Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw: She has the odd passion—artwork, horses—but it’s Biocon that really gives her joy

What do our other billionairesses like to splurge on? Kiran’s abiding passion, apart from her work, are horses and paintings—she particularly enjoys collecting the works of Yusuf Arakkal and S.G. Vasudev. Sailoja confesses she loves Louis Vuitton purses and diamond and gold jewellery. “But I haven’t bought any great jewellery for two years now,” she says. Shobhana admits to a weakness for designer watches and bags, as well as light, trendy and stylish fashion jewellery which is not necessarily very expensive. Ekta loves dressing up—but of course her biggest pleasure comes from watching her audience ratings soar.

For most, making billions is not what drives them. Sulajja, who recently sold a 15 per cent stake in her company to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Capital, could be speaking for all of them when she sums up: “Neither me nor my family has been about money. That’s not how we relate to people either. I appreciate that I have certain comforts and don’t have to struggle as much as some for basics, but beyond that we’re just simple hard-working people.”

By Paromita Shastri with Charubala Annuncio, Archana Rai and Madhavi Tata

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is one of the richest women in India. She is the founder of Biocon, a biotech company and Asia’s largest insulin maker.

But the chairman and managing director attributes her success to her go-getting nature rather than entrepreneurial spirit.

Ms Mazumdar-Shaw originally trained to become a brewer in Australia, before returning to India to follow in her father’s footsteps as a brew-master.

But she struggled to find a job on her return and recalls the industry wasn’t ready for a strong female presence. “The brewing industry is a very, very male dominated industry” she says. “It’s a male bastion.”

Opportunity

She refused to be thwarted. “I really wanted to do something with my life,” she remembers. It was this rebellious streak that inspired her to start her own company, although she admits the opportunity was more by chance.

“This is why I call myself an accidental entrepreneur – because it was an accidental encounter with another entrepreneur… who wanted to set up shop in India and… asked me whether I would be able to partner this venture,” she says.

The chance meeting persuaded Ms Mazumdar-Shaw to launch into the business of developing and making enzymes.

She says she wasn’t daunted by the transition from brewery to biotech. “If you think about brewing, it is biotechnology. And I would say that I was a technologist at heart. So whether I… fermented beer or whether I fermented enzymes, the base technology was the same.”

Female entrepreneurs

She feels this was a canny business move.

“There was no venture funding in India, so it forced me to create a business model that was based on revenues and profits.”

She adds: “That got us into a very different kind of format… to the typical biotech format, which depends largely on VC [venture capitalist] funding.”

But she admits that even as a female entrepreneur she still had to contend with the old issue of gender prejudice.

“Banks were very fearful of lending to a woman because I was considered high risk.”

Her age and the relatively new area of biotechnology didn’t help matters: “I was young, I was twenty-five years old… banks were very nervous about lending to young entrepreneurs because they felt we didn’t have the business experience… and then I had… this strange business called biotechnology which no one understood.”

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw says her previous experience of failure gave her the resilience to persevere.

Bangalore has developed from a quiet city into South India’s technology hub

“I was determined to make a success of this business because I had failed to be a brew master,” she admits.

“I just kept knocking at people’s doors and I said ‘look you’ve got to… help me’. I did manage to persuade a few people to stand by me and fund me and that’s how I got the business started.”

Bangalore

Ms Mazumdar-Shaw started Biocon in 1978 when Bangalore had yet to become the hub of technology of South India.

She remembers it as a “sleepy old retired city” but says it was an exciting place to start experimenting.

“We were first generation entrepreneurs trying to start high technology businesses… whether it was IT and services, or whether it was my biotech business… that was a time where there was tremendous energy, you know, being unleashed.”

Now she says the transformation of Bangalore into a “vibrant high growth centre” reflects the paradox of India. She believes the contrast between high wealth and extreme poverty – often within a few kilometres of each other – is the result of a failure to follow an inclusive economic agenda.

Social Entrepreneurship

Aside from running Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has also undertaken some social entrepreneurship projects.

One area she’s become involved with is public health. “I am very concerned about the fact that India as a country does not have a national health system, and I am determined to try and influence the government to really build a national health system for the country,” she says.

In the meantime, she has created a network of small clinics to provide some basic health care in rural areas.

It’s a part of a “micro health insurance programme” funded largely by her, with small donations from those using it.

Pick yourself up

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw says self-confidence is an important factor in entrepreneurship.

“A can-do attitude” is essential because obstacles and difficulties are inevitable. “I’ve had many failures in terms of technological… business… and even research failures,” she explains.

“I really believe that entrepreneurship is about being able to face failure, manage failure and succeed after failing.”

The key is to be able to tell the difference between total failure and setbacks which can be overcome.

“I think in my particular case, I’ve seen that failures are not absolute. That you can build and modify those failures to succeed.”

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon.
Indian biopharma giant Biocon reported healthy growth of 22 percent for Q1 FY14 riding on the back of an increased geographical footprint in the emerging markets

Bangalore: Indian biopharma giant Biocon reported healthy growth of 22 percent for Q1 FY14. The firm clocked revenues worth $121 million (Rs723 crore), EBITDA of $29.50 million (Rs175 crore); and profit after tax (PAT) of $15.80 million (Rs94 crore).

Read more at: http://www.biospectrumasia.com/biospectrum/news/192549/how-biocon-clock-revenue-worth-usd121-mn#.UfdqX6I3CSo

Biocon’s India-focused branded formulations vertical as well as research services continue to grow at a steady pace