K.ganapathy Subramaniam on brand trust and innovation

I'm delighted to have a fellow food waller on the show I appreciate my Jamie's businesses is is much smaller than the mighty old food LT foods or or Darbo but let's start this off with a basic idea you know we're talking about innovation and we've just had Damian with his shiny phones and his his sport socks thank you damn fact now we're into rice right and I don't know from a viewer perspective they may they may be their hearts sink and think rice that's a staple I've got it every day but actually you've got a really interesting story about rice and innovation start us off with that a lot of times I think it's great disservice that rice which is the most commonly had staple

across the globe does not get enough mention or conversation part of conversations and certainly not part of innovative innovation as conversations but the fact here is that's where we started off you know we said people have it and it's reached to the point it's become like the air we breathe in and till the time somebody points out it's the quality of it I think we don't even notice what we breathe in it it's kind of so successful you know you don't notice it right I like that but the fact is you know when you get into a business of consumer food and you'd appreciate that much better you would want to speak to the consumer about what they do with the product rather than what we make and that's where they started off

way back we understood the importance of how biryani is a recipe in the country is taking the current the world by storm actually an Indian recipe it's the big dog biryani isn't it really and it's an Indian creation for all the myths surrounding it's an Indian creation created somewhere between Delhi and Agra not Persian not Persian certainly not Persian Palao's the turf there not the biryani certainly that's an Indian thing all Indian so that's where we spotted the early interests of people with biryani and you know as part of a portfolio we picked up one of our products called it the david biryani that's the branding which we did this was way back in 2010 you know much before there were news of biryani

biryani being ordered multiple times a second by so many delivery you know platforms and that's where we started off we wanted to provide a product which gave the most cherished recipe coming out of rice a platform you know it's like a canvas you provide for Michelangelo to paint Michelangelo still needs the best of colors and the best canvases to go with biryani is kind of rice royalty right so it's core rice is core to it and david biryani certainly is core to it and that's where this entire you know work started off and a couple of years back we said how can we actually get people to celebrate this favorite dish so we came upon the thought of celebrating the world biryani day we instituted that last year

and we marked the first sunday of july now this is made up right it's not didn't exist it didn't exist but then what exists but it's like isn't human imagination is the one well no that's true it's kind of like hallmark inventing mother's day right it kind of does that exist it it sort of i don't know valentine's day nobody around i think was alive then but we still celebrate it isn't it so it's all about finding some time to mark something special in your life so why not biryani and we're just out of curiosity because you know innovation doesn't happen in a vacuum obviously gambas you know we talked about the process with damien but did was there a was there a tribe of people in the rice world and i appreciate

you're much more than rice you're a big food business really yes but were there were there product people that thought you know what's this nonsense about you know gambas is global biryani day did did they find that hard to swallow so you do have skeptics and i'm very thankful to them for being there you know they help us improve get better at what we do okay so you certainly and i believe adding to the qualities of what i mean speak and spoke about on innovation i think two important things which you need to keep for yourself one is humility to listen to a lot of thought and refine your innovation that's one and second thing is persistence and that's one of the things you need to keep for yourself

one is humility to listen to a lot of thought and refine your innovation that's one and second thing is persistence and a bit of bravery to kind of pursue with it so i think those are two important things so you have skeptics who come up who help you refine your thoughts many of them talk about the process of selling it internally right before you get to the customer you got to get it through your bosses they've got to get it through their bosses so i think as i said you start off by making your

by making yourself aware of what's happening around and you can only be as confident about your uh you know idea as much as you know about it okay so it starts off unlearning learning and learning it fully and much better than right much better than anybody else out there yeah and that gives you the confidence to kind of sell your thought and it obviously you know it can't be a vague out of the place thing it's got to be rooted in what you're

believe the people the consumers at the end of the day need yeah and need it and if you don't believe it like they're never going to believe it nobody's going to believe it nobody's going to believe you that's interesting that's it it's interesting this idea of humility but but but but deep deep knowledge of it and you take it up the chain but but just following this on and staying on the idea of what makes an innovative man i mean you're someone who

you're a keen birder you're out there looking at the migratory birds in delhi yes you're a historian buff right you're a man of parts you're a physicist yes from before yes has this all helped you this kind of hinterland yes certainly you see problems in various shapes and sizes and you try and interpret it in multiple faculties you're exposed to so it helps you it helps you tremendously yeah and do you and when you're a marketer by training you're trained to kind of look at it in the most weirdest possibilities yeah so maybe i mean is your advice to the to the aspiring younger marketers out there actually gain a bunch of hobbies get stuff outside of work right

yes yeah live live live live a bit to sort of your personal credibility and your your insight is is is really key to this we're kind of in the final furlong here but let me just ask a slightly provocative question is there actually anything new about innovation right is it don't you just have to be new and innovate all the time it's become this sort of idea do you think to a certain extent it's just a bit of mba jargon so i'll tell you if you fall into the trap of wanting to innovate for the sake of innovation that's a problem and that's a serious problem for a lot of people and that's why i guess strike rates on innovation being successful are so low

because there are people who are trying to innovate for the sake of innovation yeah they said you know you keep up with the curiosity you try and unlearn you try and be humble and try and be brave with the idea you really thought yeah yeah off i think uh… very simple things to kind of go after well that's a really fascinating idea it's it's a bit like using less of damian's phones right often the answer might be don't do it yes right stay stay peaceful to get this sort of um timothy galway state of relaxed concentration yes that's really interesting i'm gonna finish off here so um a bit like damian you're kind of only really halfway through your career

sure all of us guys keep telling ourselves keep telling ourselves this um but look are you are you more innovative now as such than you were 20 years ago i think i'm as curious as i was i was i think that's that's the deal there uh keep your child alive inside you yeah i think children are damn curious and i look forward uh every day to meeting people who are more curious than me well it starts off the entire thing yeah that's um i mean they're children of the ultimate unlearned right yes we're in a second with sukleem who's got twin three-year-old daughters i'm gonna i'm gonna maybe start off with with with the same question

gampari that's really fascinating a tour de force that starts with something as simple as rice but ends in something as profound as discover your inner child your inner child thank you so much for being on the show thank you so much for being on the show