Indian Entrepreneur: Karsan Bhai Patel

Indian Entrepreneur

Presented By: Abhishek Silas

Karsanbhai Khodidas Patel  Karsanbhai Khodidas Patel is an Indian industrialist and founder of the Nirma group. He is also the founder of Nirma Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He was born in 1955 into a farmer family.

How The Business Idea Came?  Nirma became a huge success and all this was a result of Karsanbhai Patel’s entrepreneurial skills.  Karsanbhai Patel had good knowledge of chemicals and he came up with Nirma detergent which was a result of innovative combination of the important ingredients.Indigenous method was used ,and also the detergent was more environment friendly.

How Business Was Expanded?  Karsanbhai Patel used to make detergent powder in the backyard of his house in Ahmedabad and then carry out door to door selling of his hand made product.He gave a money back guarantee with every pack that was sold.Karsanbhai Patel managed to offer his detergent powder for Rs. 3 per kg when the cheapest detergent at that time was Rs.13 per kg and so he was able to successfully target the middle and lower middle income segment

Growth of Business…..  Nirma adopted backward integration strategy for the regular supply of raw materials,90 % of which they manufacture themselves.Nirma also gave due importance to modernization ,expansion and upgradation of the production facilities.The company also made sure that it uses the latest technology and infrastructure.

Cont…..  In the 1980s nirma moved ahead of Surf , a detergent by HLL , to caputre a large market share.Later, Nirma successfully entered in the premium segment of soaps and detergents.Nirma went on to become the largest detergent and the second largest soap company in India.Nirma had more than 35% market share in the detergent segment and around 20 % market share in the toilet soap segment.The company got listed on the stock exchanges in the year 1994.

 As far as Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is concerned, Nirma has made some good efforts by starting Nirma Education & Research Foundation (NERF) in the year 1994 for the purpose of running various educational institutes.Nirma has also set up Nirma labs , which prepares aspiring entrepreneurs to effectively face the different business challenges.Nirma also runs Nirma Memorial Trust ,Nirma Foundation and Chanasma Ruppur Gram Vikas Trust as a part of their effort as a socially responsible corporate citizen

Expansion of Business…..  The company that was started in 1969 with just one man who used to deliver his product from one house to the other,today employs around 14 thousand people and has a turnover of more than $ 500 million. In 2004 Nirma’s annual sales were as high as 800000 tonnes.According to Forbes in 2005 Karsanbhai Patel’s net worth was $ 640 million.

Learning Outcome….. Karsanbhai Patel showed a good spirit of self-confidence by starting the business at very small scale with the help of his innovative and creative mind. He tried to put his knowledge into