Dr. R.S. Goswami: An entrepreneur in his own class

 

 

 

 

 

When he was thirty-six years old, he became President of the industrial association at the Govindpura Industrial Estate, the youngest to do so. Since that moment, age seems to have frozen for him. For, at 69, Dr. Radha Sharan Goswami, Chief Executive Officer of the famed Hind Pharma, betrays no signs of his advanced years, as if his boots have springs in the sole, all the time springing to his feet, almost running around in his sparsely decorated office whose walls are filled by countless certificate-frames, talking animatedly, emitting energy that is so rare for a person of his age and experience. In other words, Dr. Radha Sharan Goswami is nothing but an entrepreneur incarnate. With presence in pharmaceutical markets in 55-plus countries across continental geographies, Hind Pharma is sort of an ambassador of goodwill for the country. As he recounts his own story, Dr. Goswami’s eyes glisten with a rare glow, and his face radiates an energy that communicates itself to everybody in the room. It must not have been easy to be a Radha Sharan Goswami, given the mountains of difficulties he surmounted in his long and extremely successful entrepreneurial career of 40-plus years. Rising from utter poverty having been born in a small village in Datia District of Madhya Pradesh, the boy studied wonderfully to acquire post graduate degrees in science (chemistry) and earned a doctorate, too, for himself in human genetics. An active participation in Jai Prakash Narayan’s Total Revolution movement led to his getting thrown out of the college hostel, which took him later to Bhopal to complete his education.

 

Yet, paucity of resources would not leave him. So, the boy decided to help his father, an Ayurvedic Doctor (Vaidya), to market the medicines he prepared with so much of effort. That was as if a message from the Divine, marketing of whatever he had. That became his passion, taking him first around the State of Madhya Pradesh and later to all corners of India, and the world. But that business had its own limitations. So, the idea emerged to turn to industrial manufacture of allopathic medicines. So, Hind Pharma became one of those rare enterprises that changed product mid-stream and carved out an entirely new market all over the world. Dr. Radha Sharan Goswami became the author of an entirely entrepreneurial story that can be told a thousand time. Of course, this story has to be recounted in flashbacks, so to say, moving back-and-forth in the narrative, as if it is a cinematic unfolding of unusual nuances.

 

But this story has no villains, so to say. He is the hero, with so many actors waltzing in and out of his trajectory, helping him, making his way smoother (no matter the obstacles). Sitting back relaxed even on a very busy Saturday, Dr. Goswami has only gratitude to express for everybody who he came across in his long journey. “I did run into difficulties, all right, but I also learned that a good person also gets loads of help from every possible quarter,” he says with an infectious smile. “My work’s nucleus is marketing”, Dr. Goswami insists. “I had seven sisters and two brothers. Each of them had to be supported and settled. I had some products that needed to be sold, so that I could support my family. Hence, the Himalayan effort to reach every and any place where there was even an iota of chance to sell my products. “That led to my endless travels with whatever means, including goods trains. But those hard days were also of assurance of future prosperity. With a little loan from the bank, I acquired a scooter. A little later, I bought a car for myself from my own money. “By 1986, I decided to launch a new business effort. I erected an industrial shed of 2000 sq meet, and made good business and saved Rs 50 lakhs without any credit. At that point, I sought a bank loan, which I did get thanks to a collateral a family friend stood for me.

 

“By the year 2000, I started exports, first to Kyrgyzstan. That opened newer opportunities for me. One of which was a request during a foreign visit to help a company overcome a technical difficulty making a disinfectant. I worked at their facility and made 500 liters of the product and gave it to them. They paid me handsomely, and thus started a chain of endeavours in different countries, bringing income in dollars. An urgent order from the United States opened still newer doors and a straight earning of 4 lakh dollars,” Dr. Goswami recounts. No matter the fact that he got his MScs and PhD ages ago, Dr. Goswami has kept himself eternally in a learner’s mode, all the time reading extensively, books, research papers, Indian and global regulations on pharmaceutical manufacturing, World Health Organisation’s informative literature on global scenario ... ! Reading is Dr. Goswami’s passion. He knows the latest happenings in pharma industry as well as in politics and society. His world travels have “opened (my) eyes to a great truth that a good effort always gets support. The people are good and a sincere person has all the scope to grow. He is attending trade fairs the world over exhibiting his 20-plus products. He organisations at least four exhibitions of his own products every year. And the result is obvious: He is all the time on the move, and his products are all the time moving.

 

What make Dr. Radha Sharan Goswami’s story all the more different is that everybody in his family runs an industrial unit, not as dynastic hand-over, but on sheer merit. His wife Archana also heads a unit, and also conducts massive agricultural operations most avidly. His one daughter head a unit and another one marketing operations of his products in the United Kingdom. His son works with him in Hind Pharma, and brother runs another unit next door. What makes Dr. Goswami unique is the manner in which he has helped all his siblings settle in life, enabling them to live life of the standards by which his own personal family lives in comfort. “I consider it my commitment to help everybody in the extended family to settle in life and live honourably and with every possible comfort,” Dr. Goswami says with eyes becoming slightly teary. But the most emotional statements come when Dr. Goswami talks of his wife and his mother: “My wife is my alter ego, so to say. She stood by me in every endeavour, and endured my extensive travels all life. She does accompany me to many countries now. But there were times when she handled the family matters all alone.