An Entrepreneur Upholding Sustainability & Perseverance while Running Multiple Ventures
In an exclusive conversation with CEO Gaurav Pardeshi (Gary) of Adesiflava Private Limited (Hong Kong) and ALPS Enterprises (India), shares his journey as one of the most successful and competent Indian Leaders stationed distinctly across the entrepreneurial arena of Hong Kong and a rising star in among business leaders in India.
Arindam Mukherjee, had the opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with Gary discussing his ongoing ventures and some of his business stories facing ups and downs, but still standing and sailing well. Arindam Mukherjee, is a media and marketing manager working at ALPS Enterprises, India who suggested it would be best to first have a ‘Cover Story’ about Gaurav Pardeshi (Gary), in his magazine that he started in early 2011 as his first venture in Hong Kong.
Without any history of friends, relatives, or financial support in a brand new and language-restricted country like Hong Kong, Gary has managed to touch many aspects and flavors of his entrepreneurial journey in Hong Kong.
● And his latest two ventures in India, Roidmi Cordless Vacuums in 2019 and Voltmi Smart & Healthy Electronics in 2020.
Gary mentioned, “In today’s digital age, it’s very easy to have everything controlled, monitored, and nicely executed sitting in one small room with a good internet connection and a smartphone. As long as you are available all the time and have a very focused vision of what you want to do with your businesses, it does not matter if you are single-handed or multi-handed. Being single-handed and controlling everything is easier rather than having too many cooks to spoil the dish. I have very strong SOP’s (standard operating procedures), extremely good usage of google drive for handling all documentation work, ready formats for contracts & emails, central cloud access of customer database, online accounting and invoicing system, umpteen amount of apps installed on phones for sales and marketing and a very strongly divided and bifurcated team handling marketing, sales, operations. This has helped me well to run all businesses and operations smoothly so far. Things do get overlapped sometimes, but that’s when I enter the pilot seat and start controlling and maneuvering to get things back to the track.”
“Yes, I was recently contacted by CEO Insights Magazine, and the editorial team seemed quite impressed by my achievements in Hong Kong and they selected me as one of the top 10 business leaders in Hong Kong. It is indeed an honor to get this recognition on a global platform and among so many other influential and rich business leaders available in Hong Kong.”
Gary mentioned, “Frankly speaking, I don’t know how I can manage and multi-task so many things at the same time. Sometimes when I get asked, about myself, my background, my profession, etc. I am confused about where I should get started. And, by the time I have told everyone about so many things I am doing at the same time, or whatever I have done in the past. The very next question is ‘what is even your age?’, and when I say 38, the opposite person either looks zapped or thinks I am some kind of jack of all, master of none types. But, trust me there are many like me out there who are the same as me.”
“I sleep 7 hours every night, and take an exact 15 minutes power nap every day after lunch (obviously whenever possible, and when I’m not out for meetings), I do Muay Thai Boxing lessons, 3 times every week and I manage to read at least one business or leadership book every two weeks. I watch movies and web series almost every weekend with my wife and son. Recently and I made my first handmade sculpture of Lord Ganesha, for the upcoming Ganesh Utsav.
Don’t you think I am living a very stress-free, balanced, and family-hobby-oriented life?”
3) This sounds a bit funny, but why are you even like this?
“I am not sure how this happens and why it happens. I think I am inherited this, (not sure good or bad) quality from my father’s side of the family that I think about business in almost everything. My wife Neha Pathak, has been very strong support in my entire life journey as a businessman. Even whenever we are at the dinner table and if our domestic helper cooks something new and extremely tasty, I end up saying ‘why not let’s sell this?’. Anything that I see at home or anywhere, which is going as waste, let it be a small paper, pencil, or anything for that matter, I try and think of where it can be reused and made money from. Business is running my mind, and blood is 24×7 I think. Sometimes, my wife would wake me up late midnight with a strong shrug, as she can hear me talking with my employees or discussing business ideas while I am fast asleep.
I am not sure if all passionate entrepreneurs or businessmen are the same. But, I can surely say one thing the I have a bit more of that ‘keeda (worm)’ in me.”
I have a Diploma in Instrumentation Engineering, BE in Instrumentation Engineering from Mumbai University & MBA in Marketing from UK
My Unique Skill Sets are “Written communication, Honesty, Self-motivated, Document management, Public speaking, Leadership and Marketing Strategies”
5) Tell us about the inception story of Adesiflava. What motivated you to establish the company in Hong Kong?
Gary mentioned in a very stage-wise manner “Adesiflava was founded in 2011 as a proprietary company and then transitioned to become a partnership firm Adesiflava Private Limited in 2014.”
The Beginning :
A-Desiflava Magazine was the first venture and the first-ever magazine for south Asians living in Hong Kong. In 2021, the magazine completes 11 years and is still going strong.
The Learning :
2013, I launched my first 70 seaters Indian restaurant & bar in Hong Kong by the name of Aamchi Mumbai. The business achieved great success initially with great profits but then wrong expansion plans and related wrong investments got business into losses. You need to cut the bleeding arm if there is no cure. Aamchi Mumbai was shut down in 2016.
The Steady Growth :
2015, I started a parallel venture into B2B branded products trading business. I started first with Samsung and then slowly ventured into other consumer brands. Eventually adapting to the Xiaomi brand as the main trading brand, I grew my company from a USD 1 million turnover company to a USD 20 million turnover company by end of March 2021, with over 20% net profits every year.
The Expansion and Diversification :
In August 2018, I formed my new company ALPS Enterprises in India. The company started with a seed funding of 2.5 Crores INR from the parent company Adesiflava Private Limited. ALPS Enterprises was awarded the National and Exclusive distributorship for the Roidmi brand (co-owned by Xiaomi). Roidmi Cordless vacuums are now selling with over 20 big format online and offline retailers across India. 2019, we launched our brand Voltmi focuses on smart and healthy consumer products. 2018 – 2021, Roidmi and Voltmi brands are successfully penetrating the Indian market.
With the help of my experience in different industry verticals, I can run the operations of the entire company with an extremely calculated risk to returns ratio and great interpersonal skills in handling customers and suppliers. Magazine/Publishing business experience helps to always keep good media and social image for the company in mind, whereas the F&B experience has helped to maintain the high levels of customer experience and tolerance. At my company, all the employees very well know that we all are working together for someone who is going to pay us for the goods obviously but more important is for our after-sales service, strong documentation and good interpersonal skills with our clients.
Jealousy – Being a young guy below 40 years with no family or friends background in Hong Kong, comes to this city and starts his magazine, own restaurant, and very successful trading business is bound to have other business people who get jealous and envy the growth. To overcome this challenge, I always benchmark myself with someone who is ahead of me in terms of achievements at his or her business. This lets me focus on reaching to the same level as my benchmark and then putting in more energy to identify a new higher benchmark and reach there. This way I keep myself away from jealousy.
Language barrier – Hong Kong has a very big language barrier. Right from new jobs, transportation, to everything you need to know Cantonese (local hk language). This language barrier is so huge that it makes you feel like an odd man out at all times. To overcome this challenge, I always hired and worked with the Hong Kong Chinese who spoke decent English and I learned to speak in Hong Kong English, which is like speaking very slow in English and taking a pause after every sentence to make sure the listener is understanding. I started this way until, and now I am mostly surrounded by my employees and people who speak decent English or I can say, they understand my Hong Kong English.
Business Banking – All the mainstream banks in Hong Kong will consider Indians and small-sized companies as fraud and will never open new business accounts and will either close your business account. Despite the fact, that they cannot prove what exactly the banks found suspicious in your business activity, they will close down your business account or either will never open a new business account. Whereas, the big-sized companies who do all the wrong stuff but roll a lot of huge amounts of money through these same banks never face such a problem. To overcome, this challenge I have to open and close our business accounts from one bank to the other. Despite having fought many cases with the banks and also complaining to the HKMA (Hong Kong Monetary Association), the result is always the closing of our bank accounts.
Huge Expenses – Office rentals, salaries, and overhead expenses in Hong Kong are damn expensive. If you need to be in business, you better make good profits otherwise you can be out of business within 1-2 months. The only way I’ve overcome this challenge is to make sure I’ve maintained good business profits at all times and keep the expenses and overheads in control to minimal.
Main USPs are sustainability & perseverance in this small-sized market of South Asians in Hong Kong. The audience that A-Desiflava Magazine caters to in Hong Kong, is not even 200,000 people in total. The total population of South Asians in Hong Kong is very small. So the competition can never be with the mainstream Chinese media. When it comes to competition with any other south Asian-related media, we are sure the longest-running and known magazine in Hong Kong.
I ask all my employees in India and Hong Kong to compulsorily attend something called ‘Saturday Gyan Sessions’ at 10 am on every Saturday. Every employee gets a turn to give a presentation to everyone on a video call and then I personally ask questions to everyone after the call is finished. The topics for presentation are assigned by myself, and I assign topics that are closely related to improving the skills of my people, based on my vision and mission towards achieving shortly to long term goals. For example, if I have to start a new marketing campaign about our Roidmi Cordless Vacuum cleaners or Voltmi Aura Air Purifiers, I would give a topic related to the marketing campaign to one of my marketing team person.
By reading regular news articles & books on the latest technology, sales & marketing APPS, and leadership. Anything from my reading I find connected to my business, I would immediately deploy that with my sales and marketing manager in the company. For example, if I find out about any new APP that is launched and is good for our business, I will immediately request at least 3 people to download the APP and give me feedback on what it is, and how it works, and how it can help us. After, getting views from at least 3 people in the company I will download it myself and then understand the pros and cons before using it for any of my businesses.
New strategies are to completely focus full energy on Digital Marketing with my B2C business in India and for my B2B business in Hong Kong, the strategy is to focus on only 20% of the best customers for business development and not focus on any time-wasting clients.
12) How are you aligning with rules & regulations and certifications to meet the requirements of the Hong Kong government?
The Hong Kong government is very advanced in terms of digitally communicating the news about rules and regulations and certifications to businesses. I just have to check my emails regularly and the superb system will automatically update and inform you about such things. All you have to do is, take an action and do it correctly.
13) What will be your advice for other international leaders who aspire to shift their area of operation to Hong Kong?
Now is not the right time to move your area of operation to Hong Kong. The tourism and Hospitality business is completely dead owing to the covid-19 pandemic. Keep a watch on the news and see how the entire ‘China take over of Hong Kong’ unfolds in 2021 to 2024 at least. Within the coming 2-3 years will be very crucial for everyone living in Hong Kong.
13) What are innovations and up-gradation currently happening in your company? What is the future roadmap of your company?
Innovations & Upgradation – At present, with India business operations we are focussing on B2B and B2C markets at the same time. This innovative sales strategy for our Voltmi and Roidmi brands is helping us get more visibility from top to bottom.
Future Roadmap – Launching Voltmi brand in the Middle-east market by the end of 2021 and launching at least 5 new products by the end of 2021. For Adesiflava Private Limited, our trading operations I want to get distributorship of at least two more brands of Xiaomi for the Indian market.
14) What’s your next big venture?
It’s on the verge of starting soon and might take at least 2 years before it launches. I am developing a smartphone app for Android and iOS users. The app will bridge the gap between the brands and influencers and also it will be a great source of income for everyone with just content viewing.
I’m a dynamic entrepreneur looking for a business opportunity in everything that comes my way. With my experience in a variety of fields as a business leader, I’ve become extremely resourceful, learned, and experienced with possibly all kinds of situations and scenarios with my businesses. An extremely strong marketing mind helps me to be creative and innovative at all times.
16) Your Hobby, Favourite Cuisine, Book, Travel Destination, and awards and recognitions?
Hobby: Reading business & leadership books, Sketching & Painting
Favorite Cuisine: Lebanese
Favorite Book: Think & Grow Rich, 80/20 Sales, Screw it Lets Do It, The Secrets, Rich Dad Poor Dad
Travel Destination: Europe always
Awards and Recognition: Official Media partner IIFA Awards, Most prestigious brands award 2017 Hong Kong, HK’s first 50 Highest Ranked website, Community Leader Award Hong Kong
I had the chance to speak with Gary’s wife Neha Pathak and she simply had one single line to define Gary. “He is simply unstoppable”
She mentioned “It’s impossible to make him sit down at one place and do any one single thing. Even while he is watching movies with us, his other mind would be somewhere else. Whenever he has some stress with business, he would automatically wake up in the middle of the night, and I have seen him making notes on his phone about what could solve his business issues.
On a personal note, I would like to add. “This interview was very enlightening and motivating for me and I am not sure If I can even achieve 50% of what Gary has managed to with this life so far. I am honored and privileged to be working in his firm, not just because of my job but the leadership and entrepreneurial skills I get to learn from him. I wish Gary good luck for all his future endeavors and I hope the smartphone APP gets launched soon because that is going to be a big game-changer for Gary”
Interview By :
Arindam Mukherjee
