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Harsh Realities: The Making of Marico

Harsh Realities traces Harsh Mariwala’s journey from breaking away from his family-run Bombay Oils Industries Ltd to founding Marico in 1987. Today, Marico stands tall as a global FMCG giant with iconic brands like Parachute, Saffola, and Livon leading their categories. Co-authored with Ram Charan, this book captures the grit, values, and innovation that powered Marico’s rise to an Rs 8000 crore enterprise.

Themes
Entrepreneurship and Growth
Value Driven Leadership
Building Global Brands
Harsh Realities
  • Adi Godrej

    Chairman, The Godrej Group

    “I have known Harsh for several years, and the inspiring story of how he discovered his purpose of ‘making a difference’, of scaling up, failing, learning and striving to succeed-as he puts it-makes for a very insightful read. I enjoyed how he weaves in many other stories too, including the genesis of Marico, the evolution of a family business and the changing industrial landscapes, all of it underscored by the importance of grounded, values-based leadership. Prof. Ram Charan’s reflections on Harsh’s personal growth journey are a wonderful addition”


  • Azim Premji



    former Chairman, Wipro Limited

    “Harsh has many exceptional abilities. The one that I have found almost unique-having know him for a long time is his capacity to learn and absorb from everyone and everything, and then to convert this learning into something useful-small to big to huge. We can all learn this from him. And what better way than to read this book, which is in your hands”



  • Uday Kotak
    CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank

    "The story of Harsh Mariwala is a fascinating tale of a man born in a traditional joint family, finding place and meaning in the family journey, using his instincts and natural intelligence to grasp opportunity, in passionate pursuit to understand the customer, and navigating his way to create a unique and ethical consumer company Marico. I have known Harsh since his Kanji Morarji days, seen him carve out his consumer business from the traditional trading business and transition to a fully professional company. Marico is an outstanding example of an Indian multinational comparable to the best-in-class global consumer companies."

Harsh Realities

"My story is about scaling up. About failing. Learning why I failed. And then understanding how to deal with failures. And striving to succeed. It is about taking challenges head-on. It is about how to create a right-to-win on a perpetual basis. My memoir here captures the basic truth about not only building a business but also the impetus to give back to society. To make a difference."

Harsh Realities
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