Vikas Khanna & His Amazing Journey from Being Homeless to Opening Junoon in New York

Vikas Khanna, a known face to all Indian households. You would have seen him hosting Master Chef India. But there is lot more to know about Vikas Khanna, the man who is passionate about the art of cooking. He says “The Power of Food is really spiritual. It not only brings the whole family together on the same table, but also brings the whole world together”.

I have read, understood & recorded the Indian entrepreneur’s journey but Vikas Khanna stands out to be special in terms of Persistence, Dedication & sheer hard work. Vikas Khanna life is so amazing & inspiring that every individual have know about him.

Bringing you the article “Vikas Khanna & His Amazing Journey from Being Homeless to Opening Junoon in New York”

When Vikas Khanna was known as Vikku-

Vikas Khanna with his Mother

Vikku was born in Amritsar (typical Punjabi) with misaligned legs and feet, he was not able to run until he was 13. The neighboring kids used to tease him as a ghost(as he had misaligned legs), he used to come home crying & his mother used to console him by saying “Your Special” & she used to tell him if someone says you’re ghost tell them “Thank You Angel”. She taught him the art of gratitude. At the age of 13 years, Vikas Khanna was able to overcome disability.

[Some Interesting info: In 2011, People Magazine refers him as “The Hottest Chef of America” & listed him under “Sexiest Men Alive”]

The Calling….

Vikas Khanna with his Granny

He realized early in life that he wants to cook and his cooking foundation school starts at his granny’s kitchen, where Viku’s granny (his inspiration) thought him to cook. He learnt how to roll the bread in Amritsar Golden temple’s Langar (Sikh Community Kitchens). At the age of 17yrs Vikku and his mother went school to school selling chhole-bhature to make living. With this hardship helped to gain a contract from school principal to make 580 sweaters that would help them to raise Rs. 15,000 & with this contribution Vikas started his own banquet and catering business by name “Lawrence Gardens”, which served Kitty-party Punjabi women and soon it was well known catering services in Amritsar.

[Some Interesting info: Today at Junoon, some menu shows the price at $300 which is equal to the money he started “Lawrence Gardens”. Destiny has its own cards to play]

Turning Point in his Life..!!

At the age of 25yrs, Vikas travels to Manipal, Karnataka from his home town Amritsar to get final admission in Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration. He had already failed in two rounds of interview, but he continued to answer all the questions asked by the interviewer’s in a humble a way. He told all about his kitty party business like how he made 3 types of channas, with Rs. 20 he offered thums-up, bathura and ice cream. He also spoke about his dream to open an air-conditioned hotel.

The interviewer kept laughing and Vikas continued with his Punj-indi (Punjabi + Hindi). One of interviewer stopped him in between the conversation and asked him to try next year.

But Vikas kept on requesting them to give one chance, when he realized that he is been rejected, then he told to the panel “don't worry Sirji. I knew it that you were all laughing at me from the beginning, but I will still open a AC hotel, one day."

Vikas was sitting outside corridor of the interview room and thinking what to do next, then Mr. Sunderash Prasad (Principal) walks toward him and said “You know that I can teach you everything, but I can't teach you about the most important essential "Passion", Rest is all easy. Waiting to eat in your hotel one day, get in the college now."

[Some Interesting info: Though Vikas Khanna wasn’t able to cook food for Mr. Sunderash Prasad (Principal) as he passed away in 1992 but Vikas named his restaurant in New York as “Junoon” -means passion]

The Spiritual Connect…

It's very important in our life time to be connected with spirituality. The successful business tycoons, entrepreneurs, industrialist are all have connected to spirituality at the early age in life and are successful. Recently Mark Zuckerberg in Town hall Q&A with PM Narendra Modiji told to the world that he had been to Temple in India (Neem Karoli Baba's Ashram at Uttarakhand) upon suggestion of Steve Jobs in order to connect with the company mission.

In New York, Vikas Khanna experiences the spiritual connect. This happens when he closed down the third restaurant & was mounted with bills to be paid, he is locking the restaurant door and he receives a call from his friend Tashi, who tells him His Excellency Dalai Lama is in town so would you like to hear him. Vikas went to Dalai Lama's lecture (he doesn't know what made him to go but he went for the lecture). 

He stands in last in the line…Dalai Lama walks towards him & touches Vikas Khanna's forehead & handovers silk cloth to him. The divine touch, made Vikas Khanna to start again with the new hope.

Vikas Khanna being jobless not knowing what to do in life...calls his Mom late in night after returning from Dalai Lama lecture & tells her that he want to finish the project “Return to Rivers” the cookery book which covers the cuisines of Himalayan belt. Her Mom books the ticket from New York to Bhutan.

The real Journey of Vikas Khanna starts here, he travels all over the Bhutan and Tibet. He roams around the places, meets people, and learns the different culture & various cuisines. For his project he takes the picture of different cooking styles & records in his laptop. One day, he forgets the laptop at chai thela in mountains of Bhutan & gets into a cab…After a while the cab stops & later he sees the old woman may be at the age of 60’s holding laptop in her hand & tells him he had forgot in her stall. Vikas Khanna thanks her for her act of kindness, today the actual book “Return to Rivers” has 2600 pages covering different cuisines of Himalayan belt. The “Return to Rivers” was possible because of that old lady.

Travelling on unknown path..!!

 On Dec 25, 2000 Vikas walks down the Canal Street in Broadway with $3 in his pocket, without any food & shelter. It was a Christmas Night. Vikas was shivering as his cloths wear drenched in rain. Lady on the streets walks toward Vikas & gives a blanket and says to Vikas “Happy Christmas”. Vikas with the blanket walks further, he sees a big queue & upon questioning he gets to know it’s a New York Rescue Mission (NYRM) for Homeless. Vikas takes shelter in homeless. It’s very difficult to think about a homeless shelter & people leaving there. Nobody wants to go and experience the feeling of being homeless. For Vikas it was ok to fail & being unemployed in New York.

Later he worked for “Salaam Bombay” restaurant very close to the WTO crash site. Vikas used to put a small buffet every afternoon for the people who are working at the site. And also holding placard with the picture of a “Sikh guy offering food to a child” this was the representation of New Yorkism. Usually it’s said that Americans appreciate those who openly express about their culture & who they are as individualism. Vikas was representing the culture of India in a foreign land at the time of post 9/11 incident.

Birth of Junoon…

In 2007, Vikas gets a call from Chef Gordon Ramsay to appear in his show “Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares” to develop the restaurant “Dillions” which is in the hands of irresponsible management. Vikas Khanna renames the restaurant as “Purnima” and runs the restaurant till 2010. Meanwhile one of Vikas Khanna’s friends sees the show “Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares” and shares the common vision of opening a restaurant “Junoon”.

Today Vikas Khanna is a celebrity Chef. He hosted dinner party at White House. Recently he prepared 7 course meals for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CEOs of top global companies.

           

"A Miserable Weekend Trip to Bandipur Led to Billion Dollar Company"

We all definitely would have used Ola Cabs, but do we know who is the founder is? How it all started? So let’s introduce Bhavish Aggarwal, the man behind Ola Cabs. Bhavish Aggarwal is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and holds the degree of B.Tech in Computer Science.

A weekend trip to Bandipur turned out to be disaster for Bhavish and his friends, this happened when he booked a rented car for a weekend trip to Bandipur but on the way to Bandipur, the cab driver demanded more fare to travel ahead to Bandipur from Mysore, when Bhavish and his friends decided not to pay the driver the extra fare and continued their journey by bus. This pathetic experience made Bhavish Aggarwal to provide better solution to customers looking for rental cabs.

Bhavish Aggarwal thought of providing convenience, maintaining price transparency and standardizing the cab booking process so with this idea, he started Ola cabs on 3 December 2010. He started Ola cabs by having tie-up with car operators, where he charged the commission for the sales carried and also a nominal fee for using Ola technology platform. This was purely “Pay-for-Performance” model i.e. you pay only for the distance you ride but not more than that.

That was the time when Indian Transportation Industry was inefficient and unorganized. It was identified that the Indian radio taxi market is estimated to be around $6-$9 billion dollars and it is projected to grow by 17 – 20% every year. But the fact was only 4 – 6% of radio taxi market is organized. There was no proper service provided to the customer. Price transparency was the main problem faced by many customers as different operators offered different price bands. This was seen as unseen opportunity by Bhavish Aggarwal and he tapped into the market by standardizing the cab booking charges with the help of technology that can connect to the people at larger and faster ways.

Initially they targeted the corporate professionals, who were eagerly looking for weekend break with their friends and colleagues. The target positioning was a perfect pitch and they could see the raise in demand for their business model in Mumbai and this made them to expand their business to Pune, Bangalore and Delhi.

Today Bhavish Aggarwal is considered to be the youngest & richest entrepreneur in India with the estimate of Rs. 2,385 crore.

When Brand Represents Brand

The Brand of the product is usually built by a company through its logo & its offerings for an instance the four interlaced rings represents “Audi”, the iconic golden ‘M’ represents “Mc Donald’s”, half bitten apple for “Apple” etc…

So we can say that the Brand is something which helps us to identify the company by its visual representation or unique name or design, so that its remains in the minds of customer. The company spends lot of money in creating the Brand logo’s because they know it’s the Brand which helps them to get their target customer. The smart Deepinder Goyal changed his company name from Foodiebay to Zomato as he felt the later name of foodiebay has a term ‘e-bay’ that may filter down his clients and customers, so he decided to change the name to “Zomato” which sounds foodie too.

But have you ever seen a Brand being a Person, note you may get into an argument saying “Yes, I know one Narayan Murty is a Brand name for Infosys” “Azim Pemji for Wipro” “For Tata its Ratan Tata”. But my question is.. Are they really come into a category of “Brand”?  The answer is No…they are just a founding fathers to their company or a building block for a company. You can categorize them to be a “Brand Ambassadors” but not as a Brand.

As per Wikipedia’s knowledge database it defines Brand as “A brand is a name, term, design, or other feature that distinguishes one seller's product from those of others”.

But I have actually seen a person who can be named as a Brand but not as Brand Ambassador, he carries his personality that influences the people at large specially the youth. The companies want him to promote their products. Even our Prime Minister Narendra Bhai Modi crowns him to be one among “Nava Ratna” for “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”. He is in-fact more than a brand. He is been worshipped by his fans, never matter what image he carries, there is a probability that a stock price hits low after a time but this person is always in a bullish trend. The India Inc bets on him. So who is he..??

He is none other than “The Dabangg Man of Bollywood Salman Khan”, who rules Bollywood Box Office. Let me tell you what makes this person to be celebrated and worshipped by his fans across the world:

1. He is been helpful in launching careers of many stars like Hrithik Roshan, Himesh Reshammiya, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Sajid-Wajid.
2.  He is the founder of “Being Human”
3.  Helps the needy & stars turn up to Salman Khan for help
4.    Despite controversies, flops, disaster’s will never affect the status of Salman Khan
5.   Always speaks from Heart.

It was rightly said by Kareena Kapoor Khan to tell that “Salman is a Religion” so to be a religion means a lot, brand is a small thing which I am talking about. There are many corporate and advertising agencies who are in race to get there contract signed by him. The top companies in the market want him to promote their products.

In the year 2014, Salman Khan’s Brand Value was reported to be $51.8 M. In India the only brand created by celebrity having global scalability is Salman Khan’s Being Human. He banged the box office in the year 2009 with the movie ‘Wanted’ from that film he started the race of 100 crores in the Bollywood. According to recent data analysis Salman Khan is considered to be most trending celebrity on Social media as well as on TV, every year there is multiplying effect of his fan following list. Especially his show “10 Ka Dum” telecasted on Sony Channel gained the highest rating 4.5.

On May 6 the news media covered a report on verdict of Salman’s hit and run case, where he was found guilty (later he was granted bail- which is debatable topic). This was the moment when everyone thought his brand image would be affected. Most of the companies thought to pull off their ad on television on the verdict announced on May 6.This was the time where Salman’s one-third of endorsements faced threat. But it was Salman’s Philanthrophic activity,popularity & visibility in the industry made his presence felt so strong that his image remained undamaged & it also did not impact promoters, endorsers & Bollywood production house.He is the only star who’s personality is not been affected. Because he is Salman Khan….the one & only kind of celebrity who’s popularity is reached beyond expectations. In the past we have seen Tiger Woods brand being affected by his controversies related to his personal life. But it’s did not happen in the case of Salman Khan.

Salman is currently promoting the brands:

1. Thumbs Up
2.  Revital
3. Wheel
4. Suzuki
5.  Astral Pipes 
6. Yatra.com
7.   PNG Jeweler
8.  Relaxo Footwear
9.  Mandhana Industries (Designs & Markets “Being Human” fashion & clothing accessories)

He is the maseeha, who lends helping hand to the poor people through his Being Human Foundation, helps new comers by training them & mentoring them, promotes billion dollar company products and always remains grounded.

"It's easy to own a Brand but difficult to be one"

RIP John Nash...

John Nash, a Princeton University mathematics professor, won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1994 for his work in Game Theory died in car crash.

Academy Award best picture winning film "A Beautiful Mind." was based on John Nash...!!

So what makes John genius....John Nash is one of the genius mathematician who left his legacy by giving "Nash Equilibrium" which is used in Corporate Buyouts, Soccer Games, Mergers & Acquisition, Management Decision Making & few others.

1. Nash Equilibrium is used to analyse the situation at the time of "War"
2. Nash Equilibrium also talks about the concept of "Tit-for-tat"
3. Of course the renowned Game Theory is presented in Nash Equilibrium
4. It talks about the probability of Risk taken to achieve group's objective against personal interest, which is usually termed as "Stag Hunt"
5. The genius man also tells how to organize the auction known as Auction Theory
6. Nash Equilibrium is also used to analyze the Penalty Kicks in the Soccer

But his Personal life was hell, as he was suffering from schizophrenia, it took him 8 months of hospitalization to recover back to normal life. He later in 2006 attended Game Theory Conference held in Germany.

On May 23, 2015 (New Jersey) John Nash & his wife were travelling in the taxi & the taxi meet with an accident, the two were ejected from the taxi. Eye witness say that they were not wearing seat belts. But his Beautiful Mind always remains fresh & inspires others to carry on with the Strategies which left behind. The more can be uncovered with his creation "Game Theory".

The Genius remains with us through his works and will remain to continue.

Rest in Peace John Nash...!!!

Supreme Thought

It was three years back…I was sitting in a “CAT Private Coaching Class” thinking of the answer to a question posed to me… then a flash of thought strikes to my CNS..I just flipped the page of a note book and started jotting down as if it was dictation given to me by someone..and it turned out to be “Supreme Thought”

Supreme Thought

Everything is Pleasant and Natural.

Things seems to be complicated but

Could have easier solutions,

The effort of finding easiness

Should be practiced.

The mind perceives only those

Which it sees and feels…? But

It’s not true, the mind also perceives

Which is not seen to it…

Through Continuous Thought Process one

Can manifest the things of unseen to seen.

It’s the nature of humans to receive

The desire gifts and also the Birth Right

To receive it. But why to make things complicated.

Just flow with the nature, be in connect with

Your feelings, experience the joy of receiving,

Be grateful for the things which you receive

In advance, feel the energy of unseen.

Be in connect with your SUPREME THOUGHT.

Ask for the things which you want,

Have trust and develop a Strong Desire

For your want. Start believing the things

In your possession. No doubt your want

Is been unheard and it’s on its way

To get you what you have asked for.

All you need is to Wait, Believe and Feel.

                                                                                                                             -Vinay M Hiremath

Corporate Treasure Hunt

National Treasure a Hollywood movie which revolves around the story of young Ben Gates who takes up the job of his family to find the hidden treasure and various clues linked in series…to get the treasure, Ben Gates has to overcome the difficulty in getting the clues right.

This reminds me of today’s corporate treasure, if there is a treasure in corporate world then what it would be, why the founders are more worried about it and what the Treasure I am talking about, its nothing but "We"  – Human Capital.

Every Entrepreneur starts up the company as a mother bringing up her child. But there is a problem when the company has grown beyond once expectation.... usually to start up the company it takes sleepless night, family being at stake, reputation is been pledged, fear of storm named recession blowing it far-away from the  wink of eyes of shareholders.... so with all this difficulty one would have brought up the company to be known as the Branded Companies in the Corporate World.

The reputation of the company is gained through its Founder (Janmadata) : Apple –Steve Jobs, Virgin Group – Richard Branson, Dell Computers – Michael Dell, Microsoft - Bill Gates, Reliance Corp – Dhirubhai Ambani, and Infosys – Narayan Murty.

So if this Janmadatas step back, then who would be their successor??? It is where the Treasure Hunt starts…..

Why I call it has Treasure Hunt but not “Succession Planning” is because it’s more complex task than we think it is to be like -identifying the competencies, training in the key areas and assigning the role of a successor.

It’s not about identifying the expertise or skills but it has to be more connected to the DNA of a company, one has to know about the in which situation the company has been established, what were the situations of its founder, what all problems he had faced at the time of its inception and on-going journey, who were its clients who backed them at the time of financial crisis. It’s more of being connected. It’s Internal Self Realization (ISR) it has to be measured through emotions but not to decide the successor on votes from BOD’s.

Some vote based successor do well but inheritance of a family member does take a company to next generation level.

Even the founders fear to give their Brain Child to someone who has climbed the ladders without knowing the strength of the ladder and in-depth foundation base. He would fear about the consequences of his employee reaction, about the company’s growth, his founder members that are not capable enough to take over but they wish to do so, exit of non-founders on a new face.

The entire frame has to be reworked & redesigned; we have seen NR Murthy returning back to the Infosys after his retirement until he found his Treasure Hunt – Vishal Sikka…what he had to compromise, exit of all executive council members — BG Srinivas, Subhash Dhar, Ashok Vemuri and Kakal who all were probable’s for CEO post…??? No, Murty never compromised on his Brain Child Infosys instead he said those were people who were not adding value to the company so they had to leave…

You may find the treasure within your organization or it might come from other source but we have to know one thing: “Great Leaders create Great Organization which in turn creates an eco-system to produce more leaders”

The Political Yogi

When I learnt about Yogi, I always learnt that they are there for doing well to societies, solutions for a social cause, improvising the society through their Gyans (knowledge), travelling around & sharing their superior knowledge across the boundaries….

In today’s global investment world, in India we have seen a Political Yogi by name Narendra bhai Modi who has been an influential change to India as well as the world. In recent Gujarat Vibrant Summit 2015 global business men addressed him as “CEO of the World” & some as “World Leader”. It’s during his tenure after taking over as Prime Minister of World’s Largest Democracy India, the West have seen us as a strong contenders in the global economy, though India stands 169^th position in doing business but now the air in atmosphere has been ‘Modi-fied’, in coming years we would be strong 50 position in economic business growth.

We were the first to believe in Global Trade by saying “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” – Earth Being One Family. Our Yogi, Narendra Bhai Modi has made the world to look at us for investment purpose and Make in India concept through ‘Ease of Business’. The US, Japan, Australia, Bhutan, Nepal, Britain and many other countries have taken us as a leader but this scenario wasn’t there in previous government, thanks to the people of India who believed in positive change and made the visionary person as our Prime Minister.

He didn’t hesitate to address the toilet problems in rural part of India at the Madison Square Historic Speech, he catered the needs of poorest of the poor by including such weaker section in Jan Dhan Yojana – he taught in them the need for savings (he had to do that because he comes from a Guju Community) and 100 crore account has been opened till now at shorter period of time.

He dreamt to make India the world leader through his “Make in India” & “Digital India” for which the people of India and world business men have responded in a positive manner. Not to forget about his “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” though it’s a tedious & difficult task to carry on but the abhiyan has taken off…

What Modi means to India…the man who made the world to look at us as a competitive business leaders & a country which provides good governance. He has truly been a true Yogi of today’s India by catering needs of weaker sections of the society & promoting his slogan of “Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas” on global platform.