Interview: SC Sehgal, Founder of Ozone Pharmaceuticals Ltd & Successful Entrepreneur

SC Sehgal, Founder of Ozone Pharmaceuticals Ltd & Successful Entrepreneur

SC Sehgal is a founder of Ozone Pharmaceuticals Ltd, formulation based drug manufacturing and marketing company. He come from a humble background.

He started his career at the age of 19 as a sales representative at Charak Pharmaceutical, then Jackson Pal, Days Medical Store, and Glaxo Pharmaceutical. He was earning a salary of Rs. 500 per month and today, he is a successful entrepreneur in India.

In an exclusive interview with Sugarmint, SC Sehgal share his entrepreneurial journey and his inspiration behind turning into an entrepreneur.

Tell us a little about yourself

SC Sehgal: I come from a humble background. I did my graduation from an ordinary college in Hastinapur which was more known for creating goons than successful learners.

I started earning at the age of 19, because that was the need, as a sales representative at Charak Pharmaceutical, then Jackson Pal, Days Medical Store, and thereafter got selected in Glaxo Pharmaceutical.

I was earning a salary of Rs. 500 per month. I performed sincerely at my job and my managers always appreciated me.

Please tell us a little about your entrepreneurial journey

SC Sehgal: I started working for GlaxoSmith and was posted to Azamgarh, Faizabad and further transferred to Kashmir, I stayed in Kashmir for around 3 years.

I wanted to do something different and was surrounded by colleagues and friends who had similar aspirations.

My manager at Glaxo was so fond of me that he wouldn’t accept my resignation. Ultimately I had to take my father along to resign (I was very timid and shy).

4 friends and I started a pharmaceutical company – Seagull Labs India Pvt. Ltd. They were kind enough to have me as a managing director.

We became successful and fast, we worked exceptionally hard and came across unimaginable hurdles, but being young and ambitious, we learnt from those hurdles and created remarkable and noticeable success.

It is true when they say that achieving success is not as hard as holding and sustaining power and success.

When we became successful as 4 partners naturally, power struggle issues started arising, therefore in October 1990 I decided to stepped down from the partnership and started Ozone Pharmaceuticals Ltd in 1991.

What service(s) or product(s) do you offer at Ozone Pharmaceuticals?

SC Sehgal: Ozone Pharmaceuticals Ltd’ is the formulation based drug manufacturing and marketing company, with a focus on prescription drugs, in the areas of pain management, nutritional supplements, anti- infective, vascular management, chronic disease management like cardiac and diabetes and hemostats.

The operational strength of the pharmaceutical division is more than 2000 field personnel, promoting products and brands to specialists like Cardiologists, Diabetologists, Orthopedics, Gynecologists, Surgeons, and Physicians across India and Nepal.

One of the main purposes of Ozone pharmaceuticals is to provide quality, affordable medicines for diabetes and cardiac problems.

We also have beauty division which includes Ozone Professional Range (OPR) – a range of premium products with organic actives for professional use at salons and skin clinics; these products include age and skin specific facial treatments, along with other professional services.

These products are blessed with the ‘Organic Advantage’ and endow gentle and aesthetic skin care; heal wide array of facial skin imperfections from acne, dull complexion, dry and lusterless facial skin, uneven skin tone to age spots, blemishes and wrinkles. These skin problems are treated with in the purest and natural way.

The pharmaceutical, and skincare product marketing divisions are supported by Ozone Group’s Research and Development – OSCAR, which stands for Organized Skin Care and Research.

The lab testing facilities in the RnD facility is accredited by NABL – National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL); the accreditation of Ozone’s lab with this certification establishes quality and technical competence of testing and calibration of the laboratory.

Furthermore, Oscar Institute Pvt. Ltd is a skill development training division focused at empowering the urban and rural youth with skill training based modules.

Government of India has envisioned for providing skilled people in several trades through various PPP (Public Private Partnership) model for which Oscar Institute is a proud member, being a Project Implementing Agency. Ozone fulfills its purpose of enabling people to do better through this involvement. Oscar

has now got expertise in trades like bedside patient attendant, sales and retail, beauty culture and hair dressing, multipurpose health care worker and hospitality.

Ozone Group in its latest foray is now also involved in infrastructure development for food processing along the value chain from farm to market in Assam.

What is unique about your label brand?

SC Sehgal: Ozone Group has a strong vision of “Adding Years to Life… and Life to Years”. Whatever we do, we do with the vision of extending value to mankind to elongate life with the help of quality and economic prescription medicine through our Pharmaceutical efforts.

Further, we attempt to “Add Life to Years” by improving quality of life, enabling peoples’ lives and existence to be impactful, healthy and rewarding.

What made you choose this type of business?

SC Sehgal: Working in the pharmaceutical industry in India, and understanding the landscape of how people struggle to afford medicines to manage diseases, I wanted to contribute to solving the problem.

Therefore at Ozone we make medicines and make them available economically and give it to more and more people to help them heal and combat disease in the most affordable manner.

This includes seeking least margins in lifestyle diseases and for which you need medicine all your life to ensure people have access to them and they don’t have to compromise on their quality of life.

What was your mission and vision at the outset?

SC Sehgal: With age, when the need for medicine is more, the affordability becomes less, therefore in cardio-diabetic we introduced a large range, which is qualinomic – we seek blessings of many which contributed in the over all progression of the groups business.

How many employees in Ozone Pharmaceuticals?

SC Sehgal: Ozone Group of Companies has over 2500 members.

What’s your company’s goals?

SC Sehgal: Our Company goal is to “Add years to life.. and life to years”. We make quality, economic, and safe prescription medicines to add years to peoples’ lives. We add life to those years by adding value to the lives of our consumers, associates, and employees.

What was the inspiration behind turning an entrepreneur

SC Sehgal: There are people who drive fast to reach places. I think one should drive fast to enjoy the thrill of it, besides reaching places.

I wanted to cover more distance is lesser time. And when I saw what I was doing and that it was working I kept doing it and it was a thrilling game for me. So thrill is what inspired me in my younger years.

Now, I work for creating a difference, I would like that more people should have impactful, meaningful and fulfilling lives. I work towards a venture that is bigger, a home to more people, does more for more

What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

SC Sehgal: I’ve had so many failures. So many that it’s difficult to recollect. In my failures, I have lost money, time and not just in days, months, but years.

Any person who hasn’t failed, has not tried enough and has not worked enough. I fail all the time. And each time I learn something.

Key things to consider before starting a startup

SC Sehgal: One should be an enabler and not a leader or a manager. This is a very pleasing work. Enabling people to succeed and not holding any aspiration for self.

Even more important is that process of enablement is constant and perpetual. You can make a larger difference in the business by being a better enabler.

In case you lead or manage the operation, you can stay only one person. How much can one person do. You can multiply yourself by being an enabler.

What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made?

SC Sehgal: I’ve had so many failures. So many that it’s difficult to recollect. In my failures I have lost money, time and not just in days, months, but years.

Any person who hasn’t failed, has not tried enough and has not worked enough. I fail all the time. And each time I learn something.

If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

SC Sehgal: One should be an enabler and not a leader or a manager. This is a very pleasing work. Enabling people to succeed and not holding any aspiration for self.

Even more important is that process of enablement is constant and perpetual. You can make a larger difference in the business by being a better enabler.

In case you lead or manage the operation, you can stay only one person. How much can one person do. You can multiply yourself by being an enabler.

Your success tips for young and aspiring entrepreneurs

SC Sehgal: Work not for success, but for the process. Success makes us feel good. When we experience it we feel exhausted.

This is one caution I would like to bring out for young entrepreneurs. The day you start feeling proud of your success – success starts troubling you instead of enabling you.

There is no limit to attainment. Therefore, be more process driven, work for the process and the ultimate is by-product.

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