Name: Isha Gupta Course: MSN

Name: Sunil Gupta

Designation/Role: Founder / Director

Company: Albin Polychem Private Limited

Audio/Video Interview Consent: No

Interview Summary
An interview was conducted with Mr. Sunil Gupta the founder and director of Albin Polychem
Private Limited which is a manufacturer of Pet Bottle Preform, Water Bottles, Sanitizer Bottle,
etc. During the interview, Mr. Gupta shared a lot about his overall journey and how he has
reached where he is at the age of 38. So, Mr. Gupta started by setting up a manufacturing unit
in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh in 2002 using funding from his father. Now even though he had
some idea about how to conduct such a business he was not really prepared to handle all the
functions as efficiently as he thought he could because as he knew the first rule of setting up
and running a good business was having contacts and he realized the importance of having
substantial contacts very early in his life. In order to get the license and other permissions for
his factory he needed official government contacts, for this he approached one of his school
friends who had a relative working in government administration and helped Sunil get done all
the documentation that he needed very easily and without wasting any time and this was the
first step in his journey.

But he knew setting up the factory was not enough he had to work a lot to run it starting from
the suppliers, labor to customers. Now for this, he actually used a strategic approach starting
from his friends who were already in the same or similar business using them as a starting point
he started building his contacts in the industry. The way he explains it his approach though
started with personal contacts he moved very strategically while expanding it connecting with
the right kind of people who could help him grow. He simultaneously kept working on his
operational network by making sure that the people working with and for him were satisfied
and working productively.

As he was building his network and expanding his business, he not only focused on building
relationships in the petrochemical industry that he was operating in but he also took advantage
of his geographical location, as Baddi being the hub to manufacturing plants for
pharmaceutical, FMCG, textiles and other industries gave him abundant access to connecting
with the people from all these different industries thereby adding on to his network. These
Name: Isha Gupta Course: MSN

diverse contacts helped not him but also to the people who were associated with him as he
acted as a broker for a lot of people by connecting them to these people and helping them
advance their respective careers.

While discussing the personal/professional and spontaneous/ instrumental networks, he did

share that when he started building his networks his approach was to build professional
instrumental networks that could aid him in expanding his business and his career further, but
as he started meeting new people along the way a lot of spontaneous relations were also made
and some of which became so personal to him that they are still a part of his close circle despite
of the fact that it’s been more than ten years since he left Baddi. He realized the value of
relationships as he started getting to know those people more closely. He admitted that though
he doesn’t regret the approach he started with as he had a goal in mind when started which was
eventually served by it but he always respected the people he was dealing, never took anything
for granted and reciprocated whenever he was needed. He also realizes the importance of those
personal relations along with the strategic ones as both were instrumental in his growth both as
a person and an entrepreneur.

Talking about how he manages and leverages his networks he told the story about how his
networks came to his rescue when he needed them the most. So, he had established his firm
somewhat in Baddi with a good credibility but something happened in 2011 due to which he
had to close down that factory and move to Delhi for personal reasons. Now, this meant shutting
down everything that he had worked hard for the past ten years but he couldn’t help the
situation. That’s where he used his entire network to deal with this problem, as he decided to
shut down the factory in Baddi and move the same to Delhi. Now this was not a very easy thing
to do as he had to almost start from scratch looking for new suppliers, employees, customers,
etc. But this time things were easier to deal with because of the backing that he had, in terms
of his contacts and here all his contacts helped him not only the ones in the same industry but
others as well.

Eventually he did manage to set up his business in Delhi, and one of the main reasons that was
made possible was his structural position in his network, that is the direct links that he had with
the right people. Therefore, at last everything boils down to just one thing that is how
determined you are to achieve your goals. It definitely wasn’t easy for him either, it’s not like
he was a pro at networking, he was refused by people ample number of times, couldn’t find
common ground to connect with people but the trick is to keep trying and not giving up.
Name: Isha Gupta Course: MSN

Because after one rejection or one failure you give up saying you can’t do it then you would
never be able to do it. Finally, he might have started this journey with a selfish objective in
mind, but in the end, he ended up not with a successful business but also some really good
friends whom he wouldn’t have ever met otherwise.