Kishore Musale Chairman and founder of the Astarc Group

At the Astarc group of companies, the employees are referred to as “associates”. “The most important thing we need to succeed in business is to have a clear goal and make sure it filters down to the smallest of our associates,” says Kishore Musale, chairman and founder of the group.

The philosophy involves sharing “all information” and profits with the associates. “We believe that people are the driving force for the success of our business and we empower them fully,” says Musale.

It is probably this culture of making the employees feel at home that has given Astarc Group’s flagship company Classic Stripes a rank amongst the “25 Great Places to Work in India” by BusinessWorld and the Great Places to Work Institute of the US for three consecutive years. The company’s core competence, according to its chairman, is its people. No wonder that despite a roster of more than 800, Classic doesn’t have a union.

Musale did his graduation from the University of Manitoba, Canada. He came back to India and slogged for a few years in the family business of manufacturing metal labels for two-wheelers. Then, in 1987, he established Classic Stripes in a small room with a capital of just Rs 2 lakh. The aim: To produce automotive graphics for two-wheelers.

A stickler for perfection, Musale first spent a year researching, and then came out with the best product in the market. It did not take much time before he got a thumbs up from Honda, Japan. Today Classic is the largest automotive graphics company in the world manufacturing in excess of 10 million sets for all types of vehicles.

Although Musale had done his homework before embarking on his project, it was not a smooth ride as the Indian economy was still in shackles. “We had a very tough time for the first four years. But the introduction of the four-stroke engine and the fuel economy it provided resulted in explosive growth in the two-wheeler industry. This gave us a compounded growth of 50 per cent year on year,” he says.

Despite the initial difficulties, Musale never deviated from the company’s code of ethics, one of which is “whatever business we do will be done with honesty, integrity and ethics”. “We expect all our people to follow this diligently,” says Musale.

He has led by example. “We are suppliers to most original equipment manufacturers in India. There is also a very big after-market for our graphics and we have been approached by traders to supply the same to them. But we have never succumbed to these temptations because we are committed to our customers. We could have made crores,” says Musale.

One of Musale’s greatest assets is his ability to follow his instincts and believe in the vision he has for the future. He established Classic at a time when not many in the industry thought that there could be a market for automotive graphics. And then he founded Durabuild Technologies near Pune in 2004 to produce aluminium composite panels for exteriors of shopping malls, office buildings and signages. This was at a time when several small manufacturers and imported materials from China dominated the field and no big company thought of entering.

Here again, Musale insisted on quality. “There are many Chinese brands available which compromise on the thickness of the aluminium sheets used in the panels. We have never compromised on this and are today recognised as the No. 1 company in India, on a par with international brands,” he says.

The group’s third venture is in protective gear and helmets under Protech & Forma brand. Astarc has also ventured into agri-business with a focus on becoming the largest company in contract farming. Musale also plans to diversify into mining and infrastructure. The company’s net worth today is Rs 2,000 crore. Musale is confident that his group’s onward march will continue with giant strides. “In the next five years, I can see Astarc as a $3 billion group,” says he.

Musale’s goal is to have a balanced life and give more to society than it has given him. He has established the Kishore Musale Charitable Trust, which provides education facilities, playground equipment, and assistance to primary schoolchildren in around 250 schools in Thane. The trust also runs fully-funded schools and a college in Maharashtra.

A fan of western music, Musale enjoys playing golf and loves spending time with his wife and two sons. “But most important is when I see my people smile,” he says. “I forget my stress.”

Based on a conversation with V. Kumara Swamy in Calcutta