Someone once said that business is in any Gujarati’s blood, and this saying has been proven to be true many times. What’s commendable is their willingness take on any kind of small job to make things happen even if it means going door-to-door selling their products.
Karsanbhai Patel is one such example from Gujarat, a state in Western India. He quit his full-time government job to follow his dream. He went door-to-door selling detergent on his bicycle thereby turning the company into a formidable group. Today, he is one of the richest businessmen from Gujarat with a net worth of USD 4.1 billion.
Almost everyone who’s spent their time on the TV screen in the ’90s can’t ever forget the lyrics and catchy jingle young girl in a spotless white frock in a Nirma commercial advertisement. But most of us didn’t know the real reason for set up one of the most popular detergent brands in India and a man who nurtured this brand like a daughter.
In 1945, Karsanbhai Patel was born to a farmer’s family in Ruppur, Gujarat and by the age of 21, he graduated in Chemistry. After graduation, he tried to do a regular job like his peers. He also worked as a lab technician in the New Cotton Mills belonging to the Lalbhai Group. Following this brief stint, he even took up a job at the Geology and Mining Department of the Gujarat government.
The year 1969 was a turning point in Karsanbhai’s career, when a small farmer son and a qualified Science graduate, Karsanbhai Patel, was trying to mix Soda Ash and few ingredients to make detergent produce. One fine day, he got the formula right and it was then that he started producing detergents in the 100 square feett backyard of his home as an after office business.
Everything was going well in Karsan Bhai’s life, but when Karsanbhai lost his daughter in a car accident his life almost changed. Instead of mourning, he found out a way to bring his daughter back to life. Only a few people knew of his daughter when she was alive, but it was this man’s sheer determination and willpower that made his daughter famous throughout the country, even though she was no more.
A one-man company, Karsanbhai would cycle through the neighborhoods selling handmade detergent packets door to door at a price of INR 3 per kg, (one-third the price of leading detergent brands) and it was his instant success mantra. Karsanbhai branded his detergent soap, Nirma, after the name of his daughter. The good quality and low price of the detergent made a remarkable journey from Karsanbhai 100sq ft backyard to the middle-class house in India for a great value. Fuelled by housewife-friendly advertisement jingles, Nirma revolutionized the detergent market, creating an entirely new segment in the market for detergent powder. At the time, detergent and soap manufacture was dominated by multinational corporations with products like Surf by Hindustan Lever, priced around INR 13 per kg.
The product was close to Karsanbhai’s heart and so he decided to name it ‘Nirma’- the nickname of his lost daughter Nirupama. He also put her illustration (girl in the white frock) on the pack and TV commercials just to make sure that everybody remembers her. Such was the love of a father for his daughter. As for Nirma, it still remains among India’s preferred choice of detergents.
The company that was started in 1969 from selling door to door detergent and with just one man who used to deliver his product from one house to the other, today Nirma group has more than 18 thousand people and has a turnover of more than USD 500 million.
If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.
― Karsanbhai Patel
Sources:
https://2behappy.in/karsanbhai-patel-and-the-mantra-of-nirma/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karsanbhai_Patel
https://www.forbes.com/profile/karsanbhai-patel/?sh=63e57f462b1b
https://www.mbarendezvous.com/motivational-story/karsanbhai-patel/
