How We Sold Durex, Veet, Mortein, Harpic and more to India! | Ex-Global COO, Reckitt | Adi Sehgal

Hi, thanks for stopping by! You’re listening to #TheBarbershopWithShantanu In today's episode, we have Aditya Sehgal, ex-COO Global at Reckitt, and founder of asgard.world, a metaverse company. We talk about how his 10,010 days at Reckitt, working his way up the corporate ladder, building #Durex out into the fun brand it is today, insights on China, what India needs to do to grow, his frameworks for growth, brand building and so much more. The episode is chock full of invaluable insights. You'll kick yourself if you don't listen till the end. _____________________________________________________ 00:00:00 Teaser 00:00:53 Introducing Aditya Sehgal 00:02:20 10,010 days at Reckitt 00:05:08 Starting out in Gorakhpur 00:10:37 Marketing stint & working with a huge team 00:15:20 Being called back to sales 00:17:40 Being perfectly correct, and perfectly wrong 00:20:34 Learnings about mass distribution 00:25:36 Growing a brand & e-commerce learnings 00:29:47 Being sent to China 00:31:45 The need for Brutal Honesty & letting people go 00:35:09 Insights about China and India 00:38:36 China has different names for everything 00:40:38 Complex structures in China 00:41:21 Reckitt's model for growing brands 00:49:20 Cultural learnings from China 00:53:22 Acquiring Durex and building the fun image for it 01:01:36 Framework for innovation 01:04:05 Working with e-commerce from the start 01:05:06 Starting D2C in China 01:06:43 China is ahead of the world technologically 01:09:57 Global companies struggling in China 01:10:56 Nutrition and excercise 01:11:48 Comparing India & China 01:27:13 India needs to protect itself environmentally 01:30:20 Life is about balance. Growth isn't everything 01:36:03 Moving out of China 01:41:24 Dealing with Covid before it got out 01:46:18 Turning 50 & wanting to move out of corporate 01:49:39 Formula for happiness 01:53:25 What is Adi running towards? 01:57:22 Building asgard.world 01:59:06 Aditya's releaxed workstyle now 02:02:22 Adi's words of advice 02:05:30 Concluding notes 02:07:29 The Bombay Shaving Company hamper ____________________________________________________ MORE ABOUT ASGARD.WORLD Website: https://www.asgard.world/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asgard.world/ _____________________________________________________ APPLY NOW We are looking for early stage stage companies with: - Amazing Founders - Operating in large markets - Are post revenue - TBWS will put in the first or second institutional cheque! Email us about you and your start-up on barbershop@bombayshavingcompany.com. _____________________________________________________ ABOUT OUR CHANNEL My name is Shantanu and I am the founder of Bombay Shaving Company and Bombae. I LOVE entrepreneurship. Personally, I would rate myself as an average (at best) entrepreneur, but I love great ones. The BarberShop with Shantanu S2: Raiser’s Edge goes beyond our conversations from S1 on our podcast to tangible help. With the help of our sponsors at BSC and Bombae we have put together a season which brings together a corpus of 50+ equity seekers looking to support 20+ start-ups in their growth and success. We will be releasing an episode every Friday at 9 pm. Tune in and hope you enjoy. :) _____________________________________________________