An employee-friendly businessman who flips obstacles into opportunity

An institute in himself, Harsh Mariwala, the founder and Chairman of Marico, a Fortune India 500 company has a humble beginning and prolific journey. His career started in 1971 after joining his family owned business, Bombay Oil Industries. With a vision to touch consumers' lives he diverged from the family's trading business to found Marico, today's Rs 629 billion worth consumer goods giant. There is not a single consumer in the country who hasn't heard about his major brands, Parachute and Saffola. In 1996 the company, Marico Ltd went public, its current share value wavering around Rs 488. Mariwala has broadened his business umbrella by acquiring stakes and strategic investments in other companies. Kaya Limited, a skin care clinic line, is one of his wins.

Giving way for the next leader, Mariwala stepped down as the Managing Director, while continuing to mentor as the Chairman. Marico Innovation Foundation, Ascent Foundation, Mariwala Health Initiative, and Sharrp Ventures are Harsh Mariwala's way of repaying his gratitude to the world of business. While these have been penned down by many, the more to him, Harsh Mariwala has been captured in Harsh Realities, The Making of Marico, a book authored by him, takes readers through his entrepreneurial journey. An ardent speaker, insightful mentor, and master of craft, Harsh Mariwala in conversation with Bizz Buzz, shares his learning's from over five decades in the industry, for entrepreneurs to fast track their growth story

What upper hand do entrepreneurs from family-owned enterprises have over first-generation entrepreneurs?

For generations, family enterprises have been a cornerstone of Indian culture. Entrepreneurs from family-owned enterprises don't need to have an advantage over first-generation entrepreneurs. With experience and wisdom, the first-generation members of the family are often the foundation builders, establishing the firm with a clear vision and objective. They may have the advantage of not being trapped in the accepted systems of the past.

You have placed prominence on empowering employees, values, and trust. Is it lesser known in today's business ecosystem?

A strong organizational culture is a distinguishing feature of any business. Over the last few decades, firms all over the world have gone to great lengths to guarantee that they have the finest culture. A great culture not only benefits the company in the long run but also drives employees and all stakeholders to give their all. However, few businesses or entrepreneurs have been successful in cultivating the appropriate culture. Most entrepreneurs fail because they attempt to accomplish too many things at once and they do not delegate. Most businesses and entrepreneurs are unable to delegate because they lack a clearly defined 'employee' value proposition (EVP). Businesses with a strong culture prosper in the long run because they have the necessary tools and procedures to encourage efficiency, productivity, and engagement.

If you were to introduce, for the first time, Parachute, in this saturated market, how would you market the product now?

The first and most obvious step is to find a means to differentiate yourself from all the other products in the same market. The difference doesn't have to be great, but it should be noticeable enough for people to notice. Just because the market is saturated does not permit you to be unoriginal. The simplest method to carve out a niche in a crowded industry is to continue building a unique positioning for your brand and its subsequent variants in the market so that potential customers are well aware of your brand. It may take a little more planning and effort, but carving out some space and market share for yourself is entirely possible.

Why are entrepreneurs/startups told to fail fast and learn faster, foregoing an opportunity to test the market? Your take from an investor's perspective…

A firm typically takes significantly longer and far more money to get off the ground than you might anticipate. 'Failing fast' and 'failing forward' encourage entrepreneurs who have exhausted their cash and resources, to be honest with themselves, and watch out for signals about whether it is preferable to keep continuing or to use their important learning's from a business failure to develop something new and better.

Founders have to be all ears to their advisers, investors, partners, and related stakeholders. In the process, they are lost. Your advice…

A business should list and look out for all options. It's very easy to get bogged down in analyzing many options until it becomes impossible to choose one. Determine your strengths and right to win - stay focused on these.

How can enterprises and startups mitigate risks during untoward situations such as Covid, inflation or recession, to avoid panic-induced decisions?

Every obstacle is an opportunity in my eyes. Even the pandemic had two sides. I strongly feel that the culture we built played a critical role in getting us back on our feet, especially in an atmosphere when there was an instant lockdown and we had to line up our supply chain. We were one of the first FMCG companies to be able to continue supplying products. The pandemic taught us to be more agile, conduct extensive research, develop new products, and strive for excellence. We were able to significantly reduce our cycle time for new product development and launch a variety of new products since people's awareness of health and hygiene had improved drastically. The pandemic also provided us with several possibilities to communicate with our members and their families.

Why is 'thriving on change' necessary for today's entrepreneurs? How have you ensured keeping up with the change in your entrepreneurial journey?

The last two years have been harsh and tough for entrepreneurs all around the world, prompting them to reconsider age-old standard business practices. Ascent Foundation is an expression of my passion to identify and empower high-potential growth-stage entrepreneurs on their path to growing as an entrepreneur and their business. It is the time for entrepreneurs to capitalize on current changes and pave the way for future entrepreneurial transformations, all while preparing tomorrow's leaders through peer support. In my journey, the conversion of coconut oil packaging from tin to plastic was an innovation relevant to the core of our business. Or for example – with Saffola Oats, we accomplished adjacency innovation using a variation known as 'masala' oats. It had never been tried before and was not significantly different from what we already had.

What has been your learning through failures?

There are no shortcuts when it comes to launching products and testing them with real customers. As a result, businesses must take that risk and investigate consumer reactions to the product, brand name, packaging, pricing, and so on. Roughly eight or 10 years ago, we saw an opportunity to expand into baked snacks under the Saffola brand. There were no baked snacks at the time, but the mistake we made was thinking that, with the brand name Saffola, health would have to be the main focus, so we prioritized health over taste. What we didn't realize was that snack was an impulse purchase. So, the customer rejected the product, but we learned a lot from that setback. We decided to venture into Saffola oats after a few years. We discovered around halfway through that Indians prefer savoury breakfasts to sweet ones and launched savoury oats. We now have an 80 per cent share of the Savoury Oats industry, which is Rs 170 crores, simply by learning from the failure of our baked snacks venture. While there were multiple failures, the key thing is it's all right to fail – every failure has learning. People should not have a fear of failure within the organisation. You have to encourage people to take risks and ensure that they are not afraid of failure. So, as long as you can analyse what went wrong and apply it in your next effort, there is always a silver lining to each failure in terms of learning.