Clarity Talk with Gaurav Kukreja Founder Dough & Cream - EP55

Automobile engineer to Investment Banker to Art of living faculty to bakery business, listen to this amazing journey of Gaurav Kukreja, Founder & Director of Dough & Cream.

Dough & cream is multi million dollar bakery business in Delhi - NCR with 10+ stores & cafes.  Dough & cream won the best restaurants ET (Economic Times) award in North India.

Gaurav Kukreja shares the whole journey in this podcast episode. However before joining his own bakery business, he was Art of living faculty for 4 years. He still teaches art of living whenever he gets time. He attributes his productivity to art of living and meditation practice.

Listen to this amazing journey of Automobile engineer to entrepreneur.

Website - Dough & Cream

LinkedIn Profile - Gaurav Kukreja

For any career transformation, productivity and life fulfilment guidance reach Rakesh Mathuria at - https://www.rakeshmathuria.com

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Transcript

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We are currently in Green Park, right? Yeah.

And if from here I have to go to good ground at this moment 07: 0:02

00, right? Yeah. It's going to take me at least 1 hour 20 minutes. Yeah. Easily. Now, if I have to do this at three in the morning, it'll take me about 30 minutes. 30 minutes? Yeah. What is the difference? What is the difference? Yeah. The traffic is less. Traffic's less, right. Similarly, yes. When you meditate, the traffic in your mind mind is less. So what would have taken you 1 hour 20 minutes? Because you're struggling with those thoughts and the negativity and whatever is going on in your mind. Once you have meditated, all that traffic in the mind has settled down and it takes you lesser time to do what you want to do. Welcome to another episode of let's Talk Clarity podcast. Today we have an automobile engineer turned investment banker turned Art of Living teacher to a multimillion dollar bakery business owner. Yes. He is the founder of Dough and Cream, Gaurav Kukreja. Dough and Cream is having eleven outlets in Delhi, NCR. Yes. And he started this business in 2018 and turned into more than 30 crore business with more than 350 manpower. He attributes his success to his meditation practice which he learned through Art of Living. Yes. This episode is very interesting as he shared his journey of transforming his career for five times, how he did it and what was the process for career transformation. We discussed about what it takes to build a bakery business, what are the main critical checkpoints during this bakery business. We discussed the role of meditation in business and how to start the meditation. I enjoyed the conversation so much that I lost the time frame of the episode. Yes, it is a long episode, but it is worth the time. So please get your pen and paper and take notes. There is a lot to learn from the episode. So without further ado, let's jump straight into the conversation. Hello everyone. This is Rakesh, your coach, author, speaker and career transformation expert. Welcome to my podcast. Let's talk clarity. Let's Talk Clarity, in which we discuss about career transformation, productivity and life fulfillment. Let's start the episode and talk Clarity. Let's welcome Gauru Kukreja. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me here. This is my first podcast and I've been wanting to do one for a while. So thank you so much for inviting me here. Prakash. Yeah, thank you and welcome to the show. And apart from his introduction, let me introduce him that he's running a multi million dollar bakery business in Delhi with more than ten stores in Delhi and in less than four and a half years. So Gaurav, what is driving you in this fall? I think our tagline is baking. Moments of joy. So the joy word for me is very important. Okay. I want to spread joy. That is why I became an Art of Living teacher also. And in the bakery business also, you make cakes. Cakes are the central point of any celebration. Whether it's your birthday, anniversary, you want to say sorry. You want to apologize, you want to say thank you. Mother's Day, Father's Day. Right. And the central point is a cake. Cake, yes. And the joy that a cake brings in your life is just amazing. Right? Cake cutting becomes the center of that very festivity. The whole event is centered towards cake. Towards the cake. So I want to be that center. I want to be that person who brings that joy in people's lives. Wow. With that intention, we started it. I like the word that baking. Movements of choice. Yeah. But how you transformed your career from automobile engineer to investment banking, then faculty in Art of Living and then to bakery. And it must be difficult to switching careers. Or how easy or difficult it was. Now that you say it this way, even I am like, okay, fine. But that is how life is. Life is stranger than some movies at times. And it takes you certain way. It is more twisted than race movies. Absolutely. It's something like that only. As a child, I was very fascinated by cars. Cars. And I wanted to be an automobile engineer even before I knew what an automobile engineer was. I took up the course of automobile engineering or course education system. We were in the year 2018. So we were just studying that. I was a little disillusioned. And I also realized that my interest may be here, but I don't have the capability to be an automobile engineer. And that's when I started preparing for my cat exam. go out of Delhi. MDI Guru and my college that I did my MBA from department of Financial Studies, South Delhi. South Delhi. Okay. You know what I chose, right? Okay, great. I even got a scholarship. So it was free for me. Okay. It was all free. I did my MBA in finance. investment bank in Oxygen banking. Okayi. Interview so they came with a short list of people and shortlist. It was some random company. And still everybody had applied. And I didn't even get shortlisted. Okay. So I was very angry that day. And I got a call from my friend. He was in the placement team or voye mirasat College. Particular incident, one of the topics of my project that time was corporate debt restructuring. So it was about a certain company, XYZ company, FCCB Is. You must be aware of what FCCBs are. There are foreign currency, convertible bonds. And that was a very stupid decision to write that. And some investment banker like us must have done it for the company. So I said that it was a very stupid decision. Whoever that investment banker was okay. I said that and the interview says, you're looking at the stupid person. And I was like and that very moment I started preparing for the next interview. Next interview while this interview is going on. And we get out of the another five minutes, he talks to me and I'm out. And I'm like SME. But I don't know what they liked about me. Was it my candor? Was it my personality? Straightforward answer. Yeah, they selected me for that. Great. And it was a good job. Investment banking. How long you are there? I was doing that for two years. Two years. I was 19 years old when I first did the Art of Living course. Okay. Funny how you get to do certain things college may suggest. And I thought that and one of my friends also she insisted that I do the program and that I really like it and all. So I had a little idea what the program is about, but I did not have clarity what exactly it is about. So I thought that it is a lifestyle program, networking otiyabhatada Thai. But there was also spirituality along with it, meditation and all. And then there was like life size picture of one Shishi Ravi Shankarji as soon as you walk into the hall. and my program started late. The program was supposed to start at 530. The teacher came at 732 hours late. I did that program and we did this meditation and we did this technique. It's called the sugarsAN. Korea sularshan korea. That changed my life. It completely changed my life. that feeling was just beautiful. And after the Kriya got over and you're thinking and I just realized that I had almost no thoughts. For the first time in my life, I had experienced thoughtlessness sunya, sunnatha. And it was beautiful. It was just amazing. And that day when I did that first the Shankria that day I knew that this is going to be a very, very important part of my life going forward. By the end of the program, I knew that teacher. But then destiny has its way. You drift away a little bit. I got busy with my studies, with my MBA, with my girlfriends, like an investment banking tour kick on Art of Living for kept yvanta. But how see, when you are at that peak, no, when you've seen everything. Not everything, but a lot, a lot. You've seen money, you've seen power, you've seen greed, you've seen how the world functions, how the world works. And yet you feel unfulfilled. So that unfulfillment, that thorn of unfulfillment that drove me to what should I do? What should I do? What should I do? Or maybe I'll start my business. Or maybe I'll do this, maybe I'll do farming. I thought of multiple things. Okay. And that's when it hit me that me practicing the Art of Living, me volunteering with the Art of Living, me just being in that energy gives me fulfillment. Fulfillment. So why not continue the path? Why not give it to more people? Just program karaya Art of Living come a friend family. Absolutely. So when I did that, every time they would come back and say, you changed my life. Thank you so much for recommending me to that program. And that feeling that they would say thank you, that feeling that they would bless you at the end of the program. Okay. So that is why I was driven towards Art of Living. I guess that is why I gravitate. Great. And then for how long you did the Art of Living faculty? So I'm still an art of living teacher. I continue to teach Art of Living courses. Whenever you get time, you go there. Absolutely. And with the programs going online now, I teach a lot of programs online also. Okay. Yes. So in the year 2015, I became an Art of Living teacher. Okay. In three years, you were totally into that. About four years. End of 2018, 19 beginning, I started, you know, I joined the business and yeah. And then job to Art of Living faculty and then again business. So how that has happened? So what happened that time was that it was actually a very tough decision. There was some family situation. I had been working with Artful Living for almost three or four years. And there was this subtle pressure from the family keeping financially, job and all of that. Though they were very supportive throughout in the journey. the society doesn't accept such things. I will continue to do this full time. But that feeling also came. That is when I went to a founder full time. Send me somewhere else. This is where do you want to go? I said the words anywhere but Delhi. This is very nice. And every time I would put in a request to get outside of Delhi, I would never get a chance to get outside Delhi. Okay? I was somehow stuck in Delhi. And then funny thing happened. I was like, Let me try and get outside India only. I started preparing for my GMAT exam. let me do another MBA and I'll just change my life. Let me do something new, 720 something. I was happy. There was some family issue. And I got this ultimatum from my family. Either find a job or you join the business. You have no other choice. Family. I said, okay, I'll join the business. Okay. And that time, we had just started the bakery business and the bakery business also, me and my uncle, we had thought of it together. We'll do it like this. Brainstorming. Yes. So I was part of it, and I was excited also about it. But that thing was there. Jana so since that didn't happen, I was like, fine, I'll join the business, but I will not. So the two businesses are the departmental store business and the bakery business. So I said my guardadal chawaton ebay, so I will join the bakery. So that's when I took over. And when I took over, we had two outlets, two of our main outlets. And we had a base kitchen also, which also, like, while I was not there full time, but it grew in front of me, and I was there supporting and on and off you as well. So when I took over the reins of the business completely, we were losing a lot of money. The entire business was in red because we were new. And this second outlet was very, very new. It was just open, like, open Hawaii. And like, four days later, I had joined the business. When this happened, when I took over this, and then I knew that I had to change a lot of things. And I had no experience in the bakery business. I had no understanding of the business. Right. So it started there. And over a period of time, you learn from people, you learn from the Internet. Your vendors teach you, your customers teach you. I just went into this student mode. Student completely. Student mode. Housekeeping, baker, pastry. I just became a sponge of information. I just gathered information, data, information. Absolutely. In all of this, whatever changes were coming or whatever things were moving, part of living really played an important role. It is almost impossible to accept certain situations in life. Right. The situation that I was in, oh, I can get into an amazing college. And then having to not take that and join the family business, yet being okay with it, it took a lot of time. Acceptance. And that seed of acceptance has come only because of it took me a while. I'm not saying acceptance overnight. No, it took time, but it took a lot lesser time than it would have taken otherwise. It took weeks, probably. Otherwise it would have taken months or probably years. Yes. And then how Dough and Cream, how this name has come? It just happened. Honestly. We thought of multiple names. We thought the Indian Bake house, the Deli Bake house. And this, that and dough and cream pop. Just out of a lot of names. And then Dough and Cream was something that we really liked. And it just stuck. Okay. Yeah, it just stuck. And then the genesis of this line baking moments of joy. This has two origins. One was that happiness is key to me. My fundamental life is key. That you have taken a human birth. Humans yearn for this feeling of joy and happiness. Joy. So the joy, though logan could any app, and I had the opportunity to work very closely with Honda as a company in art of living. They used to be our customers. We would do art of living corporate programs for their people. And they shared with me that when they talk about the philosophy of their company, there are three joys that they talk about. The one is the joy of creation, meaning the joy of manufacturing the car. Then there is the joy of selling. Selling that you have to sell the car joyfully to the customer. And then the joy of driving. Driving, okay. So that joy word really stuck with me. And I said that and I genuinely admire that company a lot. Honda, the ethics they have, the philosophy that they have, it's just amazing. So, yeah, it came out of that. The baking moments of joy. Great. And then if you are in four and a half years into the dough and cream this brand, and you have grown from literally from zero to now 25 growth company. So what are your top three highs in this four and a half year journey is now more than 30 grows. 30 grows, okay. And the idea from day one, you know, was to create something big. Okay. That vision was there. The vision was the moment big. It was always big. It still is very big. We want to be a brand that not just Delhi, but India. If you see that there is no national bakery brand in India, we want to be that brand in India. Great. And what really got us there over a period of time, we realized was that our focus on quality. Quality. Number two was affordability. And number three is constantly being new and tasty food. If it's not tasty, it's not nice. Right. Constantly new means upgrading products. Absolutely, yeah. New and new whenever the market has come. Because initially there were just innovation. Absolutely. Now that pizza has come from Morocco, then from Russia, a lot of dishes has come. You will see that the pallet was I was asking what are your top three highs of this business? One was during the COVID time. Yes, during the COVID time, it was very challenging everywhere. And for us also for a little time, it was for 40 days we were closed. 1st, 221, 21 days, it was completely closed. And we didn't know what to do. And my mind was going all over, what can we do? What can we do? What can we do? And that's when a lot of demand also. Absolutely. Salaries, rentals, electricity bills, you have EMIs and everything. Yes. So that time, a lot of demand for bread started coming up and we had these departmental stores. So we started, we also had a lot of pizza. There were so many memes about that. The intention is to finish all the method on the planet. So we started, increased our capacity to manufacture breads, all of that. And because it was not very easily available and we had a lot of it available, that's why a lot of demand came for bread, and people all over like West Deli started coming just for the bread tour outlets. So yeah, that's when we started, when the hurdle became opportunity. Absolutely. Okay. And we grew most in the two years of Lockdown 2000 and 22,021. So in the year 2020, we opened three new outlets. In the year 2021, again, three new outlets. And this year we have done two new outlets. Two new so now how many outlets are there? So in total, we have ten locations. Ten locations? Yeah. Five of them are cafes, big sitting where you can come sit, hang out with your friends and family, and five of them are tuck shops. Takeaway outlets. Okay. So let's take it forward, this discussion. And if any young graduate is just to pass out from a college, but he or she is very interested in baking. So what three advises you will give to him or her to start a bakery business? The first advice is that forget that you have a personal life. See, it's a business that demands 365 days of your year. Okay. There is no holiday when other people are enjoying and holidaying partying. You are working harder. Yeah. Saturday, Sunday is more yes, absolutely, absolutely. So, yes, that is there. And it's a daily thing. Right. Because the business, the products that you make are very little shelf, like one day, two day, three days. Right. So they have to be constantly churned out. Right. So, yeah. First you have to forget that the supply demand has to be very much managed. Yes. Second advice is focus on quality. If you are starting this business, you have to have to have to focus on quality and hygiene. It is uncompromisable. You cannot say, oh, I'm making cheap products or affordable products. Make affordable products, but do not compromise on quality. My third advice would be to find a market that is most suited to you. It could be a locality, it could be online, it could be a certain type of audience that you're making a bracket of people. Yes. So it could be like, I want to start a premium bakery. So you have to then understand that the number of customers are going to be less, but my ticket size is going to be higher. Or Apple iPhone. Yeah, absolutely. Or you go on the other side, extreme other end, where you're focusing on volumes and you are selling to retailers and you're doing the wholesale business. Third advice is basically you should know what market you are going to work with. Okay. Wow, that's great. And very aptly said that you have to be 365 days on the business with that only. Everything else happens when you are in a business. It is not a five day a week thing. Right. It is not a nine to five or a nine to six thing. Right. It is a 24 7365 days job that you have to be there even if you're physically not there, you're mentally there. You have to be available on call even at two in the night. And you know, Murphy's Law, right? Everything that can go wrong will go wrong, will go so, yeah, you have to be ready for the worst. Okay. I was reading somewhere it said that being an entrepreneur is like jumping off of a cliff and assembling the plane on the way down the way it exactly feels like that many times. Okay. You cannot be a specialist when you're an entrepreneur. You can't say, oh, I'm just going to do the baking business. Oh. You have to be a salesman. You have to be a baker. You have to be an accountant. You have to be an HR person. You have to be a marketing guy. You have to be a license officer. You have to be a housekeeping person. You have to be a customer care executive. You have to be the signing authority. You have to be the person telling the signing authority. You have to be the receptionist. So I started in my own company, right at the bottom. I was the cashier. Then I started taking order. I was the manager. I know how to make coffee. Great. And I know how to make pizzas. So I've learned everything, a little bit of everything. And that because I went into that depth, because I learnt it on the ground from the people. Not only did I command their respect, because I knew what they were doing, how much hard work is going on. Absolutely. Not only did I command their respect, but I also gave them respect because I knew how tough their job is. Yes. Second thing, when you're sitting at that chair, nobody can fool you, whether it is your vendors, whether it is your own people, because you have been hands on with all the work. Absolutely. And it gives you growing from the bottom and slowly coming up, it gives you a very, very clear picture at each level. When you're sitting at the top and seeing the bird's eye view, not only are you seeing the top view, but you are also seeing how deep each level is. What is required at each level? Yes. And what are the critical checkpoints? Absolutely. When you are building the blocks, then you know what it takes to make them. And then when you have to rebuild them or you have to make a bigger building, now that the foundation is going to be strong, or I have the understanding of how to make a business from here to there, from zero to ten outlets now it becomes a little easier to go from ten to 100. Okay. And I just heard that you have to be 365 days and on the job. So how you manage your time? Because this question is being asked to me by many of my executives. And in this world, there's only one commodity which is care. That is time. So how you are managing and how you have or is there any whole month or is there any tips? So what is that? Yeah, I feel that whatever is important in your life always takes time. You always make time for that, right? If your business is important, you will make time for it. If your job is important, you will make time for it. If health is there, family health, you make time for the important things. But we waste a lot of time. Also, whether it's mindless scrolling on Instagram yeah. Or Instagram is one randomly chitchatting with people where it is not giving you joy. Also, mind you yes. Sometimes when you talk to your friends, family, it's very important. It gives you joy. It's part of the day, right? Yes. Sometimes you're just mindlessly talking. Coming back to, you know, how I think, you know, you can manage your time better. Number one is meditate. Once you start meditating, your efficiency goes up drastically. What task would take me two 3 hours? The day I don't meditate takes me those two 3 hours. The day I meditate takes me exactly half the time. Exactly half the time. You know, Mathematicani used to say this. He used to say that I don't have time today for my 1 hour meditation. I'll have to do a two hour meditation today. Yes. You get it, right? Yeah. So this I shared in my previous podcast also, they call it this is based on Buddha, it is based on Gandhiji or sometimes. So it is like that, that everyone should meditate for 30 minutes in a day? Absolutely. And if someone is not having time, then he or she should meditate for 60 minutes. 60 minutes a day. Absolutely. But this, this I really like that. To manage a time, we should meditate first and then it will eventually increase the efficiency. Productivity. Yeah. So it's it's very simple. For example, we are currently in Green Park, right? Yeah.

And if from here I have to go to go to gown at this moment 07: 31:07

00, right? Yeah. It's going to take me at least 1 hour 20 minutes. Yeah. Easily. Now, if I have to do this at three in the morning, it will take me about 30 minutes. 30 minutes. What is the difference? What is the difference? Yeah. The traffic is less. The traffic is less, right. Similarly, when you meditate, the traffic in your mind is less. Less. So what would have taken you 1 hour 20 minutes? Because you're struggling with those thoughts and the negativity and whatever is going on in your mind. Once you have meditated, all that traffic in the mind has settled down and it takes you lesser time to do what you want to do. Wow. This was powerful. And it just came. But I love the analogy and it will remain in my life. Thank you. I will always remember this. So let's discuss about that sometime. In future, maybe ten years, 15 years down the line. And you are writing your autobiography. So what title would you give to your autobiography? Wonder. I think because my life has been so crazy and full of wonder, I'd call it wonderful. Yeah. I feel that to enjoy life, one has to be a fool. If you're going to be intelligent, you're going to introduce everything in life, you're going to analyze everything in life. You can't have fun, you know, you can't enjoy life. So sometimes you have to be really dumb to enjoy life. Yeah. Become a fool and then wonder. Wonder. Absolutely right. If you become a fool, wonder comes. Amazing. Amazing. Gara. We are at the end of our podcast, and from my side, all the best for your adventures and all the best for your miracles of the next two years, and all the best for your marriage, and thank you. And all the best if you want to go out of Delhi. Yes, please. Thank you. So it's been an amazing discussion we had, and I really love the energy and the cool and calmness which you bring, and that must be probably due to art of living and the meditation you do. So thank you for coming to the show. Thank you. Thank you, Rakesh, for inviting me. And it has been a wonderful conversation. A lot of things came from within me that even I didn't know. Thank you for creating that atmosphere, which is so full of it's so gentle, it's so subtle, yet it is so deep. Thank you for your humility. I look forward to hearing more of your podcasts and bringing more clarity in my life. Yeah, that's what the purpose of this podcast? Let's talk clarity. Have clarity, bring clarity, and let's talk Clarity. Thank you. Paul listening to. Let's talk clarity with rakesh. Please subscribe or follow this podcast on your prefer platform so that you don't miss any important episodes. Have clarity, listen clarity, and let's talk Clarity. Let's talk clarity.