By Madhu Shree Dwivedi
There are many stories of success and hard work and one such is of a very own Mrs. Kiran Majumdar Shaw. Hailing from Bangalore, a city of innovators and achievers. On the suggestion of her father Mr. Rasendra Majumdar who was the head brewmaster at United Breweries, she went to Federation University in Australia to study fermentation science and to become a trained brewmaster.
Since the early days of her education showed an entrepreneurial trait by being the only woman in the course, also the topper of her class and achieved her degree as a master brewer in 1975. Her achievement is just not limited to this but now she is the chairperson and managing director of Biocon Limited, a biotechnology company.
Entrepreneurial Voyage
Leslie Anchincloss of Biocon Biochemicals Limited produced enzymes which were used for brewing, food packaging, textile industries, etc. for this he was looking for an Indian entrepreneur as a subsidiary. Majumdar joined the job on one condition that if she would not like the job a post of brewmaster equivalent to the one she is giving up should be guaranteed. Anchincloss needed an Indian subsidiary because of the Indian FDI laws, so in a joint venture 30% was the foreign ownership of the company and 70% belong to Kiran Majumdar.
For a short period of time, she worked as a trainee manager. And then she returned back to India where she started Biocon India in 1978 in a garage of her own rented house with a tiny capital of Rs.10,000 in Bengaluru as she believed that entrepreneurship is about being able to face failure, manage failure and succeed after filing. She also faced many other obstacles due to her young age, gender and untested business model as no bank was ready to fund her, also because there was no guarantor. Her first employee was a retired garage mechanic. She has a team spirit which was one of the reasons for her success as she expressed "I have a great team who has helped me build Biocon, I was very fortunate to be able to share my vision with a group of people who really were as excited about challenges as I was." There were also many other problems related to technology such as poor infrastructure, poor quality of water, less equipped and low-quality lab and under-skilled workers. Within a year overcoming all these challenges, the Biocon Company became the first in the country to manufacture and export enzyme to Europe and USA.
Later this industry was transformed into a biopharmaceutical company which focuses on research and development of products to combat diabetes, oncology and auto-immune diseases.
Also, she established two subsidiaries the first one was Syngene which meant for research and development of industrial contracts and thereafter Clinigene was established for the research and development of both generic and other medicines, and later these two were merged together.
There is a long list of achievements of the Biocon which includes becoming a first Indian company to get funding from the USA in 1989. Various other branches were established such as Biocon Biopharmaceuticals Private Limited in 1990 to manufacture various Biotherapies, Imperial Chemical Industries especially for the chemical branch for its research and development. As she says common sense, foolish courage and the reformation of healthcare.
Biocon became the first company of the world to develop human Insulin on Pichia Expression System. Later Kiran listed the Biocon on the stock market in order to raise fund for the research work of the company on the advice of Narayana Murthy and as a result of this Biocon on the very first day crossed $1 billion and became the second such Indian company. As a result, the company's revenue increased from Rs.70 crore in 1998 to Rs.500 crore. A lady who faced financial challenges due to her new innovative idea also because of her being indifferent from the specific rules and customs of the society has become a billionaire due to her strong will, her consideration, her confidence to take the risk.
Her achievements are just not limited to this she is a prominent social worker. According to her "We need to eradicate poverty and generate employment and all this can be easily achieved through education. We all need to put in a little for nation building a nation we are proud of!" In 2004, the Biocon foundation was established which focuses on the health, education, infrastructure especially in the rural areas of Karnataka. Arogya Raksha Yojana was developed by Mazumdar Shaw with Devi Shetty of Narayan Hrudayalaya Hospital. Various campaigns were run for example "Queen of Heart" to spread awareness about cardiovascular disease. In collaboration with Mcmillan India Limited and Pratima Rao a teacher, she also supported in the development of education.
There are many stories of success and hard work and one such is of a very own Mrs. Kiran Majumdar Shaw. Hailing from Bangalore, a city of innovators and achievers. On the suggestion of her father Mr. Rasendra Majumdar who was the head brewmaster at United Breweries, she went to Federation University in Australia to study fermentation science and to become a trained brewmaster.
Since the early days of her education showed an entrepreneurial trait by being the only woman in the course, also the topper of her class and achieved her degree as a master brewer in 1975. Her achievement is just not limited to this but now she is the chairperson and managing director of Biocon Limited, a biotechnology company.
Entrepreneurial Voyage
Leslie Anchincloss of Biocon Biochemicals Limited produced enzymes which were used for brewing, food packaging, textile industries, etc. for this he was looking for an Indian entrepreneur as a subsidiary. Majumdar joined the job on one condition that if she would not like the job a post of brewmaster equivalent to the one she is giving up should be guaranteed. Anchincloss needed an Indian subsidiary because of the Indian FDI laws, so in a joint venture 30% was the foreign ownership of the company and 70% belong to Kiran Majumdar.
For a short period of time, she worked as a trainee manager. And then she returned back to India where she started Biocon India in 1978 in a garage of her own rented house with a tiny capital of Rs.10,000 in Bengaluru as she believed that entrepreneurship is about being able to face failure, manage failure and succeed after filing. She also faced many other obstacles due to her young age, gender and untested business model as no bank was ready to fund her, also because there was no guarantor. Her first employee was a retired garage mechanic. She has a team spirit which was one of the reasons for her success as she expressed "I have a great team who has helped me build Biocon, I was very fortunate to be able to share my vision with a group of people who really were as excited about challenges as I was." There were also many other problems related to technology such as poor infrastructure, poor quality of water, less equipped and low-quality lab and under-skilled workers. Within a year overcoming all these challenges, the Biocon Company became the first in the country to manufacture and export enzyme to Europe and USA.
Later this industry was transformed into a biopharmaceutical company which focuses on research and development of products to combat diabetes, oncology and auto-immune diseases.
Also, she established two subsidiaries the first one was Syngene which meant for research and development of industrial contracts and thereafter Clinigene was established for the research and development of both generic and other medicines, and later these two were merged together.
There is a long list of achievements of the Biocon which includes becoming a first Indian company to get funding from the USA in 1989. Various other branches were established such as Biocon Biopharmaceuticals Private Limited in 1990 to manufacture various Biotherapies, Imperial Chemical Industries especially for the chemical branch for its research and development. As she says common sense, foolish courage and the reformation of healthcare.
Biocon became the first company of the world to develop human Insulin on Pichia Expression System. Later Kiran listed the Biocon on the stock market in order to raise fund for the research work of the company on the advice of Narayana Murthy and as a result of this Biocon on the very first day crossed $1 billion and became the second such Indian company. As a result, the company's revenue increased from Rs.70 crore in 1998 to Rs.500 crore. A lady who faced financial challenges due to her new innovative idea also because of her being indifferent from the specific rules and customs of the society has become a billionaire due to her strong will, her consideration, her confidence to take the risk.
Her achievements are just not limited to this she is a prominent social worker. According to her "We need to eradicate poverty and generate employment and all this can be easily achieved through education. We all need to put in a little for nation building a nation we are proud of!" In 2004, the Biocon foundation was established which focuses on the health, education, infrastructure especially in the rural areas of Karnataka. Arogya Raksha Yojana was developed by Mazumdar Shaw with Devi Shetty of Narayan Hrudayalaya Hospital. Various campaigns were run for example "Queen of Heart" to spread awareness about cardiovascular disease. In collaboration with Mcmillan India Limited and Pratima Rao a teacher, she also supported in the development of education.
Awards and Honours
Mazumdar-Shaw was awarded by several national and international awards which include the Othmer Gold Medal in 2014 for prominent contribution in science and chemistry. The Nikkel Asia Prize (2009) for actively participating in regional development. She was also awarded the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year for healthcare and life sciences in the year 2002.
She was also among the top 50 businesswomen list in Financial Times. She also secured 71st most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in the year 2017.
For her incredible contribution in biotechnology, she was awarded the prestigious national award including Padma Shri in 1989 and Padma Bhushan in 2005. She was given the award of the "Business Woman of the Year" in 2004 by the Economic Times Award. She was also given various honorary doctorate Ballarat University in 2004, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK, Davangere University, India in 2013 for her work.
She is an inspiration to every youth that there is no age, gender limit to achieve success the only thing that is needed is the consideration as she said "I believe in never giving up, no matter what the odds. My mantra is Failure is temporary. Giving up is permanent." About her barrier during the beginning of her entrepreneurship her views are "as you become more successful, the gender barrier disappears. The credibility challenges you have during your growing up years startup disappearing when you start demonstrating success."
