Your send button will have just read sent when your inbox shows a reply. And if it’s the vice-chairman of a Rs 2,396-crore group on the other end, it?s a rather humbling experience. For, Amit Burman of Dabur India Ltd feels life can be as simple or as complicated as you make it. He believes in keeping it simple.
Right from venturing into the business of food with a restaurant chain, Food Union, because he has a passion for food to giving Indians an option besides the neighbourhood juice walla, Amit has done it all simply because his instincts guided him. ?I?m lucky that they?ve worked,? he says with a warm smile.
For Amit Burman, getting into the family business of his great, great grandfather S K Burman, who started Dabur way back in 1884, to produce and dispense ayurvedic medicines was something that was always open, but it was only after he?d done his own thing. So, not only did he do his bachelors and masters in industrial engineering (from Lehigh University and Columbia University respectively), he also acquired an MBA before he finally joined the family business. All through the excitement of the business stayed on. ?I was studying at St Columbus and the family business was always intriguing. Probably because it was about products like Hajmola and Chyawanprash, which you could relate to even as a child. It was fascinating to go to plants and see Hajmola and candies coming out of the machine. I?d go and stand next to the machine and sometimes pick up some candies. So, I guess I was always interested in what Dabur was doing and wanted to come back and do something in India.?
After his bachelors Amit joined Colgate Palmolive in New York, where he worked in the manufacturing strategy department. He also worked for six months at the Kansas plant, which manufactured soaps and detergents. In 1990 he trained at Tishcon Corporation New York, where he was responsible for the safety of stock and optimum inventories. While he worked in the day, he studied for his MSc in the evenings. ?I learnt a lot there, in terms of industrial engineering, land management and logistics handling. When I came back, I was interested in coming back in the same department.?
With experience in his kitty, Amit came back to India in 1995 for about two years and worked on the company shopfloor before going back to pursue his MBA from Cambridge University. Talking about what made Amit do so many courses when his contemporaries jumped into family business straight after college, some even after school, he says, ?I knew I would get into the family business, so I wanted to delay it as much as I could because I quite enjoyed studying. Besides, once you get into business it?s always difficult to get out. So, I wanted to spend maximum time to learn what I wanted to learn.?
When Amit officially joined Dabur, he confesses he felt lost. ?There was a lot to learn about the business, but it was too large a business to learn. So, I decided I wanted to do something on my own and that?s when I started Dabur Foods.?
The year was 1997 and Amit was heading the company as its CEO. Somewhere along the line, the idea of packaged juices popped up in his mind. And that was the birth of Real, the fruit juice that introduced Indians to packaged juices. ?As a student in the US, I?d seen that packaged juices were really popular. When I came back here, I saw it was missing. At the same time, one knew that juice wallas existed around every street corner, which showed that Indians were used to drinking juice. It was a concept that I wanted to try. We had a lot of rejects, but it took off in about two years. It was a learning experience and I?m lucky it worked.?
Then he introduced popular products like ginger and garlic pastes. It was a simple concept that caught the fancy of Indian housewives. It was a simple concept yet had a lot of serious thinking behind it. May be that is why it?s still as popular. Amit explains, ?Women take a lot of pride in their cooking. How their food turns out is indicated by the appreciation and respect they get from family and friends. We did not want to hurt that sentiment, yet we wanted to introduce something that just helped her in the process of cooking. I guess the idea appealed.?
Despite the popularity of ready-to-eat food packets, it?s something that Dabur has consciously stayed out of. ?These are used more by students who are either travelling out of the country or bachelors. As Indians, we know how to make the perfect palak paneer and dal. Why would we want to pick that up??
So yes, if it is ready-to-eat food for Dabur, it will be Chinese and Italian food. ?You don?t mind trying a Chinese black bean paste to cook because your husband doesn?t expect you to know how to cook Chinese. We are also researching Italian foods.?
With innovations like these Amit had carved out a niche for Dabur foods. So, in July 2007, when Dabur foods was merged with Dabur India Ltd, Amit was appointed the vice-chairman of Dabur India Ltd at 38. It wasn?t easy to get into the new role but Amit managed to change gears rather smoothly. ?Designations don?t mean anything. Ultimately you have to be satisfied with your job. People in the organisation should know the value you bring to the organisation and that is enough for you to be satisfied with.?
And people working with Amit sure vouch for his people?s skills. Rohit Aggarwal, who is a friend and partner in his food venture, Lite Bite Foods, says, ?AB (as he is popularly known to his friends) is the most genuine person I?ve come across.He is a great buddy to work with. He is extremely meticulous. He?ll never fail to reply to an employee?s mail, no matter how busy he is.?
Ask Amit if being a younger person makes it easier and he says honestly, ?Being young is a double edged sword. As a younger person your people believe in taking the risk with you but they might think you are bluffing and don?t know what you are doing. You have to play it in a fairly delicate way.?
But there is one thing he is sure about. It?s the power of people. ?I?m a team player. I?m more of a catalyst. I like people to achieve because people make the organisation. They are the biggest assets. Everybody can have a vision, but if you can?t get people together who believe in your vision and can dream like you, then your vision is a waste.?
If there is something that keeps Amit going, it is new challenges and he admits as much. ?I want to constantly learn and innovate because innovation is the lifeline of my business.? It was this need for innovation that probably led to the restaurant chain by the name of Food Union. ?We are doing quick service restaurants and casual dining restaurants. We?ve done 38 outlets. I?ve always had a passion for food. I?ve been in the manufacturing and packaging and marketing of food. People are talking of retail in a big way, but I don?t think anybody has delved into the fast food and quick service. I feel it?s a higher growth area. I felt it?s an area to look at. If Mc Donald?s can become a brand in India, why can?t we build our own brand. Why can?t we have an Indian McDonald?s??
With Food Union, Amit is busy juggling both roles at its director and Dabur?s vice-chairman. Ask him if competition worries him because the word, natural, is becoming a catchword for most companies now and pat comes the reply, ?I think competition is very healthy for everyone. It really keeps you on your toes and makes you think out-of-the-box both product-wise and in services. It makes your organisation innovative and very fast.?
And innovative, the company sure has been. From making honey into a lifestyle product to making its popular hair oil brand into a hip new product endorsed by Rani Mukherjee, the company has shown what its takes to be the fourth largest FMCG player in the country. Advertising has played a strong role all along. Explains Amit, ?All our products are mass products, we need to advertise. Our advertising goes back to 1800s. We had two elephants that we would drape with Dabur Amla signs and ride all over the villages to advertise because there was no other way of advertising. Advertising has been in our blood and it has evolved over time. But yes, even till date we have elephants and they come around the city and still advertise. Almost 13% of our turnover is spent on advertising.?
Dabur got professionals to manage the show in 1998 and the going has been smooth. Explains Amit, ?There has to be difference between owners and managers. Everybody has his or her shortcomings. You can only advise people in the family but you can?t throw them out for non-performance. But if you step back and see someone can do a better job, you say why not. From the family point of view, there is no competition. We are running the business in the way that is best for it. It wasn?t easy, but when everyone saw from a macro point of view, it helped. We are ten cousins and it would have been difficult for everyone to be in it. At the end, it?s the company?s welfare that matters.?
What has probably kept him going through these various phases is the kind of person he is. A friend for the last 10 years, Ajay Bijli of PVR Cinemas, describes Amit as ?one of the most sincere, genuine, diligent and correct persons I know. He has his priorities all worked out, in terms of family, work and self. I am very fond of him. In fact I don?t know anyone who has anything adverse to say about him.?
Though work keeps the 39-year-old pretty busy, he does mange to find time to work out at his gym at home and run at least four times a week. ?Since it?s at home and my children are around me, I also get to spend time with them. It?s simply great.?
Spending time with his wife Divya, daughter Diya and son Adhiraj is something that he looks forward to because it makes him ?really happy?, like he puts it. Other than that, he likes to indulge his passion for cooking by tossing up noodles and pasta once in a while. ?I love cooking,? he smiles.
And if he had the luxury of time, he would like to get back to his passion for flying. A certified pilot, he has flown 85 hours. ?It?s a great feeling to be free on your own, up there with nothing to worry about. You see from the top what is going on. It?s a different experience altogether,? he says.
Fact file
* Amit Burman is vice-chairman of Dabur India Ltd, which has a turnover of Rs 2,396 crore
* He did his BSc and MSc in industrial engineering from Lehigh University and Columbia University and followed it up with MBA from Cambridge University
* He started his own venture Dabur Foods Ltd in 1997
* He launched Real, the first packaged juice in India in 1997
* Amit also started his restaurant chain Food Union, which is into casual dining and quick service restaurants in October last year. The chain has already opened 38 outlets and Amit wants to make it the Indian McDonald?s
* He likes to work out and run. He is also a trained pilot and has flown 85 hours
* He is popularly known as AB among his friends