THE WIND BENEATH THE WINGS
Dreams that see the most beautiful realization are
never about a billion dollar valuation — they are always about a billion dollar
value system. At the heart of any success story are four pillars — structure,
systems, strategy and process. It is always a visionary and an entrepreneur’s
ability to use these four pillars in setting up a timeless success story. The
structure is important because it lends stability to the start up. A system at
the same time plays a very important role to provide the discipline and four
walls of a primary task, strategy adds the most important angle of speedy
innovation that any start-up needs for scaling up and
processes glues all of the above in a form that there is harmony and integrity
when all the pillars co-exist. Being what you are, believing in what you can
do, with the hope that it will all be given up for a good cause were the fundamental
emotions that Dr Gautam used to bank on when he started his journey and still
holds on to these just as close.
There has always been a
difference between where he wanted to be, how he wanted to be and what happened
to it after he was long gone. During the course of his journey as an entrepreneur,
he mentored many bright and smart young people which went on to lay the foundation
of a very strong team, who were very clear from the beginning about why they
were a team and what was the difference between their mission, vision and
primary tasks. They also new that targets, vision, mission change with time;
change with achievements; change with changes that come along the road but the
primary task of the mentor and his team always remains the same and that is how
they were wedded as a team to ensure that their existence was because of their primary
task and which came about to be known as “Smile with Science”.
At SRISOL, their existence has
been synonymous with novel innovations and cost-effective manufacturing of
environment friendly products — all in organic fields. Since its inception in
1997, the group has structured itself logically and uniquely to have both hermoplastic
and thermosetting specialty chemical expertise under one roof. The group has
been able to diversify in — coil coatings, food coatings, lining and sealing
systems, phase change polymers and other specialty chemicals. With a CAGR of
35% per year for the last five years, 800 employees, in six manufacturing
locations spread in three continents globally — SRISOL is a diversified specialty
chemical entity that combines the power of science and technology to manufacture
products, which contribute to human progress. Today, they deliver a broad
portfolio of products and services to customers in 45 countries including shadow clients like
Coca Cola, Pepsico, Nestle, TATA, Arcelor, LG, Samsung, Carlsberg, Fosters,
Nampaq, etc.
Dr Shubh Gautam believes in that when
you are young, your time is limited and that you should not waste it living
someone else's life. One should never allow one to be trapped by dogma —which
is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of
others’ opinions drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the
courage to follow your heart and ntuition. He says that an entrepreneur knows
what he truly wants to become, everything else is secondary. Having an
understanding life partner is such a big make or break and the best thing that
happened to him was getting married to Dr Rashi Upmanyu — who has stood like a rock
in his life. This is what is a true entrepreneurial spirit that he nurtured in
quest for going out and changing the world through manufacturing of specialty
chemicals after chucking away a well paid job with Fortune 50 brands.
This journey has not been one without many storms that came in the way,
and they are these storms only that teach you. Once the storm is over, you
won't remember how you made it through and how you managed to survive. You won’t
even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain — when
you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That's what
this storm's all about. Competing and beating Fortune 50 companies via
manufacturing of knowledge products was not an easy ride if they did not
believe in being hungry and foolish.
There has always
been a difference between where I wanted to be, how I wanted to be and what
happened to it after I was long gone. During the course of my journey as an
entrepreneur, I mentored many bright and smart young people which went on to
lay the foundations of a very strong team who were very clear from the
beginning about why they were a team and what was the difference between their
mission, vision and primary task. They also knew that targets, vision, change
with time, change with achievements, change with changes that come along the
road but the primary task of the mentor and his team always remains the same
and that is how we were wedded as a team to ensure that our existence was
because our primary task and which came about to be known as – “SMILE with
SCIENCE”.
