At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the entrepreneurship world. As part of this endeavour, we invited a passionate entrepreneur – Anil Rego for an exclusive interview with us. He is an Entrepreneur, Business Leader, Investor, Asset Manager and Consultant. He is the Founder & CEO of Right Horizons. Let’s learn more about his inspiring journey, his background and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Anil:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I had this passion for markets right from my 12th Standard days. I invested some of my mother’s savings into stocks. I did my research of the stocks before I invested and looked to invest into companies that would become multi-baggers i.e they grow more than 100%. My investing journey continued through the subsequent years.
Considering my interest in markets, I went on to pursue the integrated CFA/PGDBA programme from ICFAI Business School. I then joined Wipro Technologies in the Business Planning function and subsequently, took up a role in Mergers & Acquisition, when Wipro set up this department.
Right from the time I started working, I set myself this goal of “retiring” from corporate life by 35 years. I took it seriously and had an excel tracker for myself. There were no pension plans that provided a pension at such an early age, so I build up a diversified asset base including some investments that were suitable for making monthly payouts.”
As part of this planning, I decided on a backup capital that I needed to build, to safeguard my family by providing a monthly income, in case the need arose. I did not want to put my family to risk to achieve my ambitions. I was able to achieve this goal about 5 years early and set out to make my passion my profession by setting up Right Horizons. I looked to help people on their personal finances; and help them achieve their goal, just like I achieved mine.
I evaluated various business ideas with friends, but they did not seem to be willing to take the plunge immediately. By that time, I was advising a number of colleagues and friends, and over a period, I realized that there was a need to have financial planning for individuals, just like we did business planning for companies.
Financial planning was not very prevalent at that time like it is today. I then decided to take the plunge and make my passion my profession once I achieved the backup capital that I had set out to achieve. This happened quicker thanks to my disciplined investing through the years.”
Before I started Right Horizons, I sketched out a business plan. In fact, I ran a survey to validate my business model. I fine-tuned it from the initial idea. Since then, we have grown to be what we are today, managing about Rs 1500 cr of assets. This journey has seen both the ups and downs, with the downs being our best learning experiences.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
Somehow, it was inherent in me. Right from an early age, I decided that I would pursue my entrepreneurship journey. My role in business planning at Wipro significantly helped in this journey. The fact that I can help people achieve their financial goals makes it very satisfying for me. Your dreams need not just stay dreams.
Entrepreneurship allows you to make these dreams come true, not only for yourself but more importantly for others. So, starting Right Horizons came naturally for me. Of course, entrepreneurship has its ups and downs.”
But, in my experience, the ups have always prevailed over the downs. And as long we keep our destination in mind, we’ll always be able to drive ourselves and thrive. Additionally, entrepreneurship is not a single person journey. It is not just about the entrepreneur. It’s a journey with my mentors, support system, family and the Right Horizons team (my extended family!).
‘Right Horizons’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving with the help of your startup?
As mentioned earlier, before I started out, I went about a business planning phase. In this phase, I also looked for appropriate brand names. One also needed to have a website available for the name. We chose “Right Horizons” because of our mission of helping people achieve their financial goals. So, we chose the name wider than just being finance or money-oriented.
We look to help people plan for their financial goals and handhold them to achieve them. Finance is an area that many people are not comfortable with.”
Our objective to provide an end to end solution across planning, tax optimization, the whole range of investment options, etc. By doing so, we would like our clients to have peace of mind on their finances; with the courage to dream and make them come true.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
I think it’s extremely important as a business and as an individual to be agile and adaptable to the only constant change. Some situations can be predicted and prepared for, but many can be planned for. Eg. While we were tracking and analysing the spread and the potential impact of Covid, we realized that it is likely to have a larger impact.
We then proactively announced a work from the home option before it was mandated by the government. For us, the employee’s health comes first. Since we saw it coming early, we planned for it and by the time it was mandatory, we had all employees capable of working from home.
In all this uncertainty, we tried creating a sense of routine to stabilize the company and the employees. We have an online stand-up meeting at 9:30 am every day, which is still being followed. This helped employees be connected even while they worked remotely.”
This pandemic has brought much more awareness to the health of your mind. Given the feelings of isolation, everybody felt, we’ve tried to provide comfort to all our employees and clients in this difficult time. We have also converted our team building sessions to an online medium. It wasn’t extremely difficult since most of our work is done on our desktops.
One disruption that we had to tackle was the physical form filling, which was completely out of our control. It was good that most of the financial institutions came up with alternative online methods, which cushioned the impact.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
It’s pretty simple for me actually. What drives me is the cause and the people. Our mission of helping as many people as possible to achieve their goals, keeps us focused. The latter being the RH team, clients and my supportive family. It’s what pushes me to keep going on, however big or small the challenge may be.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Change is constant- especially when you are starting a business or are in an early stage, you need to be nimble and be willing to change.
Continuous improvement- Starting from yourself. Entrepreneurship is about playing so many roles. It’s unlikely that you have been through each role/function, but look to learn to both build on your strengths and overcome the weaknesses that are critical for success. Further, it is important that your team is also looking to continuously improve.
In your opinion, what is more necessary: An idea or a good team for a successful startup?
I don’t that it can be either-or. Both are equally important. The idea provides the company with the start, but the execution helps you bring the idea to reality. Many businesses fail because the idea is not as original or not well thought through.
This happens when the founders think through things from their own frame of reference, and not necessarily that of a client. On the other hand, however good the idea, it fails if the team is not able to carry it through in a cohesive manner.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
Adaptability, respect, openness, leading from the front and a holistic approach. In this fast-paced environment, change is inevitable. The leader needs to be willing to adapt, learn and facilitate change. Without which they face the possibility of becoming redundant.
Respect is key, even when it isn’t mutual. Being the bigger person and treating the other with respect is important. A leader needs to strike a balance between working on your vision and taking the inputs of the team. By being open and taking in ideas, opinions and thoughts, it can give the leader a new perspective.
Further, I always have believed in leading by example. Eg. I follow all the processes set down for an employee. In this changing world, it’s no longer just about profit. It’s more holistic and 360 degree. A leader needs to get the best out of one’s team. Further, a leader needs to look beyond oneself, to keep the interests of various stakeholder; and even society in mind.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
Learn from your mistakes and try not to repeat them.
Have your go-to people- it is important to bring in different perspectives or just get a second opinion. You can do this through mentors, board members, consultants and even just team members.
Build your organization. You need to work to develop your people to the next level if you have to scale up to the next level. There are certain threshold levels at which you need to do things differently if one has to go to the next level.
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
One thing I would say that helped me and my company grow is the focus on being client-centric. The more we listen to them, the problems they face, the more efficiently and effectively we can resolve them and provide a service more suitable to them. Everything else will follow.
The second is that we always looked at our team as a family. As they say, you take care of your team and they will take care of your customers.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
Apart from the cause and the people, I like to look at the positive side of life. I try to focus on a solution rather than the problem. Having a positive attitude to life can help you go a long way in overcoming the problems that come along the way.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
The first is that one should not get carried away as only the success get highlighted. Success stories are only a fraction of the overall ventures started by individuals. One needs to put in a lot of hard work and be willing to change continuously, to make things work.
Entrepreneurship is a learning process. When things don’t go along as you wished/hoped for, try to not let it pull you down. If you study many of the successful companies, their business model at the start is likely to have been very different. It’s just that they looked at things positively and continued to improve. While they improved, they hit on a business model that worked.
Be open to criticism and take it positively, however difficult it might be. Don’t be afraid to accept or ask for help and guidance. If you do get pulled down, it’s okay. What matters is that you get back up and learn from it. Understand what went wrong, what could’ve been done differently, and what should you do now. Further, it is very important to keep your ear to the ground and try to understand what your clients are looking for.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
