CAMPUS TO CEO JOURNEY OF Mr.Ravi Wazir Founder & CEO of Phoenix Business Solutions.

1. Story of the CEO from Student to being? a CEO ( any story that you want to share with us, while your journey from Campus to CEO) :-

An early lesson in substance & personality...

I'd just been declined at an on-campus job interview at IHM, Mumbai; to work as a management trainee at the airport outlet of a 5 star hotel's flight kitchen. I was 20.

From the line of questioning, it was obvious that my appearance was the reason. Really upset that the 'substance' of what I had to offer was overlooked, I spoke with an industry senior. He thoughtfully explained that some? jobs, especially guest facing ones...also require an aspect of 'personality'...which he said I could develop.

A friend I mentioned this to, introduced me to his schoolmate who was a fashion designer and one of India's first male models.

One look at me and the stylist said..."Take off your glasses. Hmm, you have a good bone structure. Get yourself some contact lenses, brush your hair back & gel it, and..lose the mustache...to start with". When I met him some weeks later, he smiled & nodded. "Not too shabby".

At a time when access to online information on anything (let alone makeovers) was very limited, his insights were invaluable and I felt immensely grateful to him for helping me begin my journey of developing those aspects of myself that I hadn't realized mattered.

I knew that age or an accident...could easily take away my appearance, and realized that personality had to be more than just that shell. I explored much about it over the years, and learnt how to be more visible...yet go back to being invisible, whenever I needed to.

Meeting people from across the planet, and from various walks of life has been tremendously rewarding....learning more about what we as human beings value on the inside and on the outside.

2) Introduction of Company?

a) When & how did we start??

My consulting enterprise started completely by accident. In 2003, I met a very interesting entrepreneur who was looking to set-up a chain of Gourmet Mithai shops across India, along the lines of Godiva chocolates. My job role as the business head slowly evolved from an employment role to a consulting one. I had never done something like that before.?

Since it allowed me to build the business model from scratch, based on deep market research that I could conduct, I found it most practical & exciting and so agreed to work as a consultant. After research & diagnosis of his undertaking however, I advised him not to go forward (at the cost of my onward work with him). Nonetheless, it paved the way for many full-time and part-time consulting roles that followed.

It turned out that the entrepreneur was ahead of his time. In the recent few years many contemporary mithai brands have come up across the country.

?b) What do we do?

Offer a Consulting Service that provides planning & execution support to hospitality & F & F&B businesses like restaurants, catering companies, FMCGs, hotels, etc, through their start-up & growth phases, via both full-time hands-on business-head like roles as well as part-time advisory ones. My purpose is ‘Helping entrepreneurs make their business vision a reality’.

c) Team size current?

I work independently with dozens of professionals & agencies that are either already working with my clients / employers, or those whom I hire on their behalf.

d) Expansion plan?

More geographies are now more easily serviceable via online work, so more of that. Plus a lot of bright entrepreneurs or family offices who are looking to professionalize, restructure and grow.

3) Business challenges successfully overcome

The top 3 challenges I’ve handled over the years are:????????????????????????????

1) Mindset issues / barriers with people (team members & on occasion the directors / promoters themselves).

2) Procuring licensing & permissions in our country.

3) Actual on-ground implementation of an entrepreneurial vision.

?4) An inspiring life Changing Story

At the beginning of Covid, I decided to offer free online consulting for entrepreneurs & leaders in pain, and expressed the same via social media.?

One of the many people who reached out was a 65 year old restaurateur from Gujarat who sounded extremely overwhelmed and though he didn’t use the word ‘suicide’, he made reference to it throughout our conversation.?

He explained that though he had earned tremendously well from the business over the years, he was upto his neck in loans and beyond a month or at most 2 months more...he would be unable to pay for the rent of his outlets, his staff salaries, and even his daughters university education (in the US). He could not face his wife or the families of his staff...some of whom had worked with him for over 23 years.

I had never in three decades experienced an entrepreneur who was that distressed before. Also, it was the early days of Covid and I certainly did not have definitive answers for everything; but I promised to help him find his path of least pain...both emotionally & financially. I also asked him to additionally consult a professional mental health counsellor which he disagreed with initially, but did so later.

I spent most of that night unable to sleep, charged-up and thinking. When he shared with me his specifics the following morning, we put together a list of tasks, each with a certain weightage in the order of their priority and we mutually agreed on which parts of his business should be amputated, and which extended.

?Right after that conversation, he told me that he felt immensely relieved and that regardless of which aspects of our plan might work or not, he was happy that he at least had a clear path forward. Within a few weeks he implemented the tasks and made substantial progress. As he thanked me profusely, I realized that the feeling of relief was within me too and that our interactions & his outcomes had been equally gratifying for me as well.

It was truly life changing, for both of us...

?5) Message for the youths

• While the scope & responsibility of a CEO is one that owns all aspects of an enterprise, it serves us well to remember that even the tallest of CEOs are there to serve the needs & wants of their consumers, teams, associates & shareholders; and the only way that CEOs can grow taller or at-least remain as tall, is to capably & sustainably keep serving their people.
• The pace & predicament of work-life today leaves most people breathless & even kills a few. Regular doses of leisure or simply nothingness...refreshes us to continue contributing meaningfully & sustainably towards our businesses, our society & our selves.?
• Ethics is what you do...when no one is watching.

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