As part of our ongoing quest to get you meaningful and powerful stories from the startup ecosystem, we invited yet another passionate and purpose-driven woman entrepreneur – Dhun Patel for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. She is the Founder and Director at Therefore Design and Co-Founder of Atah Lifestyle. Dhun is a proven leader, brand strategist and design consultant. Let’s read more about her inspiring journey so far and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive Interview with her:
Talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
My journey as an entrepreneur started out in 2009 with four friends. We shared the dream of becoming the top design studio in India and today ten years down the line I am happy to say that we are well on our way to getting there.
Our first office was a small apartment of which we used the hall as our office space, an inside room as a client meeting room but for obvious reasons our favourite room was the kitchen, where we would all huddle, discussing our big plans for the future. In those crazy times, we did everything – meeting clients and trying to get projects to running out to get basic office supplies and doing petty cash, the most dreaded task of all.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, I began my career with Elephant Design after pursuing a Post Graduation in Mass Communication. While studying Mass Communication, I realized my passion for research and while most of my batchmates went on to pursue careers in advertising, PR and journalism, I was not very sure where to begin.
That’s when I landed my first job at Elephant Design and here began my journey of learning and falling in love with first, the concept of design and thereafter the business of it. Elephant Design provided me with great experience and exposure, the team comprised of seasoned professionals who were always willing to share information and guide us. This is also where I met and befriended my soon to be business partners and co-founders of Therefore Design.
Since then it has been an exciting journey working with some of India’s biggest brands to deliver strategic solutions that help them win in the market. We have great synergy amongst the co-founders, each of whom brings a special skill to the company enabling us to be a multidisciplinary design studio with three core areas of work; Strategy led by Research, Brand Building & Marketing Communication; and Product Design.
While the consultancy business was growing, we also had an urge to give expression to another passion. That of creating our very own brand to give Indian products a more contemporary expression and thus was born, Atah. For many years now in India, we have been happy adapting to western products and trends.”
To some extent, Indian fashion has found its voice but products traditional to India, that are rooted in our culture, have sadly not evolved at all. With Atah we aim to bring about a renaissance of culturally relevant Indian products, to evolve them to keep up with urban Indian’s changing sensibilities. We launched our first line of products in 2019 and I am happy to say that they have been very well received.
We are aware of all the good work you are doing in your space; what keeps you going?
I take great pride in the success of our clients. Whether it is a start-up or an established business, enabling entrepreneurs to achieve their goals and vision, is what keeps me going.
I strongly feel that design can be applied to any context and can be leveraged to solve any problem. This immense potential of the service we offer to change the world is what gets me out of bed each morning.
Of course, this means that we are in constant learning mode but that is what makes it interesting.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
One of the most important reasons to become an entrepreneur is the freedom of choice. You get to decide; the industries that you want to work with, the type of clients and projects that you want to take on and most importantly the approach to a project.
Added to that building your own business and being your own boss is a thrill like no other. Make no mistake, it is tough, cause there are many more hats you don and many more responsibilities to take on, the biggest one being that the buck stops with you.
Just to illustrate when we started out we were just 5 partners, each of us knew the risk we were taking and everyone was equally responsible. Today we are a team of 35 professionals and the sense of responsibility we have towards our team is both exhilarating and daunting.
How is your product different from traditional products? Tell us more about your product and your startup’s journey this far?
We approach every business problem with the belief that there is one right design solution to address it. Hence the name Therefore Design, it is literally our philosophy. Another differentiator is our focus on building a powerful story for everything we do. Humans across the spectrum love a good story, it has the power to engage and connect brands and consumers. A good story is what makes a great brand.
At Atah the premise of the business is to infuse newness, innovation and differentiation into products related to Indian culture. We do this by rethinking the usability, the material and the aesthetics of the products, to make them more relevant for a contemporary Indian audience.
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
One of the biggest challenges for me as an entrepreneur has been to stop servicing clients as a professional and focus on growing the business. It is a very natural tendency, but one that hampers the growth of the business. This is something I did not realize early enough. I think if I have to give budding entrepreneurs one insight it would be to focus on working ‘on’ the business rather than ‘in’ it.
In more recent times running two businesses that are completely different from each other has thrown up a whole new set of challenges and put me on a steep learning curve. On the one hand, I am selling a service, on the other hand, a range of products. Shifting gears and getting into different modes required to handle these two businesses is an ongoing quest.”
On a personal front maintaining a healthy work-life balance is something that I find difficult. This is my goal for 2020 and the current Work From Home scenario has helped to find this balance to an extent. The next challenge would be to maintain this balance once I get back to the office.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
For me, money is not a key driver. Don’t get me wrong, money is very important and necessary if you want to run a successful business. However for me, ensuring that our team is happy, executing great quality of work that really delivers results, awards and recognition are more powerful motivators.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Frankly, for me, this is one area which requires continuous work. But one mantra that I have started using in these situations is ‘Act rather than react’. It has taken me time, but I have realized that stressing out does nothing to solve my problems. I try to focus on keeping a positive mind frame and evaluating the problem objectively to find a solution.
What has worked well for you so far?
I strongly believe in the value of relationships. Especially in India, where the business is as much personal as it is professional, building great relationships based on the values of honesty, trust and mutual respect is critical. Be it with my own team members, clients or vendors having a good rapport with them has served me in good stead. These are relationships I can depend on, people whom I can turn to when in need and who are always more than willing to help.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
For me, the most important factor is to be excited about what you do. After almost 15 years of working with brands, I still feel ecstatic when I see something that I have contributed to in the shelf or on a hoarding. Having that sense of ownership ensures that I always put my best foot forward and that contributes to my success
Another aspect is teamwork, I think it is important to realize and acknowledge that there are many people who contribute to an organization’s success. You hear people say that entrepreneurship is a lonely journey, I believe just the opposite to be true, without a strong team, success would be very hard to achieve.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
I think the ability to give people the space to experiment and thrive is a fundamental leadership trait and something that every entrepreneur must learn to do.
Another key skill today, is Design Thinking, something that we as designers practice day in and day out. Design Thinking is a methodology for creative problem-solving.”
It can help leaders arrive at new and innovative solutions for challenges facing their businesses. Once introduced to the methodology it can open up a whole new way of thinking.
With circular economies and the increasing interdependencies of business, collaboration and knowing when to partner with the right people can make all the difference.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
Passion, commitment to your dream and self-belief, that is all you need to make it happen. There will be people who doubt you, sometimes you may doubt yourself, but never let these moments take you away from your chosen path. When you believe in your dream strongly enough everyone around you will also begin to believe, that is when it becomes a reality.
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.
