‘Yogapreneur’ Baba Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurved Limited

Abstract

A baba (priest/saint) preaching ‘Yoga’ among Indians through his mass Yoga camps and claiming to heal everything. Ramkishen Yadav now popular as ‘Baba Ramdev’, has brought a revolution of sorts through a potent combination of Yoga plus Ayurvedic medicines and quietly moving into FMCG sector, is a first generation entrepreneur and truly a ‘Yogapreneur’. Baba Ramdev formed Patanjali Ayurved Limited (PAL) in 1997, as a small pharmacy grown into a huge consumer sector conglomerate with affordable yet effective products and is poised to take on traditionally FMCG dominated MNCs such as Colgate, Unilever, Nestle, P&G, Cargill and Indian companies Britannia, Marico, Dabur, Godrej, Emami. In fact, the meteoric rise of PAL is being so awe-inspiring that it has created a different consumer psyche. A ‘disruption phenomena’ in the huge overall consumer sector in India, giving a run for its money to many companies (read MNCs, Indian conglomerates in consumer space) in a very traditional manner through well mechanised advertising, channel sales, franchise model and manufacturing range of products to woo many lower, middle to many large class of consumers.