This is a truly inspiring story of Dr A. G. Deshpande and Mr S. P. Borgaonkar, two best friends and highly qualified technocrats from the small town of Malkapur, situated in the district of Buldana in the state of Maharashtra.
With their scientific acumen, entrepreneurial mindset, and joyfully conscious spirits, they have made the town of Malkapur an international name by constantly innovating and integrating three different industries, Agriculture, Biology, and Technology.
After completing their studies at one of the most prestigious colleges for Chemistry, Dr Deshpande and Mr Borgaonkar decided to extend their friendship into a lifelong partnership and thus formed Chaitanya Chemicals, a partnership company in Malkapur.
In 1987, Chaitanya Chemicals grew into Chaitanya Group of Industries, continuing its operations in the three fields of Agrobiotech. The firm initially used to manufacture inputs for nutritional products like Protein Hydrolysates, Sodium and Calcium Caseinates etc.
Under Dr. Deshpande and Mr. Borgaonkar’s legendary guidance and leadership, Director Prasanna Ashok Deshpande is taking the legacy to greater heights.
Chaitanya, the Saga of Vitality and Life
Later on, in 1998, both of them – Dr Deshpande and Mr Borgaonkar – decided to start manufacturing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Inputs for the overbooking Fermentation and Biotechnology Industry. This led to the start of Chaitanya Biologicals Pvt Ltd.
Prasanna shares, “The company today is one of the leading manufacturers globally for the products it manufactures, and the products exported to more than 60 countries across the globe. The count is growing by the day.”
In the year 2008, the group ventured into the manufacturing of speciality food ingredients serving the fastest-growing segment of instant and packaged foods, which led to the start of Chaitanya Agrobiotech Pvt Ltd.
The products manufactured are used to make various soups, instant noodles, sauces, chips, etc. and were very well accepted by the end-users. The company soon became the leader in the industry for ingredients used to manufacture packaged foods.
Simultaneously, a new wing was taking shape in the segment of ingredients for animal feeding. The products for animal feeding manufactured by Chaitanya Agrobiotech Pvt Ltd were soon accepted in the market as comparable quality with cost-effectiveness compared to the imported materials from the western world.
In 2019, the group ventured into manufacturing Dehydrated Culture Media, Prepared Culture Media, and other products used for microbiology and diagnostic testing.
Prasanna says, “To sum it up, today, we have a presence in more than 60 countries worldwide. And the count is growing by the day with operations ranging in the fields of Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, Food, Agriculture, Fermentation, Animal Feeding and Diagnostic Testing.”
Chaitanya Group of Industries has played a vital role in bringing a small, industrially backward town on a global map through its commitment to sustainable business policies and honesty.
Globalizing the Inspirational Legacy
Prasanna reveals, “My first and foremost inspiration behind venturing into the business arena was the vision envisaged by our founders of creating a sustainable business environment in challenging situations which will help in the overall development of the society in and around the town.”
As part of this vision, generating employment and increasing the level of competency amongst employees by challenging them to upgrade themselves to adopt new techniques and technologies to work at par with global standards was the biggest motivating factor.
“Also, having seen our founders work hard since the day of the inception of the business, their zeal towards achieving the goals and targets in a demographically challenging situation was the most motivating factor,” adds Prasanna.
Keeping the Baton High amidst the Challenges
Talking about challenges faced by him, Prasanna says that being a second-generation entrepreneur, the challenges faced were different than those usually faced by first-generation entrepreneurs.
The biggest challenge was to prove your capabilities as a business leader. Understanding the pace of the business, evaluating the capabilities of your colleagues, and planning your strategies accordingly is probably the challenge faced by every second-generation entrepreneur who has got a will to take the business ahead and keep the baton high.
Apart from this, being in a highly regulated market, understanding the regulations, procedures, protocols to be followed and standard operating procedures and improvising and further making them evolve to take a futuristic approach in order to take the business further was another challenge. Also, changing colleagues’ mindsets to adopt the new leadership style to bring about sustainable change to the existing business was a painstaking effort.
Vital Values and Brand USPs
Prasanna further says that clients admire some unique professional values in him and the team Chaitanya. On-time zero-defect deliveries and solving technical queries of the customers have always been on priority in the entire ecosystem of Chaitanya Group of Industries. The focus has always been on the customers and their requirements.
“Giving customized solutions to the customers at affordable prices and desired quality has been the real quality of the entire team at Chaitanya. I think this is valued most by the customers,” divulges Prasanna.
According to Prasanna, brand Chaitanya’s first USP is its international quality at an Indian price. Apart from this, another USP is the customer-centric approach and ensuring the customers’ needs and requirements are fulfilled on time with respect to on-time deliveries, regulatory compliances, documentary support and formulation development to resolve issues relating to formulations in various fields in which the group operates.
This is being achieved daily with the help of professional and technically qualified teams working in all the departments.
Sustainable Wisdom of the Ages
As an experienced professional, Prasanna’s advice to the budding aspirants willing to enter the business world is full of life. As per Prasanna, today, the world is highly competitive and evolving at a breakneck pace. To be successful in this competitive world, one has to be always on his toes. Keep yourself updated with the latest industry approach and technological developments taking place.
Try and be innovative and do not rely on a sole product policy. Try and develop an entire range of products so that when one product stops selling or achieves the end of the product life cycle, you don’t end up losing on sales.
Also, being consistent in your line of business will always help eventually as nothing is achieved overnight. Try and have a customer-centric approach rather than a profit-centric approach, as it helps develop sustainable businesses in the long run. Try and build sustainable businesses having a bigger societal impact and try and create more employment in your local areas by training the local youth so that they can be moulded into your business ecosystem.
Futuris-Tech Integrated Evolution
Prasanna thinks that technology should be perceived as a tool to grow and evolve. In future, technological dependence is going to increase in all the fields.
Thus, he says, “For our business, various IT platforms are going to be game-changers in terms of data storage and management especially relating to the quality assurance and quality control departments.”
Another technological aspect that will be crucial in the technology that helps you save energy by finding out electricity leakages, fuel wastage and monitoring emissions helping to reduce carbon footprint will be crucial for almost all the industries to be environmentally and socially sustainable.
