"Success changes all! Earlier when our medical representatives explored
the market, the doctors would look at our products and disdainfully
add, `Punyachi company.'" Success has changed all these defined parameters
and attitudes, as today the same doctors say with pride, `Punyachi
company!' "Ah well! Mehta sure has a lot to crow about as this sixteen
year old company is in fine fettle, with a turnover exceeding 300
crores last year!
For this management graduate from IIM Ahemdabad, to set up shop was
not an easy task. Satish Mehta admits, "My father ran a drug distribution
business and I learned the tricks of the trade from him. But somehow,
it was not challenging enough!" It was at that time, that this young
enterprising man took a loan of 65 lakhs from the banks and added
it to the 25 lakhs he borrowed from his family to set up Emcure Pharmaceutical
in 1983 which was started with 15-odd people. The first few years
were a free fall.
With little experience and never having been on the shop floor before,
Satish Mehta realised that he would do better manufacturing drugs
for multinationals. MNC's then, could not expand production owing
to government restrictions. But it is to Satish Mehta's credit, that
the big players like Parke Davis and Boots farmed out their production
to him. In the next twelve years, their impressive client list of
MNC's included Glaxo Laboratories, Hoechst Marion Roussel, amongst
others, along with five more well oiled automated plants in Pune which
boasted of ISO 9002 certifications and certficates from WHO. Though
it was an adventurous ride, Satish Mehta took all the risks as he
refused to merely consolidate. Instead, he preferred to grab all the
opportunities that came his way. "I believed that even if there was
one per cent chance of me getting that order, I would give it my best
shot!" But the penny dropped in '94 when Satish Mehta decided to tap
his marketing potential. "We were undoubtedly one of the top leaders
with our kind of technology and automation to manufacture products
for these MNC's but our own sales were barely five crores!" In order
to build a strong team, Satish Mehta lured Arun Khanna, the former
head of Ranbaxy, who provided the much needed tonic that the company
needed.
Soon it was decided that Emcure would not hawk generic products like
every other drug company. Instead, they would strike licensing agreements
with foreign drug companies that don't have a presence in India to
produce and market products that are unavailable here. Products that
don't fall under the Drug Price Control Order net. "Modifying these
foreign technologies with our R&D effort, we could introduce new drugs
as per Indian specifications! We've learnt a lot, working with these
MNC's. We're not competing against them but we're competing with them.
In fact, for us the market is the target," explains the man whose
case history is an interesting one. "The reason why these MNC's still
continue to have all the well known drugs produced with us, is because
we have never replicated their formulations, used their brand images
or their literature but have made up our own potiofolio!" Today, Emcure
Pharma expects to report their own sales of seventy-five crores in
1998-'99 and are hoping to hit a hundred crores with their own formulations
soon! Showing a sharp sense of business acumen and vision, Satish
Mehta says, "I am not benchmarking my company against successful pharma
companies like Ranbaxy or any other, but against Hindustan Lever Limited.
Like them I want to build a wide product range and target different
segments and markets with different products."
With a strong accent on their R & D as well as being the front runners
in the New Drug Delivery Systems (NDDS) which has now been adopted
by various other big wigs like Cipla, Ranbaxy, Nicholas Piramal, they
are definitely looking more healthy. "We are refusing to tie ourselves
down due to IPR as well as the patent rule, instead through the NDDS,
which according to us is likely to emerge as the main focus of the
Indian Pharmaceutical industry in the new millennium, we are providing
a pathway for the Indian Pharamceutical companies. All this, with
novel technologies without investing a huge amount of capital and
time for developing a completely fresh molecule! Besides, its easy
acceptibility, the cost and the low time factor also make it a practical
answer. What makes Emcure the talk of this fragmented pharma industry
where Glaxo itself has a market share of only 6.5 per cent, is its
rise and quick ascendency into the rarified areas of the business
world! Playing the number game and pretty well at that, they have
risen from the 122 spot in '96 to the breaking the top 35 by the end
of this year. But they are not satisfied! "There's still a long way
to go. We're a company hungry for results! We want to break into the
top 10 companies in the next year," explains Satish Mehta, stating
his ambitious goals clearly! What makes them so confident, is that
their newly introduced brands like Orofer and Ferium that have been
ranked 100th and 165th among the top 250 pharamceutical brands this
year!
They know they had arrived. "What excites us is the very fact that
today we are referred continously by the doctors who have nothing
but praise for our products," voices Arun Khanna. As Satish Mehta
talks about the in's and out's of the pharma industry, juggling percentages
and numbers, we wonder what drives this man and his team! "Our own
potential! We, at Emcure, remain a very market driven company. We
believe in training and targetting ourselves for the next millennium!
In fact, we foresee ourselves as a major player in the global market
with current exports to fifteen countries all over the world and many
more in the pipeline!" Interestingly, they are constantly working
on different strategies to continously motivate their employees with
different forms of training with at least 90 man days a year spent
on training itself! "We speak the same language. Besides, what makes
the difference is the autonomy that each person has in this organisation.
We like them to inculcate the strong sense of bonding in them - we're
goal driven with a strong sense of ownership!" Currently toying with
the idea of going public as well as introducing a whole lot of over
the counter products, Emcure is looking forward to becoming a company
that establishes brands! "We are trying to make inroads even into
the rural market with our medical representatives as well as the local
literature that we are offering! Our constant thought process veers
towards chalking out strategies to make ourselves heard in this overcrowded
market!" Targetting at becoming market leaders in cardiovascular medicines,
analgesics, antibiotics, gastroenteritis, diabetes, skin, ophthalmology
sections, as well as the iron tablets segment, they are in the process
of marketing fifteen new brands or brand extensions. "That's another
reason for our growing markets.
We are continuously innovating to bring out, say, the flattish tablets
or even hormonal patches introduced for the first time in India, with
new marketing strategies that include a new pricing structure!" Moving
towards becoming a pro-active company, they are also looking at technology
to gain a better edge! Besides their plans of an R&D centre, implementing
ERP as well as looking forward to providing solutions and information
to the various doctors through their own website, they are definitely
thinking ahead. What obviously makes this go-getting CEO stand out
from a crowd, is his accessibility to his people. "I know almost all
the workers in Emcure by their names! Besides, we spend an entire
day once in every week with fifteen people from the company, not talking
shop but about families and other interests as we get to know each
other better!" Leading from the front, he believes, "The buck stops
here with me. I refuse to pass it on anywhere else. I like to set
an example for my employees." Well, in the final diagnosis we can
say that Satish Mehta along with his crack team, is looking forward
to changing the face of the Indian drug industry. They are geared
to emerge as one of the front runners, as they target new markets,
new tie-ups and newer molecules!
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