Five Questions: Company chairman writes — and lives — rags to riches tale
Shri Thanedar hasn’t lived a storybook life, but his life story has made one heck of a book.
He moved from an impoverished life in Mumbai, India, to the United States in 1979 and, eventually bought a small chemical analysis company with three employees. Today, that company encompasses 10 others that employ about 400 people across the U.S. and which made $60 million in revenue last year.
A book that fills in the details of Thanedar’s journey, published in 2004, is in its 21st edition in India and will soon be printed in English. Its title loosely translates to "Shri’s desire and aspirations." He’s gotten so many letters from people suggesting he make the book into a screenplay, that Thanedar is now looking to make an independent film based on it.
I understand you came to America with not so much money. How did you decide, as a new entrepreneur, that you were going to go down this route?
The rumor is that I had $20 when I came to the U.S. That’s just a rumor. I had $14, because I had two beers on the plane.
In the 1990s, working for a bigger company, with the bureaucracy there, I was feeling that work I did isn’t making an impact on the company, and so I wanted to be on my own. I said, "If I have something small even, if that’s my own, I can make a difference."
Where is the future growth for Chemir?
One of the specialties we are developing is formulation. This is a business that grows on outsourcing. Big and small pharmaceutical companies outsource certain operations to laboratories and business.
The more brilliant part of those processes are formulation, which is an art and a science. Once you have this molecule, when you take a pill only a few milligrams of that is that active ingredient. You couldn’t take the active ingredient by itself because it is too concentrated and it’s only two milligrams — you could barely see it. To take that, you want it to be released slowly in certain cases, like the 12-hour cold medicine you take. The packaging of that molecule is formulation.
How is the business surviving in this economy?
Business grew well in 2008 free copy of my credit report. We’re seeing some softness in the first quarter because a lot of our clients are biotech companies that depend on funding from venture capital and some of that funding is slow to come.
We’re now shifting our focus a little more toward the big pharmaceutical companies, because those are still spending. Right now there are fewer blockbuster drugs and this has to be a big concern.
Why do you think your book has been so popular?
People are struggling in India. Seventy percent of the people earn $2 or less per day. The lifestyle is tough, but the young people have a lot of drive and ambition. They want to make something happen. So they have the skill set, often; they have the ambition and desire and dream, but they don’t know how to take the next step.
And seeing a role model like that — I came from a modest background and I don’t talk about the success as much as the struggle — seeing the struggle, living and learning about it, motivates them.
You’ve got a lot of things going on right now — do you see yourself pulling back from your work with Chemir as a result?
I’ve begun doing that. I’ve already moved away a lot from the business. The president (in St. Louis) pretty much runs (local operations). I’m not involved in the day-to-day business.
I’ve tried to find a balance of work-related and charitable things. I like to promote the arts of India so a lot of times I organize performances. It’s not just making more money or growing bigger business, it is also about giving back. I look at all of these things like when you’re studying for your degree: You’re taking many different courses and you don’t want to excel in just one and fail in others. The business should not overtake my life.
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