A Man with a Vision of Success – Dr. Janak Sheth

The managing director of Century Pharmaceuticals Ltd is Janak Sheth. Additionally, Mr. Janak Sheth is the first generation entrepreneur of the company. He holds a degree in chemical engineering from IIT Delhi. His career journey started with Sarabhai chemicals. Just a few months after the start, he was posted to Indonesia for a new project of setting up a new pharmaceutical plant.

Be it project planning or setting up the equipment, he grabbed all-rounder skills with the project. After four years, he left the Sarabhai company and started his own company. At that time the government schemes were quite favorable, so Dr. Janak Sheth’s work experience besides educational degrees helped him succeed. Dr. Janak also gives credit to Government capital subsidy and seed capital loans which helped him cover up the shortfall in equity.

A brief about Century Pharmaceuticals:

Back in 1980, Century Pharmaceuticals was launched by Janak Sheth set in the district of Panchmahals. Dr. Janak faced a plethora of challenges as his family hailed from a moderate financial background. He moved up the ladder slowly and steadily as he had the zeal to overcome all the difficulties. With an eye for detail and quality, the company started manufacturing and selling good quality products in small quantities. It helped the company pitch two clients, and gradually, they expanded the business to other lines. With time, the company has added 40 products, and they are also exporting to 60 countries across the globe. As the company has had a pretty simple beginning, they wish to continue to add new product lines to their portfolio. 

Being completely satisfied with the success, Dr. Janak Sheth aims to give back to society to develop new products that align with society’s unmet needs. For the past ten years, they are also researching to find a cure to Asthma, besides stem cell therapy and for cancer patients a personalized treatment without side effects.

The Path towards success:

Dr. Janak Sheth is quite passionate about the ongoing research, and he believes it’s his duty to give back to society as much as possible. Also, he understands that only a few people are interested in investing in novel molecules or the type of research that Century Pharmaceuticals has undertaken, but despite that, it is the motivation for the company.

So far, the company has invested a considerable sum of money for the same. Above all, he aims that they achieve milestones here too. When it comes to stem cell therapy, the company has achieved the same. As per Dr. Janak Sheth’s beliefs, the only path for success is hard work and determination. Besides that, there is no other road to success. The company has built a small team of dedicated people, and this has paid off. Above all, it is the team’s efforts that have made the company so successful. The finance allowed for marketing is one of the biggest initial challenges that Dr. Janak faced, and internally, it took a few years, but Dr. Janak and his team overcame them. 

Dr. Janak Sheth says that he hasn’t regretted what they have done, and they don’t know what they would have done differently. Additionally, the company hasn’t entered into a partnership even though they were offered blocks but refrained from such associations to avoid any dispute amongst the team members. Even though not all partnerships fail but they wished to keep things simple and were satisfied with their slow progress over time.

Hobbies and interests beyond work:

Coming from a simple family, Dr. Janak has a deep interest in knowing different cultures and religions and meeting new people. Besides that, he loves traveling and has traveled to more than 60 countries around the world. Even though he loves sports, he finds it challenging to find time for the same. At the same time, he is listening to light music or reading a book which is refreshing and rejuvenating, especially during travel trips.

Above all, he loves to be abreast with the latest happenings in the economy. Ideally, Dr. Janak Sheth wears a formal shirt, but he ensures he puts on a formal tie during visits by customers. As the weather is hot, the work culture doesn’t motivate employees to work in a formal suit. But personally, on days when they have parties and puja, he likes to wear a kurta and pajama.

No doubt, Dr. Janak Sheth has a heavy work schedule, but he tries to relax at home and have quality time with his family to laugh and enjoy the short time available. Additionally, he aims to connect with his kids and also be socially active. For the past few years, he has been the President of their Society and has also seen society corpus grow more than ten times over time thanks to good management and prudent policies.

The change in Pharmaceuticals:

Over the past so many years, the pharmaceutical industry has grown multifold thanks to the number of players that have grown, and the industry has developed a plethora of products. Century Pharmaceuticals hold the capability to create unique non-infringing processes for new products, and thus, they are sought after by different multinational companies. Additionally, they also can do research and are keen to improve the cost of manufacturing over time. Dr. Janak Sheth says they are happy with what they have, but they would have been luckier if they could initially buy a larger piece of land. They had only limited means then, but they have bought two adjacent plots on both sides of their factory after some time. They have a massive parcel of land about 4 km from their current factory, and the company will ideally use it for a major expansion whenever needed.

Success is impossible without the team:

Dr. Janak Sheth takes pride in the company because there is a lot of stability, aiming to encourage people to perform better and be happy. They help in retaining good and honest people. The majority of the people have been working here in the company for at least ten years. As per the current policy, the clients are happy to deal with the company as the team here is more predictable and prompt in their replies. Additionally, consistent quality management has enabled the company to retain most of the customers, and therefore, growth isn’t a challenge for them. They have built a reputation for themselves, which is undoubtedly helping them in the market in terms of suppliers, and for fair business practices, the company has been rewarded too. Also, the company aims to keep the employees motivated. The company offers regular awards of excellence and picnics and parties to celebrate exemplary achievements for harmonious teamwork as the team is entirely responsible for their success.

Being a successful leader:

He says that nothing is challenging in leadership as the main challenge is in people’s minds and they justify it wherever they are inefficient. Additionally, Dr. Janak Sheth says he enjoys being a leader as it allows him to motivate their team members to perform better. And the company has adopted a slow and steady organic growth policy. They are trying to improve the existing processes to make them better and cost-effective, which will increase profitability of the company with time. It is a slow and steady approach that has made the company enjoy quite a goodwill, and now they are headed for much more significant growth.  The company mainly believes in honesty and commitment to their customers to give them the best service. This has been responsible for their success as they have been able to retain most of their customers, and this has leads to steady growth over time.

The company has always focused on the customer needs and tries to excel in quality standards beating the competition. The best part is that Dr. Janak Sheth has always enjoyed his work. He also encourages his teammates to follow him and enjoys overcoming challenges faced by the company. The supportive team which works in unison helps success of the company. Being a leader, he started off by making ALL decisions. As the company grew bigger; he started delegating. He takes only major investment decisions say in selecting plant and machinery, etc., and the teammates take all other decisions, but he is always available for them to double-check. Above all, in this way, the company tends to grow faster.

The motivating entrepreneur:

Dr. Janak Sheth encourages the managers to think positively and take decisions in their own departments, and it also helps in empowering them to improve their self-confidence. Above all, they know all the bits and pieces of their departments better than what Dr. Janak Sheth knows, and this process has encouraged them to be responsible, answerable, and more committed to their jobs. Dr. Janak Sheth is mainly motivated by his workers. Like initially, the company used to take only 25 kgs batches, but gradually they increased the batch size to 150 kgs using the same equipment through suggestions from workers and increased the production six times without any investment in plant and machinery. The company also encourages its managers to be innovative and adopt modern and cost-effective processes. They do automate where possible to reduce human resources requirements and to make their processes consistent and reliable. 

He believes that with hard work and dedication, one can achieve almost anything as long as they don’t lose sight of their goal. With the economy providing increased funding options to potential start-ups, he hopes that these start-ups create many unicorns. Additionally, youth can take more risks and help grow themselves to help the Indian economy to reach a US $ 5 trillion in no time.

The awards backed by the company:

The company has backed several awards including, Fair Business Practices (Indian Council for Fair Businesses), Gold Medal for excellence in Business Practices (Switzerland),Excellence Award for Exports, Excellence for Innovation, Quality, Productivity (IES, India), Gold Award from Lockheed Martin in Biotech technology, FGI award for excellence “outstanding MSME” -2011, Leaders of tomorrow by ET NOW  – October 2013 ,Conferred Certificate of Excellence for intelligent innovation in  responsible business by India Inc. in India Innovative 100 Magazine  – January 2015, Quality Mark Trust Award – May 2015, Century is selected as the fastest growing Pharmaceutical company of 2016 in The Silicon Review Magazine, Winner of Quality Mark Trust Awards 2016, Qualified for GOLD in ZED Certification  from QCI India (ZED ID – ZEDQCI1211718), CEO of the year by Business Connect Magazine Nov. 2018, Brand of the year by “THE CEO Magazine” in December 2018, Best Entrepreneur 100 in 2019 in the CEO Insights Magazine  – March 2019, An Aspiring Entrepreneur in Technology widgets Magazine – March 2019, Business APAC’s Zealous Business Leaders of 2019, The Most Innovative Brand – 2019 in Business View Magazine etc.

Some of the economy awards include 30next – Future of Indian Economy”  by Forbes India, India’s Leading Pharmaceutical Companies to Watch in 2020 by Prime View Magazine, 30 Most Influential CEOs to watch 2020 by CIO Bulletin, 10 Most Promising Pharmaceutical Tycoon to Watch in 2020 by Inner Review Magazine, The Remarkable Business Leaders To Watch In 2020 – by APAC Edition, The Remarkable Business Leaders To Watch In 2020 –  by The Business Fame, Gujarat Pharma Leadership Award – India’s most admired  Bulk Drug Company – Nov 2020, Business Shouts – “Best innovative Pharmaceuticals firm, 2020, Top 20 World- Shaping Global Companies by Business Connect Magazine February 2021 .