As part of our ongoing quest to bring you meaningful stories and insights from the startup ecosystem, we invited seasoned entrepreneur – Navin Sadarangani for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. Navin is the founder of NYUZ And CLUBJIO. He has built many businesses from scratch in the Gems & Jewellery space. He is a well recognised name in the jewellery industry and has won various awards and accolades for his outstanding contribution to this industry. His venture NYUZ (pronounced news) is a pioneering business enterprise in the area of Retail Jewellery Services. Let’s read more about his interesting journey and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive conversation with him:
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
Before starting NYUZ, I had been working for 13 long years with the Rosyblue Group-owned Intergold, the largest diamond sight holder of Debeers (DTC).
Here is my career graph :
1) Fluke entry into the jewellery industry in 1992 at Intergold (SEEPZ) and was part of the International Sales team heading Japan till 1994.
2) Learnt Jewellery Manufacture in-house and helped set up the first platinum jewellery factory for the group called International Gold Co Ltd (1995-1996)
3) Moved out as part of the Core Team with Chairman and MD to set up a chain of jewellery retail stores called Intergold(now Orra) and was there till 2003
4) Helped set up a jewellery distribution company called Hammer Plus Jewellery (for Hammer & Sohne, the collaborators of Rosy Blue for Intergold) and ran it till 2005
Hence I had been tuned to the different facets of the jewellery industry and was part of 3 start-up companies for the biggest diamond group called Rosyblue.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I never was intending to become a Businessman, as I perceived all of them to be Traders. The entire thought of buying and selling and making a profit without any major value addition didn’t appeal to me.
However, after 13 years of employment across different business models in the gem & jewellery space, I realized that I had been given an opportunity to learn hands-on and develop skills which even most jewellers son’s don’t get to be a part of.
My interactions and my travels also revealed that the industry worldwide was largely unorganized. Also, I realized that growth now after a point of time, was more to do with Business Development, rather than anything else. My mentor also had shifted her base to another country a year back.
Being someone who is of a Creative Mindset and also that I enjoy People Interaction and Motivation, I thought of doing something different. Something that I had a very strong gut instinct that may work, and also something that didn’t exist in the service space in the industry. Another very good reason for the business model of NYUZ, which is a business of services was that the investment required was not very large.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
With a journey earmarked by a struggle of Rs.1600/month, today I charge upwards of Rs.10,000/hour for a consulting assignment. That’s immense growth for a lower rung employee who has come up from the ranks.
Plus the belief of my clients and my team, that we are doing something that is irreplaceable, and also the results that we are able to deliver is our biggest source of motivation. In the first 5 years, we were largely involved with the leading brands of the industry like Gili, TBZ, D’damas, Nirvana, Anmol, Notandas, Malabar, DTC, PGI but things have changed a lot in the jewellery industry now. Surprisingly most of our clients today are leading jewellers from 2 tier and 3 tier cities who are Mom and Pop stores, and we have helped them organize their operations just like the brands and they have grown in their region to more than half a dozen successful business generating stores. Imagine going to places like Gorakhpur, Bhubaneshwar, Khamgaon and Bulandshahr twice every month to plan the business operations of leading jewellers there. Isn’t that Passion of the client Motivating?
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
NYUZ has evolved with a fair and steady climb. At the start, a lot of people from the trade came up to question the business model of NYUZ. Some even doubted my judgement saying that since I have worked so long across different parts of the country and in different facets, I should be knowing that jewellers wouldn’t invest money in learning – not for self, not for their staff. Hence instead of going ahead with doing everything, I chose to just focus on sales staff training.
There were two views on this – firstly no one does training, so it’s questionable whether it would be acceptable and payable for. Second view being, because no one has ever tried this as a business model, there existed an opportunity to train the people at the bottom.”
The first breakthrough was easy with Gili, as it was headed by someone who was known to me and believed in the concept of retail sales training. But subsequently to get every other retailer to believe in the idea of training and educating the bottom line, was a major challenge. Because I was persistent and passionate, I was able to translate my energy to them in a believable manner.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
What people call Stress, I call Blessings. I was always blessed with countless interesting live projects of real-world and had excellent mentors during my formative years. I realize that there is no structured plan to build creativity or innovation in the workplace here. Letting my team be, giving them enough time to blossom and think independently works best and eases the stress off, if any. There are systems and processes that we follow as a daily routine but all of us have a Job Profile that is a mix of a lot of things that allows for True Leadership to bloom. Hence we enjoy the challenges at work and it drives us to our true potential.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
I have always been a Learner, as well as a Sportsman throughout my career. Both these indulgences I believe have helped polish my career graph.
My learnings have included courses in typewriting, jewellery designing at SNDT, Diamond Assortment and Marketing at Indo-American Society, Higher level British English at British Council, Basic Japanese at Indo-Japanese Association, a workshop on Retail Jewellery Sales by NIS along with the World Gold Council and the Debeers Business Seminar. Recently I also completed the Master’s Diploma in Training conducted by the IATD in Mumbai in November 2019 and went for the Game Changers Workshop in Mahabalipuram with 165 Trainers and Coaches, both national and international in February 2020.
I have also been conferred the Super Salesperson Award in Diamond Jewellery by Debeers. Many other one / two day workshops too. Recently DNA through the National Gem & Jewellery Awards also gave a citation for “Outstanding Contribution to the Gem & Jewellery Industry”. Similarly, even the GJTCI in Ahmedabad conferred an “Excellence in Jewellery Retailing Consulting” Award.
Besides awards and achievements professionally, I have also collected a whole bunch of certificates in Sport in Cricket, Carrom, Football and Hockey and also a few years back had become the Co-Owner/CEO of a TV Star Cricket Team called Pune Anmol Ratn.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
I don’t think that there is a formula that is readymade and would work for everyone. With the changing time, markets, opportunities, technology, people and a lot of other factors, you can’t prescribe what will certainly work. But Yes, I can tell you what worked for me, at the time of me building my debut entrepreneurship venture. The 3 things that I believe are the reason for the success of NYUZ as a jewellery retail service provider.
Innovation – We need to continuously evolve and innovate within our bouquet of services, either with our methodology or with forecasting opportunity
Persistence – There is no give up as an option. Whatever has been thought of, we go after strongly believing that it is possible and we make that happen, sometimes gradually sometimes quicker.
Passion – As a team, we are passionate about helping our clients, and we go beyond whatever our minimum commitments are if we feel that our presence and contribution will be of great value to the client. Internally most of us are service driven
What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
Today’s scenario is dynamic and evolving. Opportunities are many and it is very easy to get carried away with short term thinking and fixes. Extremely critical for a start-up, and it always was, always will be the clarity of vision, mission and values that you are committed to. And then, build a strong Core Team!
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.
