Sanjeev M.

“"An economic franchise arises from a product or service that: (1) is needed or desired; (2) is thought by its customers to have no close substitute and; (3) is not subject to price regulation. The existence of all three conditions will be demonstrated by a company's ability to regularly price its product or service aggressively and thereby to earn high rates of return on capital." Warren Buffett, from his letter to shareholders, Feb 1992 In this snippet of wisdom, Buffett lays out a mental model for the criteria that makes up a strong business. Desirability, being first-in-mind or the default choice and having control of your price are at one end of the spectrum of a strong business. We can flip to the other end of the spectrum and deduce that not being desirable, being one of many many choices and not having control of your pricing would indicate a weaker business. In the years I've known and observed Sanjeev, he's continually moved the Levi's business to Buffett's preferred end of the spectrum. Increasing desire, market share, brand equity and, as I write this in Q1 2021, is recording Levi's fastest growing business in Asia, and even beating the pre-Covid results of the previous year. Sanjeev does this by combining business acumen and natural entrepreneurship with an understanding of fashion, product and cool. He's an independent thinker, and understands to paraphrase Jeff Bezos', that the number of successes is a function of the number of experiments you make. On a personal note, I'm grateful to Sanjeev for his inspiration and the many insights and reading lists he has shared. And to go back to Buffett, there is no close substitute for Sanjeev :) ”

“Mickey Drexler ( erstwhile GAP, J CREW etc) always built his brand strategies with ‘Merchandise’ as the “ center piece “ . I see traits of this in Sanjeev too....his domain knowledge of merchandising, product and fashion retailing is vastly superior and he firmly believes in the philosophy that ; “ “ If Brand is your business then Merchandise is the Brand”!! Supplement this with a canny ability to sharply fathom what the customer wants, and build marketing and business strategies around it - and you have “ Sanjeev “ - one of the most successful leaders in the fashion apparel industry in India . He launched SF jeans at Madura Garments then went on to build Benetton in India to what it is today, and now Levi’s India too has started to “ rock” under his leadership. He is a passionate and empathetic leader, builds winning teams and has a very collaborative work style. Add to that “ Humility & Gratitude “ as a value and you have a truly exceptional leader. I wish Sanjeev the very best in all his endeavors ..... Vikram Rao ( Erstwhile Business Director, Aditya Birla Group ) Sent from my iPad”