Philip Samuel, the chairman and managing director of Indfrag Bio-sciences, is a serial entrepreneur, venture idea generator, inventor and innovator. His journey in manufacturing companies of precision engineering equipment helped Mr Samuel gain a solid foundation in manufacturing processes. 

The Indfrag chairman honed his skills further when he joined Carborundum Universal, a Murugappa Group company. Later on, he moved to TIDCO and Mettur Beardsell. Mr Samuel left the comforts of corporate job in 1982 and started Transprojects Eastern, a consultancy company for identification of unique venture ideas for small and medium enterprises. Seven years later, he set up Indfrag to manufacture flower extracts for fine perfumery in collaboration with a small French unit owned by Unilever. Indfrag continued to grow and diversify into plant extracts for nutrition, food, pharmaceutical and Cosmetics industry.

Indfrag sold its nutraceutical extract business to an India Corporate house in 2014, but retained all other applications for plant extracts. Indfrag Biosciences, the new company makes plant bio-actives for Cosmetics and is growing rapidly, under his son’s management.

In a thought-provoking interaction with Sharmila Chand,
Mr Samuel shares his views about his entrepreneurial journey, his management principles and practices.  

Your management mantras

·        Luck plays a great role in business. When an opportunity falls on your plate, don't analyse it endlessly and land into analysis paralysis. Just do it.

·        Use your instincts, which have been developed over your years of experience rather than long-winded plans and reports to take quick decisions.

·        Watch out for your team members, who very cleverly make you do their jobs.

·        When you face a refusal from your customers, don't take it as a red signal. Think of it as amber, and most times, it can be converted to green.

·        Blame only yourself for mistakes. Make use of your talents and resources to find a solution rather than blaming people and circumstances which is a waste of time.

·        Don't spend too much time and energy in collecting difficult debts.

Any game that helps your career

Three Card Game and Poker Games, which I played in college, helped me a lot in business. They teach you to take risks. They teach you to evaluate risk-reward ratios. They also teach you to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents. They help you overcome depression when you lose and come back the next day to win.

Turning point in your career life

I was easy going in college and even in the first job. A new MBA recruit to the company became my friend and thought that I had great potential but was not exploiting my capabilities. He just screamed at me and made me realise this by shouting continuously for five minutes. I woke up.

Secret of your success

I was very flexible in changing product mix and not being rigid on what I thought was correct. I listened to the lowest and the uneducated employees, who came up with good ideas. This was done at dinner meetings with this gang.

Your philosophy of work

Don't waste time chasing unprofitable businesses. Take only high-profit businesses. Don't get agitated when you have free time. Spend time in a spa with a foot massage till it gets filled up with profitable businesses.

Any person you admire

Two people inspired me a lot when I was young. P Z Abraham, the marketing manager of Carborundum Universal, taught me the value of what John F Kennedy had said. "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best if he wins, knows, in the end the triumph of high achievement, and if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Later, it was K P Geethakrishnan (KPG), an IAS officer who was managing director of TIDCO and my boss when I worked as a deputy development manager. Later, he went on to become the industries secretary to the government of Tamil Nadu and then went up as finance secretary to the government of India (like Dr Manmohan Singh) and then into a senior position in the World Bank. KPG loved me and the way I worked and trusted me with special jobs which are normally done by persons of much higher age. I could somehow do it and gained tremendous confidence in myself.

Your favourite books

My most favourite books are Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. There is so much to be learnt about management techniques in those books.  one of the most important techniques is being focused and specialised in that particular area.

Your fitness regime

I led a very sedentary lifestyle until I got a problem with my heart and had to get a stent inserted. After that, I started exercising in the morning for an hour, at least four times a week. I bought inexpensive equipment and put them at home so that I don't have to dress up and go to a gym everyday. I do stretching first and then weights, followed by treadmill. I have a TV and DVD player in front of the treadmill, and time goes by quickly as I watch movies. You also learn a lot of management techniques from the movies. My dream is to write a book on this. Walking is okay but is not at all enough to keep you fit.

Your message to youngsters

My message to youngsters is not to try to become a unicorn, like Flipkart, OYO and Ola. Only 1 per cent of unicorns succeed, and the others are now being termed as donkeys. Try not to take money from angel investors and private equity firms. Read my forthcoming book to learn more details. Like Michael Douglas says in the Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps: BUY MY BOOK.