DainikVolume 3 Issue 3 Bhaskar October-December, 2011 Conversation with Sudhir Agarwal From a humble beginning of a single Hindi edition from Madhya Pradesh with a capacity of 2500 mega Bhopal in 1958, Dainik Bhaskar Group (DBG) today has watts. grown to become one of the largest newspaper groups IMJ: Tell us something about yourself as a person who in India. The group has a strong presence in 13 States has become the Managing Director? i with 65 editions in India . Mr. Sudhir Agarwal, Managing SA: I started working at a very young age and I missed director, played a crucial role in making DBG a name out in my studies to a large extent. However, I to reckon with at international media. He is responsible learnt more from ground experiences. My grand- for editorial, circulation, finance and key corporate father was a very strict and disciplined person. management activities of the group. Today he is ranked He made me go through the challenges that really th ii 19 among the Top 50 powerful personalities of India . gave me conviction and confidence that I can do The Indore Management Journal Team (IMJ) interacted something in my life. I myself run the business with him during his visit to Indian Institute of and I know this industry very well. Because of Management Indore. An edited version of the my grandfather, I have worked in various depart- conversation with Mr. Sudhir Agarwal (SA) is produced ments and learnt how to run a business. It is our below. family belief that while doing business two things IMJ: The Dainik Bhaskar newspaper was the undis- should be kept in mind. One, know the business puted leader in Madhya Pradesh, replacing other very well; understand that business in whatever industry you are in or planning to enter. Second, players. Having become number one, members of excel in the business rather ending up an average the Agarwal family that controls the DBG, always one. If we cannot think of excel in that business strive to come out of the comfort zone. It would which is good, we cannot take an average job. be a good idea to start the conversation about you and the group. I have worked in many states. I have lived in Jaipur with my family for 2-3 years; I have lived SA: We are three brothers. I am the Managing Director in Jodhpur for four months, Ajmer for one month, and my two brothers namely Girish and Pawan Chandigarh for six months, Ratlam for one month, are the Directors. My father shri Ramesh Chandra Bilaspur for two months, Raipur for four months, Agarwal is the Chairman of the Dainik Bhaskar Indore for about four and a half year. I have lived Group. Dainik Bhaskar Group is a multifaceted in Ahmedabad for 6-8 months, Surat for three industry major and was founded in late 1950s. The months, Baroda for 2-3 months. So in nutshell this group's initial foray was into the newspaper has given me an advantage of becoming adaptive publication business. Over the years, we have to different places. Whenever I go to a new city, diversified across sectors such as textiles, solvent I never feel like going to a new place with my extraction, oil refinery, vanaspati, export of pol- wife and children. We are adaptable to any place ished / semi-precious stones, TV media, FM radio, or situation because that is our philosophy of life Information technology, real estate, theme / to go on in any situation. amusement park, and FMCG. We are building up IMJ: How did this business started and grown? the largest power plant in Chhatisgarh and SA: My grandfather started this business in 1958. It i Retrieved from http://www.dainikbhaskargroup.com/home.php on August was a very small business till 80s. It was only 23, 2012. with a newspaper and of course was a very small ii Retrieved from http://www.dainikbhaskargroup.com/board-of-directors.php on August 23, 2012. business. We were having book binding and copy Note : The article is an edited version of the interaction with Mr. Sudhir Agarwal, held on July 21, 2012 at Indian Institute of Management Indore. making business. In 1977, my father took over IMJ 6 Sudhir Agarwal Volume 3 Issue 3 October-December, 2011 from my grandfather and he said that I want to their houses. Thus there is going to be acute build newspaper as the business and not as one shortage of power in coming years and hence, of the businesses. I joined the business in 1980. electricity will be the upcoming business in India IMJ: Are You going for different languages as well? and power plants will fulfill these demand. So it will be very promising sector for the next few SA: Our first launch outside MP happened in Jaipur years. on 1996, followed by Chandigarh, Haryana in 2000. We started in Ahmedabad in 2003. With the IMJ: How do you look at your first business today flagship Hindi daily newspaper-Dainik Bhaskar, (media business) after being diversified into many other businesses? we have Gujarati daily, Divya Bhaskar, Marathi dialy Divya Marathi and English daily - DNA. In SA: Worldwide, media is an important business. As addition to these, we also publish Business far as newspapers are concerned, media means Bhaskar, DB Star and Magazines like Aha! information, and consumption. It has changed a Zindagi, Balbhaskar, Young Bhaskar and Lakshay. lot from newspaper to TV to digital media and so on. The transition has been rapid because the IMJ: What is your experience in English newspaper as society has been becoming more complex, and you have DNA (Daily News & Analysis) news- everyone is curious about more information. paper? IMJ: What are the competitions you have faced? SA: DNA is our English newspaper. English media is growing in metro cities and it has a significant SA: If you are in a print business then there is not influence in other places. But as of today, most much competition; however, in the TV world, people in this country are comfortable with Hindi/ Radio world or in the digital world there is good local language compared to English language. competition. Dainik Bhasker is already building They still watch most of the TV shows, movies up in a big way. We are adding about 200 million page viewers and 9 million visitors every day. In and converse with friends and relatives in local the present scenario, the TV business is a very languages. competitive one as there are many players. If we IMJ: When did you decide to go for diversification? want to start the TV channel, probably we will SA: Diversification was my father's idea. He started do just an average business. the diversification in 1995. He worked in solvent IMJ: What is your business model or a great model business, as well as in oil business which we are according to you? not running now. Further he went to web business SA: Business model in the print media is actually and in 1999, he ventured into the Denim business. largely dependent on the revenues from adver- In 2006, he thought we should enter real estate tisement. Circulation revenues make you lose business. So we started building some real estates money. Every single copy which you send to a in Ahmedabad, Bhopal and entered into hotel reader makes you lose money. The only way to business. In 2008, we thought of entering power cover up cost and expenses and make more money plant business. So we got some coal mines. That's and profit is through ad sales. how we ventured into power plant business. DBG is very clear about sticking to only one entity: IMJ: What made you to go into the power plant that is the consumer. If the consumer is with you business? advertisers will come to you because ultimately SA: My father thought that need for electricity will they have to reach out to the consumers. If you be huge in coming years. As the economy is are biased then the consumer will not be with you growing, more and more people need electricity and if consumer is not with you, everything goes to run their air conditioners, freezes or lights in away. IMJ 7 Sudhir Agarwal Volume 3 Issue 3 October-December, 2011 IMJ: But how do you reach out to your consumers so complete, costing, timelines, firm requirement and that they stick to you? cash flows are prepared. SA: We strive to be able to give right products to our IMJ: What is the period that you look for? consumers and try to remain relevant to them. SA: 15 days. Now a day, you cannot afford to conceive Relevance means knowing what kind of news my projects in three months and then execute it. readers want to read and what in that news they We have hardly any time so we have evolved the want to read; then providing the consumers what models and have got a very good team. Now if they want. To achieve that, we constantly interact I call a man and ask him to launch a project in with the consumers. We consistently meet the London, he would probably make a plan within consumers and talk to consumers and conduct one month only before he leaves for London. focus group discussions to understand their need. IMJ: How do you identify the right person for the For example, five years ago consumers would project? prefer to read a news about a politician who has SA: You have to understand the person who is in your visited Indore, newspapers used to publish a three organization.