Shivkisan Agrawal’s passion for innovation powers Haldiram become global food giant
| Date :10-Jun-2019 |
Rotary District 3030 Governor Rajiv Sharma conferring Rotary’s Vocational Excellence Award on Shivkisan Agrawal, founder Chairman, Haldiram Group, as Rajesh Vywahare, President Enclave Chair, looks on. (Pic by Satish Raut)
Staff Reporter:
Rotary International District 3030 confers Vocational Excellence Award on Agrawal in recognition of his service to society and pioneering achievements in business
Vision and ambition go hand in hand when it comes to achieving success in life. And when it gets combined with ability to innovate then there is no looking back. That’s Haldiram’s success story in nutshell as narrated by Shivkisan Agrawal, the visionary businessperson from city who is steering Rs 10,000 crores sweet and namkeen empire. Agrawal on Sunday was presented with Vocational Excellent Award by Rotary Clubs of Nagpur. Rajiv Sharma, District Governor, Rotary District 3030, conferred the award on Agrawal. Rajesh Vyawhare, President Enclave Chair, was also present on the dais.
(Left) Shivkisan Agrawal narrating his life story and that of Haldiram during interaction with Sanjay Arora while Rajiv Sharma and Rajesh Vywahare looks on. (Right) Audience that includes family members of Shivkisan Agrawal listen the success story of Haldiram. (Pics by Satish Raut)
The function was held at Persistent Hall at IT Park, Parsodi. Rotary’s award was an acknowledgment of Haldiram accomplishment and personally that of Shivkisan Agrawal, an astute entrepreneur, who has made the sweet conglomerate a preferred brand in India. Considered the second biggest food company in world today, Haldiram has its presence across all seven continents and that in itself speaks volume how Indian delicacies, particularly sweet and namkeen, has made inroads in world market. An astute businessperson, Agrawal came across as a person who was not afraid of taking risks and that played a key role in expanding footprints of Haldiram as one learnt from his talk.
Interacting in the talk moderated by adman Sanjay Arora, himself a Rotarian, the septuagenarian was at complete ease. But asked about intricacies of business, one could see Agrawal’s face light up as he unravelled the secrets of Haldiram as the audience learnt what made the brand a household name. Starting from a small shop in Bikaner, it was Agrawal’s persistence to explore newer avenues that brought him to Nagpur and from that point there was no looking back.
Though he had set sight on conquering Delhi but destiny held him back in Orange City from where he scripted the history. Distinctively remembering his childhood and how he was introduced into business, Agrawal gave credit to his grandfather who was first in family to innovate and introduce new varieties of Shev, commonly called Bhujiya. Perhaps Agrawal inherited that trait of innovation from his grandfather and after coming to city for helping a relative with traditional business he himself got involved in steering and finally laying the anchor in city.
That time Nagpurians’ taste buds were not developed as they are today and it was Agrawal who relished them by introducing Kaju Katli first. Remembering it he said it raked him hefty profit and from that point Haldiram took off never to look back again. Thereafter came Rosogulla and then on a new Bengali sweet that was very rare in this part. A clinically efficient Agrawal said his initial training in Bikaner under expert supervision of family elders helps him even today as he could identify just by look whether the delicacy, be it sweet or namkeen is properly prepared or not. Having learnt the ropes of business in early days, it provides him help master the calculations.
The nose for innovation was his biggest asset and that helped him expand very rapidly. Hard task master himself even today the septuagenarian puts in over 10 hours of work while overseeing preparations at factory to dealing with suppliers and of all keenly involved in future planning. But more than that he believes in simplicity and disclosed that even today his expenses are Rs 2,000 per month. But when it comes to investment, Agrawal says one should not be content with little success. So as he constantly pushed his brothers and family into expanding business by ploughing back profit, it met with skepticism at times as family elders held him from introducing new varieties. But at Nagpur there was no stopping Agrawal who shaped taste buds of citizens through Santra Barfi, Sonpapdi and then Petha. The last one is now grown and helped farmers in the region, he disclosed.