Mohit Burman - Dabur
Mohit_Burman
Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing
Tension suddenly crept in during a quarterly review meeting at Dabur in January 2009. A young manager walked up to the Chairman, Anand Burman, with a tray of new mint-flavoured Hajmola candies that would soon be launched. Burman popped one into his mouth, but spat it out within seconds. "It is awful. No one can eat this stuff," he said.
Complete silence followed. Plans for the launch were ready. What would happen now? Only CEO Sunil Duggal remained unfazed. "What do the research results show," he asked the manager who had brought the candies. The feedback had been positive, he was told. "We are launching it next month," Duggal announced. True to his word, Hajmola Mint was launched within a month, It went on to record Rs 8 crore in revenue within the first year.
Not a well-known story, but it is heard every time employees are asked why they stay with Dabur. "The cornerstone of our growth is the empowerment of employees," says Duggal. "We are allowed to take risks, innovate and sometimes even fail." Duggal himself, an alumnus of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, and IIM, Calcutta, has been with the company for close to 16 years.
P.D. Narang, resident financial wizard, popularly referred to as PDN, joined Dabur as a 28-year-old consultant 28 years ago, when the company was still called Dabur (S.K. Burman) India. Little did he know that his interview with the unassuming owners, A.C. and P.C. Burman, in a small room inside a residential building on Tilak Marg in Delhi would lead to the rewarding handshake of a lifetime.
PDN, who has a string of accounting degrees, chose Dabur over Ranbaxy. He already had a practice as a tax consultant in Chandigarh. Dabur was then just a Rs 40-crore company with profits under Rs 1 crore. There were barely four professionals working there. It was a calculated risk for PDN. "I liked their (Burmans') attitude.
They were involved and were open to views and innovation. I sensed an opportunity for growth," says Narang, who is today Group Director, Corporate Affairs, and the vital link between the professional management of the company and the owner family.
Since he joined, Dabur has grown into a 5,500-employee company, clocking revenues of over Rs 4,000 crore, a net profit of Rs 568 crore. It has five master brands and over 300 products including chawanprash, hair oils, toothpaste to bleaching creams.
So what makes it stand out in the ruthlessly competitive world of fast moving consumer goods? Dabur was set up in 1884 by Dr S.K. Burman, a physician by profession. It had just a handful of employees and Ayuvedic medicines in its portfolio. Till the 1990s, the company could not make the most of its potential. It was then that it hired consulting firm McKinsey for advice. McKinsey suggested Dabur do away with the family's involvement in the day-to-day functioning of the company. What followed was unheard of at the time and has since become part of Indian corporate history. "It was tough. For a barely Rs 40-crore company to cough up Rs 10 crore to pay a consultant to tell me that I must quit," says Ashok C. Burman, the 82-year-old patriarch, laughing.
Established in 1884
Dr S. K. Burman
1884: Established by Dr S. K. Burman in Calcutta. In 1896, fi rst production unit set up at Garia, Calcutta 1919: First R&D unit established 1936: Dabur (Dr S. K. Burman) Pvt. Ltd. incorporated 1949: Launches Dabur Chyawanprash in tin pack. It becomes the first branded Chyawanprash in India 1970: Enters oral care and digestive segment 1978: Launches Hajmola tablet 1994: Comes out with public issue 1996: Enters foods business with Real Fruit Juice 1998: Burman family hands over management of the company to Professionals 2000: Dabur becomes market leader with a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore. Team India captain M.S. Dhoni in a Dabur Chyawanprash advertisement.
ACB, as he is fondly called, still keenly listens to old-timers who call him regularly to give him office-related news. "It was hard to decide that none of my children or brothers would be allowed into the company," he says. The Burmans, as majority stakeholders, do have a say in the vision and direction of the company, but they do not interfere in day-to-day matters and do not draw salaries either.
Dabur's first manufacturing unit in Sahibabad following the shift to Delhi.
Dabur advertisements featuring actors Sridevi and Shriram Lagoo
Click here to Enlarge
Mohit_Burman
Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing
Tension suddenly crept in during a quarterly review meeting at Dabur in January 2009. A young manager walked up to the Chairman, Anand Burman, with a tray of new mint-flavoured Hajmola candies that would soon be launched. Burman popped one into his mouth, but spat it out within seconds. "It is awful. No one can eat this stuff," he said.
Complete silence followed. Plans for the launch were ready. What would happen now? Only CEO Sunil Duggal remained unfazed. "What do the research results show," he asked the manager who had brought the candies. The feedback had been positive, he was told. "We are launching it next month," Duggal announced. True to his word, Hajmola Mint was launched within a month, It went on to record Rs 8 crore in revenue within the first year.
Not a well-known story, but it is heard every time employees are asked why they stay with Dabur. "The cornerstone of our growth is the empowerment of employees," says Duggal. "We are allowed to take risks, innovate and sometimes even fail." Duggal himself, an alumnus of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, and IIM, Calcutta, has been with the company for close to 16 years.
P.D. Narang, resident financial wizard, popularly referred to as PDN, joined Dabur as a 28-year-old consultant 28 years ago, when the company was still called Dabur (S.K. Burman) India. Little did he know that his interview with the unassuming owners, A.C. and P.C. Burman, in a small room inside a residential building on Tilak Marg in Delhi would lead to the rewarding handshake of a lifetime.
PDN, who has a string of accounting degrees, chose Dabur over Ranbaxy. He already had a practice as a tax consultant in Chandigarh. Dabur was then just a Rs 40-crore company with profits under Rs 1 crore. There were barely four professionals working there. It was a calculated risk for PDN. "I liked their (Burmans') attitude.
They were involved and were open to views and innovation. I sensed an opportunity for growth," says Narang, who is today Group Director, Corporate Affairs, and the vital link between the professional management of the company and the owner family.
Since he joined, Dabur has grown into a 5,500-employee company, clocking revenues of over Rs 4,000 crore, a net profit of Rs 568 crore. It has five master brands and over 300 products including chawanprash, hair oils, toothpaste to bleaching creams.
So what makes it stand out in the ruthlessly competitive world of fast moving consumer goods? Dabur was set up in 1884 by Dr S.K. Burman, a physician by profession. It had just a handful of employees and Ayuvedic medicines in its portfolio. Till the 1990s, the company could not make the most of its potential. It was then that it hired consulting firm McKinsey for advice. McKinsey suggested Dabur do away with the family's involvement in the day-to-day functioning of the company. What followed was unheard of at the time and has since become part of Indian corporate history. "It was tough. For a barely Rs 40-crore company to cough up Rs 10 crore to pay a consultant to tell me that I must quit," says Ashok C. Burman, the 82-year-old patriarch, laughing.
Established in 1884
Dr S. K. Burman
1884: Established by Dr S. K. Burman in Calcutta. In 1896, fi rst production unit set up at Garia, Calcutta 1919: First R&D unit established 1936: Dabur (Dr S. K. Burman) Pvt. Ltd. incorporated 1949: Launches Dabur Chyawanprash in tin pack. It becomes the first branded Chyawanprash in India 1970: Enters oral care and digestive segment 1978: Launches Hajmola tablet 1994: Comes out with public issue 1996: Enters foods business with Real Fruit Juice 1998: Burman family hands over management of the company to Professionals 2000: Dabur becomes market leader with a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore. Team India captain M.S. Dhoni in a Dabur Chyawanprash advertisement.
ACB, as he is fondly called, still keenly listens to old-timers who call him regularly to give him office-related news. "It was hard to decide that none of my children or brothers would be allowed into the company," he says. The Burmans, as majority stakeholders, do have a say in the vision and direction of the company, but they do not interfere in day-to-day matters and do not draw salaries either.
Dabur's first manufacturing unit in Sahibabad following the shift to Delhi.
Dabur advertisements featuring actors Sridevi and Shriram Lagoo
Click here to Enlarge