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Lesson #4: Go for the biggest challenge you can

Article Overview: “United Spirits, with all its brands…with a huge market share, was addressing the opportunities in India going forward,” says Mallya. “But focusing on the Indian consumer and growing aspirations, it was extremely clear to me that one day the youngsters would start demanding scotch whiskey.”

Lesson #4: Go for the biggest challenge you can

"United Spirits, with all its brands...with a huge market share, was addressing the opportunities in India going forward," says Mallya. "But focusing on the Indian consumer and growing aspirations, it was extremely clear to me that one day the youngsters would start demanding scotch whiskey." Mallya is not a traditional Indian in many senses of the word, so the jump for him to start selling scotch whiskey, a very traditional Scottish brand, was not a very big one. But when he won his multi-million-dollar bid for Whyte & Mackay, the big name scotch whiskey maker, would the rest of traditional India be so eager to accept the drink?

"That was a huge gap in my portfolio, because being an Indian company, we could never produce scotch," he says. "So there was a compelling reason for me to actually make an acquisition of scotch whiskey assets and production capabilities."

An added bonus for Mallya was the fact that he used scotch whiskey to blend his Indian whiskeys, "and we were dependent on major scotch whiskey companies to source this raw material," he says.

But the biggest reason he had for the acquisition was his desire to fill a gap in his portfolio, to make sure he had covered all his bases, and to take on the biggest challenge he could see at the time.

"I want to achieve market leadership in this country, because this represents the biggest challenge," he said. That is not surprising coming from someone who is not only a leader in the fields of media, technology and commerce, but also a Member of the Indian Parliament and a leader of a political party.

And Mallya did not want to stop with success in India. He wanted to hit the American market. To do that, Mallya decided to back a pesticide that he claimed could be used by organic farmers, along with a spray to rid households of dust mites.

It was a huge departure from his core alcohol business in India, but Mallya looked at it as an opportunity he could not pass up. Indeed, with SoluNeem, a pesticide made from India's neem tree that could be used to create organic food, Mallya is hoping to tap the market of the 57 million acres around the world that are involved in organic food production.

The competition is still there, to be sure. There are already 11 other neem pesticides on the market, some of which have had problems trying to become water soluble while still maintaining the chemical composition that would allow it to be used for organic production.

But it is the challenge of competition that drives Mallya. "My father was very clear, I had to have an ordinary upbringing," he recalls. "I was put to work as a lowly-paid trainee after college. I didn't like it at the time, but I can't help but feel that that was probably the best thing for me." Today, because of that experience he says, "I work seven days a week."

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Article Tags: aspirations, huge market, market share, scotch whiskey, spirits, youngsters



Related Forum Posts
Biggest Challenge - Even though I've been in business going on 7 years, I would like to still consider myself a young entrepreneur. I dived into the business community directly out of college at the age of 22. Thinking back to the beginning, my biggest challenge was trying to revive a small-business on a rapid decline to closing the doors. It was a small accounting business in South Florida, and I had just taken over as the owner was retiring. It didn't take long to find out why he was retiring. My biggest challenge was to adjust my expectations of rapid financial gain, because I thought I was entering a fully functional business. I had to lower my sights, really learn the skills I needed to not only survive, but thrive. Nothing like a big challenge to get the creative juices flowing.
Re: What is your biggest challenge? Today? - My biggest challenge is focussing on a project at a time. I have lot of ideas and needed to put them into action. my challenge is focussing on one before embarking on another.
Re: What is your biggest challenge? Today? - [quote="ideasuniversity":1n8hk3wj]My biggest challenge is focussing on a project at a time. I have lot of ideas and needed to put them into action. my challenge is focussing on one before embarking on another.[/quote:1n8hk3wj] I share this challenge. I come up with new exciting ideas on a daily basis. However, I really need to concerntrate on what I'm currently working on first before I move on.
Re: What is your biggest challenge? Today? - My today biggest challenge was to avoid distractions... and i managed.
Re: What is your biggest challenge? Today? - My biggest challenge is focusing. There are so many things I want to do and ideas that I have. I can never decide what to do next and when I do decide it's hard to focus on it and get it done. Procrastination is the resulting outcome.


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