company in its slow and steady growth over the years.
The year 2007-2008 showed a turnover of Rs 350 crore. The turnover isn?t the single focus point for the company. ?Quantity doesn?t come over quality for us,? quips Adarsh.
Liberty as a group started in 1944 when brothers P D Gupta (Adarsh?s father) and D P Gupta started the business. It was in 1959 that their sister?s son R K Bansal joined them. The vision the trio had for the company is pretty much a part of it after 54 years. ?They wanted to help people get the best and that?s the vision we?ve carried on. Right from the beginning Liberty created a perception that it offers quality products at affordable prices. And we try very hard to maintain the standards.?
This could be probably a reason for them to be among the world?s fifth largest producers of leather shoes.
It?s this need for not changing the quality yet diversifying, says Gupta, that got the family thinking about some new age businesses. Thanks to 11 family members being in the business, ideas of all kinds of businesses cropped up. But it was finally Adarsh?s idea of sanitaryware that won. Today Adarsh heads Liberty Whiteware. The business is rather young and it?s still finding its feet. But Adarsh is almost sure of its success. ?When it comes to ceramics, there were only two or three brands. And I don?t think anybody has the kind of quality we have. The designs we plan to launch in 2009, for example, will be world class. They?ll create a stir in the market. We want to look at luxury like no one ever has.?
It?s interesting to note the confidence in the 47-year-old?s voice considering that he?s talking about a business that he set up only two years back. But that is what Adarsh is about, you realise through the course of the interaction. Confident, yet subdued. Dressed in a simple half shirt and trousers, he might not look like the second in command at work but he prefers to let his work do the talking. ?I think I got it from my father. I don?t feel very comfortable in a suit and a tie. And I don?t think you need to dress up in a certain way to show your worth. I prefer to let my work talk.?
And his work does talk. For he?s the man responsible for most creative things at Liberty. In fact, the relaunch of the brand with fashionable new designs, the thought behind the ?sapne hue apne? ad campaign and Revolution concept showrooms, which are high-end fashion stores where you get not just shoes but also watches, artificial jewellery and accessories, are just some of the things Adarsh has been responsible for. Though his range of responsibilities is pretty vast, it?s corporate planning and brand building that get his concentrated attention.
Ask him if he ever feels he?s been under the shadow of elder brother, Adesh Gupta, the CEO of Liberty Group, and he says rather honestly. ?I?ve never been under anyone?s shadow, not even my father?s. Designations are not the only things that matter. You should be able to set benchmarks for others. Whatever you do, you should be able to do better than anyone else. I enjoy doing my work and that?s all that matters at the end of the day.?
His cousin Anupam Bansal, who is 11 years younger than him and is director, reatil of the group, is all praise for Adarsh when he says, ?He is an ideal of sorts. Every work that he undertakes has to be done in great detail. Work for him isn?t just business, it?s pretty much a passion.?
And this passion for work is something that Adarsh has been nurturing since he was a teenager. ?I was always different. If children my age (there were 10 his age in the house, considering it was a big joint family) went out to play or for picnic, I?d prefer to stay home and learn something new like using a typewriter or arranging my stamp collection. In fact, I remember being very enthusiastic about travelling with my father on his work tours. By class IX, I had an office of my own and took care of most creative things at work. Be it writing something or thinking of brochures,? remembers Adarsh.
It?s little surprise then that he jumped at the opportunity of working full time after graduating in commerce from Dyal Singh College, Karnal, in 1981. In between work, he also found time to do a course in shoe designing and styling from ARS Sutoria Institute in Milan, Italy, in 1985. He joined the company with a rather interesting designation of a ?young director?. Today he thinks it wasn?t a great idea. ?I remember I?d gone for a meeting and someone asked me how many young directors do we have in the company? Do we have actors as well? Today when we give designations to younger members of the family, we are rather careful.?
In fact, the word family, you notice, figures pretty often throughout the interaction. And it isn?t without reason. Today when business families in India are breaking ties in an unpleasant manner, this is one group that still believes in working together. ?You have to make sacrifices all right, but then they are for the larger good. And it?s not that your sacrifices are ignored. In the end your family is family. You have the same set of values and same background. They are around you, no matter what. There are people in the family who might not be as good at their work, there are others who are brilliant, but everybody is treated equally. If it?s good or bad, it is very subjective but this was the best for our family and that?s what we did. Families who live together believe in this.?
Anil Ambani, says Adarsh, thought he was doing better than Mukesh and why shouldn?t he work for himself. That is how families that separate think, says Adarsh. But as far as he and his family are concerned, it?s togetherness that matters. ?The most important things in life are happiness, satisfaction and respect. And you can?t buy all these things. These come from togetherness,? opines Adarsh.
But being together isn?t about losing your own identity. He might be the youngest one out of the three brothers, but he hasn?t really looked up to anyone or got his inspiration from someone. ?Other people can motivate you, they can?t inspire you. It has to come from within. You have to be self-inspired. And you constantly need to have new goals to chase because once you?ve achieved one goal and have nothing more to chase, you?ll become depressed. So, you need to keep setting yourself new goals.?
Adarsh does take keen interest in everything at Liberty, but it?s Liberty Whiteware that he is really concentrating on. ?It?s not just a business. It?s a project I?m very passionate about. And I want to take it to new heights.?
It?s work that keeps him busy most of the time, be it visiting factories or travelling out on work. But yes, when he is not working, he loves to spend time with his family and sleep. ?I like being with my wife, Meenu, son Anmol (19) and daughter Prerna (21). We usually try and take off for an entire month every year.?
While Adarsh loves his work and business, once he retires he wants to do his own thing. ?I?d like to innovate. I would like to try to make new things, things that have never been made,? he says with a twinkle in his eye.