Kiran Mazumdar Shaw- The Billionaire who calls herself an Accidental Entrepreneur

Srabani Roy Chowdhury (MAKAUT, WB)

BIOXONE BIOSCIENCES SERIES – “Extraordinary Women in Biosciences”- Day 3.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is an Indian entrepreneur who’s also a billionaire. She is the executive chairperson and founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics Limited and the former chairperson of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. She has achieved a position among the top 50 women in the business list on the Financial Times. She’s also known to be the first woman brewmaster of India. In an industry full of men, she has created a place for herself dreaming to make a difference.

Early life and Educational Background

Kiran Mazumdar was born to Gujrati parents Yamini Mazumdar and Rasendra Mazumdar on 23^rd of March in 1953 in Bangalore. She went to the Bishop Cotton Girl’s High School in Bangalore and passed out in 1968. After that, she attended Mount Carmel College, Bangalore to study Zoology. She graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology. Young Kiran wished to pursue medical science but was not able to procure a scholarship.

At her father’s suggestion, she went to study fermentation science at Ballarat College, Melbourne University in Australia. Rasendra Mazumdar was the head brewer at United Breweries and wanted to train his daughter as a brewmaster. It was an unfamiliar field for women and Kiran was the only girl who had enrolled there. She topped her class and graduated with a degree from Master Brewer in 1975.

As a fresher, she worked as a trainee brewer in Carlton and United Breweries in Melbourne, as a trainee maltster at Barrett Brothers and Burston in Australia, as a consultant in Jupiter Breweries Limited in Calcutta, and as a technical manager at Standard Maltings Corporation in Baroda. She started looking for opportunities abroad when she faced difficulties in securing a job as a brewmaster in big cities like Bangalore or Delhi. She was told, “It’s a man’s work”.

Beginning of Biocon

Kiran Majumdar received an offer from Scotland. However, before she could leave for that she met Leslie Auchincloss who was the founder of Biocon Biochemicals Limited, Ireland. He wanted to open a small manufacturing unit to manufacture a plant-based enzyme from Papaya. He established a joint venture with her. It would manufacture industrial enzymes for the production of not only beer but also other food and textile all around the world. This venture progressed further with other industrial microbe production. To gain more knowledge, she worked as a trainee manager in Biocon Biochemicals Limited, of Cork, Ireland.

Her journey with Biocon started from her garage with only two employees working under her. They rented a small shed to extract and manufacture the enzyme papain from the latex of papaya and sell it as a food enzyme. After running this successfully for a year, Kiran decided to expand her business. She invested in a 20acres property and then went on to expand and own 100acres of property in India and 50aacres in Malaysia.

Initially, though Biocon was a joint venture, in 1981, Kiran became the sole owner of the company. It went from producing plant-based enzymes to bio-stimulants. Biocon became India’s largest biotech company. It went on with the production of pharmaceuticals and became the largest producer of Insulin in Asia. They also researched the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

In 1998, Kiran Mazumdar married John Shaw. At that time, he was the managing director of Madura Coats. However, after their marriage, John Shaw joined Biocon and became the Vice-Chairman there in 2001.

Her awe-inspiring achievements

• In 2002, Kiran was recognized as the ‘Technology Pioneer’ by World Economic Forum.
• In 2010, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw was among TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.
• In 2011, she secured a place in Financial Times’ top 50 women in business list.
• In 2012, Kiran became the global Indian of the year by Pharma Leaders Magazine.
• In 2014, Forbes listed her as the 92nd most powerful woman in the world and 2015 as the 85^th most powerful woman in the world.
• In 2015, a road in its Mt Helen campus was named Mazumdar Drive-by Federation University Australia (formerly the University of Ballarat).
• In 2019, she ranked 2^nd Women Philanthropist of 2019, by the Hurun Report India Philanthropy List 2019.
• In 2019, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw was chosen as a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for her contributions in manufacturing affordable biopharmaceuticals and developing the biotechnology industry in India.
• In 2020, Kiran was given Australia’s highest civilian honour. She’s the 4^th Indian to receive this honour.

Awards

• Padma Shri (1989)
• Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for her contributions in Life Sciences & Healthcare (2002)
• Karnataka Rajyotsava Award (2002)
• Economic Times Award for ‘Businesswoman of the Year’ (2004)
• Padma Bhushan (2005)
• Indian Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award (2005)
• ‘Corporate Leadership Award’ by the American India Foundation (2005)
• Veuve Clicquot Initiative for Economic Development for Asia’ Award (2007)
• Nikkei Asia Prize for her regional growth (2009)
• Express Pharmaceutical Leadership Summit Award for “Dynamic Entrepreneur” (2009)
• Global Indian Woman of the Year” by the Pharmaleaders Pharmaceutical Leadership Summit (2012)
• Othmer Gold Medal for her contributions in Science and Chemistry (2014)

Books

• Ale and Arty
• India’s Innovation Challenge for Inclusive Development

Philanthropic Activities

Giving Pledge global initiative was started by Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Melinda Gates which helps motivate billionaires to give and donate for philanthropic activities. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has been the second Indian to join this initiative. Seeing many dear ones suffer from cancer, she established the Mazumdar-Shaw Medical Foundation in Bangalore in 2007 for Cancer patients. It is a non-profit organization. It is supported by the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer outreach program and Mazumdar Shaw Center for Translational Research. In 2011, it was modified with the addition of advanced therapeutics. A bone marrow transplant unit along with a research center was also added.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the founder of Biocon Foundation. She has also contributed to the development of the disease protection program called Arogya Raksha Yojana along with Devi Shetty, the founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital. Biocon Foundation along with the Arogya Raksha Yojana has established clinics. These clinics not only provide treatment and generic medicines to people who cannot bear the cost but also arrange health campaigns to educate people about different health issues and their early detection. Different healthcare camps are also arranged in remote villages with doctors from the hospitals associated with the program.

In 2006, a Maths book was introduced in Kannada schools. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has contributed to the development of this book along with McMillan India Limited and Prathima Rao who’s a teacher. In 2009, a multiple-year-based research program was also funded by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw through the Biocon Cell for Innovation Management in the Indian School of Business.

Motivational Quotes

There are many quotes by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw that inspires people all over the World. Some of them even encourage young girls and women to dream big. Some of her quotes are:

• “As you become more successful, the gender barrier disappears. The credibility challenges you have during your growing up years start disappearing when you start demonstrating success.”
• “I hate the title of being called ‘the richest woman in India’, but it’s the recognition that this was the value that I had created as a woman entrepreneur, and that makes me very, very proud.”
• “An entrepreneur’s life is always a continuous journey.”
• “I really believe that entrepreneurship is about being able to face failure, manage failure and succeed after failing.”
• “One of my objectives, when I started Biocon, was to make sure that I create a company for women scientists to pursue a vocation.”
• “I learnt that business was about being emotionally driven about investing, but being emotionally detached when it came to divesting and that’s a very strong learning.”

An exemplary figure for young girls and women

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is a self-made billionaire. She chose a path that was hardly taken by any women at that time. She faced challenges, yet she did not give up on her dreams. In 2004, after Biocon got its IPO, she became the richest woman in India. And all of this happened because of her strong willpower. She calls herself “An accidental entrepreneur”. She shares her story of how she studied brewing but the industries stereotyped her for being a woman and she became an entrepreneur herself. Her journey is an inspiration for not only women but all entrepreneurs across the World.

She is the true role model that people should look up to every time for inspiration. In an interview, Kiran said, “My spirit of challenge was that nobody had thought of building a business based on biotech. I am going to show this is possible. I am going to show that women can run businesses and can manage businesses”. According to her, the key to success is to realize that one’s job is to be contended in what one is doing. Her inspirational story teaches us that entrepreneurship is not just a career option.

Also read: Understanding the Nobel prize-winning discovery in chemistry

References:

1. The unstoppable walk of an Indian woman, inspiration and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. (2014, November 19). YourStory.Com. https://yourstory.com/2014/11/kiran-mazumdar-shaw/amp
2. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw quotes that show why entrepreneurship is more than just a career. (2017, March 23). YourStory.Com. https://yourstory.com/2017/03/kiran-mazumdar-shaw-quotes/amp
3. Thumbnail image source: https://twitter.com/kiranshaw

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