Openness leads to innovation

Take us through your journey of how you joined the family business. What led you to establish Marico?
I wasn’t fortunate enough to do management studies even though I wanted to. I couldn’t get into IIM-Ahmedabad at that time and I even wanted to go abroad but my father instead asked me to join the family business, the Bombay Oil Industries Limited. It was a small company with a turnover of Rs 5 crore in those days and it was managed by my father and his three brothers. I was the first person from the next generation to join the family business, but I had no one to mentor me. In my first year, I learnt how the business was being handled.
We were selling edible oil those days. While we had Saffola and Parachute brands, most of the sales took place through large 15 litre tin packs and the business was not doing that well. I thought to myself that if I could turn this into a branded business, then I would be able to create a sustainable and profitable business. Soon, I started retailing