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Meet the entrepreneur bringing fashion in technology

Devita Saraf is the founder of high-end television brand with an annual turnover of INR 1000 crore

Last year, as Vu Televisions forayed into the Middle East market, Devita Saraf decided to speak at a press meet which had the crème de la crème of retail sector and media. Working herself to the bone in the anticipation of the launch, Devita fell sick. Her immunity had already been low and she did not even possess the energy to get up from the bed. Over the next 24 hours, a group of doctors, headed by Dr Zainab Al-Hashimy, administered IV drips and nebulisers, ensuring she was in a position to speak at the press meet.

“We had a massive turnout of 150 people. I had cough syrups kept on the back of TV screens just in case I needed them. As soon as the press conference was over, I was rushed to the hospital where I received top notch healthcare. Dubai’s healthcare system is fabulous,” recalls the founder of Vu Televisions. “It not only saved my life, it also saved my Middle Eastern business.”

This small anecdote offers a robust glimpse of what Devita Saraf truly is — a resilient leader. As the daughter of Rajkumar Saraf, who founded Zenith Computers, Devita understands privilege and the power that comes with it. It’s just that she has refused to take either for granted, rather using them as a stepping stone to preside over a high-end television brand with an annual turnover of INR 1000 crore.

“Born and raised in South Bombay family, I always felt that the power and respect was with the men. I wanted to be the star of my own show because I knew I had the drive for it,” says Devita. It only helped that she was born into a family where gender divide wasn’t as steep. She was given the same opportunities as her elder brother, who now works in the artificial intelligence business. “However, as I grew up I felt the world outside was not woke enough to accept a daughter as an heir in the business or a founder of a business.”

This, despite her having an early start, being taken for press conferences, dealer meetings, trade shows and office openings from the time when she was 16. By the time she decided to plunge into business at the age of 22, she had already had a 7-8 years of training. No surprises then by the time she prepared her business plan and presented it to the top leadership, she sounded like anything but a novice. Devita credits it to a combination of self-belief and experience.

AN ENTREPRENEUR IS BORN

Creating her own template of success at an early age, Devita founded Vu Televisions when she was only 24, a time when luxury and electronics weren’t being spoken of in the same breath in India. The challenge, she reiterates, was not as much about understanding the domain, but grasping the complexities that come with leadership. She doesn’t mince her words when she says it is possible to “figure out” the machinations of an industry, but no one really prepares you for leadership. “One thing that impacted me is how much responsibility, constant effort and risk-taking goes into being in that ‘boss’ role. I don’t think people often give enough credit to leaders for how much they willingly take on. I have now run this business for 18 years now and have learnt so much. That learning, to be fair, is not gender-specific. You either like and love leadership or you don’t.”

Even if women like Devita are natural leaders, their journey to the top is no walk in the park. For one, tech, during the time when Devita started out, was still seen as a male bastion, as was entrepreneurship. An outlier, she found herself navigating these challenges by using them to her advantage. How?

“My brother often compares me to Seabiscuit in the eponymous film. It is the story of a tiny horse that runs alongside big horses,” she says. The rationale of this example is to use the perceptions and stereotypes to one’s advantage. “Often, even if women have self-belief, the world tends to perceive us differently,” she says. “If you ask me, it is an advantage to be a young woman in business because people do not have any expectations from you. As a result, you don’t have much competition that’s checking on you all the time. You can go unnoticed before someone realises the scale of operations. When you are considered a dark horse, you can use it to gather information and take time to build your business, and not actually look threatening to your competitors.”

THE MAKING OF A LEADER

There is considerable wisdom in that observation. Breaking the glass ceiling need not always mean standing apart, but also using the stereotypes to your advantage. Once it’s broken, not only will the external entities take not of you, but your own team views you differently. It’s often contended that it’s difficult for women to be leaders inside an outside an organisation. But Devita does not mince her words when she says that the power always lies with the person writing the cheques, and women need not undermine that agency they have in a business.

“When I started the business, if I saw someone being disrespectful towards my team or other women or younger people, I immediately knew this person would not last very long. But if I liked the character of a person, I would personally coach them. As a result, I have had people who were once janitors and are now store managers, engineers who have now become CTOs,” she says. “As a leader, I do not get carried away by fancy resumes. You really have to assess the person and get a hunch from them about whether they’d be able to work with you. That has been my hiring principle, and we have had some people who’ve been with us forever.”

Devita’s evolution as an entrepreneur has coincided with a time in India when the country is eyeing a space for itself in manufacturing. “I don’t think India being a China Plus One strategy brand offering reduced labour costs is a good idea because we don’t have a history of electronic manufacturing. What Indians do possess is an ingenuity that leads them to prominent places in Silicon Valley where every CEO or CTO is an Indian. The idea, for me, was to build my own lab. We have to think in terms of building labs for innovation so that we can work with contract manufacturers of the world like Foxconn, who can then get things made for you. My business model is actually very similar to that of Apple. We have a strong team that does its R&D, and then the pieces are manufactured through a global supply chain,” she says. “I didn’t want to do cheap electronics. I was the one who coined the term luxury in technology when I made my business plan all those years ago. I wanted to bring these two worlds together because when it came to electronics, the idea always was to get things cheaper. I want to see electronics being sold at the Fashion Avenue of The Dubai Mall. And having a more Gen-Z approach to the selling of electronics will help because that will influence our design. That’s what helped us as entities like Sharaf DG, Grand Safari began to see us as a good competitor to Samsung, LG and Sony because we were more woke and high-end.”

SPEAKING TO THE WORLD THROUGH FASHION

This ethos is evident in Devita’s personal style that is often carefully observed and scrutinised in the top glossies in India. She enjoys her fashion and celebrates it. “Growing up in schools in India, you are either the smart one, or the pretty one, or the sporty one. I don’t understand why women need to be put in silos. Women, by their very nature, are multitaskers, so why can we not have it all? In India, we often hear a phrase ‘beauty with brains’, why should the two things have to be separate? Why can I not look good and also run a successful business? For people like us, dressing is an extension of our personalities. And even if fashion does become a talking point about me, I know I will always be known as the founder of Vu Televisions first. You have to have a fabulous exterior that is complemented by a sharper interior,” she says.

Her eloquence is adequately matched with an excitement as she talks about the careful curation of her looks by Devita’s Dubai-based stylist. For more than half a decade now, every year she flies too Dubai to meet Aarya Mathai, her stylist, who creates a trend report based on all fashion runway and magazine trends. “She then makes a powerpoint presentation on what she thinks will look good on me, and I select the trends. We then head to a Harvey Nichols or Galeries Lafayette, where we sit in the VIP room and try on the clothes shortlisted for me. I love that Middle Eastern women have so much in common with Indian women, and this whole colour explosion that’s happening in the fashion of this region. We try different looks for 3-4 days, and then she photographs me. We see what looks good in pictures and accessorise accordingly,” says Devita, adding that she makes it a point to buy everything even though as a fashion icon she does get offered to wear outfits for free.

“I love dressing up. I have always been proud of my femininity. I’ve been into design and also learnt dance. So not only am I confident in my skin, I have a good sense of what works for me. If my style has resonated with women, it is also because unlike previous generations, women today do not feel they have to lose their femininity or change their personalities in order to be taken seriously at work. When I built Vu, I was clear that I’d have one foot in luxury and other in technology. Fashion has been a great way for me to bring these worlds together.”

In a world that puts expiry dates on a woman’s dream, Devita’s refusal to be boxed in is indeed refreshing. Starting out at 24, she is now commanding respect as a techpreneur in her 40s, and is ready to thrive. “I did not care about society when I was 10, 20, 30 or 40,” she asserts. “Leadership is not given to you, you have to choose it. As an entrepreneur I think of these societal conventions from a returns on investment (RoI) perspective. What is my RoI in listening to society? Are they going to give me a better life? If not, why should I pay any heed to it? Also, I don’t think 50 is a stopping point,” she says. “Women are told to stop all their lives. We have to choose who we listen to.” How about starting with the heart?

anamika@khaleejtimes.com

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