When Awais Noorani and his EMBA colleagues pitched to Silicon Valley investors, as part of their Discovery Expedition, on behalf of the Swiss firm HeiQ, a specialist in textile technologies, they were turned down. A narrow view was to consider this a failure. A different take is to see it as a foundational phase in developing a personal network. Fifteen years later, during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Awais, then as Senior Vice-President of Indian clothing firm Zodiac, contacted the head of HeiQ Carlo Centonze, with whom he had kept in touch, with a proposal: anti-viral shirts.
“Business had come to a standstill. We launched a range of masks. And the masks were with an antiviral treatment… And we thought, why not launch a shirt, which is antiviral as well? So that’s when I picked up the phone. I spoke to Carlo, and I asked him, would something like this work with a shirt as well? And he said, why not? Let’s do it.”
Such entrepreneurial ingenuity runs in the Noorani family. The brand Zodiac was created by Awais’ grandfather. He had set up a clothing firm, and on one occasion in the early 1950s had taken out a loan to supply a large order for an Italian customer – but the order was cancelled. He had the idea of converting unwanted fabric into high-quality ties, creating a branded fashion item. Thus, the Zodiac brand was launched.
Awais developed supply chain expertise early in his career after entering the family firm as a third-generation member. He sought deeper
managerial expertise, and was interested in gaining experience outside of India.
A strong part of the appeal was that IMD was “steeped in reality”. He adds: “It wasn’t just theory, whereas the other schools had a lot of classrooms, case studies, … at IMD, you had company visits, you had guest speakers coming in, we had the expeditions – although there was a theoretical aspect as well.”
“Even though we were just getting three hours of sleep, the whole experience was remarkably clear”
Zodiac, in common with many family-owned firms, has a conservative ethos; low in borrowing, principled in conduct, committed to quality. Once equipped with stronger skills in financial analysis after studying at IMD, Awais discovered that the firm had a high working capital requirement through being overly generous towards suppliers and retail customers. The firm was paying suppliers against delivery, but granting customers 60 to 90 days of credit, on top of a 30-day production cycle. Renegotiating terms resulted in a major shift from financing three to four months of working capital to a negative working capital of one to two months.
It was in sales and marketing that he made an even bigger mark, launching successful expansions for Zodiac’s shirts into Europe and South America – large, mature markets with well-established quality clothing firms as competitors. It took about a year. ”It was not easy to dislodge them [competitors] or even get an audience. But the way around that was that I appointed a local person [agent] for each market. So it took me a few months to figure that out.”
His grounding at IMD was crucial to establishing the firm in new markets. Awais and his colleagues came to understand that they needed to excel in four areas: the first was quality – Zodiac had always placed a priority on very high thread counts, 21 stitches per inch – using highest quality materials. The second was pricing – the firm had a lower cost base than many western competitors, but they had to make that count. “We had to do a market map of what our competitors were offering in those markets, and to put in a price where we felt the offering would be compelling.”
“And we thought, why not launch a shirt, which is antiviral as well?”
The third discipline was design. Tastes in fashion are idiosyncratic and strongly shaped by local culture. His time in Europe helped him understand the diversity within a small continent: what sells in Norway may not sell in Italy. The fourth essential specialism was logistics – making sure you deliver reliably and consistently.
The Discovery Expedition to Silicon Valley did not only lead to a long-standing business relationship with Carlo Centonze of HeiQ, it had been a powerful experience in its own right. “We had to prepare a business plan. … We had to prepare a talk about the technology that HeiQ was offering, we had to talk about projected sales, where the growth would be coming from, what the drivers would be, what the USP was.”
The group work was high-energy, intensive and creative. “We just clicked as a group. Even though we were just getting three hours of sleep, the whole experience was remarkably clear.”
Calm in temperament and modest by nature, Awais has constructed his career to blend both entrepreneurial flair and sound commercial discipline – attributes that need to be expertly woven together, as in a well-made shirt.
