Journalist-author Harish Damodaran was announced as the winner of the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize 2022 for his book ‘Broke to Breakthrough: The Rise of India's Largest Private Dairy Company’ on January 17, 2023.
As the title suggests, ‘Broke to Breakthrough’ is a detailed account of the rise of Hatsun Agro and RG Chandramogan, who founded it. From selling ice creams in pushcarts in Tamil Nadu in the 1970s to growing to be a publicly listed commpany that generated over INR 6000Cr in revenue, this is an inspiring read.
Damodaran's ‘Broke to Breakthrough’ was selected as a winner from a shortlist of five books. The other shortlisted books for the award were:
1. 'Ambuja Story: How a Group of Ordinary Men Created an Extraordinary Company' by Narotam Sekhsaria
2. 'Disrupt and Conquer: How TTK Prestige Became a Billion Dollar Company' by T.T. Jagannathan and Sandhya Mendonca
3. 'Harsh Realities: The Making of Marico' by Harsh Mariwala and Ram Charan
4. 'Maverick Effect: The Inside Story of India's IT Revolution' by Harish Mehta
Announcing the winner, Gopal Jain, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Gaja Capital said in a statement, “The 2022 shortlist covered a wide array of stories of some of the special women and men from diverse backgrounds who, through their hard work, enterprise and risk-taking, have created tremendous wealth and employment, and will leave behind an enduring legacy of strong, globally competitive businesses. These books are excellent stories of Indian entrepreneurship and enterprise. Each one is a winner, and it wasn’t easy to pick one. Harish Damodaran’s book is an exemplary Bharat story of entrepreneurship, and we hope stories like this help inspire the next wave of thousands of budding entrepreneurs from all across and within India to constantly emerge, grow, innovate and excel”.
This year's award jury included: Manish Sabharwal, Vice-Chairman TeamLease (Chairman, Jury); Imran Jafar, Managing Partner & Co-founder of Gaja Capital; Dr. Lakshmi Venu, MD of Sundaram-Clayton Ltd (SCL); Michael Queen, Former Chief Executive of 3i (British Multinational PE fund); Prithvi Haldea, Founder Chairman of Praxis Consulting (Prime Database); Neelkanth Mishra, Managing Director and Head of Equity Strategy, Asia Pacific for Credit Suisse; Shailesh Haribhakti, Founder and Managing Partner of Shailesh Haribhakti & Associates Chartered Accountants; and Upendra Kumar Sinha, Former Head, RBI Expert Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Praising the winning book, the Jury said in a statement, "'Broke to Breakthrough' is the inspiring and moving journey of a pioneering first-generation Indian entrepreneur. Necessity is the mother of invention. And a necessity driven by both personal circumstance and an industry with strong incumbents spurred Mr. Chandramogan to create an enterprise that has innovated in every part of its business from cattle breeding and fodder to commercials and marketing... Mr. Chandramogan’s ability to constantly try, fail, learn, pivot and scale successes is both instructive and inspirational for every entrepreneur at any stage in their journey. For a young India that is bursting with ambition, this journey of endurance and integrity combined with vision and agility is a must-read in today’s VUCA world."
Established in 2019, the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize honours writers and their works that celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship. Past winners of the award are: Girish Kuber and Vikrant Pande for 'The Tatas: How a Family Built a Business and a Nation' in 2019; Mihir Dalal for 'Big Billion Startup: The Untold Flipkart Story' in 2020; and Amrit Raj for 'Indian Icon: A Cult Called Royal Enfield' in 2021.
