Every successful person has a unique grass-to-grace tale with several, including WPP Scangroup CEO Bharat Thakrar, having started from the bottom and built their fortune diligently one block at a time.
In a Forbes interview, Thakrar disclosed that he had to overcome various struggles for his company to become largest marketing and communication group in Sub-Sharan Africa.
It all began when he returned to Kenya from a boarding school in India and was awaiting his results when his father offered him a position in his Skyline Advertising Agency which was the largest advertising agency in Kenya.
"My first project, in market research, was exciting and I surpassed the agency’s expectations. They spotted my potential and convinced my father to shelve the idea of sending a 19-year-old to a foreign country," stated Thakrar.
His father had wanted him to pursue a career in medicine at a top university in the United States.
"My working career kicked off with an account executive trainee position on the Colgate-Palmolive account at Skyline where I was promoted to account director within a year," he added.
His stay at the company was, however, shortlived as the company folded forcing him to seek a job from another firm, Advertising Associates.
At the new company, Thakrar oversaw the launch of Close-Up toothpaste, Blue Band and Royco Mchuzi Mix products.
He later ditched his job after he got overlooked for a promotion that he felt he deserved.
"Those formidable years working for these companies became my training ground. Sadly, my bubble bust when I was overlooked for a much-deserved promotion at McCann (parent company of Advertising Associates) that I was well qualified. I resigned and left to start my own business with a friend," he stated.
He put in long hours in their new venture with a man who later became his brother-in-law before leaving to start SCANAD on his own.
"In less than two years, I was burnt out because I did not really enjoy the work," explained Thakrar of his decision to leave the venture.
"I established SCANAD alone and declared it open for business without a single client. It was a one-man show as I held all the positions from accountant to media manager.
"I pushed and believed that at the end of the day the final creative product was more important in a business. I rocked into the office at 7:15 a.m. and left around 11 p.m. every day, except on Sunday," he noted.
The company, whose controlling stake was later acquired by WPP, a British multinational advertising and public relations company, grew into a conglomerate and got listed on Nairobi Stock Exchange.
As of 2017, Forbes Magazine pegged the value of the company at about Ksh7 billion ($70 million).
