Ajay Piramal to feature on BBC World News' the Ideas Exchange!

BBC World News’ new eight-part series, The Ideas Exchange, pairs up business leaders from around the world to debate today’s business landscape and their secrets to success. The fourth episode sees Australian entrepreneur and founder of surf brand Mambo, Dare Jennings, meet Indian businessman Ajay Piramal–whose pharmaceuticals company is aiming to be the first in India to develop and launch a drug globally.

 

Dare Jennings grew up in rural Australia. After leaving his family farm and dropping out of college he launched cult clothing and surf brand Mambo in 1984 as a side-project, selling it 16 years later for $12million. His latest project, Deus ex Machina, was founded in 2006 and sells everything from motorbikes to surfboards.

 

Dare Jennings said: “Being a farmer is probably the most brutal form of entrepreneurship there is, because you live with this endless sense of doom; it’s not going to rain, it’s going to rain too much, or there will be disease in your cattle. You know something dreadful is always around the corner.”

Dare got the inspiration for surf clothing brand Mambo, when he saw someone wearing a t-shirt he wanted. He surrounded himself with likeminded people, followed his gut instinct and created a distinctive brand with a cult following.

 

“The overarching thing for me is to do something that you care about and see if you can make a new idea work.

 

“The way I think a brand should operate is that they should become a culture to subscribe to, or not, I think the trap some brands fall into is trying to be all things to all people. Polarisation is my favourite form of brand building, if you really annoy a whole load of people, another whole load will really like you.”  

 

 

Ajay Piramal leads the Piramal Group, a diversified conglomerate with a presence across 100 countries. Piramal inherited his family textile business  in his twenties  after the deaths of his father and older brother,  then surprised many people by investing in the pharmaceutical industry, later selling that business for nearly four billlion dollars.  Piramal Group is now pushing to be the first Indian pharmaceuticals company to develop its own research and branded drugs – particularly for cancer treatments,  a disease which killed hisbrother at a tragically young age.

 

Ajay Piramal said: “It is the family name which is the strongest brand. It attracts investors, it attracts lenders of money as well as customers, they have a certain level of confidence when they see that brand.

 

“Most of the global pharma companies thought that India was not an exciting place to be in, drug prices were controlled and as a result many wanted to get out. I still remember most of my friends and colleagues in the textiles industry thought I was crazy and the pharmaceutical industry thought ‘who is this outsider who doesn’t know a thing about drugs’. So that was a good position to be in as nobody thought it woud be successful.”

The Ideas Exchange sponsored by HSBC telecasted on BBC World News on Saturday at 8.00am & 9.00pm and Sunday at 3.00pm