Anuraag Sinha, Managing Director of Liali Jewellery a decade old company in Dubai, is proof that an idea for a business can transcend age and nationality to forge a viable, lasting partnership.
Are entrepreneurs born or made? Theories diverge on this issue but the fact remains there are people who choose not to run with the pack, they march to the beat of a different drummer. Millions of Indians come to work in the Gulf but very few overcome real or self imposed barriers to create successful business relationships. One exception is 49 year old Anuraag Sinha, Managing Director of Liali Jewellery whose decade old company is proof that an idea for a business can transcend age and nationality to forge a viable, lasting partnership. He easily validates what personal productivity gurus often point out - ‘Ideas have consequences.’ That is an axiom with broad life applications too, but it is highly relevant to launching and growing any business where creativity and innovation is the key to success.
Anuraag’s experience though is not a common one – many stories circulate in the Gulf expatriate community of different nationalities not getting along, and it is the rare entrepreneur who succeeds because he initiated and nurtured the right business connection. Ten years ago Anuraag convinced Raed Ahmad Baker, scion of the prominent Emirati Baker family to launch Liali Jewellery under the umbrella of the Dutco group, one of the UAE’s top business houses. What began with one showroom in Dubai’s Jumeirah Centre Mall is today a chain of 20 stores in Europe and the Middle East.
“My roots are in Uttar Pradesh but I grew up and studied in Mumbai,” says Anuraag, which is possibly an indication of how he acquired his entrepreneurial instincts. Living in the big city many an Indian entrepreneur has tested and honed his mettle before venturing out to the Gulf and beyond . Being a product of St Xavier’s School and graduating with economics and statistics from KC College also gave Anuraag the foundation and confidence he needed to take his share of risks. “From the very beginning I was never interested in working long term for anybody else,” he confesses. Doing quite well on his own, Anuraag had already turned down a management trainee job with Ceat Tyres soon after college so the entrepreneur in him was evident quite early.
But the jeweler-businessman’s tryst with destiny could have taken him in different directions, and one of them was a readymade career in Bollywood. Anuraag’s father and his uncles were filmmakers in the 60s and growing up in that heady atmosphere, his life could have taken a very different turn. But it was not meant to be, for after working with his father for three years in show business he decided he was not interested in the film industry. Many a Bollywood aspirant would be surprised at his decision especially because some of the films the Sinhas made in the 60s and 70s, are popular hits of yesteryear.
Anuraag was only 19 at the time, and he is quite detached when he recalls the experience, “Our family business was Hindi films – we made movies like Saaz Aur Awaz, Sharafat (with Dharmendra) and Zahrila Insaan, the second Rishi Kapoor starrer, Dushman starring Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz, and many more films. My father’s older brother was one of the first importers of English movies like Django etc., and my Dad’s youngest brother Virender Sinha who wrote the screenplay for Kal Aaj Aur Kal is alive and still involved in Bollywood.” However nobody in the second generation, neither Anuraag nor his two younger brothers and one sister were inclined to follow in their footsteps, although his sister Seema Sinha is a prominent Bollywood writer today. “My father himself was a misfit in the business, he knew that ethics in the industry was zero, it was not organized, and what one had to do to be successful was not what he liked to do.” He was not disappointed when Anuraag decided filmmaking would not be his choice of a future.
Anuraag’s entrepreneurial instincts led him elsewhere, and in his early 20s aiming to cash in on the export boom in India, he started a leather business with a factory in Agra manufacturing ladies shoes for export. “The business only went so far and we had to shut it down. At the time we felt we were undercapitalized, but looking back now I think we lacked the experience to make it work - the business acumen and skills were missing,” is Anuraag’s retrospective analysis. Possibly realizing this and the lessons learned from his early work experiences led him to explore what opportunities the Gulf could offer. With a specific financial goal in mind, he moved to Kuwait in 1985 for a job in the plastics industry. There he utilized his skills and qualifications, gaining valuable experience in production costing and inventory management. His modest savings target was five lakh rupees at the time, and once that was achieved he left Kuwait in 1989, after only four years. Another Gulf assignment awaited him within a week of his returning to Mumbai. As luck would have it his new employer was Dubai’s biggest jewellery firm, in fact still the industry leader in the Middle East. Anuraag had landed on the right track for the future of his choice, but it would be nearly ten long years before his entrepreneurial dreams would come true.
Starting out in sales and marketing Anuraag quickly realized how essential it was to understand every aspect of the jewellery business. A one hundred day training program followed under the direct supervision of one of the owners after which he was promoted to manage a store, gaining more knowledge and expertise of retailing and manufacturing high fashion gold and diamond jewellery.
Anuraag had only one objective throughout that long decade in harness – how to break into the jewellery business independently. After the seventh year his determination intensified. He did not think of doing any other business because he liked the industry so much. “I was determined to learn every aspect of it,” he remembers, revealing how single-minded he was even in the early days when he was just dreaming about starting his own business. He was totally involved in retail sales, managing shops, business development, overseas business opportunities, product development, brand building, recruitment, training etc. – basically acquiring in-depth knowledge of the trade. When you talk to him, it is obvious he is in love with the jewellery business. “I am simply fascinated by the creativity and beauty of the products we sell and the retail business. We think and create beauty and that’s what we sell in our line of work. Whatever the customer wants can be designed to specification,” he says.
From the seventh year onwards, Anuraag was ready with a business plan and kept fine tuning it, looking for an investor. “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do and move on,” he urges. Still, while determination, skill and experience are important, what about so many people who are equally determined and qualified but don’t see their dreams come true? “Yes I know, so many people try, I’m sure I was blessed,” Anuraag agrees that may be the primary reason he succeeded. “But there’s more to it,” he points out . “I am totally focused. So many opportunities come up all the time, people keep telling you to do this or do that, like Dubai’s recent real estate boom for instance. But we have never wavered in our commitment to our core business - 24/7, 365, we eat, live, breathe and love our work. That’s the way it’s been at Liali Jewellery ever since we started. I had the same mindset when I was employed -if you truly enjoy your work you don’t think you’re working too much, it just becomes a way of life.”
However being focused and prepared doesn’t always guarantee results, how did he find the money he needed to start and what happened when Anuraag presented the business plan to his potential Emirati investor Raed Ahmad Baker? “We had a mutual friend who introduced us because Raed wanted to do something of his own and I had the expertise. He and his father liked the idea…I believe we all liked each other … and it just got started. It was a completely new business for the Bakers and Raed took seven months to complete the due diligence,” Anuraag recalls, “which meant seven months of follow up from my side! But once he grasped the concept and the potential, it took just one meeting with Raed’s father Mr Ahmad Baker and their financial advisor and in half an hour the decision was made. There’s been no looking back.
But what gave Anuraag the courage to approach the Baker family to invest in his project? “I totally believed in the viability of my project and my ability to make it a success. I already had ten years of experience in all the different fields of jewellery retail as well as jewellery purchase, plus office management, recruitment etc., hence I had the courage to approach them.”
What was Anuraag’s initial business plan like? Was it bold? Was it conservative? Did he play it safe? “As a person I am not the type who makes huge plans,” he admits. “You should always have a bigger picture in mind but make realistic plans, think and move forward,” is his advice. “Don’t try to eat your entire meal in one go. Small meals are healthy, I prefer to have things under control and run a well managed business. We didn’t think of starting out with 20 stores, we started with only one outlet in Jumeirah in June 1999 and decided to take it from there.” The name ‘Al Liali’ was chosen by his partner Raed. It means ‘Romantic Nights’ from the book ‘1001 Arabian Nights,’ and to give it a more international feel, they now use only the short name ‘Liali.’ Initially the game plan was to open the store and start retailing no matter where they got the products from as long as they were top quality. “We figured once we established our niche and understood what the customer wanted we could move ahead. We soon realized we would have to enter supportive manufacturing not for the mass market but just by creating a small unit to support the store.”
It was hard work, for the first four years. Anuraag was present in the store morning to night paying attention to client service, thinking about product development, involved in relationship building and just physically being at the store. In the very first year of operations Liali Jewellery opened its second store in November 1999 and at the end of the year Anuraag was gratified that the balance sheet was positive. “We had a team of just five people, I would pick them up and drop them personally from and to their homes. That’s how we worked for nearly two years till we decided to have a van and a driver,” says Anuraag, obviously nobody could have doubted his commitment from the very beginning. “We didn’t have an accountant for the first eight months, we somehow managed in-house. It was the typical small startup - money was not really an issue but we chose to build the business brick by brick.”
In the first 1,000 days that experienced businessmen say is required for a business to succeed did he have any doubts? “When I first began we had a new born son and a 4 year-old. Had I thought will this business succeed or not and what is going to happen to my family, I may not have taken the risk. I was so obsessed with getting things going that I did not stop to think what would happen if the business did not take off,” he says. Today his wife Arti and their two sons, Ankit (15) and Anshul (11) can affirm the wisdom of Anuraag’s bold decision. Anuraag readily acknowledges Arti’s role in his success, “My wife has been a true support to me all these years,” he says, “In the initial 5-6 years of Liali, not only did she manage the household single handedly (I was out working 25 hours a day!) but she also provided me with all the back office support, handled all my correspondence, answered all my calls, did all the follow up.” To this day Anuraag prefers to work without a personal secretary – Arti runs the office from their home providing all the support he needs for his operational decisions.
Back in Kuwait he had set a five lakh rupee target as an employee so does he have another target as a businessman in Dubai? “No! Once I achieved that first goal I stopped thinking that way because when you set such targets you tend to stop at that,” says a more experienced Anuraag. He unassumingly describes himself as a normal working man dismissing any notions of having made it big. “I realize there are people far more successful than myself who still keep on working like anyone else. Ours is not a mega success as yet, there are people who have gone from zero to hero in a very short time with far more achieved. I am happy with what we have accomplished, but Liali is still among the top ten jewelers in Dubai, so there is a lot more to achieve,” is his realistic assessment. “Including retail, office and skilled craftsmen we have about 150 personnel now and we have been opening about 2-3 stores a year in viable locations. We could have grown much faster but we deliberately curtailed our expansion preferring to move ahead with restraint.”
Despite his cautious approach to the business there is an adventurous streak in Anuraag’s strategic planning. It is evident in the company venturing outside Dubai and opening two stores in Spain and one in Bahrain with another in the nearby emirate of Al Ain. But why Spain? Anuraag says, “Everybody asks me why Spain? It was just an adventure, actually on one of our trips to London, Raed and I found a great store location just opposite Harrods. We sat in a coffee shop nearby for one whole day just to observe what the traffic was like. The location was fabulous, but the cost was enormous and as we studied the people coming in and out of Harrods we realized they would not walk across to our store, so we dropped the idea.” Then they thought why not try a small experiment in Europe? Looking at various options they decided that Spain, which has a population of 30 million and attracts another 52 million tourists every year was the ideal choice. The weather is also moderate there and people dress in clothes that allow them to wear jewellery compared to other parts of Europe that require warm clothing, which hides jewellery. They found a mall store in Barcelona with sensible economics and decided to go for it, opening a second high street store and gallery soon after in the same city.
“We do a lot of innovating with our product line,” says Anuraag, revealing it is one area where he constantly likes to experiment. “You have to explore all possibilities when you are dealing with a multi-cultural, diversified customer base, especially in a place like Dubai, which is a melting pot of nationalities,” he notes. Compared to any other mega city in the world the diversity of Dubai is quite shocking – in a population of less than two million the income groups range from ordinary people to dollar millionaires. Liali’s products are designed to reach the widest, most appropriate audience possible keeping in mind their various store locations in the city that are designed to attract different segments. In Dubai there is the high end tourist segment, the affluent Arab and Asian cluster, the western expat grouping and so on, all requiring a range of products that will particularly satisfy their tastes. “To serve all these segments,” says Anuraag, “a range of jewellery is required that cannot be bought from people who do not understand such diverse customer tastes. I am doomed if I only try to sell mass manufactured products from a factory in Spain or Italy, Hong Kong or Thailand to my customers in Dubai. So we experiment with small customized manufacturers in various ways to offer a unique product range that is always new and fresh. My team is very product-centric , I am also a product person, it is one of our big strengths,” insists Anuraag. “That’s what keeps our inventory lean and ensures that customers keep coming back.”
Anuraag ascribes much of their success to his personal involvement in every aspect of the business, “I’m a very hands-on person and I work with all my teams – marketing, finance, production, customer service etc. I am in my stores quite regularly, I just love my business!” He has enhanced his Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Statistics with a Diamond Grading course through the International Gemological Institute (IGI), but with 20 years in the jewellery field most of his learning has been hands-on. Anuraag’s favorite charity on a personal level is CRY in India, but Liali supports the Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs in Dubai and has helped various charity organizations raise funds through auctions of their jewellery.
As someone who has succeeded in doing what so many NRIs would like to do, how does Anuraag work together with his Arab partner? After a decade in business they have a very clear understanding of each other’s role says Anuraag. “First of all let me tell you that Mr Raed Ahmad Baker comes from a very, very affluent UAE national family and his social and economic conditions are very different from mine. I was raised in Mumbai and he grew up in Dubai and the West, which is like north and south. He is also 15 years younger than I am, yet despite the generational differences, we complement each other in our strengths, which is ideal for the business.” Raed and Anuraag decided it was important to capitalize on each other’s unique understanding of the jewellery business. “There are certain products I might not even look at to buy for the store. But Raed knows what will attract high net worth customers and what we must include in our product range, which is suitable to a particular store. Liali doesn’t participate in many trade fairs but we do go to all of them and Raed comes to almost all the shows we attend in various countries. Between him and me we know how to cover the market bandwith and reach the target audiences we want to reach, that’s how we span our socio-economic and generational differences - by putting them into product!”
But what is the reason for such a successful relationship between two very diverse individuals? “We have a very transparent relationship with a clear focus on what we should do to make the business successful –it’s not about us, it’s about Liali - we look at Liali as an entity that needs to move ahead, it’s an idea we have also instilled into our team,” says Anuraag, explaining that his goal is to create and build Liali as a professional, cohesive business without fragmented individual thinking. “We focus on our strengths not on the weaknesses that we all have,” he says. “But the most important thing in a partnership I have realized is that one must be ready to give more rather than expect more, and as a partner one should not be overly concerned about the slice of the pie. That’s how our relationship has worked in the last ten years.” Budding entrepreneurs can no doubt glean valuable insights from such a transnational partnership if they want to do business in the Middle East. Anuraag’s theory is that if you have a good business plan it will automatically attract investors.
What seems to set apart people like Anuraag is an ability to look beyond obstacles common to all but overcome only by a few, and the willingness to forego immediate gratification. Does Anuraag function purely as an instinctive entrepreneur or is there a process to his thinking? Going by the insights he has gleaned, he is quite decisive after everything is considered and planned.