Falguni Nayar

Falguni Nayar is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the e-commerce website
Nykaa. Formerly working with Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, she quit her 19 year job
position to start a venture of her own in 2012.

Being an IIM-A graduate and a Gujarati, she believes entrepreneurship runs in her blood.

Currently Nayar also serves as a member on board of Dabur India, Aviva Insurance and Tata
Motors. She has received numerous honours in her career including the FICCI Ladies
Organization (FLO) grant for top woman achiever in the field of Banking and Business Today
grant perceiving her as top 25 women in Business.
Organizational Behaviour

Falguni Nayar gave 19 years of her career to Kotak Mahindra bank as a venture investor and
merchant. Later on she was part of the bank’s intenational operations in the US and UK. She
led the Institutional Equities division and achieved milestones during her term. In 2005 Nayar
accepted control as managing director.1 Her work history with the organisation shows she was
an active – constructive employee valuable to the organisation. Her commitment combined
with her progress hints at her organisational citizenship behaviour.

CONSTRUCTIVE

VOICE LOYALTY

FALGUNI NAYAR

ACTIVE PASSIVE

TURNOVER NEGLECT

DESTRUCTIVE

Job Satisfaction

Falguni Nayar ultimately exit the organisation in which she worked for multiple years. Though
she left, the factors of her quitting the job include her passion for a firm of her own not because
of dissatisfaction with her organisation. She was delegated increased authority and
responsibility as rewards for her loyalty. But Nayar’s dream job was business which made her
quit.
Now or Never Attitude

With everything going right in her time at KMB, the decision of quitting was a difficult one.
She accepts contemplating time and again of quitting but never really getting to it. After she
turned 50 she realised it would be now or never as her job was her niche and she needed to take
more risks before it was too late.

Entrepreneurial Mind

She wanted to make her mark in the industry. Choosing the department where Ambanis, Tatas,
Birlas hadn’t ventured was difficult. Living in the states she observed there wasn’t really an
omnichannel platform in the cosmetics industry. Nykaa entered the market at just the time e-
commerce was about to explode. “In the financial year ended March 31, 2018, the company
more than doubled its turnover to Rs570 crore from Rs214 crore in the previous fiscal.” 3 All
this combined makes it evident that Nayar has an entrepreneurial stint.

Breaking the stereotype – no glass ceiling

Falguni Nayar said, “My personal experience is that hard work achieves anything. I’ve
always maintained that I’ve never had any experience of a glass ceiling. To get to where they
want to be, women need to lean in. We need to develop abilities to be able to take on the dual
responsibilities of career and home. In most cases, this involves increasing risk appetite and
pushing oneself forward.” 2

She believes women are as equipped with business traits as their male counterparts. She
advices all women to just believe in themselves and work hard, for if the efforts are put in the
right direction gender will not define one’s success.

Detail-oriented [manager & businesswoman]

“All of a sudden, Nayar pauses. She’s found a bottle of ink-blue nail varnish. The Nykaa
branding in black is indistinguishable against the dark background. I can see it bothers her. She
immediately asks a sales associate to notify someone in her office to fix it. “Retail is all about
the detail,” she says, and when you are Nayar, every detail is a big deal.” 4

This statement by Mallika Kapur signifies the approach of Nayar towards her business.

This is a sign of a successful leader who takes care of all aspects ensuring maximum satisfaction
for her customers as well as the team of Nykaa.

Democratic leadership – minimal hierarchy

Nayar follows a democratic leadership style. The positions listed in the careers section of the
website stresses on being a team player. She believes e-commerce business cannot succeed in
isolation and the secret is working in teams. She does not solely take decisions, she always
considers inputs from her team. I attended Speaker Series of The Red Brick Summit wherein
one of the speakers was Falguni Nayar. She kept stressing on the words the Nykaa team and
how they collectively serve the customers. She narrated an incident about an operation she was
about to carry forward but was unsure about it. She felt it was not apt. A young employee
typically falling in the age group of majority Nykaa customers, she suggested to go ahead with
the operation and as a result it was a huge hit. This depicts qualities of democratic leadership.

Her major focus is on getting viewpoints of her teammates. Although it is not just for the
purpose of saying, this shows in her belief of having minimal hierarchy in the management in
order to have the most transparent communication.

Changes in business format according to consumer needs

Changes are exciting but not easy. The demands of consumers change day by day and so does
the strategies of Nykaa says Nayar. But determining which trends and demands are worthy of
pursuing in terms of investment is what a good manager does. Nayar noticed that though Nykaa
offers wide range of products not even launched in India, customers need the timely visit to a
store to touch and feel the product. This lead Nykaa to extend its branches into the brick-and-
mortar retail.

Nayar says that the store launches are merely creating 10% turnover compared to online
turnover. This does not bother her as she claims to wanting to cater to the needs of customers.
Nykaa launched a luxury store including top high-end sellers. After making a few luxe stores
she realised that more drugstore was needed to make the stores pan India and affordable. Thus
came in the Nykaa On trend store.

This states Nayar relies on the age-old theory of “customer is king”.

Lessons learned :

 Passion surpasses all, work for what you believe in and not for the money.
 One can start an Entrepreneurial journey from scratch if the strategy is right and if the
will for achieving break even by hook or crook.
 I believe and support the thought behind having minimal hierarchy in the management,
I feel it can be one of the key reasons for job satisfaction.
 Being a female, the glass ceiling threat is always present, Falguni Nayar’s success is an
example for all the ladies out there that one will succeed if one strives for it in spite of
all the male dominance.
 As Falguni Nayar tapped on a market full of opportunities which was unexplored, it
tells me SWOT analysis stands really important before making any impulsive decisions
of starting a business.

Sources

1. https://www.vagabomb.com/Meet-Falguni-Nayar-the-Founder-of-Nykaa-and-the-
Woman-Who-Brought-Online-Makeup-Shopping-to-India/
2. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/india-lags-in-board-
gender-diversity/articleshow/57337247.cms
3. https://qz.com/india/1278257/nykaa-ceo-falguni-nayar-talks-profitability-and-taking-
online-beauty-brand-offline/
4. https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/EMOmjllb5hPv8Se8T62ZaK/Falguni-Nayar-The-
beauty-entrepreneur.html