::..:: ARCHIVES ::..::

I was born in New Delhi, but spent most of my childhood in the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. My father had a shoe factory in Agra, but he gave that up when I was about five and a half, and we moved south. At 15, I went to a private school in the US, and stayed on to finish my doctorate in international affairs. I was 30 by then. I didn’t want to become a professor, or a government official. I was not interested in staying on in the US either. I wanted to do more than that – something more individualistic.

During the last nine months of my stay, I ran out of my fellowship. So I applied for a job with a leather company. It turned out to be a fantastic learning experience. After undergoing training, I was put in the factory, the men’s shop, and the women’s shop, respectively. I learnt how to claim the material; what customers see and enjoy in leather. I started enjoying leather.

I knew I wanted to be back in India, in Auroville, precisely. I had a huge discomfort in becoming somebody else. My wife was American, but I refused to take a green card. I enjoyed being in America, even today I enjoy going there, but I really enjoy living in India. I was an “idealistic fool” – wanting to build this universal city in Auroville.

As a hobby, I made my first bag in 1978 with the help of a cobbler. I wanted to make a product that reflected the way I saw life. Individualistic, natural, non-plastic, not uniform, strong character – all those things mattered to me. Remember, I belong to the generation that was part of the radical hippie revolution. I was more American then. Even my products reflected a lifestyle more American than Indian. Till today, we get asked whether we are an Indian company.

I was anti-business. For years, I didn’t spend more than two hours on Hidesign. I didn’t know what a brand was. I didn’t even know the word till 20 years ago. I still teach at Auroville. My commitment hasn’t totally gone. I have become more of a businessman with years because the business has grown. My elder son’s doing the same thing. He wants to write a book, but is doing a hotel on the side.

My first hotel, The Duplex, was the result of my desire to conserve my heritage. It was our house in Pondicherry where we had started Hidesign. Once we moved to Auroville, it was lying vacant and we didn’t know what to do with it. So a group of us worked on it together, in an attempt to showcase what was best in Pondicherry. We used the woodwork from a house that had been destroyed by a political bigwig and brought it to The Duplex. We added modern design elements. It took two and a half years of my time, but I really enjoyed it. As with Hidesign before, we were once again introducing a concept, a lifestyle.

I feel there are very few entrepreneurs fired by the idea of making huge money. Some are, but mostly, we are fired by something else. After all, you need something to keep you going once you become rich.

My lows in these 31 years have been more psychological. Twice I came close to giving up Hidesign. First time was in 1985, when it was going from becoming a hobby to a business. I hadn’t come back from America to become a businessman. So I even thought of giving it up as a hobby. Then again in 2000, just before I started selling in India. Working in India gave me a tremendous excitement. It brought me in touch with my Indian-ness. Two, it brought me in touch with my customers directly. India was starting retail. I found it very exciting to be in touch with the final person who was using my product; thinking about them; their likes and dislikes.

I am very hands-on with my business, even now. I have always been told that’s wrong. But I got a big boost when LVMH (the French luxury brand Louis Vuitton) invested in us and I looked at its president Yves Carcelle. He is worse than me. He knows every single manager in his 400 shops around the world. He looks through every product. That’s when I realised my model is not completely out of line. I work closely with our designers in Milan. I have to finally okay everything and the general direction of the range has to come from me.

In terms of my time, I spend about 15% on design, another 15% on the core job of thinking about marketing strategy, and the rest is issues, meetings, appraisals and so on. I keep telling myself the fun part is 10% of my job. The rest is just grind. I dream about finding someone who will look after the whole administrative side of the business. My second son, who’s a lawyer and is working at Hidesign, might be that man. Let’s see.

Since I have not studied business, my approach is more instinctive. I work on goals. For instance, I wanted to get out of the way multi-brands were retailing my product. So we opted for shop-in-shop presence. It took us a year and a half to achieve that, but now we are seeing huge returns on that. In November, our sales were up 97% in Shopper’s Stop, and 136% in Westside. Even my vision statement is instinctive. We are not happy being a product category. We want to be a reflection of a lifestyle.

I am happy with our progress so far. We are a brand that is available globally, but becoming a global brand will take time. We are learning from the Italians how to get there. We are setting up stores at the Vienna and JFK airports. That’s one place we want to be seen. Nobody knows Hidesign in Austria or New York right now. For the level we want to reach, we have to learn a lot.

We have launched Holii to showcase modern India. We want to establish that. We are also doing a new venture with Rohit Bal, which is about creating an international luxury accessory brand inspired by India. I feel partnering is the fastest way to get where we are going. I want to extend the brand beyond bags, to sunglasses and women’s footwear.

We have 51 stores in India and a turnover of about Rs 100 crore. The next step is to create the right processes and systems for growth. I really enjoy talking to people who know these things. Louis Vuitton is a perfect example of how brilliant one can be at systems and processes. My son attended a training programme at Vuitton and got to know different areas. We now hope to put that learning into practice at Hidesign.

In my business, I have learnt, over and over again, that being unique and innovative is the greatest strength. Think through problems and don’t just take the easy route. Even though it is a difficult thing to do!