Build your big dream in stages
It’s well known that you started in a basement. How did you get your first customer?
I had two types of businesses. In terms of the Papain extract I had a custosmer right from when I started so that made my job a lot easier.
You can have great ideas, you can have a great business concept, but I think what determines your success is your ability to market that concept or that idea. If you don’t have a market which accepts your concept or your idea, it becomes very difficult to make a success of your business because what most entrepreneurs like to see is some early acceptance of their ideas. That gives you the motivation to keep continuing.I started Biocon as a jv with an Irish partner. My partner was the customer for the Papain extract. That way, I had someone who was willing to back me in terms of creating the business.
The second thing that I had to do was to create a market for other products. I had other enzyme products from my partner to introduce into the Indian market. So, for me as an entrepreneur, I felt that the bigger challenge was to really create a market for these enzymes in India, in a market that did not even have any concept of enzymes. To me that became my personal challenge... because I felt that if I could create a market for those products, then my business had a future. But yes the challenge was to make the product and make it of a quality that was acceptable to my partner. But I knew that the partner was going to be patient and helpful in achieving that quality.
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| Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw |
In the Indian market who was your first customer?
My first customers were the breweries and of them my first customer was United Breweries.
How did you convince them?
Fortunately I was a brewmaster. Because of my brewing background, I was able to talk to the brewers on a technical plane, which made them at least try out my products. So the first products I sold were trial products and I had to do a lot of conceptualizing to get acceptance of these new ways of processing with enzymes. I think my main challenge was in hand-holding them: “I am going to help you use these products and I am sure you will benefit from them.”
When you were starting up, who was your first key employee?
When I started my company, my first objective was to set up a unit for enzyme production. So I had to look for someone who had knowledge of production or mechanical engineering. Naseer Ahmed was actually a mechanic, who used to work in an automotive-parts manufacturing company...
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written by cheap air jordans, November 18, 2010
written by Shailesh Srivastava, January 27, 2010
written by spoorthi , January 10, 2010
i am a diploma in pharmacy and i am working in private hospital. i have lot of dremas to set up my own company as you started so please guide me about this. if possible can i get chance to meet you madam
thank you
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Accurate and well written