Bhujia Barons by Pavitra Kumar

BHUJIA BARONS - The Untold Story of How Haldiram Built a 5000 Crore Empire by Pavitra Kumar (2016), Penguin Portfolio, p 256.

It was sometime in February 2017 that I read about Haldiram becoming India's biggest snack maker with a turnover of over 4000 crore leaving aside Nestle Maggi, Domino's, McDonalds and many others. That was the time I wanted to read the genesis and evolution of this great Indian brand and that is when I came across this title - Bhujia Barons by Pavitra Kumar. The book got into my Kindle and has been waiting for its turn. Last week I started reading it and finished it in few long sittings. I must admire the ability of strong story telling style of Pavitra Kumar. She has been excellent in putting through this piece; her style of writing is literatic and engaging and at some places philosophical. Gathering information from different sources and validating it with the people involved in the process at different locations from Bikaner to Kolkata and from Nagpur to Delhi, she has shown impeccable commitment and has successfully put all the views from different corners. Her sense of professionalism in telling all sides and shades of the story without any bias has made this title worth reading.

Rome was not built in a day and so was Haldiram brand. Haldiram as we see today is result of efforts put up by people at hand for around 75 years. I have no hesitation in saying that it is the hard work of Ganga Bishen Agrawal aka Haldiram and his concern for customer service, knack for good taste, and belief in strong value system that has made this empire that we see today and which many of their tribe envy. A product that was once sold in newspaper cones, the process which was designed by Haldiram himself through a calculated mix of besan and moth dal sieving through handmade holes on a thin steel sheet, distribution mostly through shopfloor selling, and publicity mostly through word-of-mouth, some 70 years back has traveled a long distance in order to become a household name when it comes to bhujia. It would be no exaggeration to say that bhujia and Haldiram can never be separated from each other. Such is the power of the brand Haldiram.

The book provides a rich narrative of making of the brand Haldiram and traces its sound as well as weak links through the family feud, writings of media reports, comparing attitude and behavior of siblings and treatment by their parents and children. Ambition and apathy, respect and reactions, indulgences and impunities, are all have been part of the growing of Bhujia Barons as Pavitra calls them. In the time when the government is emphasizing on Make-in-India through its policy framework, I think Haldiram’s make a strong case of backing that as apart from responding to the locale, they have spread their wings in other parts of the globe as well. They are promoting Indian taste to the people abroad whether they form part of Indian diaspora or otherwise.

The expansion of this brand from merely a bhujia maker to branded, formalized structure of sweet shops and retail chain of vegetarian restaurants or QSRs (Quick Service Restaurants), responding to all kinds of tastes is the strength that the promoters have built through their concerted efforts at different geographies in India. Till their entry to Delhi, the capital city of India, it seems there were not much issues related to the use of brand among the cousins. But as they say, Delhi has a strong division power, when brothers Shiv Kishen (Nagpur) and Manoharlal (Bikaner) [grandsons of Haldiram] plunged into exploring the opportunity in Delhi. This territorial expansion also lured their cousins who were operating out of Kolkata which has brought the families to court for settling issues over use of brand. Though there seems to be some sky-clearing, yet the matter is not fully resolved and the families are not in that kind of relation as used to be.

Pavitra has explicitly narrated the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s death on 31st Oct 1984 and its effect on Chandni Chowk workshop of Haldirams and that is how the book starts which I thought makes a good plot to a storyteller who weaves together the threads back and forth and serves a tapestry of family run business model. For a moment I got nostalgic about my college days when we had heard of assassination of the prime minister of India by her own security personnel. The whole story of Haldiram as narrated by the author makes me feel as if I am watching a Bollywood Hindi masala movie which portrays almost all kinds of moods and emotions, climax and a happy ending.

Today who does not know about Haldiram Bhujia, but very few know about their resilient journey. This book provides a good account of that journey. The book is divided in Six parts starting with introduction and family background, their movement to different places and the wrongdoings of Kolkata cousin (the black sheep), legal fights and the future ahead (final paces). It is a revelatory tale of a family business house which has built a reliable brand over the years. The author deserves appreciation for an excellent display of honest effort, professionalism and probity through this work. And I can't stop myself from saluting the spirit of great entrepreneurship, innovation and customer service as envisioned and portrayed by Ganga Bishen Agrawal. What a man he was. There is lot to learn from him for the entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow.

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also read:

THE MARWARIS: from Jagat Seth to the Birlas by Thomas A Timberg

Dabawalas: Lessons for building lasting success based on values

True Leaders by Price & Ritcheske

THE DIGITAL TSUNAMI by Abhijit Bhaduri

THE DIGITAL TSUNAMI - Succeeding in a world turned upside-down by Abhijit Bhaduri (2016), Rupa, New Delhi p 187

Change is the only constant and for business organizations it is much greater a challenge to respond to changing dynamics of market, business, polity and people. Technology has driven the change much faster in the 21st century. Last two decades have witnessed much visible transformations in business and society than any two decades in the last two centuries. It has been phenomenal and exponential in scale and speed.  The emergence of social media has redefined the nature of conversation and communication and has replaced normal bar for millennials in much of their expectations, attitude and assertiveness. Millennials are writing history every day.

In these times Abhijit Bhaduri (HR expert and blogger, consultant and coach) introduces us to the Digital Tsunami through his own style of narrative and experiences. Abhijit weaves an excellent story around contemporary corporations thriving on disruption through technology and drives the reader to understand the pulls and pressures though entrepreneurial successes of some the highly valued corporations of today.  As I write this review, I learn Google has surpassed Apple in market valuation as a brand and has become world's most valuable brand according to Brand Finance.

The book begins with the science of developing a habit and takes the reader along with propriety of reference, posterity of thought and prominence of learning mindset. On one side digitalization is creating opportunities, on the other it is leading the process of automation and robotics is subject to pose a challenge for HR. The mindset has to bridge that gap through exploring new areas of innovation and entrepreneurship to be relevant and responsive.  The escapists are going to suffer the most until some unexpected disruption finds its way.  The book has lot of academic merit (as it derives strength from the contribution of popular researchers in the domain of Digital networks) and provides rich practical lessons (with corporate examples of practices and transformation).

The researches quoted in the text develop a defense for the prepositions Abhijit is putting before the readers. The ownership of ideas and practice is well explained through an excellent example of Drew Manning (of fit2fat2fit fame), Byju Raveendran (of byju.com) and many others. Technology driven companies are going to lead in almost all spheres of business which was unheard in major part of the 20th century. Taxi services (uber), hotel rooms (aibnb), retailing (walmart/amazon), education (byju/coursera/moocs etc), reading (kindle), social connections (facebook/linkedin/twitter) etc are heading towards much greater valuations than the hard core traditional brick and mortar companies. The trend is going to further continue for few more decades and in order to imbibe this change the firms would have to create facilitating physical and virtual environment. It was surprising to note through the book that between 2008 and 2010, eBook sales grew by 1260 per cent. This is something which is unbelievable. Transformation is exponential whereas change is linear.  Digital world is much more inclusive than the analog world.

Companies will have to go digital not to keep up with the competitive forces but simply to keep up with customers (p 45). This is an apt observation by the author. Customers are getting engaged with the products and producers and helping co-creating products and services, hence the competition lies much around customer and his/her experiences rather than the competitor or if we put it differently the customer is the competitor. Digital responsibility needs to be carried out in such a way that it allows customers to help organizations to design appropriate products/services and to have engaging relationship with them.

The world is going to be led by digital leaders of the market to whom Abhijit gives an acronym as FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix & Google) and he offers suggestion to build a digital organizational culture through transdisciplinary collaboration, employee branding, innovation, managing workforce diversity effectively, creating digital communication infrastructure, responding through speed and scale, embracing failure, preferring fluid structures and learning to become resilient.

The author suggests to follow five behaviours to develop a mindset towards responding to the Digital Tsunami. They are:

1. Wear someone else's shoes
2. From internal to external focus
3. Design, strategy and technology
4. Rapid prototyping and rapid growth
5. Insights allow for individualization.

Apart from this I appreciate his advice at individual level to go for some MOOCs, listen to something inspiring, and leveraging social media for one's advantage. I personally feel that the workforce has to follow a mix of traditional and pragmatic ways of learning.  May be fully moving away from traditional methods would be too early step.  The doodles given throughout the text makes the book engaging as the summaries explained through them create effective recall in the mind of the reader. He proves to be a digital artist who can draw essence of the narrative in an excellent manner. His understanding of issues is sharp, his language is simple, his articulation looks real, his ability to respond to the call of time is praise worthy, his approach towards future is optimist and his lessons are practical.

The book provides rich information from different sources and much of it is left to the reader to convert it positively into knowledge base according to one's ability. The book is small and could be finished in two sittings. But if one really wants to have some key takeaways it might take little more time.  Overall it is an excellent treat to all the young students of today who are interested in the study of organizations, technology, business, entrepreneurship, strategy and future.  I strongly recommend this title to all who believe in the power of technology and are passionate about future.

THE FLIPSIDE by Adam J Jackson

THE FLIPSIDE: Finding the hidden opportunities in life by ADAM J JACKSON, (2009), Hachette, Headline Business Plus, London, p 260

There comes a time in the life of almost each one of us when we have to make a choice between taking life head on or surrendering before circumstances. Choices are made as per our priority, environment and the gene that drives us to stand with our decision. Sometime it is due to our physical weakness and sometime it is our attitude. Flipside literally is the other side or the side which is not that positive, which is not that bright. I grew up with some quotes occupying sizable memory of my mind - the grass on the other side looks greener; only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches or only the corpse knows what is going on in the grave; Elephant has two set of teeth - one to show off and the other to chew, etc etc.

When we look at the life of successful people we get lured by their followership, their living style, their admiration, and their sense of achievement. We look at their present status. But when we start learning more about them and their journey and the hardships that they faced we become more rationale. Our understanding becomes better and at times we learn that the kind of problems they faced, the kind of physical torture they experienced, the kind of resource crunch they had, it was almost impossible to excel at what they decided to do and contribute.

Then there are people who found opportunity at a time when they were facing the low at life, they transformed their weaknesses into opportunity by taking challenges and finding real purpose of their existence and life. Adam Jackson has collected such great stories of people from across the globe and compiled them in such a remarkable and convincing way. This is what The Flipside as a book is all about. In one way it is a motivating read for the ones who have sustained linearity in their career and have not experienced hardships of life on the other hand it is packed with such strong nutrients to them who are facing the brunt of time and planning to give up on life that they can learn to stand up on their own and convert their weaknesses into opportunities.

The motivation to develop 'logotherapy' by Viktor Frankl who survived a holocaust is something which inspired me most. The whole science of finding meaning to life and to draw people to understand that meaning of life to them is something which in many ways changed the way psychologist thought addressed this issue. We all have grown through the teachings that for each one of us life has a meaning. What Viktor conceived while suffering during the holocaust became one of the best contributions in the domain of psychology. He learnt that main motivation for living is our strong will to find meaning in life and that led him to develop logotherapy.

I read and re-read the following stanzas few times before going further:

‘They came for him on 25 September 1942.  Along with his wife Tilly and his parents, Dr Viktor Frankl was transported to Theresienstadt concentration camp in the north-west region of what is now the Czech Republic.  It was to be the beginning of an unimaginable nightmare that would last three years, in which Dr Frankl lost almost everything and everyone that he held dear.  With the exception of his one sister who had escaped by emigrating to Australia, all of his family were murdered.  Dr Frankl survived one of the darkest, most shameful periods in Europe’s history and bore witness to deprivation and killing on a scale that had never been seen before.  Yet even in those direst of circumstances, enduring extreme hardship and facing the constant threat of death, Dr Frankl was able to find something in his suffering and through his experiences that would not just change his life, but would also go on to help literally hundreds of thousands of others. Dr Frankl did not just survive Nazi persecution, he found a flipside.’ [p 185-187]

The book is full of such experiences of people who developed products and services, who found real meaning and call from within and pursued that and excelled. The flip side drove them to think of the cause of their existence, it gave them strength to prove their point through their excellent performances and it provided them with an opportunity to transform themselves into a person who stood by one’s call. The examples of the contributions made by Graham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, Michael Bloomberg, Louis Braille, Richard Branson, Harland Sanders, Walt Disney, Amit Goffer, Spencer Silver, Richard Turner and many others make the book rich in its content.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this title for two strong reasons. One, that it is full of well written true success stories and another is that Adam talked about many of my familiar and favourite works e.g., Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, Good to Great by Jim Collins and subjective well-being by Ed Diener and alike. The life story of Dan Ariely and his contributions are in itself a testimony to the flip side he experienced.

As a student of Business and Management I would like to relate many instances with the Theory of Constraints. I think it makes lot of sense to explore the limiting factors and to see how organizations have responded to the call of the time. My belief has been that people living in scarcity of resources and suppression demonstrate lot of inner strength to prove their meaningful existence and the competency to excel in much better way as compared to their counterparts living with all comforts of life, leisure and luxury. Adam has helped me strengthen my belief.

Though at some places I found the flow being broken and then beginning is sudden and at some places the ends are left loose, yet I recommend this book to all those who are seeking excellence and who believe that our perception towards life makes what and how we chart out our journey further.

I am reproducing an expression of Viktor Frankl as quoted in this title:

‘We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed.  For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement.’

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also read reviews of:

Why I failed
Good to Great
Outliers
How the mighty fall
Positive Psychology

Dabawalas: Lessons for building lasting success based on values

DABAWALAS: Lessons for building lasting success based on values by Shrinivas Pandit (Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co Ltd, New Delhi, 2007) p 105.

This book is unique in its approach, convincing in its delivery and interesting in its style.  A true testimony of the values that bind Dabawalas for more than 120 years by Shrinivas Pandit.  The author follows a narrative in an interview form through the team of four - two dabawallas (Raghunath Megde, 48 and Gangaram Talekar, 55), one business journalist (Anita Dalal, 40) and he himself. The book is divided in 12 chapters and every chapter is closed with one message and take aways (current practice and current opportunity). It makes a good case of Dabawalas for anyone who is interested to know their functioning, operations, supply-chain, value system, priorities, adaptiveness to change, structure, empowerment, decision-making, team-work, commitment, service quality, total quality management processes, standardization, contentment, etc etc. Though the book is small in size (just 100 pages) but the message it conveys is huge in size. There are very many examples which established multi-national corporations and big corporate houses could follow. It reminds me of a saying which says that if one has an attitude to learn, one could even learn a lot from beggars and poor people living in the society. Mind it, Dabawalas are not small in size, there are around 5000 (semi-literate) of them, working on a simple mission of delivering home-made food to the people (in Mumbai) from their respective houses to the workplaces within 3 hours.  And this mission helps them earn their living which is not at all commensurate with the kind of efforts they put in order to reach out to more than 2 lac clients. Interestingly as the book reveals, there seems to be no issue on that as well. They are quite satisfied and contended with around Rs 200/300 which they charge per person, per month.

Dabawalas are the perfect example of best quality service with six sigma performance as their error rate is one in 16 million transactions...despite having no technological backup and their turnover is around 500 million indian rupees.  Every dabawala is a shareholder in Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust. Every one wears a Gandhi cap during working hours and carry an identity card and no alcohal during duty hours is allowed.  Unlike many successful MNCs and other organizations this organization does not believe in internal competition as no dabawala is allowed to undercut or outsmart his colleague. They have a Governming council of 13 members having President, Vice President, General Secretary, Treasurer and nine directors.  There are around 120 groups, each having some 25-30 dabawalas, which are led by a Mukadam (group leader).  Each group works as a Strategic Business Unit The problems, complaints and grievances are initially resolved by Mukadam, however if they are not able to resolve issues it is taken up with the President or Vice President. If there are any disputes about the overall functioning they are resovled by the governing council. 

They follow competitive collaboration which drives them to deliver the daba (tiffin box) within stipulated time and the synergy in the efforts of individuals towards making the group as well as the chain effective is excellent.  The cardinal principle is that the daba has got to be delivered on time, the race has to be won in three hours every day, no excuses.  It is the sacred duty to ensure that the customer does not go without his home food. Team work is the quintessence of our success (p11).  Hatachi pachuch bote hajaro kame kartal; karan tyanchyat aeekya aste (five fingers of a palm can do a thousand things becasue they have unity).  They believe in leaderless teams, which seems to me as an experimental model of Engagement as the group depending on their abilities and capacities chooses a leader (Mukadam) who takes up this role as an additional responsiblity.

The book successfully narrates the functioning, principles, values, and practices followed by dabawalas in a very simple language.  Though it is a very traditional organisation which does not have technological exposure, it teaches very many lessons to the big corporate houses.  Shrinivas Pandit and Anita deserve a kudos for this venture of theirs.  Well done both of you.  As I flip through the last pages and sentences, I end up with a feeling as if there is still much more to come and much more to be further learnt from these great individuals carrying dabas with full dedication and commitment to make sure none of their client goes without home made food.

True Leaders by Price & Ritcheske

TRUE LEADERS - How Exceptional CEOs and Presidents Make a Difference by Building Poeple and Profits by Bette Price & George Ritcheske (2006) Corpus Collosum Learning Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, India. First Indian Edition: 2006 p 223

Can Leaders be made or they are only born? The debate over this issue has been finding place in the management literature in the last century. The genetic science has reasons to believe that it lies in ones genes how he/she is going to reflect on the work behaviour. However, it is also argued number of times that through education, training and pruning one could transform himself/herself into a successful and effective leader. The difference between effective and successful leaders, between effective and ineffective leader is also an issue which is getting importance in the literature as well as in practice.

This book on True Leaders is an eye opener for those who want to learn the secrets of successful and effective leaders. It addresses the issue of ‘born’ or ‘made’ debate in a very convincing manner. As the preface reads -

‘True Leaders is a blueprint for success in an era when a rapidly changing marketplace and an ever changing workforce require integrating human value with economic value to differentiate effective leaders from ineffective leader.

The book is an outcome of the interviews with 27 most successful business leaders in the US, coming from diverse group of industries, some held publicly and some privately, some led by men, some by women and some by minorities. These leaders operate with a background of core values which could be translated into good financial performance. These leaders demonstrate great deal of inherent love and caring for their people, which makes them True Leaders. The book includes the leaders like Garrett Boone, Chairman and Cofounder, The Container Store, Terri Bowersock, Founder, Terri’s Consign and Design Furnishings, John Bruck, Chairman and President, BHE Environmental, Inc, James Copeland, Jr, CEO, Deloitte & Touche, Debbie Gaby & Len Gaby, President & CEO, Sleep America, Ann Hambly, MD, Prudential Asset Resources, Frank Hennessey, CEO, MascoTech, Vicki Henry, CEO, Feedback Plus, Inc, Irv Hockaday, President and CEO, Hallmark Cards, Linda Huett, President and CEO, Weight Watchers International, Inc, Jack Kahl, Founder, Manco, Inc, Jack Lowe, CEO, TD Industries, Bill Matthews, Managing Partner, Plante & Moran, LLP, Mike McCarthy, Chairman, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc, Gary McDaniel, CEO, Chateau Communities, Inc, Gary Nelon, Chairman and CEO, First Texas Bancorp, Inc, James B Nicholson, President and CEO, PVS Chemicals, Inc, David Novak, Chairman and CEO, Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc, Dr Alvin Rohrs, CEO, SIFE, Len Roberts, Chairman and CEO, Radio Shack Corporation, Bruce Simpson, CEO, AppGenesys, Inc, Lou Smith, President and CEO, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Kip Tindell, President and CEO and Cofounder, The Container Store, David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, US General Accounting Office, Tim Webster, President and CEO, American Italian Pasta Co, and Dan Woodward, Chairman and CEO, Enherent Corp.

The book contains 12 chapters and 5 Appendixes. The chapters start with Defining true leaders (chapter 1), considering passion as a prerequisite (chapter 2), See what is not yet visible (chapter 3), care enough to connect and convey (chapter 4), treat learning like dirty dishes (chapter 5), do what's right and tell the truth (chapter 6), trust is a must (chapter 7), recognize and build people (chapter 8), trust your intuition (chapter 9), risk to respond and grow (chapter 10), respect the importance of balance (chapter 11), and, so what? predictions for the future (chapter 12). The leaders who find their views expressed and their values conveyed to their people are effective leaders. After every chapter of the book there are certain questions to be explored and discovered which would certainly help the reader for practical purposes.

The book refers to Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) and draws a lot from their experience. SIFE clarifies its mission as: To provide college students the best opportunity to make a difference and to develop leadership, teamwork, and communication skills through learning, practicing, and teaching the principles of free enterprise. It is a nonprofit collegiate organization in US. Appendix A provides a detailed perspective on the activities of which SIFE carries and their experiences. The book has a leadership evaluation tool as given by Dan Woodward in Appendix B. Appendix C illustrates ‘One-with-One Discussion Card’ used by TD Industries. This card facilitates the discussion between employees and supervisors. This practice is unique in its nature. A concise objective view of the whole book is reflected in Appendix D which consolidates the Attitudes and Values of all the 27 leaders included in the book. This appendix shows ‘the average true leaders attitudes and values graph’. Appendix E provides summarized information with the web addresses of all the companies included in this present work. For readers convenience an index (p 213-219) is provided towards the end of the book and the information about the authors is provided just to wind up the book.

The narratives used in the book make it interesting for the readers and the language used is very simple which is easy to follow and we can relate it with our immediate environment. ‘True leaders genuinely care about people. They feel a responsibility to create a work environment in which people are respected and recognized, and they allocate funds to ensure that their people are adequately trained.’(p 129) ‘It’s very easy to get into a trap of focusing on mistakes instead of looking for positive opportunities. If leaders can shift the emphasis to looking for the things people are doing that are right and for ways to reward doing the right thing by creating opportunities, they serve the organization better and go a long way toward building people.’(p 143) ‘Being committed, accountable, and responsible doesn’t necessarily translate to giving up the joys of personal life. Lou Smith says he loves being at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, but my life doesn’t end if I’m not here. I, and we as leaders, should not be consumed by the enterprise. We call it balancing life.’(p 169) And to top all this the authors strong belief is "You won't find passion as part of the curriculum at leading business schools, nor will it be listed as an elective. Yet in the real world of true leaders, passion plays an integral role." These are some important pieces I personally like, there are many such pieces which would add lot of value to the reader after going through this book.

This is a book which is useful for students, practitioners, teachers and a common man. There are many examples and events which occur in our own surroundings very often, this would certainly help the reader to relate and find out the ways in which he/she can deal with the issue.

I recommend this book, written in a very simple manner, easy to follow language, and rich in its academic content, to the students of management and teachers.

[published in Business Analyst. Vol 1, No 2 (New Series) Oct 06-March 07, New Delhi, India. Pp 141-144]