Shahnaz Husain: 'If It Bears My Name, It Catches On'

Your company is very personality-driven and every product bears your face. How much do you think that has been a part of building a loyal customer base? 
If it bears my name, it catches on. I’m not there for the money, and people know that it is my love of the job. Money was never the purpose. People pay for our concern, they can tell we care. Sometimes we tell a client ‘there is nothing wrong, it’s in your mind’, or we send them to a doctor for blood tests. I am not worried about the cost. I am a typical creator or pioneer. I pay the price, the next generation bears the fruit. 

Your family is involved in the company and your daughter is the president. Will she take over the company after you are gone?
I’ve had no thought of teaching or planning the takeover. Nelofar is with me all the time, it’s all she’s been doing since she was born.  She studied in London with me, and she stays here to hold down the fort when I travel. She was always there — she doesn’t know anything else. She is a very clever child and she has better qualities than me. She is gentle, soft, balanced. She’s into expansion, always saying “Mummy open here, mummy open there”. She is the balancing force. And she developed the popular gold line herself.

What about your grandson, Sharik? He’s made some dynamic changes in the company. How do you feel about those changes? 
He does the exports business, he just joined recently, in 2003. I don’t think he will change things. He will just combine my vision with his vision. He has new ideas all the time. He might do the foreign delegation when he gets the time. He doesn’t follow me, because just being near me is his training. We all three don’t move together. I’ve never said no to him, because his ideas are visionary. The company is running in a certain direction, and he won’t change that. But he is a tomorrow child.

There is a painting in your hallway that reads, ‘I have sinned, I have dared to succeed’. and is signed Sameer. Was that painted by your late son?
Yes, he wrote that sentence about me. He was always saying I had done too much too fast. But if I hadn’t gone so fast, I wouldn’t be what I should be. My son had an accident. It is very painful. I will breakdown if I talk about it. (Long pause) He went for a break and never came back. He was the love of my life. He was very good. He lived right down the road. Sameer was president of the company. He was very good at it.

Image: Amit Verma

He was into rap, and wanted to be the next Michael Jackson. I always used to buy expensive gadgets for him. He was fiery, he had tremendous stage presence. He would perform before a huge audience, and I would introduce him. Sameer was so possessive, anything I did he would be possessive. If I went into a store and a person touched me, he would be like ‘why did you touch my mother?’ He worshipped the ground I walked on. I always told him, ‘Go, become MJ’. My son and I was a good combo. We were great show people, and very fond of holding audience.

You started Shanaz Husain Herbals (SHH) when you were just a young girl. Can you talk a little bit about how you started?
My father and grandfather were chief justices. On my mother’s side they were commander-in-chiefs. I was engaged when I was 14, that was 1958. When I was 16, my daughter was born. I was married in Lucknow. I wrote poetry when I was little, I was always writing. After marriage I was very bored and very small. I started mixing in the house, and then I opened a salon, with one board. Mr. Husain was very involved in giving me counsel. He sent me to beauty school. But if he wasn’t supportive I would still have done it. 

What are your current day to day duties?
I mostly do foreign delegations, new product launches, and press conferences.  I’m not into expanding or interested in the business aspect. I’m into quality control, R&D [research and development]. I’m into treatment and cures. We do R&D for four, five years for a product, with an army of chemists. An idea usually comes to me for no reason. I’m a woman myself, so I take samples, get feedback.

How many of your products have withstood the test of time? How many have disappeared?
Shalife is our hottest seller. It is the biggest moneymaker, the anti-ageing cream. But if products don’t do well, they disappear. After three years, I cut them out, if the product falls beneath a certain number.

Today you occupy a very niche position. Who do you call your competitors?
What we do is not just beauty, it’s treatment and cures. There is no European line is doing it. Dabur is health. Clarins is not into cures. Every time I go into Selfridges I browse to see if there is anything there. There isn’t. It’s a very limited line. You can’t mass market it. You can’t mass market a cure. 

Is that why don’t you advertise?
There was no decision to do this. If a product is good, if you like the texture of the cream, you’ll buy it. Because looking good is feeling good, and an ad won’t help. I am not a judge, I am a creator. What’s the purpose in telling them something they don’t know about, isn’t it so? There is a great purpose in having press conferences to speak on the topic.

You’ve held hundreds of press conferences around the world. How have these helped build the brand?
Ayurveda was not known abroad before me, so I have tried to promote everywhere the 3000 BCE civilization, in a jar. I was trained as cosmetic chemist, and saw the dangerous effects of cosmetics. So, I wanted to tell the world about that.

But you might advertise in the future, for your mass market line?
Yes, we might do it. We will need to tell them about the cheaper line. And then we’ll disappear again. We need to advertise to inform people that Shahnaz is not going cheap

Why did you decide to go mass market after for so long occupying a very niche space?
Two years ago, a girl ran me down yelling “Shahaz Shahnaz!” She wanted my autograph. I said, ‘Do you use Shahnaz?’ She said, ‘no it was too expensive.’ And from that moment on I decided to do mass marketed products, to make products for her.

Can you talk about your current plans for international expansion?
We are still in talks to tie up with Tesco. Our biggest presence biggest is in the UK, and the Middle East. We have had a tremendous success in India, but any country I enter I know I’m taking over. Because I’m sure of what I’m selling and the problems are the same.  US, well, I need to be there. America is waiting for brand India, waiting for natural, waiting for herbs and plants, they love that.

Will SHH ever go public?
I wanted to go public but my husband said no. He told me if the management is handled by a board, you’ll lose control. And that’s not my way.

Many of your employees have been with the company for 20 years or more.  What do you attribute this to?
My employees find me. I have the highest retention of staff. Most have been here for 20-30 years now. We look after them very well. The staff responds to what you do for them. Give them a house, a driver. Short of a wife I give them everything. Insurance for their children. They work for money, but also for love of the company.

You also employ many blind and deaf in your salons. How did you get into doing this?
We employ many from the school for the blind and deaf as therapists. 25 years ago my father said you are doing very well, but what about your spiritual future? I said I had all the time in the world, but he said start now. So I used the President of India to get them jobs here and abroad. And they are better masseuses than the others.

What new things should we expect from SHH this year?
There is a new factory coming up in the mountains in Roorkey.  And we are opening spalours (a cross between a spa and a salon), but we are never in a hurry. The launch must be right. You can’t take off badly and do better later. We are buying all shops in one mall in Delhi to make one big parlour/spa.

When you aren’t running the company, what else do you like to do?
I enjoy painting, writing. But I don’t have time for anything else. If I could do something else, I would do interiors, I would do very well as interior designer, I’ve done everything myself in this house, look around you. I like to call this international junk. Everything is personally bought by me, everything has a history. Or I’d write, I can write better than I talk.

What do you think the company will be like after you are gone? Do you think there will be any difficulty in the transition?
Nothing lasts forever, but a company goes on. If the roots are strong, it might stagger, but it will go on.  No one will do press conference after I’m gone.