Rahil Gandhi's secret quick fix for happiness: Working non-stop for Vadilal Dairy

Work mode-on is a notion that is alien to Rahil Gandhi, a director and fourth-generation member of the promoter family of Vadilal Dairy International Limited. Only because there is no such thing as being switched off. It is not surprising for the 30-year-old to receive an email from his father, Shailesh, at 2 am on a Saturday discussing pending items on the ever expanding to-do list.

During a conversation with ETPanache in his compact cabin, with just enough room to fit a desk, a chair for Gandhi and a couple more for visitors, in Mumbai, he says, “My father is a workaholic. We never shut off. Sometimes my father may have a Saturday off, and I’d call him eight times asking him about pending things. That’s just how it works in promoter-driven companies.”



Table talk
Within the company, his father oversees the operations. His mother handles the purchase department, he looks at sales and production and his younger sister, Rhea looks after sales and marketing. “Lunch is a whole family meeting. We only talk about work,” Gandhi shares.

In some ways, it’s this strong work ethic that helped Gandhi’s father when he moved to Mumbai in his mid-30s, sometime in 1991-92, after a territorial separation with his brothers, Virendra and Rajesh, who continued to manage the company’s presence in Gujarat.

On past occasions, when Gandhi has asked his father about the thought process behind the shift, he got matter-of-fact responses. “I asked him [my father] what was it like, did he think about his social life like, leaving his hometown behind, the sacrifice. What was the thought process behind it. [But] he simply responds saying, ‘We had no thought processes. We had work’. It was less complicated for him. We’ve all been taught that hard work is key to success, and his generation followed it,” Gandhi says.

He adds, “If you ask him, he’ll probably just say that everyone did it. He didn’t do anything special or different. I don’t think they [my parents] really thought about it [the shift] so much. I feel they just got here and immersed themselves in work.”


A clean slate
In retrospect, has it been for the best? Over the past few years, the Ahmedabad branch has been embroiled in a dispute for the control of the company. An issue that Gandhi’s family is far removed from, thanks to his father’s decision of territorial separation from almost three decades back. How does he view his father’s decision to separate?

“Personally, I can’t complain. My parents have worked hard all their life. I’m quite lucky as I received a clean slate. It’s a branded company, we are debt-free and have a manufacturing unit. The onus is now on me how much I do. There is no point in me looking at who’s doing what. I must focus on what I’m doing. Honestly, the hand that I’ve been dealt is a wonderful one,” he says.

He insists that relations within his generation are amicable. “We separated 20-25 years back. We’ve sort of grown up with it. Today, we [my cousins and I] do bounce ideas off each other. We look at each other’s work. We share ideas and discuss strategies about countering competition,” he says.

Outsiders may view Vadilal as a legacy business, but for Gandhi it means more. “I feel it’s a business that gives people instant gratification. That’s the whole job satisfaction to it. It’s a quick fix for happiness,” he says.

And is daily consumption of ice-cream a job perk or an occupational hazard? “It’s horrible,” he says. “I consume too much of it [ice-cream]. And I’m not even a big fan of ice-cream. We are so exposed to it that we’ve become immune.” His favourite dessert then? Brownies and vanilla ice-cream or an Oreo waffle.