Hire People Who Are Better Than You, & Then Get Out Of Their Way

Harsh Mariwala, Chairman & Managing Director, Marico Ltd. discusses his journey of entrepreneurship, his resolve, integrating values to the culture, and what the role of HR needs to be.

- Vikas Arora

Harsh Mariwala took his family run, traditional commodity driven business to a $900 million Multinational Company and one of India’s leading Consumer Products & Services brands. Mariwala is an entrepreneur who epitomizes scale and that too in a sustainable way. He believes that “Innovation is possible in everything” and this is one of the philosophies that has helped him build Marico at the level it is today.

He shares with us his journey of starting an independent arm of his family business, and taking it to greater heights.

Tell us about your journey. How did it all start?

I started very small. I was the first person from the next generation to join my family managed business. After joining the company, I identified that our edible oil business was being neglected. And I thought that if I could convert that commodity business from unbranded to branded, then I would be able to create a business that is far more profitable and sustainable. So I set out on that path and started innovating with the packaging and product placement. Our market share went up to 15 percent. But if we were to scale the company by leaps and bounds, we had to take some bold steps and they came with their own set of challenges.

How did you scale the company?

There was a stage when 9 family members were running three very different businesses. We realized that if we were to give thrust to branded consumer goods, we had to be a separate company. I requested my family for the freedom to operate only an FMCG business. It took me about two years to persuade my family about the idea and to take that decision.