During his seven years in Kyiv, Pandian has managed to develop not only his business acumen, but his love for the game of cricket as well.
ndian’s past shows that he’s been quite the amateur sportsman, having played field hockey at the national level in India as a teen; besides the hockey, he grew up playing India’s beloved pastime, cricket, representing his district in national tournaments. Since then, Pandian has established the Kiev Cricket Club, founded in 2000. It now has 50 paying members.
During his career representing pharmaceutical companies all over the former Soviet Union, Pandian learned to network, spot talent, and manage people well. Here in Kyiv he started and continues to lead the first Ukrainian representative office of Unique Pharmaceuticals of Mumbai, India, which has grown since starting up in 1997 to become a solid business that employs 50 people.
But what Tom knows best, perhaps, is how to maintain a positive attitude.
Life as a Minnow
Growth hasn’t been the only success for Unique Pharmaceuticals in Ukraine. Starting off as a minnow on the local market, selling cough and cold remedies like the popular Dr. Mom-brand herbal remedy, Unique has become the proud recipient of three consecutive Choice of the Year awards (2002-2004), a national award that toasts the best of Ukrainian industries. These successes are due in no small part to Pandian.
Pandian leads the way to a table in the corner of New Bombay Palace restaurant – not his typical lunchtime spot – and we settle into our comfortable confines, ordering a host of dishes: vegetable pakoras (Hr 26), garlic naan bread (Hr 14) and creamy mutton biryani (Hr 37). He explains that prior to Unique he worked for British pharmaceutical giant Glaxo in Moscow for 10 years, helping establish the firm’s presence in post-Soviet Russia. For a year in between he worked in Astana, Kazakhstan and helped Sun Pharmaceuticals, also of India, gain a foothold in Central Asia.
“When Unique offered me the opportunity to open a representative office in Ukraine, I was delighted,” Pandian says. Taking a sip from his Sandora mango juice (Hr 8 for 250 ml), he adds, “It was a unique opportunity to make it my own baby.”
For a guy who studied mathematics, and not sales, marketing or pharmaceuticals in university, Pandian has done well in his field, learning the ins and outs of the pharmaceutical industry as well as the spending habits of health-conscious Russians, and now Ukrainians.
Positive Thinking
Pandian himself does all the hiring for his office. There’s something he looks for in every one of his prospective employees: a positive attitude.
“I’m the kind of guy who believes that in this country there are two important criteria: People must be very honest, and most importantly they must have a very positive attitude,” he says.
“Attitude is the most important thing. A positive attitude in a person means you can get the best out of them.”
Pandian, who is from the southern metropolis of Chennai (formerly Madras), is fluent in a number of languages, including English, Russian, Hindi, Tamil (his native tongue) and other south-Indian tongues.
“What’s really important is that I was born into a culture where competence in everything is very much tied to a person’s sense of commitment to the work,” he says. “The culture develops your temperament and makes you very adaptable.”
“Someone who comes from that environment is going to thrive in this part of the world. Lots of [Indian] people talk of the ‘brain drain’ in India, yet countries around the world all benefit from it.”
Now that Pandian has prospered in Ukraine, he is getting himself more involved on the community level by building a national cricket league. Pandian is part of the country’s visible south Asian minority. He and many other families from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka live and work in Ukraine. The small but tightly knit community share differences in terms of religion and language, but sport provides a welcome meeting point for friends, families and businesspeople like him.
A Meeting Place
The Kiev Cricket Club began four years ago, with two Kyiv-based teams, and has since grown to 12, with other teams in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Vinnytsia and Dnipropetrovsk. Pandian in 1995 founded Moscow’s first cricket club, and he did the same thing here with two British ex-pats – David Kerry, a former aid worker from England, and Roland Smith, the former British Ambassador. The KCC grew out of their love for the game and because it was a great way for them to bring people together. Local ad exec Stuart MacKenzie of Pulse created the KCC’s Cossack-inspired logo shortly afterwards, and he supplied hats, tee-shirts, and the trophy for the KCC’s first tournament, in 2001. Support since then has only grown.
“We found big support all over Ukraine,” Pandian says proudly.
In 2003, a friend of Pandian’s, MacCoffee head Pranab Singha – another Indian – asked how much it would cost to sponsor a cricket tournament in Kyiv. When Pandian told him: $5,000, Singha said, “Okay, we’ll sponsor it.” Other sponsors have come forward since – Delta Exports in Odessa, Istil from Donetsk, and Konark from Kharkiv – and New Bombay Palace has supplied food for various tournaments.
The KCC continues to grow, having leaped from having six original members, including Pandian, to having 50 paying members now. Ukraine’s top sports officials have expressed interest in nationally recognizing the sport, and there is even talk of recognition by the International Cricket Council, the sport’s international governing body. Pandian likes to think of the possibility of Ukrainians standing side-by-side with Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Brits, Kiwis and South Africans in representing Ukraine: According to ICC rules, anyone who’s lived in a country for more than four years is eligible to play for its team. The KCC will hold try-outs for such a side, which will host the national team from the Netherlands next summer in a one-day test match.
The prospects are all very exciting for Pandian. As we dig into more dishes still – the creamy, spinach/cheese palaak paneer (Hr 38) and chicken korma (Hr 40) – he says he knows what role he wants to play.
“I want to do more organizing than anything,” he says of future KCC events. “I’m past my prime [as a player].” He enjoys being a leader and mentions a few of his role models, such as Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. He sees them as revolutionaries who developed into great leaders.
Pandian sees positives in many things, including his work promoting Dr. Mom. His believes we should guard life as sacred and seek motives other than profit in all we do. His wife Anita and son share this philosophy; she is a member of the International Women’s Club of Kyiv, and volunteers at a local soup kitchen. His son is learning from their examples.
“[I want to] give back to mankind,” Pandian tells me. “Whether in sport, work, or culture. If more people are healthy, there’s more fun in life.”
New Bombay Palace
33A Druzhby Narodiv, 295-8708.
Open daily from 12 p.m. till 12 a.m.
English menu: Yes.
English-speaking staff: Yes.
