Saurabh's Style
Saurabh Jyoti, the apparent heir to the Jyoti Group is only 33 but his passion to pursue innovation and strong desire to popularize Nepal as a country of quality brands is unique. Besides being Director of Jyoti Group of Companies, he is the President of Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs Forum (NYEF), a body that is helping young people to be entrepreneurs and carrying out a campaign to promote brands made in Nepal.
Since the very beginning, he knew he could take on the mantles of the Jyoti Group any time he wanted, but he didn’t do that until the right time came for him. Before he took the present designation of Director of the Group, he worked like any other employee in the organisation. “I started my career as a marketing officer of Himal,” he says referring to a group of companies under the Jyoti Group – such as Himal Oxygen and Himal Iron. “As I am the son of owner of the company, no doubt everybody viewed me with respect and esteem but I was never boastful of that privilege,” he says.
For his learning of the ropes in the family business, he is grateful to his colleagues with whom he was working then. “I must say I learned a lot from the managers that were working there from my grand father’s time,” he says. Though, business is in his blood and his grooming to that end begun early in the family with different business responsibilities entrusted to him, he says the real learning begun only when he joined the Himal group. Climbing to the top of the organizational hierarchy was not automatic for him as is the case with some other executives of family run businesses. “There, I personally supervised how the production was taking place, keenly watched how the advertisements were handled and was personally involved in the survey of the market”, he reveals.
Based on that learning, he initiated a monthly gift scheme for the consumers, which, as he says, was the first instance of such scheme started in Nepal. As the programme became a bumper success, other companies followed the suit. He claims credit also to the initiation of a scheme under which the buyers would be provided consumer finance at zero percent interest to buy different auto and electronic products. He also claims to be the first in Nepal to initiate the replacement warranty system on electronic goods.
Young Jyoti holds a BE degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore, India. How does he feel at being involved so much in marketing while his educational background is engineering? “What I did was all planned from the very beginning,” he says. “I did a combined course of engineering and management because our family was involved in the industrial manufacturing business all along”, he adds. After getting Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and Management, he joined the family business in 1999 and is currently one of the directors of the Group.
Personal side
Born in a Buddhist family, for young Jyoti the great worship is to offer foods to street children though he always participates in religious rites that are performed at home.
Habits: likes to read books mostly on business and management. Has read ‘Seven Habits Of the Effective People.’
Likes to read new books on new technologies and electronics.
On cars, he likes Honda brand.
On clothes, not a brand conscious. Wears whatever suits. On watches, likes Seiko and Ricoh brand. Utilizes a treadmill to keep himself fit. Doesn’t spend much time on exercise also because he doesn’t have enough time for that.
Likes to collect toy goods mostly cars and motorcycles. Unlike his younger brother who has two live dogs, Young Jyoti has two robot dogs.
Pastime: Likes to watch movies mostly with wife and children. Trys to watch almost all the newly screened Nepali movies. Visits Jai Nepal, Biswajyoti, Gopikrishna theater and so on.
Reads almost all the major newspaper of the day.
Likes to travel but the tour is consumed more by business agenda. Spends 3-4 months in a year attending seminars and workshops abroad.
His strength: Likes to keep himself updated on national politics and the new trends in business and management. Views everything with optimism - a character inherited from the parents.
Friends:
Wife, who is also a class mate, is the closest friend. Prashant who is in New Zealand currently is another best friend. Ashis Joshi is another best friend with whom he likes to go out. Jyoti says “I’m known as the most humorous friend among the friends”, though he is viewed as shy in the office. |
Labour disputes in Jyoti Group companies are very rare. However, the Group is accused of preferring to employ close relatives of the owners or people of Newar community. Saurabh Jyoti, however, says, that was the practice in the past, not anymore now. Still he does not agree that it was a bad practice. His point is something like this: When you have some resources, it is your duty to help your people first. However, these days Jyoti Group has adopted a policy of getting the service from professional hiring agency which hires people solely on the basis of merit.
But that does not mean leaving the family practice altogether in human resource management. For example, as young Jyoti says, he tries to emulate one particular style of his father Padam Jyoti, who presides over the organization as the Chairman. “My father has a special knack in socializing with the employees. He remembers the names of each and every employee and is quick to take them into his confidence. I’m trying to learn that and develop my own personal bonding with the employees,” says Saurabh Jyoti. “My father is like a grand book of business,” he adds.
Still, young Jyoti has a lot of times differed from his father and took his own decision, some of which have failed and some others succeeded. But he has no regrets. “I’ve learned from them and that is my gain. You never get hundred percent success in business. What is important is to earn from the failures and move ahead,” he adds.
While Jyoti Group was traditionally in manufacturing industrial inputs, metal products, distribution of imported machinery and trans-Himalayan trade, in recent decades it has diversified into various fields including hydropower (with partial ownership in Butwal Power Company) and is looking into the possibility of manufacturing pharmaceuticals and cement. And Saurabh’s younger brother and cousin are helping in this exploration. Saurabh’s view in this regard is to focus in products which can be exported to India or China and which the Chinese and Indians may not be interested to produce themselves.
