 Thank you for coming out on a Monday evening at the Indian Marketing Awards. Mr. Marewal doesn't need an introduction, so I'm not going to do the silly task of introducing him, but he wears multiple hats. Of course, he's the promoter of Mariko. He's also an author. His book came out during the lockdown. I've had the good pleasure of reviewing it and reading it and having a conversation with him. And today we're talking about, you know, businesses with a purpose, brands with a purpose. I think Mr. Marewala understood that much before time and made sure that Mariko's purpose defined his business. So Mr. Marewala, let me start by asking you. The last 24 months must have strengthened your purpose because it was about health, well-being, immunity. Give us a sense of how have you been able to incorporate this purpose into your business. Give us a bit about your journey and how have the last 24 months reinforced it? So thank you. Thank you, Anurag, for calling me to this audience and very happy to be here. Before I go into that, I just want to give you a little bit of a picture about purpose. Purpose is something which he started pursuing in Mariko almost 10 to 12 years back. And our purpose is to make a difference to all our stakeholders. So when I talk of stakeholders, I talk of, of course, the shareholders, the employees, customers, associates with whom we work, and the society also. And I was driven by, I was influenced by a book which I read at that time. The name of the book is Firms of Endearment. It's written by Prof. Jagdish Sheth, which I'm sure many of you may be knowing, being in marketing, and Prof. Raj Sisodia. And they had done a study and compared companies which looked at all the stakeholders, and not just one stakeholder like key employees or key shareholders, but all the stakeholders. And then they compared the financial performance of these companies with good-to-great companies. What came out was amazing. The actual share performance or the market cap of these companies was way ahead of good-to-great companies on S&P index. And then they talk about what can you do to each stakeholder. And since then, we've been having this purpose. So it's something which we tell all our members, we don't call our employees, we call them members. And we told them that whatever you can do extra, not what is required out of it, but something much more than that. Which is not, you're not simply required to do that. You need to do that with each and every stakeholder. For example, we work with a lot of associates like packaging vendors, our subcontractors who pack products for us. So we actually go to their factories, give them education on quality management, productivity improvement, how to handle their issues. And the kind of bonding which it creates is amazing. Even in case of advertising agencies. We have sent them to training programs which we conduct at our cost. These are six-day residential training programs costing about maybe 2-3 lakhs per person. We have sent them to these training programs at our cost. It's not the cost which matters, but the fact that you've taken that step which most organizations don't take, I think it makes a huge difference. And the kind of motivation, the bonding it creates with each stakeholder is amazing. And the same thing with customers. We go extra mile for our key brands to add value to our customers and consumers. And when you look at all the key stakeholders, and also for shareholders as well as employees, so what can you do maximum to each of your stakeholders is very, very crucial. Our purpose is to make a difference and be more every day. So that's the background of the purpose. Having said that, your question on pandemic. Yes, it was a time of deep reflection also because one stayed especially in the first six months of the pandemic last year. I'm not here before last. And it gave me an opportunity to complete my book which you mentioned about. And I must say that those few months I spent at home, we were able to add a lot of value to the book in terms of emotional side. My wife helped me in writing that book. And I must say the book has come out extremely well. I'm very happy. Those who have read it have given me very good feedback. It's doing well for last six, eight months still on the best seller list. Now I'm today willing to take any bet with anybody that if you don't get any take home value from reading this book, then I'm willing to give a refund. Absolutely. It's called harsh realities or harsh realities. That's the first name and the realities. So I would encourage you to read it. As I said, I read it. Mr. Marewala. Just to complete, I think I have not answered your first question which you posed. What happened in pandemic? So I think overall it's a long topic. One can talk about 15 minutes or half an hour on the topic of pandemic and what it did to leadership styles, management behavior, even consumer habits. I think the key thing was most of the trends got accelerated. And I always see at the positive side of pandemic and there have been huge positives in terms of agility, in terms of looking at all the stakeholders. The whole looking at all the stakeholders really got accelerated in the pandemic. And we were able to identify your opportunities in terms of in the area of health, immunity and anything like that. So overall I would say that pandemic, though all of us went through a lot of stress, but hopefully now it's behind us. And I'm looking at the positive side of pandemic in terms of leadership behavior, agility, newer opportunities created by pandemic, the whole digital revolution which is opening up a huge level of opportunities across the value chain. Thank you Mr. Marewala. Again, one of the trends that have accentuated in the last two years is ESG. ESG is not just a philosophy, a lot of organizations, institutions and investors are adopting ESG in the true spirit of ESG. Again, sustainability has been a big agenda item for you over the last 10, 12 years. Give us a sense of how sustainability has helped you do your business better. So you're absolutely right. ESG has become the topic in each and every board meeting of each and every company across sectors. And most boards are demanding what is the organization doing on ESG front. And it's a continuous journey. It's not something which you do it and it's achieved. It's a journey which you go on doing perpetually. You can go on adding value to environment, society as well as on the governance front. So I strongly believe that whatever you do in these areas, sometimes people look at it from a cost part of it. But the paybacks are huge. Even in the area of sustainability, whenever we made investments in improving whatever are overall sustained, whether it's water or fuel, it has paid back. And more importantly, it is now getting demanded by all the stakeholders. Just not your investors but the new employees who are joining. The first thing they ask at the management campus is, what is the company's stance on ESG? What are they doing? So there is a lot of pressure coming in from all the stakeholders, which is very good. No amount of legal force is going to make that happen. But if all the stakeholders demand this, I think organizations will be forced to drive this ESG journey in a far more accelerated manner. Absolutely. Now, you know, you will have the Indian Marketing Awards. You will have the jury chair. These are the CMs or the chief metaverse officers. Do you ever dream of metaverse or things like this? That's not on your mind. Actually, I'm not such a... Frankly, I don't dream metaverse because I don't get... But I like personal interactions. Absolutely. But I think if you ask any youngster here in this, they will definitely look at metaverse as a way to communicate, a way to interact. But it's not for me at least. I went to a blockchain technology company's office and they told me about this guy who had the first wedding in metaverse. They created his wedding on metaverse. And he even got, you know, an NFT company to sponsor it. So he actually made sure that the 25 lakhs he spent on his wedding came through sponsorship of the wedding in metaverse. I thought that was very, very creative. Now, my last question to you before. You always believed, you know, you run your foundation, the Ascend Foundation. And you always encouraged entrepreneurship. And again, one of the bright sides of the last two years has been the acceleration of entrepreneurship. It gives a sense of what is your outlook in terms of valuations. I'm not going to ask you what specific companies, but generally, people are looking at the bright side of entrepreneurship, which is the right way, but entrepreneurship is a tough road. And again, the valuations look attractive, but not every company will manage the valuations going forward or may get that on the stock exchanges. But if you look at companies after companies, they're valuing themselves. In my view, sometimes out-valuing themselves on the stock market. What is your view? I think let's not get driven by the valuations. I know there have been like 42 or 43 unicorns in the last year compared to the last nine years where there were 42 or 43. So in one year we have achieved what it took nine years to achieve. But I think the most important thing is the number of the interest it has created amongst students, amongst non-business family entrepreneurs is huge. Because most of the unicorns have been created by individuals who are not coming from a business background or their families who are not from a business background. I think that's the most heartening thing. And the fact that they have created this, now whether it is 1 billion or 2 billion, I'm not getting into it. But the fact that they have created and most of them, some of them may not survive also. But the fact that it's acting as some sort of motivation for others to pursue business, to me that is the most important thing. And technology will play a very, very important role. I think technology is one reason why we are seeing many, many new entrepreneurs entering and apart from the whole ecosystem in terms of funders, mentors and even a program like Shark Tank. I think it is going to add to more and more entrepreneurs looking at entering this and it's very good. I'm so thrilled and excited because we go on blaming the government for this low economic growth. Ultimately who is going to drive the economic growth? It's the entrepreneurs only. Government has to create mechanisms for entrepreneurs to flourish. But ultimately it is the entrepreneurs who will identify unmet needs. They will create new business models. They will identify opportunities. So I'm so happy that this is happening. All of them will not succeed, which is bound to happen. But it's okay to fail. Thank you so much. If there are any questions from the audience, I see Mr. Bhaskar Sharma, Red Bull is there. Any questions for Mr. Mariwala? If you don't have any questions, I can take one. But if you have a question, you can raise your hand. Tell us who you are and keep the question short. I think everyone is looking forward to the awards. So I will ask my last question. Mr. Mariwala, if you had to... You know, predictions is not your domain. You are not an astrologer. But you do bet on the future when you make investments, when you take the strategic direction of your company. Give us a sense of what the future will be like or what are the big trends that you already see emerging, even if it's not predictions. Give us what are your top three trends that you think will become bigger and will change the landscape. And I want to give you two data points. You talked about technology acceleration. Just the e-commerce market in the US in the first 20 years was 16% of retailing, depending on which number you believe or use. It is between 27% to 30% now, which means it has grown minimum 11% in 23 months, more like 14% according to most people. If you look at the Indian stock markets, we had one crore retail investors before COVID. We have two and a half crore retail investors post-COVID in 24 months. So one crore in whatever span of time and one and a half crores in 24 months. So clearly digital is accelerating. I mean, if you look at the pitch matters and advertising outlook, again, digital is already 20%, likely to be 50% in the next three years, out of which programmatic is already 70%. So give us... These are digital acceleration trends, but in terms of business, environment, consumer behavior, what are your predictions? I think it's a very open-ended question. Some of them you already have answered in terms of acceleration of digital technologies. Number two, all other technologies, apart from digital technologies. I think you answered that. You talked about sustainable TESG. I think these are larger trends. Now, coming to my or a consumer product sector, it's a different... I see a different lens. So what are the consumer trends which I see it happening? Again, I think it's no rocket science. Everybody knows about it. It's really... I think it's amazing. And I'm so happy that people are looking at health. So health is one big trend. People are likely to be far more healthy. I hope it sustains. It started off, got accelerated in the pandemic. I hope people don't go back to the earlier view of looking at health. I get very upset with... Most of our diseases are related to lifestyle diseases. Whether it's cardio issues or diabetic or overweight. These are... easily you can control them if you lead the right lifestyle. So I'm very happy that individuals are at least realizing that we need to eat the right food. We need to exercise. We need to manage tests. So it's mental, physical, spiritual health. So health, as I said, it's a big, big trend. I think the overall... I would say health apart from whatever else is... Yeah, I think awareness of health and our products and services has started to emphasize their... Health inducing qualities or USP is not the right word. Now there is no USP but more and more products are communicating the health benefits in their communication and trying to differentiate the product. The other trends are natural and going toward natural if you are vegan. These are trends which have been there for some time in the past. Yes, organic food. I mean, if you go to a... I mean, there are stores that have 6,000 SKUs of organic products done by Indian manufacturers. You know, I live in Defense Colony and there is a store which has, you know, the kind of Indian players that I'd never heard of who are doing organic products and price points that people are lapping it up. So clearly there is a movement of organic products and clearly I don't think that will change because people are kind of hooked on to it and they've seen the benefit. So possibly also one big trend which you again caught 10 years back is this focus on mental health. I think that has got also accentuated over the last 24 months which of course through your foundation you've addressed. So this is what I would say are the trends and I please give Mr. Marewala a big round of applause. We don't want to stay between you and the awards that you're looking forward to. We have some special guests and for various reasons I haven't taken their names because it will give away some of the surprise that is associated with the awards. So I'll get back to the audience and I'll give the mic back to Bhavna, all yours Bhavna. Please give Mr. Marewala a big round of applause.