'In money-spinning, we just don't have a language'

Ramesh Dungarmal Tainwala hails from a humble Indian family, having started working as a bank employee for one-and-a-half years for as little as $50 a month. It emboldened his desire to try his luck in entrepreneurship.

"If I work for 35 years as a bank employee, I still would not be able to buy a house and I don't want to continue living in my village," he laments.

Tainwala joined Samsonite International as a vendor in 1992 and went on to become a joint-venture associate four years later when Samsonite set its sights on developing the Indian market.

He was asked by the group's then chief executive officer in 2015 if he would like to help manage Samsonite's business in China, more as a friend in the beginning because, in those days, their business in India was still 10 times bigger than that of the Chinese mainland.

"Frankly, I didn't know anything about China then and I was very poor when it comes to language. It was very tough wading into unknown territory in the beginning. But, it soon turned into a very interesting opportunity for me," reminisces Tainwala.

He realized that a businessman's language is only money, but he still upholds the principle that money doesn't have a language and a businessman can understand the business part very well despite language barriers.

Perhaps, the turning point came in 2008 when Tainwala became an officer of Samsonite. "I began enjoying working in different places, experiencing different cultures and working in different markets where I don't understand the language."

His fortunes grew by leaps and bounds in 2012 when he was invited to join the Samsonite board of directors, culminating in his appointment as the group's CEO just two years later.

"We need to trust people and hire talented people in the sector," he says of his management philosophy.

He would advise his children not to stop dreaming. "Today's limitation is the limitation for a lifetime and the limitation is only in our mind. We spend much time thinking what we're going to do. Break big dreams into small dreams rather than day dreaming. You can be prime minister of India. You can be Bill Gates."

His real passion in life is to be a farmer when he calls it a day, having grown up in a farm and his parents being farmers.

"I want to return to my hometown and start farming again after retirement. I've bought a farm outside the city. I do enjoy working with my hands."

tingduan@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 09/22/2017 page8)