How Ravi Saxena joined hands with Chef Sanjeev Kapoor to form kitchenware company Wonderchef 

Wonderchef is a leading Indian kitchenware company with more than 50 branches across India. Team BusinessByte met with Ravi Saxena to understand his entrepreneurial journey. Here is an edited excerpts of his video interview:

To me, entrepreneurship begins from the heart. It’s not that you have to start your own business to be an entrepreneur. One can be at a job with an organisation and may think like an entrepreneur to contribute better. 

I landed my first job more than 25 years ago after completing engineering degree. I was an entrepreneur then; I am an entrepreneur now as well. Even though my starting salary was Rs 2000 only, my soul was like an entrepreneur. Or, one may call that being an intrapreneur – meaning you have the approach of an entrepreneur towards your job even when you work for an organisation as an employee.  

I enjoyed that job very well. Then I pursued MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) – Ahmedabad. The institution is still among the top business schools in India. I further honed my entrepreneurial skills there and learned various nuances of business management. 

An entrepreneur needs to give his hundred percent to his venture. Besides, one has to monitor and take care of many aspects of the business such as quality control, finance, legal and marketing. On top of that one has to have mastery on these aspects.

Right after completing the MBA degree from IIM-Ahmedabad, I started my company. To be true, I was the first employee and CEO of that company. I said ‘I started the company’ because that was the passion. I worked in that company for 12 years. I took the challenge to establish that company in India. The name of the company is ‘Sodexo’. Its business model was new to the people of India then. Besides,  people would often find the name of the company a bit strange here during that time. However, my spirit was high. 

In a span of just twelve years, the company grew incredibly to have an employee strength of 25000. And I am happy to share that  the company has almost 1 Lakh workforce now in India. Right after then, I worked for another company where I established many coffee shops and food joints. During that time, I met with Sanjeev Kapoor. 

It was only a matter of an excellent connection between us that both of us realised that we had the same entrepreneurial souls.  And we decided to start some venture with a partnership. This is how Wonderchef came to the fore.

Within a short span of time, it has become India’s leading company in terms of quality, brand and recognition in the kitchenware and home appliances segment. 

While establishing Wonderchef, my previous experience with other companies – where I worked with the entrepreneurial bent of mind – came handy. I work day-in and day-out for this company as well.

When you work with full dedication as an entrepreneur, your team also gets the same level of inspiration. 

People say, ‘Lead by examples’. This is what I have seen in my life and professional journey.

I am there working from 9 am to 9 pm – from Monday to Saturday. Even I am available on calls on Sundays.

This is not to suggest you fiddle with your quality of life; it’s just that I enjoy working in that way. My team also has a similar kind of passion and dedication. 

Now, there are more than 500 people in our team. They help setting new milestones for the company across the nation – not only in terms of business growth but in terms of quality of service as well.

All this was possible because we did everything with an entrepreneurial bent of mind. Whatever I did, I put my whole heart to that.