Kiran Mazumdar Shaw: A first-gen entrepreneur who blends risk taking with middle-class love for education and frugality

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw: A first-gen entrepreneur who blends risk taking with middle-class love for education and frugality

It is not common for daughters of salaried employees to become entrepreneurs and then go on to build a clutch of companies valued at nearly ten billion dollars. But that's exactly what Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the Executive Chairperson of Biocon, has done. She modestly keeps describing herself as an accidental entrepreneur. But reading between the lines of her many sided interview, one could glean a quiet aggressive ambition, a can-do spirit and desire to be different and first.

Savour this -- when I asked her if she would look for strategic partners Shaw says: "I am not that fond of strategic investors because I think we have such a huge opportunity. Now, we are in the top five when it comes to biosimilars; I want to be at the top in five years. I don't want a strategic investor to spoil that aspiration."

That answer reflects an aggressive ambition to grow, to be the first in her chosen space and the courage to go it alone. Kiran Shaw may have slipped into entrepreneurship because she accidentally met an Irishman who was looking for an India partner with interest in enzymes, but he probably gauged her can-do spirit correctly. Incidentally, Shaw, after a brewery course in Australia, actually desperately sought a salaried job like any middle-class girl, but couldn't find a job in breweries because she was a girl. She turned to entrepreneurship on the rebound, and then never looked back.

It was that aggressive ambition that made her buy-back her company from Unilever in the late 90s and that ambition only seems to have grown since then.

When asked about what's her winning formula, she said. "I think it is really about thinking ahead of the curve and making sure that you execute well," she said.

Kiran Shaw has the DNA to take risk. "I've always wanted to differentiate; I never wanted to be a me-too. I always want to lead, not follow. So, that's the way I've always looked at opportunities. I've challenged the status quo. And when I see the sector going a certain way, I want to go the other way. Because that's the way you stand out. That's the way you take that calculated risk, and then you are a leader," she explained when I asked her how she manages to remain relevant and cutting edge.

The desire to stand out perhaps also explains why she prefers scarves and not saris. "Scarfs light up the attire and they are not expensive," she said with a twinkle.

The middle-class values also show up in her constant endeavour to lessen risk. "You take a calculated risk and make sure that you keep mitigating that risk and making sure that it translates into huge success," she said explaining her strategy. Another sign of her middle class values is the aversion to debt. To be sure, she purchased Viatris Ltd last year for $3.3 billion in cash and stock and assumed a large debt for Biocon Biologics.

The middle class aversion to too much debt also showed up at several points in the conversation, "Having come from a middle class family, I know the value of money. And so I don't splurge. And, you know, my late husband, John Shaw, used to always say, Biocon is scientifically aggressive, but financially frugal," she said.

To be sure her husband, a Scotsman and a former chairman and managing director of Madura Coats appears to have also been a counterweight to her risk taking. "He would always make sure that we didn't overspend in anything we did. So, even when we made the acquisition, of Viatris, he balked a bit," said Kiran Shaw. "But when I discussed it with him, and I told him how important it was, he said, "Go for it, Kiran, but make sure that you don't bet the bank on it....Make sure that you drive this business well, so that it can service the debt." Her innate middle class wariness for high debt and her husband's words appear to be responsible for Biocon deciding to lower the debt by raising equity.

Some investors complain that Biocon has always struggled with low ROE of 5-6%. But that is probably because biosimilars is a capital intensive business with long gestations. But better returns are probably round the corner what with the company planning a series of new drug launches.

Kiran Shaw's penchant for risk and entrepreneurship also shows up in the myriad startups in which she is investing in, as a venture capitalist. "I have supported a number of startups in the Bangalore area. One of them is a company called BugWorks, which is developing an antimicrobial-resistant drug. I've supported a very interesting startup started by my former R&D head called C6 Energy, which is trying to make biofuels from seaweed to ocean farming," she said.

But her first love is clearly biology: "I have always tell young people that Biology is the new frontier, thanks to technology; technology-enabled biology is the most exciting area to be a startup entrepreneur."

"And there's so much happening," she went on. "I myself have co-founded a company in cell and gene therapy called Immuneal. And then there are other companies in synthetic biology that I've supported. There's a company called StringBio. There are several companies which are developing some amazing stuff, like an air purifier using algae."

Also, what stands out in this conversation is a love for knowledge and making money by harnessing knowledge. Hers is not the entrepreneurship of a trader. It's the old middle class love for learning and using knowledge for earning!

"So after Kiran who?" is a question many investors ask. "Biocon is a professionally run group; if something happens to me, the companies are is in safe hands of professionals" she said , "whether it's Biocon or Syngene".

"But at the board level, I do have some ideas about my own succession plans. I have family members who are very capable, whom I'm trying to groom I am trying to see if some family members could take over from me, at the board level," she said.