Book Review - Unstoppable Kuldip Singh Dhingra
As you will read my review and the book - you will realise how there is a Kuldip Singh Dhingra residing in us and how one can choose to unleash him within us.
Recently, I picked up The Unstoppable Kuldip Singh Dhingra by Sonu Bhasin.
The reader in me tends to go into this unique zones which revolve around a particular genre for a very long time.
As a reader, I always enjoy reading Business History. And often I encounter, a lot of authors making a superhero out of the business or the entrepreneur profiled. Honestly, it’s a huge turn off. For that very reason, I have gone through reading some 4 books on this genre until I stumbled upon the biography of Kuldip Singh Dhingra. Needless to say that I enjoyed the book so much that I completed in 7 hours straight. And I’m sure many readers will experience the same.
Inspite of reading a lot of books, there was small voice in my head that used to tell me, ‘Will these big boys of blue chip multinationals even understand the problems that small business owners like me face every single day?’ You know, we all have this classic middle class theory - ‘Uski life toh set hai boss!’ and not to mention how we make an avalanche of our own problems in life and while their problems seem to petty to us. I remember a conversation with a dear friend of mine who lives next door to India’s Richest Man, once he told me, ‘boss, uske liye yeh road kharidna kya badi baat hai? Puri baraat lekar chalta hai!’
Indeed, I too had a similar range of thoughts.
There are other times, when I often joke, ‘shayad, inke ghar me badaam alag aata hoga!’ and we have a hearty laugh around it. One always feels that achieving such heights are meant for some special people and for the middle class in us, we are better off with 9-6 jobs, a sedan and a nice holiday home. Social media too is to be blamed equally for it. One tends to see the lavish and luxurious lifestyles of these business owners, such as their bungalows, private jets, luxurious cars and ofcourse the celebrity status that walks alongside them.
However, there are some business owners in India who would just walk past and you wouldn’t even notice them, since they don’t adhere to such a status. These entrepreneurs don’t get written about much and neither do they appear on Page 3 or any news channel. They are honest, hard working, simple human beings with a high regard for ethics and cultural values. My list of such entrepreneurs include Mr. Nandan Nilekani, Mr. Deepak Parekh, Mr. Aditya Puri, Mr. Uday Kotak, Mr. Ratan Tata, Mr. Narayana Murthy, Mr. Rahul Dravid, so on and so forth. And now, the latest addition is Mr. Kuldip Singh Dhingra.
I would like to take this opportunity to give a special Thank You to the Author Sonu Bhasin. Her writing is fluid and connects with a common man. In the days of social media and glitterati it’s a serene breeze to read and absorb the life of a man who works incredibly hard and isn’t really bothered about the celebrity status. As you will read my review and the book - you will realise how there is a Kuldip Singh Dhingra residing in us and how one can choose to unleash him within us.
In this post, I would like to share with you my thoughts about the book.
Here’s what I loved about the book and Mr. Dhingra
Humble Roots
It was a pleasant surprise to know that Mr. Dhingra has been a show shop owner (dukaandaar) before entering into manufacturing and subsequently owning Berger Paints. That enables common people like you and me to dream big just like him. Maybe one day, yours truly, might also be running a blue chip company, fingers crossed!
On a serious note, we have seen this in many successful business owners who are able to take tough and timely decisions tend to have very humble origins. They would have worked on the shop floor, done the rounds to distributors and retailers, spent a lot of time in traveling around the country to know and understand how business happens in various sections of the country and most importantly, because of their roots firmly attached to the ground - they are able come up with some unique scheme that not only attracts capital or more business, but eventually ends up in turning the fortunes of the company around. One can only read them in a management book as to how well they Mr. Dhingra turned around his shops in Amritsar along with manufacturing facility of Rajdoot Paints, Exports business of UK Paints and subsequently Berger Paints.
Entrepreneurs must spend a lot of time thinking about the Working Partner model explain that Dhingras had adopted even before it became a common theme. This will enable them to understand how to think ahead of their time.
2. Visionary and Innovative
It’s no brainier that a promoter is indeed a visionary when they achieve such spectacular business success. However, in the day and age where innovation is limited to technology, Mr. Dhingra created a unique innovation to solve their factory’s working capital problem.
Here’s a glimpse of it - “Kuldip devised an innovative method to get money in advance. He launched a deposit scheme for his dealers. Dealers could give money to the company as a deposit and earn FD rate plus 2 per cent on it. The same deposit was also deemed as a security and an equivalent amount of credit extended to the dealer to enable him to buy more paint from Rajdoot Paints. Further, at the end of the year Kuldip would give the dealer 1 per cent extra material on the net purchases of the dealer.”
This simply meant more money for most dealers. They began breaking their own fixed deposits. Eventually, Mr. Dhingra had to close down the scheme as he got more capital than anticipated. Remember, these are times when we don’t have a fully functional bond markets or bankers who understand the needs of MSME or SME segments.
3. Not afraid of the Pivots in Business and Life
Every successful business owner goes through massive pivots. If you take the case of Steve Jobs who started the revolution in the computing technology with iMac, then music with iPod, then phones with IPhone, then subsequently introduced iPad and thinnest laptop - MacBook Air. It’s unbelievable how much a person can do in just one lifetime. Look at Elon Musk too with PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, Open AI and a lot more still brewing in his brain.
Similarly, Mr. Dhingra too took the pivots from running a dealership shop to owning a small manufacturing unit to a fledging Exports business with the Soviet Union and subsequently running Berger Paints. (I mean, seriously, it’s unbelievable that how much a person can do in just one lifetime. ‘Kaise kar lete ho!’) In the meantime, he often finds days to spend time with his family because as the author repeatedly writes about how a close knit family man - Mr. Dhingra is.
On a lighter note, I think that Mr. Dhingra is that school kid who our parents think will inspire us because he is a ranker in studies, plays sports, performs in cultural events and still goes to bed at 9 pm every night. While people like me need a few extra hours in the day to accomplish even half of the above. :)
4. Larger than Life Attitude
Now with all these qualities mentioned above, I’m sure you would understand that he is larger than life. Author has made sure that once you read about him, you will never forget about him. Because the book is full of small incidents in Mr. Dhingra’s life that are fun to read. That’s why it’s so hard to put it down even when you need to sleep. It’s like having a conversation with this person who can really do anything that he puts his mind to and often receives divine intervention whenever required. That’s a super power.
To summarise, It’s his passion, hard work, family values, friends, business ethics and fearlessness that makes him a person that we all like to be. After reading this book, my only wish is to meet Mr. Kuldip Singh Dhingra in person and relive the book along with him even if it’s just for 15 to 30 mins. A cup of coffee would sound nice. :)
Here’s where I thought, I would have loved to know more about Mr. Dhingra
Author Sonu Bhasin has done an excellent job in showing us a human side of an amazing person. It’s really hard for a person like to me find anything lacking in the book. It’s a perfect story and someday it might turn into a movie. Fingers crossed again!
However, I believe a deeper dive into the mind of Mr. Dhingra would have really added a different colour to it. The fact that he had to take over the business after his brother Mr. Sohan Singh Dhingra suffered an illness. I’m sure, there would have been fears of unknown crossing or even dancing in his mind. I would have loved to know how did he really overcome that? Because these are moments where emotions overwhelm a person, while some people tend to come out of them very quickly. Some may call it a quirk! But can we too learn that?
Lastly, I would have liked to learn from him the Art of Managing Large Teams! In these days, when we are looking at hyper growth in most businesses, we see very few people able to manage such large teams. Since, Mr. Dhingra has been called the People’s Man a lot of times in the book - it would have been lovely to understand his approach to managing people, their expectations, resolving conflicts and still putting that charming smile on his face.
Conclusion
It’s a must read for those who wish to know the face behind Berger Paints. It’s also a must read for those who wish to understand how the promoter of a blue chip company lives and does business. Lastly, it’s a must read for those who wish to understand the family businesses. I’m sure there’s a lot more to learn from the works of the author as I look to read her book - The Inheritors!
Do check out our previous posts!!
