Service is a goal

In improving the conditions of society, if B R Shetty attains the heights of success, it can only be doubly laudable, says Dharam Sood.

Business tycoon, hotelier, sport enthusiast, pioneer, philanthropist ... With Dr Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, there is not just one way to describe him. He has played so many roles and won even more laurels, it's hard to not let the opening sentence be short as in saying he is a doctor.
 
Far easier is it to identify the creed by which this man ? who came to the UAE decades ago ? lives his life by. It's the kind you are likely to find as a motto at for example the Hard Rock Café: ?Love All. Serve All.' While it's easy to come up with smart copy writer moments such as these, what's difficult is to live the motto in your daily life.

At 23, when most youngsters of his generation were still considering what profession to choose, Dr B. R. Shetty had already made up his mind on what he wanted to do. It wasn't entrepreneurship (wrong guess, folks). On the contrary, the man who owns businesses ranging from healthcare and hotels to financial services and manufacturing found his calling in service.
 
"I was appalled by the state of the municipal services in my hometown Udupi, [in southern India],'' recalls the man, seated in his comfortable office in Abu Dhabi. "It was my father (a former municipal commissioner) who decided that I should contest the municipal elections.'' Though only
23 at the time Shetty wanted to do plenty of things which would benefit the people of his village. His zeal and earnestness won over the electorate and Shetty won with an overwhelming majority.
 
"But when my tenure ended I realised that my pockets were empty,'' he says. He had spent all his savings in social service.

With not much by way of family wealth to fall back upon, Shetty decided to seek the help of a friend whom he had helped to relocate to the UAE. "I wrote and asked him to help me find a job,'' he says.

The friend had not forgotten the man who had helped him and was gracious enough to return the favour. Thus in 1972, Dr B. R. Shetty arrived in the UAE ? a move that would change his life ... and that of many others as well.

"The initial days were not easy at all,'' he says, talking of the time he had just arrived in the UAE. "I looked around for months for work but every door seemed to be closed." Like many expatriates he kept looking for the one end of the thread which would help him begin weaving the first square inch of his vast tapestry of dreams. But luck did not help him.
 
Oil and telecomm-unications were the two booming sectors at the time and not suprisingly, these two fields had little use for a graduate in pharmacology.

Desperate times call for desperate measures and after months of unemployment in a foreign land, Shetty who was approaching his thirties, decided to become a medical representative in the UAE. "I used to take orders for medicines and deliver goods to various pharmacies across the country.''

Shetty worked really hard. For over two years he took orders and delivered medicines, sometime physically carrying the cartons on his shoulders in the sweltering desert heat.

It was around this time that the spark of entrepreneurship began to smoulder. "I was keen to strike it out on my own,'' he says. After scouting around a bit and studying the market he decided to set up his own business. But there was only one problem. "I did not have a single dirham in my pocket.'' The only capital he did have was the goodwill that he had created in the market while selling medicines.

"Throughout my tenure as a medical representative, I used to mentally identify the various opportunities where I could invest in to improve the UAE's medical services sector,'' he says. Using his business acumen, knowledge in the field of medicine and banking on the goodwill he had generated among the people he had come in contact with, he set up the first New Medical Centre (NMC) clinic in Abu Dhabi in 1973.

Branches in Dubai and Sharjah followed soon and recently a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Abu Dhabi ? Neopharma, which was inaugurated by the President of India, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam in 2003.

"Of course, setting up and getting the ventures on track was no easy task,'' he recalls. "There were a lot of things and issues to contend with.'' But with sheer hard work, Shetty managed to overcome them all.

In the giddy ride of success that his new business ventures were taking him on, Shetty however did not let go of his ultimate goal ? of serving the community better.

Even as his ventures were proving successful he was looking at more opputunities to help make the lives of others better, even if it was on a small scale to begin with.

One area which caught his eye was the financial sector. "Though I did not have much experience in the financial sector, I wanted to diversify into it,'' he says. "Iknew it was going to be a challenge, but I was willing to take it up,'' he says.

He studied the market and realised that there were many ways in which he could smoothen out the process of sending and receiving money through financial centres.

Though there were several banks, they had their own limitations such as timings and holidays. "I decided to step in and create a convenient way for expatriates to remit their earnings to their home countries,'' he says. Thus was born the UAE Exchange in 1980.

Today the company boasts over 250 offices across the world and transacts business worth about $8 million per day.

Dr Shetty then turned his focus on hospitality, trading and other consumer services ranging from advertising, retail to insurance and IT.

In spite of such enviable business acumen and thriving business ventures, Dr B. R. Shetty seems to epitomise Churchill's famous quote: "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
 
A philanthropist at heart and a businessman with a strong sense of corporate social responsibility, he generously made donations towards charity and education and assisted needy individuals across India.

He was one of the first businessmen to offer assistence ? by way of medicines and money ? to the victims of the 2004 tsunami in not just India but also Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia. He also lent a helping hand to those affected by the earthquake in northern India.
 
When the former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan needed funds to establish a cancer hospital in Pakistan, Dr Shetty was among the first people to offer money and services.

"I see the world as a global village and feel the same sense responsibility towards all its citizens,'' he says, a trifle modestly.

So, what would we ascribe his success to?

"I think a lot of it is due to the excellent business conditions in this country,'' he says. "Easy governance, transparent policies and the absence of bureaucracy in the UAE have contributed immensely in the success of the ventures.''

The reason so many Indians today call the UAE home is due to the benevolence and confidence the emiratis have in our innate ability to work hard, he says. The vision and confidence of the leaders of the UAE along with our commitment and courage spells success.

It's no surprise then that the young Indian who landed in the UAE in the 1970s with very little in his pocket has today become an iconic figure in the expatriate Indian community in the UAE.

But his achievements are of a kind garner international accolades and appreciate without borders.

His ambition and hard work has made him a rich man but in the process of getting to where he is he has not lost track of the path that he travelled to get to this place in life. He continues to look for opportunities to serve society and does not disriminate. Emiratis, Indians, other foreign expatriates ... anybody who needs any service across the world.

"There is a lot more to be done,'' he says. "This is only the beginning."

Value of education

In spite of his multifarious commitments, Dr B. R. Shetty continues to be involved in education and sports. "I was not a particularly brilliant student during my early days,'' he says, "but I now realise the value of education.''

Today he is the chairman of one of the largest community schools in the region and is also on the board of directors of Haldiwani Medical College in Uttaranchal and Manipal Medical Academy, his alumnus, where he is also responsible for a mosque being built.

As President of the Abu Dhabi Cricket Council, Dr Shetty helped build the Shaikh Zayed Stadium, named after the late UAE President, Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Awards

This year saw Dr B.R. Shetty being awarded with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award in recognition of his valuable contribution in promoting the honour and prestige of India and in fostering the interests of Indians overseas.

In 2005, he was the first recipient of the ?Order of Abu Dhabi' award in from HH Shaikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and Chairman of the Executive Council.