At BrilliantRead Media, our aim is to bring to our community some of the unique and compelling stories from the start-up ecosystem. As part of this endeavour, we invited passionate entrepreneur – Swaraj Kohli, for an exclusive interview with us. He is the Director – Operations and Finance at Uviraj. Let’s learn more about his inspirational journey and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please?
I did my schooling from one of the most reputed schools of the country that’s ‘The Scindia School’ back in Gwalior. It’s the place where my foundation was laid. I learnt a lot there and it helped me to build a positive personality.
I learnt to be a passionate independent individual from the beginning and always aspired to be one of the youngest achievers by delivering high performance in all walks of life. Got opportunity to explore myself academically, in sports, and a lot of other sectors.”
Further adding to my skills and knowledge, I completed Marketing and Management Hons. from Newcastle University in the UK. It was a great learning experience as I got the opportunity to have global exposure while interacting with globally diverse people with different understanding and beliefs that helped me to get a better insight of people around, which helps me today with my approach towards work. During my college days, I took part in many events that polished my skills and made me a better learner. I have always been very passionate and keen to be a part of the family business and looked forward to using my skills and knowledge for betterment and growth of it.
Post my education, I joined UVIRAJ in 2018, and since then it has been the most beautiful part of my life. I have been managing the complete financial part and the operational part of the group.”
I took the full responsibility to look after the finances and operations and always looked upon new approaches for enhancement of it. All these years I have worked on myself rigorously and polished my skills and upgraded my knowledge to be what I’m today ‘An Entrepreneur’.
As an entrepreneur, the journey has been amazing with lots of learning and execution. Every day I get to learn something new and then leverage that learning to make things better than before.
Here in UVIRAJ, we have a team of young and experienced members, from them we get to learn a lot of things about life, work and other things through their experiences, and different views add to being one better though.
Why entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
Because I am bred for it. From a young age, I was attracted towards entrepreneurial things. Because it is much closer to my idea of freedom.”
UVIRAJ is a baby of my parents, their dream, their love and they have worked really hard for it to be where it is today and they always wanted it to be magnanimous. And today we have the vision to expand the company globally. UVIRAJ being one of the top companies of the county, to be a multinational company with interacting and working with topmost clients all around the world and working on building its infrastructure and systems as per global standards. We, The UVIRAJ family, started from the ground level and have always focused on innovating ourselves while looking up to the top companies of our industry. By looking at the methods and path they follow to reach up there, to which we follow and improvise to reach on top one day.
How is your product different from traditional products? Tell us more about your product and your startup’s journey this far?
The journey so far has been amazing starting from the ground level as a normal startup to being awarded as the country’s most trusted brand as a PPE manufacturer. We aim at manufacturing our products to not only conform to the world’s safety standards but also that the customers perceive something of great intrinsic value when they use it. We will continue to provide the market with our reliable quality products by making full use of our core resources.
We have global standards that we have to adhere to in the Manufacturing of PPE business. Hence, every certified Manufacturer is at the same level in terms of standards. However, what sets us apart is our designing, new constant innovations and the need to constantly Improve efficiency to get the Manufacturing costs down by investing in automation and competing against the other growing economies on the cost level.”
We have a technical team whose focus is always looking to build small little changes in the product by adding value addition and understanding the ground level needs of the end-user to make it easier for the user to use our products. We constantly strive to create products that will stimulate the customer’s senses to bring about trust and belief each time the product is used. This would be achieved by having the strength of the three combined effects; meeting the needs of the marketplace, advanced technology, and highest-quality materials. Our success is validated when the end-users use the product and “achieve the highest sense of satisfaction proving the same by demanding Uviraj repeatedly.”
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey?
When you are working to build something huge there are many challenges that you face on an everyday basis for which you have to be mentally trained to throw positivity In the work-family and make the environment a happy place to work for. The super challenge that one experiences in a family business is to create your own identity apart from the family name in it. To have your own set of achievements that make you outshine among others. The challenges even occur based on the leadership and thought process of handling things in a new and smarter manner. There are challenges to train and manage the scratch employees who have always been loyal and trustworthy and to show them a better way of doing things to improve efficiency.
The Operations is the most crucial part in any Manufacturing organisation and to lead that and build a company that’s been recognised as one of the top players in the world is a reward to the entire team, which requires a lot of hard work and one thought running approach in achieving it.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
As Being a finance head of the group, I would probably love to say money but on the contrary, I would love to add that Emotions within the workplace carry much more significance.
I have personally felt that if your employees are happy and the team feels involved in every part of decision making, money comes in automatically. I would even add discipline and Ethics in it.”
A lot of people get into the business line in order to make only money where emotions turn meaningless. But if you do what your heart wants, money and success follows you always.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
When you do what you really love, the pressure and the stress turns down a bit. As an entrepreneur, pain is a part of the journey that has to be experienced and enjoyed and suffering is only one’s choice so you have to embrace it.
Stress, excitement and nervousness are all part of an entrepreneur’s journey. I still remember the excitement and the stress, in particular, that occurred when the first day I started working for it, it was absolutely chaotic! Sleepless nights! but it was fun. You learn a lot every day. By even educating myself on a daily basis at this young age on how to tackle different situations, by interacting with the experienced ones and taking the advice of my father, mentors that help us to grow and make a mark for ourselves in the world. From being an independent individual to now heading the company of a strong workforce has helped to grow my personality in a major way.
What has worked well for you so far?
The efficiency of every individual put together acted as a group strength that turned out to be the most positive part for the growth and cost management skills used in the most apt way. Our main focus has always been on these two points to build and grow our organization in every form. The positive attitude has acted as a shield against all the difficulties that arose.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
As I am still too young to define success, I am learning a lot on this beautiful journey, the only motto I live with is
“Do what you Love success always follows you. Don’t run behind success.”
Yet there are some points that I have learned in the process, that is to have a loyal team who’s always ready to take a bullet for you in any circumstances. The everlasting never say never attitude. And the most important the positivity that you carry within and in your work to look ahead of all the negativity and problems, and the hustle to achieve heights at any condition.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
There is no age to be an entrepreneur. There is no too old or no too young concept. All you have to believe in the dream you dreamt off and do whatever it takes to make it happen. Wait for that moment that’ll help you attain success and don’t restrain your success with any particular age. We have many more years to live and if you don’t put a timeline on your goal, it becomes easier and achievable.
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.
