The Blueprint for Scaling: Mr. Vijender Singh’s Masterclass at the 2nd Mariners Capital Conclave.

[00:00:06]But great businesses are not built by chasing valuation.

[00:00:12]And the mantra here is build value than valuations.

[00:00:25]I think there are four parameters, four four verticals which are important.

[00:00:29]One is growth with ethics.

[00:00:33]Number two is is profitability with purpose.

[00:00:38]Number three is leadership with integrity.

[00:00:42]And number four is to some extent governance.

[00:01:09]Uh good morning uh friends, uh respected guests.

[00:01:14]Mariners We have a lot of promoters also sitting, entrepreneurs.

[00:01:20]It gives me a lot of pride to be here today.

[00:01:24]Because the kind of audience today I'm seeing here and my association with mariners is beyond business because my father was also a mariner.

[00:01:37]And I closely watched him and seen the kind of discipline the sacrifice, most important the sacrifice the resilience and the kind of multicultural environment the profession demands, the profession expects.

[00:01:56]And when I look at my own career I think navigating a ship and navigating a company the kind of traits required in both are more or less similar.

[00:02:08]So, I think the person who has sailed for long or even a shorter period by default or by naturally he builds a lot of ability, a lot of skills which are most important in any organization.

[00:02:24]And not just organi- And by building an organization to to be a unicorn gone.

[00:02:30]And also building wealth.

[00:02:35]For past several years I've been privileged to be part of two successful >> [clears throat] >> journey which uh Preity Gola has mentioned.

[00:02:48]And that was not by chance or not by by luck.

[00:02:53]And those days there was nothing called unicorn.

[00:02:57]I remember that I had gone to Silicon once.

[00:03:00]And the amount of passion, the amount of people used to talk about unicorn.

[00:03:03]That's what changed my mind also.

[00:03:06]So, it it is important that you connect with people, you visit those countries, those places, you meet uh people who can actually change your mind. That's very important.

[00:03:16]Because to start any big initiative or to start something which is out of box, I think you need people who will trigger your mind.

[00:03:27]In every person, every successful person or every person who's done something when you talk to him he will always talk about people. Somebody who has actually come and triggered his mindset. And that's what the journey starts for that person. So, until and unless you meet people and someday you meet somebody who can really trigger the mindset and that changes your mindset.

[00:03:50]And that's what was a big game changer for me when I visited Silicon Valley because I had spent about 30 days with in in a in a high school of management and couple of other, you know, big institutes, couple of other big, you know, people who had built companies.

[00:04:06]There were a lot of Indians also.

[00:04:09]So, when I came back I actually put three things on paper.

[00:04:14]In my in the company which I'm talking about the three things were first was how can I digitize so that the process becomes simple.

[00:04:25]How can I create a uh infrastructure which can make the services simple.

[00:04:34]Because those days in health care and even today also in health care the challenge is is to solve big problem.

[00:04:42]And the problem in health care used to be accessibility.

[00:04:46]Um Trust, building trust.

[00:04:51]Even Even technology lacked understanding of people. The people didn't understand technology. So, that was a big challenge. And still today in health care technologies is a big challenge in terms of adoption.

[00:05:06]So, basically when I got this privilege chance to get, you know, to work for these two companies, I think the first thing was that to solve the problem.

[00:05:17]A larger problem.

[00:05:19]Within the organization or within the industry.

[00:05:22]Number two.

[00:05:24]Creating trust.

[00:05:26]Number three.

[00:05:28]Building scale.

[00:05:30]Number four.

[00:05:32]Resilience.

[00:05:33]And during COVID time when you talk to almost all the health care people, service providers, they will talk about COVID.

[00:05:41]What COVID has taught. COVID has really taught us completely different, you know, the paradigms has got shifted because of COVID.

[00:05:50]Today I'm much more confident after dealing with COVID for almost 3 4 years in India and that was a really really difficult time for everybody right from the government, right from health care health care service providers and many more. But the kind of the kind of confidence we got, the kind of challenges we we got and the kind of, you know, resilience we got into everybody in India health care system right from top to bottom. I think that was a big big, you know, win-win for all those entrepreneurs, all those leaders, and all those people who really worked in health care.

[00:06:25]So, these were the big challenges.

[00:06:27]But I had never thought that these companies will become unicorn. I didn't go and join these companies to make those unicorns. I just went because of my past experience I've been from, you know, worked with multiple multinational companies. I've have done dealt with different different situations, but never did I thought that my objective is to build the company to the unicorn.

[00:06:49]And fortunately, the kind of people we had, like Pratik was also talking, the right talent, the right people, the right mindset actually got the company into into into a great success and today these two companies are big big unicorns, so called unicorns and and still doing very well.

[00:07:12]I also kind of worked with a company which was a tech-driven health care services.

[00:07:19]And that was a startup.

[00:07:22]Uh there also my purpose of joining that company was to understand the tech because one business, you know, is your offline and one business is online. There's a two different, you know, uh channels which got developed during COVID.

[00:07:39]So, you'll find a lot of companies who started online business, they really grew during COVID COVID. But post COVID these online companies could not scale.

[00:07:50]Why these could not scale? Because they were lacking offline infrastructure.

[00:07:54]Example is Lenskart.

[00:07:56]And there are a couple of other examples also. So the companies thought why not to get into offline also because online channel is a is a one platform.

[00:08:05]To some extent it can help you in scaling, but until unless you go closer to patients, you go closer to consumers, you cannot grow.

[00:08:13]Still that touch in Indian consumers, that touch is extremely important.

[00:08:19]Until unless a patient sees a doctor and the doctor tells him those golden words, "You don't worry. You will be okay."

[00:08:29]Because that actually changes this whole psychology of the patient or the consumers. So that that touch is important. So hence both online and offline businesses are extremely important in the success of growth.

[00:08:43]So that is what I have learned and my objective of joining that company was to kind of build offline because that was more of a online company. How do I integrate both these, you know, channels and create a win-win situation for that company? And that that it was also pretty successful.

[00:08:59]Then later on I decided to start my own venture in a small way and look into other other aspects of the business because I was telling Himanshu also that, you know, healthcare business actually sucks.

[00:09:11]Spending about 20 years out of my 38 year journey, 20 years in healthcare actually sucks you so much because you have to be 24/7 on toes.

[00:09:21]So I decided to move out of that company and thought of something else. So I'm doing couple of small small things, not large initiative. And that's how Pratik met me. Then I thought let's, you know, work together and do something to build another sort of, you know, so-called unicorn. I'm not fan of you know, building businesses to unicorn cuz my belief is completely different.

[00:09:43]That's what I'm going to share here.

[00:09:45]So, post my journey, I think I had few learnings. I want to be very, very crisp about these learnings.

[00:09:52]So, the first learning is what I feel is very strong that great businesses are not built by chasing valuation.

[00:10:00]When you talk about unicorn, it's all about valuations. Everybody talking about valuation. Even you when you go to hospital, a doctor, a senior doctor, or the promoter who's a doctor will talk about EBITDA, will talk about profit and loss.

[00:10:13]So, do not chase valuation.

[00:10:17]The only objective is to solve the problem. To solve the problem of the business, solve the problem of people, solve the problem of consumers.

[00:10:27]Making services, making your SOPs so simple that it is adopted very well by the employees because the challenge in health care and many other businesses that adoption is a big problem. Whether it is doctor, when you talk to a uh a doctor about about technology, the adoption will become a big challenge.

[00:10:47]I'm not sure whether people from uh health care tech are there except and um Pratik, are there any somebody from tech uh into health care like Dr. Uh like, you know, I think Anil.

[00:11:01]Anilji is there.

[00:11:02]So, adoption is a big challenge.

[00:11:06]So, look at solving problems.

[00:11:10]Look at, you know, uh creating systems and processes which which makes the life simple.

[00:11:17]And do not chase chase valuations.

[00:11:20]And the mantra here is build value than valuations. That is the first mantra which I have learned.

[00:11:29]Number two, I think which is again very important which you most of us know that business is all about network, people to people.

[00:11:36]Whether he is a consumer, whether he is he's a buyer, seller, everybody is people, everybody is human being.

[00:11:42]So, I think people invest in people only.

[00:11:46]The investors would look at look at profit and loss, look at balance sheet, look at return on capital employed, return on equity.

[00:11:55]But a good investor will back conviction.

[00:11:59]He'll back somebody who has execution capability, a person with high degree of integrity, a person who can be resilient.

[00:12:10]So, that kind of you know investments will actually can be one of the step to make the organization not only big, but also uh a unicorn.

[00:12:20]So, second is second mantra is people can make it and people can break it.

[00:12:26]The third learning which I think is very very important and very critical.

[00:12:31]When you invest or when you you know work in a in a organization, when you choose to work, then try to look at something which is which is a company which is in early stage.

[00:12:42]Because when I started my first company, my first unicorn company, it was a very small company.

[00:12:47]>> [clears throat] >> In Indian rupee, it was used to do about 30-40 crore annually. And today that company has become 2.5 billion dollar.

[00:12:55]So, that startup actually gave me that opportunity to not only build the organization, but also create wealth not only for myself, but also for the investors, for the for selected employees, and of course the promoter. So, start from beginning, a company which which which which comes with a good idea, which which comes with lot of you know uh ethics, lot of passion, lot of obsession.

[00:13:22]I think that's a good good opportunity for for an investor, for for an entrepreneur, for anybody who wants to get into into this wealth creation mode.

[00:13:33]Remember that India is talking about multi-trillion economy by I think 2040 40 or so in next two decades.

[00:13:45]Today we are a three billion economy.

[00:13:47]Now we are talking about 40 trillion.

[00:13:51]So there's a big opportunity. So India is going to be a big hub for wealth creation.

[00:13:58]And mark my words, I've seen the journey in last 15 20 years. Those people who invested 15 years or even 10 years back started something a new idea, an innovative idea.

[00:14:11]Today those guys are big, you know, billionaires.

[00:14:16]Today the time has gone when wealth creation was done by traditional businesses.

[00:14:24]You know, industries who have been in the in the in the in the business for 40, 50, 100 years.

[00:14:30]Now people have created those valuations within 10 years. Look at Zomato. Look at, you know, Blinkit. Look at many other companies.

[00:14:39]Look at Nykaa.

[00:14:40]Within no time.

[00:14:42]So today actually the time has come when the legacy is not important where people talk about nepotism. At least in business there is no nepotism. There is nepotism, but there's a larger vacuum where anybody can start. Today in this room also you'll find a lot of, you know, hidden talent, a lot of hidden um uh business promoters who can today build um huge businesses.

[00:15:10]So India is full of opportunity and grab the opportunity.

[00:15:14]Since this fraternity, mariner fraternity has got good investments, good money, financially very strong, understanding of global exposure, So, use those traits into into identifying line of right opportunity to invest into.

[00:15:31]The next learning, I think, most important learning for me is is to share your wealth.

[00:15:38]Until unless you have people or until unless you have people who's got skin in the game, until unless you have people who will share your vision or the promoters vision, you may not succeed.

[00:15:50]So, sharing wealth is extremely important.

[00:15:53]In my blue last two three ventures, the promoters have really shared uh their wealth.

[00:16:00]They've become really big, but also shared with their key stakeholders. It was consistency in any business is important. You cannot have a business where where there is a lot of you know, attrition.

[00:16:12]Because you train people, you spend so much in in, you know, building or developing uh the most important aspect of the business which is human resource.

[00:16:21]You have to take this chance and you have to ensure that people are happy, people are given freedom, people build those entrepreneurial skills in those people and and show them future.

[00:16:33]That's very, very important cuz I've seen promoters who will say our salary will go higher.

[00:16:39]There are many business houses many business houses, traditional business houses, I don't know name here, but they will not share any wealth.

[00:16:48]They think that their brand their brand is big enough.

[00:16:51]They can attract talent, but at end of the day, that skin in the game and look at the attrition rate of those companies is very high.

[00:16:59]And that is why smaller companies are growing much faster because of because of these, you know, factors.

[00:17:07]So, so the mantra here is culture.

[00:17:10]Build a culture wherein people are transparent, people come to you, discuss with you.

[00:17:18]You also act like one of them and build their careers, build their, you know, wealth also. So, these are the four five important mantras.

[00:17:29]And end of the day, if I have to kind of the purpose here is that what is there for a mariner mariner to actually to be to to participate in this large opportunity, the ocean of opportunity.

[00:17:46]I think you can become uh leading partners with some funds.

[00:17:52]You can create a syndi investment syndicate of all the mariners.

[00:17:57]Beyond real estate because real estate is definitely a big thing.

[00:18:01]A very big thing in India.

[00:18:05]So, build an investment syndicate of mariners. Have more people into that.

[00:18:10]Like Dr. Agarwal and there are a couple of other, you know, good stakeholders who can kind of help guide in governance especially.

[00:18:18]And build that forum so that in India people talk about this forum because globally there are many such forums like TiE, TIE, which has got different, you know, uh uh formats.

[00:18:32]And they are known people in the in the investment fraternity. So, I think I think somewhere Pradeep build that syndicate so that it becomes the top of the mind for all the investors, all the you know, entrepreneurs wants to actually get money.

[00:18:49]Uh Apart from that, you can also think of of helping, you know, young youngsters, entrepreneurs, supporting them by by, you know, funding and also helping them in networking and so on and so forth. So, there are many sort of, you know, stuffs. I had a I had a stint with one of the private equity also because there I wanted to understand the other side of the business.

[00:19:13]You know, right from right from identifying right target, what kind of valuations, what kind of, you know, uh things are required.

[00:19:22]So, so those things, you know, you have to continuously keep learning from here and there. That learning should not stop.

[00:19:31]So, to to to be a great to build a great business or a unicorn, I think there are four parameters, four plat four verticals which are important.

[00:19:40]One is growth with ethics.

[00:19:44]Number two is is profitability with purpose.

[00:19:49]Number three is leadership with integrity.

[00:19:53]And number four is to some extent governance.

[00:20:00]Because governance in India is very very critical because you know that the kind of hardship all the entrepreneurs has to undergo because of processes, because of whether it is data security, whether it is something else. So, you have to be you have to abide by all those, you know, governance-related stuff.

[00:20:19]So, these are some of my thoughts and as and when you interact, I think we can discuss more on these aspects.

[00:20:27]But yes, India is is a great country and uh I also love my country. I've never, you know, worked outside India.

[00:20:38]And uh that's where India needs actually more sincere investors to create wealth.

[00:20:48]Imagine from three trillion to India talking about some 30, 40 trillion economy.

[00:20:54]There are going to be number of you need number of entrepreneurs, number of ideas, so much of investments, so much of leaders.

[00:21:04]It's a bouquet of of so many opportunities.

[00:21:09]>> [clears throat] >> So, thank you so much. And thanks, Pratik. It was great honor to be here.

[00:21:14]And hope to see you soon. Thank Thank you so much.

[00:21:20]So, but I would like if people have questions from both of them.

[00:21:37]So, I would like to invite others are also on the stage.

[00:21:42]So, audience if you have any question here so they can raise hand and ask.

[00:21:50]>> [snorts] >> Thank you.

[00:22:06]The details here are pretty good.

[00:22:08]You led some very big organizations as a CEO.

[00:22:19]Because the Purpose to back to make any investors to receive the return of investment.

[00:22:36]And they want to see how fast the money will multiply.

[00:22:46]guidance I think you're right because I think you are right because I've been on the other side also.

[00:22:54]And at times I used to also ask you why is why evaluation so much higher? How can you kind of you know hasten your your your sort of return on investment because see investment is what money is what >> [clears throat] >> money is something which is generated from from different different people this leading partners with them like leading partners with a general partners with a general partner with a to kiss money go deploy with that but you can be leading partner with that and these you know GPs are accountable for to that to those leading partners because ultimately for this guy so his responsibility becomes to actually multiply that money as fast as possible the competition is so much but it's going to be very good with that he that's what relationship counts because you can be first time you can be very good with that but you can be very good with that too because this is very good with that because the other party and this party both have to have to you know be in in in both have to have an alignment you can normally be very good with that because of alignment investors versus promoters don't know very good with that problem with that and I'm telling you 90% there is a problem in the investor and the promoter so until you unless there is an alignment there is a timeline you can be very good with that problem with that problem with that problem with that problem with that problem with that once that alignment is there then it becomes easy to achieve value because then more than valuation you will look at the person you can be very good with that they will support they will value at to my business they will create that networking for me they will create those business lines so that relationship actually matters relationship between you and then these things will come because first meeting evaluation about that it's not going to get closed relationship is important that comfort creates that comfort for for that partner and part promoter also has to create that comfort.

[00:24:57]I'm telling you matter 90% discount cut off. 99% is is language failure.

[00:25:04]And there would be many investors sitting here also. The kind of challenges they face is once they invest with false commitment, what's about business goes haywire.

[00:25:14]And I've been into that that position also where these things happen. And it took a lot of time to actually build confidence.

[00:25:21]If there is an alignment, then I think it becomes easy for both the parties to scale faster.

[00:25:27]So that's very important. Relationship is important. Create that comfort.

[00:25:31]Industry benchmark okay.

[00:25:33]Best is to follow industry benchmark. It was industry but kind of multiple set up there. But before that I think build that comfort. That's very important.

[00:25:42]Thank you, sir.

[00:25:50]>> Good morning, everyone.

[00:25:52]Inspiring address Mr. Same. My question is for you, Mr. Adarsh. Dr. Adarsh in fact.

[00:26:00]You are a senior member of the law community yourself. And as a small time entrepreneur, how can lawyers be enablers to entrepreneurs to succeed as a as a business? Because I can share my experience. Every time I review a contract or an agreement, I resist, you know, consulting a lawyer because of their high fees.

[00:26:23]>> That's a very good question.

[00:26:25]>> So I I look at ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and I try to make an assessment of what is written there is, you know, okay for me as a businessman or an entrepreneur and I should not be on the wrong side of it.

[00:26:37]But how can lawyers enable entrepreneurs in helping them out to understand and do due diligence for new businesses?

[00:26:47]>> Once you consult the lawyers, then there are very less chances of your failure.

[00:26:54]Your lawyer always see the other side.

[00:27:00]What will be the negative?

[00:27:02]Because normally when you go for investor investment promoter will project or in 2 year in 1 year this and 2 year this and third year like this.

[00:27:15]But we always when we accept any brief also we see what will be the defense of the other side.

[00:27:25]So, we never allow we never suggest our client to go for those dreams.

[00:27:36]We try to tell them what is the truth.

[00:27:40]So, once you decide after knowing the minus points, after knowing that you will not have your increase of your profit in in the investment then you will you will be sustaining in the business.

[00:27:59]But if you go with this presumption what we take will project it and in 1 or 2 years you feel all this is nothing then you will also run away. And investor should be there for longer period.

[00:28:17]In small period nobody can be successful.

[00:28:21]I used to be the controlling the legal education in India. Means means I used to give permission for starting the law schools.

[00:28:32]I never given permission for starting a law college with one section.

[00:28:39]I told I will give you minimum two sections so that you can survive.

[00:28:46]In once with one section you can't survive.

[00:28:51]So, when a lawyer, a true lawyer with having the experience if you are consulting that then you will be not in dreams.

[00:29:07]You will not come under that within 2 3 5 years.

[00:29:12]You You will be number one company in India.

[00:29:15]Or you will have certain percentage of increase of your profit.

[00:29:22]So, that will be the only plus point.

[00:29:26]And you will remain invested.

[00:29:30]You will go with a long-term investment.

[00:29:34]Once you sustain the original time, like child is there, newly born.

[00:29:42]If you expect newly born child to run compete then it is your foolishness.

[00:29:50]So, but if you get have a plan for 10 year 15 year, then you can sustain. So, this is the only plus point. Lawyers may be charging.

[00:30:00]And lawyers like me, when you are a senior designated, they charge too much.

[00:30:07]>> [laughter] >> You can't afford it, sir. You can't afford it, sir.

[00:30:12]>> [laughter] >> Sorry.

[00:30:18]So, thank you so much.

[00:30:19]A very inspiring talk both.

[00:30:21]Uh I just want to know more uh in governance part. You said four pillars.

[00:30:26]One value follow value, second leadership with integrity, and then But in good governance part, I run the organization for last 15 years, and this is doing good. It has a scholarship.

[00:30:38]But what all things, because you have seen 10 to 100 and 100 to 10,000 journey.

[00:30:43]What are the things we should be careful of right now? We have good governance practices, anything and everything which I know. But anything which you can show us, guide us how to take this forward from 10 and 100 to 10,000 journey.

[00:30:56]>> I think which I keep talking about in in corporate world is is to be a good corporate citizens.

[00:31:11]So when I say good corporate citizens, it actually means governance.

[00:31:15]Because all the organizations are governed by certain laws. Dr. Agarwal can share more on that.

[00:31:23]And it also includes a lot of the statutory stuff also. Within organization, there are so many laws which one has to follow, especially especially on equality.

[00:31:34]Because organization falter in equality.

[00:31:37]But these are very strict There are very strict laws against one on these. POSH.

[00:31:43]Um Um transparency. Building culture of transparency. You see, governance is more about culture.

[00:31:51]And in that culture it's like a house where you keep fighting, but at end of the day you are all same. You eat same. You sleep under same roof. You breathe similar.

[00:32:04]So that culture has to build. And to me, governance is about culture, good culture.

[00:32:11]Transparency, high degree of integrity, openness, and abiding by all the laws.

[00:32:18]Other Other than that, there's nothing which is which I'm sure in last 15 years you must be following those.

[00:32:26]So create an environment where you talk where you talk about you know, good corporate citizens.

[00:32:33]We already talk about good country citizens, but we must talk about corporate citizens, also. So, that culture has to build.

[00:32:41]Governance is all about culture. And what kind of culture you want to build, you have to discuss, you have to talk to people.

[00:32:47]Giving right opportunity to everybody.

[00:32:50]That is one of the biggest culture.

[00:32:51]Transparency, again, as I mentioned.

[00:32:54]So, there's a battery of this, but that culture, that governance part, that culture has to be built by you. Because culture is all about philosophy.

[00:33:03]What is that objective of organization?

[00:33:04]What is that philosophy you are following?

[00:33:07]And hence, you rally all the people around that focus.

[00:33:12]You have to get the mail ID any school, private school.

[00:33:16]Okay, agar aapko meeting chahiye I mean I have bought by here.

[00:33:21]Honesty.

[00:33:22]So, but you have to go out there and you have to show them what you have to do to make them believe and you get direct entry.

[00:33:30]So, he has just given his life for solving school education system problems.

[00:33:38]And because of I guess because of him, me and Himanshu exist.

[00:33:44]And many of us exist.

[00:33:49]And I guess like I have our journey Okay, journey about product here.

[00:33:57]So, big round of applause for Harish Chawla sir.

[00:34:01]And they just need a young person.

[00:34:04]I would like to thank Himanshu.

[00:34:07]Himanshu shared a good story share because he will tell you what you want to know about this organization.

[00:34:33]>> Mhm.

[00:34:41]Mhm.

[00:34:44]Mhm.

[00:35:12]Mhm.