The new currencies of Business

The VC had a ‘candid’ question to the Co-founder & CEO about the brand name of the craft beer. Why don’t you call it ‘Udti Patang (the flying kite)’ instead of ‘Kati Patang?’ The CEO had left his consulting career from a top international firm where he had advised CXO’s and boards on go-to-market strategies, to join the craft beer revolution in India. He smiled, ‘just after a couple of beers and a hearty catch up with likeminded friends, people need to cut the last string of formalities in a close get-together’. In the last two decades, with the social media invasion and the lifestyle brands fighting for eyeballs over Instagram, I’ve also come across a select set of people who are all heart. One of them is the CEO of Kati Pang Shantanu Upadhyay, who was initially sourcing the water and manufacturing his iconic craft beer in Bhutan, now has a plant in Solan, Himachal Pradesh. Another friend who runs an upscale café and a B&B on the Chandigarh-Manali Highway who left his lucrative career in New Zealand to follow his passion. His bakes are divine, the coffee, music & the ambience in his café is a traveler’s dream. They have one thing in common, their grit to follow their passion. Their continuous pursuit for perfection in whatever they do. And one of them (the café owner) had visited me at my mountain cottage last weekend with his wife & daughter. His wife joined us in an impromptu chat session and she was drinking fruit juices straight from a tetra pack, while we clinked our bottles of Kati Patang Saffron lager beers. No fancy food pairing, the child also picked up some loaded cheesy nachos from our plate and tuned into Spotify to play her favorite music. We paired the beer with a rustic shepherd pie from our oven and some homemade mushroom zucchini pasta . My friend had also carried his signature molten chocolate cake, blueberry muffins, and walnut brownies for us, we just needed to add a blob of vanilla ice cream in our dessert bowls. I’ve left my corporate career about two weeks back to create a chain of personalized, intimate homestays in the mountains of Manali. I’ve most certainly joined the gang of ‘Kati Patang’ connoisseurs now. The best thread to use for flying kites is a sturdy but light thread. I have opted for threads that are braided rather than twisted. Friendship (some call it Collaboration & Networking) is one of the new currencies of Business. And yes, it’s not digital.