Confidence Is Not About Having Every Answer: Kapil Jain, Founder, Enrichwise & MBA from IIM Indore

Kapil Jain is Founder, Enrichwise Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd and a gold medalist from IIM Indore’s One Year MBA (EPGP), Class of 2012. Shikhar Mohan, Founder, OneYearMBA.co.in caught up with him to understand how the course helped him in his career.

While your other achievements are something I want to come to eventually, right upfront, what did it take to graduate with a gold medal at IIM Indore? 

It was definitely a pleasant surprise to top the program. My focus was to acquire knowledge and understand the core principles primarily in the areas of finance, marketing & strategy. I was clear about what I wanted out of the programme and how the experience would help me in my existing venture going forward. Probably that worked! And of course a 15 year career in investing has taught me that LUCK factor can never be discounted! 

Are you sure you don’t have a twin like the one we saw in The Prestige? You know, someone who did half the studies and then half the exam?

I wish! So that I could have had all the fun…while others toiled. 

After over a 10 year long career in IT and the Financial Services domain, across geographies such as the USA, you started Enrichwise Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd. Please tell us more about your company and the journey to entrepreneurship.

Enrichwise has about 3000+ clients and offers comprehensive goal based financial planning services with focus on Asset Allocation, Tax Advisory & Wealth Management.  As a one-stop service, we provide holistic solutions primarily to High Net-worth Individuals (HNI) clients. We carry a solid reputation and tremendous good will among clients.

Most of us take investing and financial planning decisions emotionally or without much deliberation which unfortunately turns out to be expensive, insufficient and inefficient. Enrichwise was created to plug this gap

There exists a huge financial services industry with tons of financial products, each with their own vested interests. Due to lack of awareness, most of us are clueless on how to navigate through the abundance of information around us. There are no universal one-size-fits-all solutions… yet there is no shortage of sources providing them. My experience tells me that most of us take investing and financial planning decisions emotionally or without much deliberation— which unfortunately turns out to be expensive, insufficient and inefficient.

Enrichwise was created to plug this gap and  provide quality financial planning & tax efficient investment advisory consulting with trust as a foundation.  The good news is that we are growing fast so somewhere we seem to be succeeding. 

As for entrepreneurship, I would say that the journey of entrepreneurship or being on your own requires tremendous patience, a positive attitude, intense focus, clarity of goals and financial prudence. In my case, it helped that I had accumulated a corpus from my US experience.

What role did the One Year MBA (EPGP) at IIM Indore play in prepping you for starting your own company?

If I were to sum in one word – the answer would be CONFIDENCE. And Confidence does not come when you have all the answers but  when you are ready to face all the questions. I think the MBA programme at IIM I readied me to face challenges in career and in life with an enhanced level of thinking.

The One Year MBA program has many aspects which one can leverage upon – a connect with talented experienced people, experienced professors, industry experts, exposure to business problems, cases and competitive business strategies, finance, supply chain, marketing, venture capital, macro economics , etc. The the list can go on.  

Confidence does not come when you have all the answers…but when you are ready to face all the questions. I think the MBA at IIM Indore readied me to face challenges in career and in life with an enhanced level of thinking.

Any one or a combination of the above provides tremendous opportunity to leverage at a later date at any point in time. And that according to me is the key take away. The whole experience continues to grow on you. And I think the success of the program for anyone truly depends on how much one extracts out of the program towards his goals – be it career or a business venture.

Just to give you an example, I am specifically using the principles of – Consumer Behaviour, New Age Marketing , Business Valuation, Competitive Business Strategies, Financial Reporting etc. in order to grow my venture and provide quality investment advice and analysis reports to my clients. I can see tangible benefits and my clients see tremendous value! It’s a win win situation.

What’s the one advice you would give to an MBA aspirant with your background. Or let’s make it the 3 top tips, given your extensive experience!

1. Have a larger purpose & goals aligned to these goals

2. Even if you don’t like it learn about business finance, strategy & analyzing statements – it helps at higher stages of your career!

3. Dare to dream!!! And move against the herd – when work becomes a passion, wealth follows.

What’s the one course at IIM I you recommend that every finance focused student takes up?

Business Analysis and Valuation was definitely my favorite and a must for those interested in stock market investing and analysis of business fundamentals!

Now since you are a finance professional, before we let you go, can you leave our readers with some advice on what to expect from the stock market and other investment options in the near future – many might be prospective clients for Enrichwise!

The Sensex has generated about 17% returns since launch exclusive of dividends which is better than all other asset classes.

There have been some stocks, which have turned out to be 100 baggers (stocks that grow a hundred times). Some examples are : Colgate, HUL , ITC, Nestle, Hero, Eicher Motors, Titan, Page, Jubilant, TTK Prestige, Hawkins etc. However only those with patience could really see the gains in their balance sheet.

The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient…do not think about investing in the stock market as a money-making exercise, rather approach it as a (long-term) wealth-creating endeavor

Remember, the Stock Market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient. Imagine the plight of an investor of Eicher Motors who exited when it doubled from Rs 500 to Rs 1000/- in year 2009. The stock is about Rs 16500/- today as we speak. So do not think about stock market as a money-making exercise, rather approach it as a wealth-creating endeavor.

The commodity cycle is cooling off. And a stable government is on board. All economic indicators are pointing to a good run in the equity markets over next few years. 

Adopt a investment strategy similar to corporate strategy. Write down a list of ‘not to pursue’ in your investments. Whenever an option shows up, test it against your list. This will not only save you a lot of trouble, it will also save you a lot of time and money. Remember, many doors that open effortlessly often go nowhere. 

So read, research, have goals and plan to achieve financial freedom in your life! Without goals, and a plan to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination. The wind can blow at any speed but it will not help you.