In this episode of Logistics with Purpose, hosts Enrique Alvarez and Kevin Brown welcome Atul Vir, President of Equator Advanced Appliances to the show, to share his remarkable journey from a military boarding school in India to international entrepreneurship.

He discusses key experiences, including navigating a coup, starting Equator, and collaborating with NASA, and emphasizes empathy, negotiation, and sustainability in business. The conversation also touches on his book, “Underdog Thinking,” and the impact of COVID-19 on Equator.

Listen in as Enrique, Kevin, and Atul truly highlight the importance of logistics with purpose and building meaningful relationships and good values in business.

Intro/Outro (00:00):

Welcome to Logistics with Purpose presented by Vector Global Logistics in partnership with Supply chain. Now we spotlight and celebrate organizations who are dedicated to creating a positive impact. Join us for this behind the scenes glimpse of the origin stories change, making progress, and future plans of organizations who are actively making a difference. Our goal isn’t just to entertain you, but to inspire you to go out and change the world. And now here’s today’s episode of Logistics with Purpose.

Enrique Alvarez (00:36):

Good Day. My name’s Enrique Alvarez, and I’m here for another amazing episode of, uh, logistics With Purpose. I am with my co-host of today, Kevin. Kevin, how are you doing today?

Atul Vir (00:46):

Good afternoon. I’m doing well. Thank you. Well,

Enrique Alvarez (00:48):

We’re very excited. I know that you have known this guest for a few, few years, and I actually had the pleasure of meeting him a couple years ago as well. He seems to be like the ultimate renaissance man to me, doesn’t he? Kevin, what’s your take?

Atul Vir (01:02):

I, as I was thinking about this, I’ve known a tool for Well, and we’ll get in there, but I’ve known him for a long time, 15, 16 years. That’s a long time. And it’s interesting to see how God, for him, A to Z and we start over again.

Enrique Alvarez (01:14):

Amazing. Yes. And I, I, without further ado, let me introduce you to Aul there, entrepreneur, inventor, writers, speaker President, equator, advanced Appliances, and again, Aton Young finalist internationally claims, c e o. They have presence in different countries around the world, and his story is amazing. So we’re really looking forward to speaking with you today. Atul, how are you doing? Welcome to the show.

Atul Vir (01:40):

Thank you very much, Enrique. It’s a pleasure to be here, and I appreciate Your invitation. Thank you very much.

Enrique Alvarez (01:46):

It’s a pleasure to have you here. And finally, we, After Many kind of invitations, we’re able to coordinate our schedule, so we’re looking forward to this conversation.

Atul Vir (01:55):

Thank you. Me too.

Atul Vir (01:56):

Well, Atul, as again, as Enrique said, thank you so much for being here today, and as I was preparing for this discussion today is kind of takes you back, it was 2006, 2007 when I first met you. Different location. The appliances and the things that you have done over the last 15, 16 years is, uh, astonishing and we really look forward to hearing all about it. But to get started, tell us about your, your childhood, your early beginnings, a little bit about yourself.

Atul Vir (02:26):

Well, that’s a little bit of a long story. I was born in India, and uh, my dad was a naval officer, so we, he was posted from place to place every few years. And after a few, after six or seven, uh, schools, uh, at the age of 10, my parents sent me to a boarding school and it was a military boarding school. And that’s where I learned about discipline and getting along with different cultures. It was from a different part of India where my family is originally from, which is North India, where we speak one language and have different kind of food. And when I went to South India where it’s a completely different language where I couldn’t read it or understand it. And so I grew up in that environment having to survive. I’m saying it like that, but it’s not only me. Many of us were thrust into those situations, but we had to learn to survive with in a different culture, even though it was within a different country. And I grew up with the discipline and that the boarding school military environment gives. And so that was my background. And of course I went and did my studies. I did my business degree and my postgraduate degree, and I got my equivalent of a c p a degree, which is a chartered accountant degree. And so I was a specialist in finance, but broadly it is company law and everything to do with, with companies. You so well, yes. So be, before

Enrique Alvarez (03:41):

We deep dive into some of your career and professional career and all the different companies that you have founded, is there anything in particular, any story from your early years that kind of shaped the kind of person that you are now? I mean, we all know that you like to invent things. You’ve always very drawn to new machines and things like that. So what brought all this that was, uh, so helpful in your later on in your life?

Atul Vir (04:04):

Well, one thing was to always have empathy. To have empathy for others and, uh, to understand that problems. And I think growing up, I think in that particular environment, you learn to understand different cultures. So what are the problems? I needed the empathy to, because I was growing up in a different culture, and I’m also trying to understand how others think and feel if they were thrust into a different situation. If you’re in a only one environment in your home environment, then it’s very difficult to understand that, right. So I think that gave me an understanding of what it is like to be if I’m on this side and to try to understand people’s problems and issues when I’m on the other side. And that happened more when I finished my school, which is from the military environment. And I went into university and got into university environment in my, then even in my postgraduate studies, I met people from different walks, very hardworking people, but from completely different, they’d not been to boarding school and had that. So I learned to sort of empathize, uh, with those situations and understand them.

Enrique Alvarez (05:03):

You must have had a lot of different role models growing up. Anyone in particular and maybe a particular story that wanna share with us?

Atul Vir (05:10):

Well, of course, uh, today is a very important today day. It’s October 2nd with this Mac Ma Gandhi’s birthday today, October 2nd. So he was a role model of doing things in the making change in a non-violent way, uh, but doing it very strategically. And he was a role model in the sense he was also c e o, he was c e o of a program to make, to make a country independent. But, uh, as a c e o, you try and look at those. It’s not like he was just, he was doing a lot of strategic thinking against an organization, a colonial power, much stronger than him or his country without weapons. And so strategically, he broke, he had to convince the people, the British, on how, on that he was right. Morally right. And so the, the lesson I learned was the negotiation is very important. And the tools you learn are very important at how you go about that. It’s easy to get angry about something and say, well, this is the way I want it. And we all do that, you know, we all want certain things in a particular way, but you gotta get the people on board. You gotta get your own team, team on board. You gotta get the people you are negotiating with, whether it’s across the board, everybody’s dealing with multiple, uh, people, whether it’s employees or vendors or bankers or whatever, to get them on board your vision. And that’s what I really learned about that, to, to really win. There’s no way for you to enforce it.

Kevin Brown (06:30):

And in doing that, you know, you build partnerships along the way where you talk about different organizations, whether it be suppliers, vendors, bankers, but at some point they all turn into partners. But that’s a learned piece of, of advice. That’s, that takes years to figure that out. Many times being a, a c e O, an inventor, an entrepreneur, and all the different things that you do today, it had to start somewhere in your professional journey. Walk us through, if you would, just a little bit, some of the early days as you’re out of school, your education is done, you’re sitting there, you go, now what do I do? So what were some of those early challenges and some of those early footsteps that you had? Well,

Atul Vir (07:08):

You know, it was a different time. I mean, you’re going back 40 years and, uh, 40 years. The, the environment I grew up in in India, it was a economically challenging time. Um, there was a lot of people who were studying and jobs were difficult to get, and so many people were looking for jobs anywhere in the world to go. And just, I mean, it’s one thing to say, now I want to be happy, and people talk about that now, but well, in those days, I just needed a job to validate all the education. And I happened to get a job with a British company and they said, well, the opening is in Africa, not even English speaking Africa, but French speaking Africa. And I said, yes, I’ll do it. So that is the situation I fell into. And I applied, I applied for the job, they bought me a ticket, I flewed to London where I passed the final interview, and I was staying in a hole in the wall kind of hotel for a few weeks while they trained me.

Atul Vir (08:03):

And then I went to Africa and wow. As a flow, the same flight that was flying to Africa was delayed. And on the way there was a coup in the country I was flying to, which is Nigeria. And we had to deplane and all sorts of things happened. That was an experience of a whole life of having unexpected things happening to you. So I’m just as, I’m just, just there. And events happen every day, and they still happen every day, even though you can wish it for happening a different way, but events happen. And so that gained me a lot of respect for organic growth. And you really can’t control everything. Most many people believe you can, but actually you cannot control anything. It’s just there. You’re going with the flow. And then I lived in Africa for seven or eight years for this company. I was a field operator. The company was doing imports and exports and international business exports of agricultural product, cashew, <inaudible>. They had some industrial base over there for production. They were also importing lots of things like wines and alcohol and home consumer products and so on. So I learned about international business, which I’d never gotten into. I was a finance specialist, and I grew to love that field. And I said, wow, this is interesting. Yeah. What

Enrique Alvarez (09:17):

Did you like about the business? Well, what kind of, Of All the different things that you must have kind of learned throughout that time, what was the one or two things that you actually gravitated towards?

Atul Vir (09:28):

Well, I think it was the fascination of being able to go into a country. And I operated in seven or eight countries in Africa, and by the time I learned French, and so I was up operating in French and English speaking country, and to figure out what the, uh, local population would need and be able to fulfill that and find it in some part of the world and deliver it there and provide a service. Obviously it’s a business in your earning profit as well. Right. But that was, I learned to develop a formula on how to international documentation. Those days, they still had telexes. This is even before fax machines. So communication was difficult. It was expensive. How do you communicate to different languages, different countries across the globe? How do you find suppliers? There was no internet at, uh, that time, right.

Atul Vir (10:16):

So it was, it, you learn and we learned, and we then there was international documentation, you had letters of credit and so on. There was a whole gamut of new experiences that I had to go through. And I, I, I began to like that. So even though my special specialty was in finance, and I was the finance manager of a company, but then I grew to be the country manager looking over all the other operations, and then a regional manager of across many countries. So I learned that skill and I began to enjoy that scale.

Enrique Alvarez (10:48):

Well, very successful career. You started in Nigeria. Can you tell us which other African countries you, you had the pleasure of living in?

Atul Vir (10:56):

The first country actually was Ivory Coast, now called TiVo, French Country. And I was on the way there when there was a coup in Nigeria. So that was the, and there was actually a, so that was the first one. Then I went to Togo, also French, then to Benin, also French, then I went to Cameroon, Burkina Faso, all French. And the English speaking countries were Nigeria and Ghana through the way, let’s say, uh, when you had the British and French came in, they each had their peace of country. So almost every alternate country was, spoke a different language. You crossed through borders, and they’d be speaking different languages, you know. Well,

Enrique Alvarez (11:36):

And at what point in that kind of career did you realize that you wanted to be an entrepreneur? I mean, you’ve always clearly been an entrepreneur one way or the other, but at what point was it a little bit more evident to you that you were gonna start a company?

Atul Vir (11:49):

Well, actually I was a very loyal employee to the company. And they were, they treated me very well. I, I grew to became very fond of the top management. And they, and we were dealing with large sums of money, which as a finance person, I, I control, I had no intention of leaving that. But as the company grew and the demands, the demands grew, the risks taken were greater and the amount, and the chairman was in London, and he was making decisions. And many times he overruled some of the decisions, some of the field people gave, like myself and some others. And for example, we told him in Nigeria, there was going to be a coup, but yet another coup. And Nigeria was the biggest operations. And he said, well, he contacted some of the people he knew, and he said, no, there’s going to be no, no coup and nothing’s gonna happen.

Atul Vir (12:37):

But there was a coup. And as a result of that, the, the currency was devalued by 50%. And you know, if your company loses half its value overnight, it’s very difficult to operate and pay your bills. And that was the beginning of the decline. And so the company started winding down operations. It was the death nail for, it took a few years, but the writing was on the wall that could not continue. And so everybody had to look for something new. And so that’s the first la the first lesson I really learned was that I wasn’t yet in the entrepreneur, that I felt very bad and many other people also that we had invested many years, but, but the boss didn’t listen to us and see what happened. And if you listen to us, the company would’ve been saved. And that’s one of the things I tried to follow in my own company now as an entrepreneur, is to listen to the per person closest to the action, talking to customers and so on. So anyway, so then it crashed, and then I was back to zero with nothing. After seven or eight years. Wow. I had a house in London, I couldn’t pay the mortgage. I lost it. I lost my car, have everything. I’m like, all immigrants came to America with 10 bucks in my pocket.

Enrique Alvarez (13:44):

Wow. That’s a, that’s an incredible story.

Atul Vir (13:46):

That’s amazing. For the next round now,

Enrique Alvarez (13:49):

Right. And well, and the next round it was right. I believe Equator. Tell Us a little bit When you jumped into Equator, advanced Appliances, I think it was founded in 1991. That’s, tell us a little bit more about that, those years. Why equator, why the industry that you picked? What kind of really was your intention back there back then?

Atul Vir (14:08):

Well, you know, the time I arrived in 1991, that was in the middle of the, the, the Kuwait war. That was, that wasn’t a good time. And anytime there’s a war, there’s a lot of stress. Even now you see with Ukraine and so on, it’s a stress on the domestic situation and finances, financing and so on. So it was somewhat of a recession at that time. And I went to apply for jobs and said, uh, and they said, well, have you been educated in America? And I said, no. And they said, have you had American experience? And I said, no. They said, so what do you know? And I said, well, I worked in London and worked in Africa. I’ve met the, the kind of deals I did with governments, and, you know, but there was, there was no job to fit that. They said, there’s nothing exactly to fit it.

Atul Vir (14:49):

I mean, it’s very structured, you know. So after trying for a few months, maybe six months, I said, well, I know something. The, I decided to become an entrepreneur, set up my company, a import export company, which is the skill I had learned. And since I didn’t, I didn’t have the US uh, qualifications. And by then I had started a family. And so there was some pressure. It’s not like, of course you can roll the years back. So I, I started equator, which is basically trading from one country to another north to south of the equator from, that’s what it started off as an import export country. Ironically, one of the first things I did was business with Mexico. At that time, NAFTA was being passed, and I had a bunch of people from Mexico and I organized a conference, like a, you know, a un sponsored conference. And so within my first year of getting to coming to Houston, I knew a lot of people and I started operating on some of those deals. So it started off, uh, that way. It wasn’t of course, uh, sufficient to sustain itself because you’re looking for deals all the time and relationships. It takes time to build relationships. You cannot do a deal and say you have a relationship.

Enrique Alvarez (15:58):

And so, right, right.

Atul Vir (15:59):

Uh, I was always trying to find some product that I could fall into, you know?

Enrique Alvarez (16:04):

And which one was your first one? What was your first invention, or at least the one that went out into the market?

Atul Vir (16:11):

Well, you know, so I had lived, when I lived in Africa, we had a beautiful house on the beach as the, you know, right ac actually on the ocean. And so every weekend, or many times a week, we’d go swimming in the beach, but here we missed that. So I told my wife, let’s go to the beach every Sunday. And she says, we can’t because I got, I gotta do laundry. And I said, what kind of a life is it? Have you work all week? You know, and then you’re doing laundry on weekends. So in London, in the house that we had a washing machine that washed and dried in the same unit.

Enrique Alvarez (16:40):

Oh. So I

Atul Vir (16:41):

Said, why don’t we get one of those that will buy it for our apartment? We’re living in a rented apartment, and just throw your clothes in it. We’ll do your laundry. So we went to Sears in those days, and Montgomery Ward, and, uh, they said, nothing like, this exists. You are imagining house. So we said, and then it clicked. I said, well, here’s something we need, and if we need, I’m sure some other people need it. And here is a product that we clearly know it’s needed and it’s not there. So here’s an opportunity, but you, you need, I didn’t know about appliances. I didn’t know where to get it from. I didn’t know what the safety requirements are. Needless to say, I was still operating on a shoes screening budget, and it needs money for operations. So I flew to Europe and went back to some stores in UK and found out, then I went to a trade show and found, I found a small company willing to make it for us.

Atul Vir (17:33):

And after some tests and so on, they produced it, sent the prototype. By then I’d learned the system and got a whole bunch of credit cards over here, got secured credit cards for $200 and then increased it to 300, 500, 1000. Wow. Then got few thousands. So by the time a year, year and a half passed, when all this process was going on and the machine was ready, they said, okay, pay for your first container. I went and cashed all my credit cards, got $25,000 and paid for it, and bought the first container. Wow. And then for, and then I went to the w they went to some warehouses, third party logistics companies here, and said, I got the container coming, but I don’t have any more money. I want you to store it for me, and can you ship it out to the customer when I get paid, then I’ll pay you. And just up the whole thing. And that’s the whole thing with relationships. People gotta trust you. Right. You know, and I think, uh, people, that’s why I, I talk about, people ask, are you good for the money? And you say, I’m good. And that’s like a promise. It’s like you swove that you’re going to fulfill it.

Kevin Brown (18:37):

So this, so this all started with the washer machine and a dryer that does it together at the same point. And same time, what happened to that washer machine and dryer? Do you still have One?

Atul Vir (18:48):

I still have one. Well, right now, that is our core product. That’s what our company is known for. Just like singer is known for the sewing machines they made. Right. But now they made make other widgets, but that’s our core product. Even though we have many product lines, and we are on our 14th generation of machine or edition of machine with improvements, uh, over the course of almost what say 32 years now with improvements and keeping along with the regulations and new innovations and electronics and so on that have come our way.

Kevin Brown (19:19):

And, and you talked about other product lines. How has that evolved over the last, since 91, whatever that would be? How, tell us about your other product lines. What, how, how have you evolved from a washer to dryer and at the beach to all these years later?

Atul Vir (19:34):

I continue my thought processes still on washing machines. And that’s what I dream about. How do you improve pump performance and valve performance and drainage and less water and less power and so on. But it, but actually you’re running a business. If I’m an inventor sitting in a lab, then I’m an inventor, and then somebody else is doing the marketing, and then I’m not concerned with the effects of those things. Somebody else is doing that. But when you’re an entrepreneur, I quickly learned that you gotta do everything yourself, and you gotta make it happen. So you gotta conceive the product, you gotta invent the product. You gotta produce the product, pay for the product, market it. And so when I went to meet, say, Montgomery Ward, for example, I had a meeting with them for six hours. We hit it off and the guy says, I have people come from Whirlpool and big companies, and I give them two hours and I’m spending six hours with you, <laugh>, and you’re here to sell one product.

Atul Vir (20:29):

He says, you’re a nice guy, but you gotta come up with some more products. I can’t, it’s too much of my time that’s going. So I was forced. I said, okay, now I got it. To be a business, you gotta think differently. You gotta think what they want also. And so I produce a whole bunch of products which are profitable products because we like to make good products with what you call form and function. It must look good and it must work well. So every single product we have, and we have competitors, it’s not like it’s an open market, right? We go into a dishwasher, you have a hundred companies out there, how can we be better? So we study all the features and how can we have two or three different innovations? What is the problem in that? And it becomes a little bit clear because once you’re coming from outside, it’s becomes clear what the problem is from a customer point of view.

Atul Vir (21:16):

And the customer says, I want make it easier. I don’t want to cut down the number of steps. I want to come combine functions. I cannot have 10 appliances sitting on my counter, for example. And, uh, things like that. So once that gets in, then that’s how we innovate. And uh, so we have dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, wine, refrigerators, uh, dishwashers, this, everything, uh, microwave microwaves that, uh, you know, that two in one fin one we have, uh, air conditioners, uh, outdoor air conditioners, indoor air conditioners. So lots of things that, uh, the need creates the solution. So we like to say we’re, we’re, we make problem solving appliances. If it doesn’t solve a problem, I like it, then we are not in it Problem solving appliances. Yeah.

Kevin Brown (22:01):

Well, and, and today you’re a global company and you’re worldwide and you’re even to a different extent than that. You’re out of this world. And, and what I mean by that is tell us about your experience and, and what Equator has done with NASA’s band mission to Mars. Obviously this is something that as a differentiator for equator and, and everybody else that’s out there.

Atul Vir (22:24):

Well, you know, as we’ve been, become better in our work and the products we make, we’ve been successful at it. We’ve been going international with going to Canada, going, going to India, going to the Middle East. We set up operations in Europe now where we are in three or four, uh, countries, and understanding the issues that they’re facing and customizing them. But we’ve recently started working with nasa. Actually, NASA has been testing a machine of ours since the last 20 plus years. And we recently contacted them. We sold, we sold a machine to Lockheed Martin about 20 years ago, and they never had the Artis program until recently. So they’ve been testing it, knowing eventually they’ll get there, but budgetary issues and so on. They were not proceeding with that. But recently it’s is taken a push. And, uh, so we reengaged with NASA and they’re aware, we’ve identified many different issues that we need to resolve in the machine, which is going to drive innovation, whether it’s power or water, or the weight of the machine, which concerns logistics because every pound of additional weight adds to the cost of shipping something to the moon.

Atul Vir (23:30):

So the project that NASA has is to build a house on the moon, almost like an RV or a tiny house where four astronauts are going to live there for six months to a year. And for their physical health and their mental health, they need to, people have to be clean, they need to be like a home-like environment, right? To do the job. Laundry is something you gotta do, but the main job is scientific experiments and the other things that they do. And your last thing you want is people having some health issues and worrying about contamination. Where did the water come from? Worrying about microfibers. There are things like moon dust, which is sharp, uh, like glass. What happens if it gets into the water system, what happens to the body? It should be easy to repair. So the multiple issues, and if we can resolve some of these, then it will help the products that we have on earth. The criteria they have given us is to reduce water consumption by 75%. And that’s a huge reduction. And what is, what are the implications of the problems we are facing on earth here? So it’ll certainly drive innovation in our company, and that gives us a worthy goal after these number of years. Well,

Enrique Alvarez (24:39):

Ul congratulations for that. Yeah, that’s amazing. And very few companies can say that they’re actually working hand in hand with NASA to get washer dryer into the moon. So that’s, we’ll definitely have to circle back with you once that project, uh, is on its way. But thank you so much for sharing, and once again, congratulations. Speaking of innovation, and I know you’re very keen about innovation, you’re also part of your core beliefs and sustainability, and it’s making sure that we don’t have a footprint and to this world. Could you tell us a little bit more about why that’s important to you and why you think this is important for everyone else and, and your industry and really in every other industry?

Atul Vir (25:20):

Well, I think it’s very clear that we have a responsibility to reduce consumption and reduce waste. We are in the forefront. We were the first company to first front loading washing machine to be sold in the us and at that time, we didn’t know they were energy saving and water saving. Front loading machines use one quarter of the amount of water than that of a top loading machine. So that’s the water. And because they only have to heat water, the amount of water they use quarter, the amount of energy to heat the water. So overall, it’s much better. And we fell into this in the course that became the point. And we were a charter member of the Energy Star program, and they were testing our machine to establish the standards. We are back in 1995 or something like that. You were the first company,

Enrique Alvarez (26:05):

Right? I mean, you were the first company to be awarded the Energy star.

Atul Vir (26:09):

We were the first, first washing machine. Say they hash machine, they had a computer programs and so on. But the appliance program or maybe washing machine program, we were the first, you know, so, uh, so we worked with them and you know, now of course it’s become very crowded and it’s, uh, established, but we’ve always felt it. And we are, we are also learning along the way. The knowledge that we have today is certainly much more than it was 20 or 30 years ago. And the awareness we have of the environment. And so we’ve also learned and said, it’s very important for us to save the earth. I think something came out just today that the Earth’s temperature has gone up by one and a half degrees over the last a hundred years, and that’s causing a lot of changes. And I think we as a manufacturer have to design products that take these into account.

Atul Vir (26:57):

Uh, there are now washing machines are involved with, let’s say, microplastics. And we have clothes that are shedding water and do well. We say we make the washing machine, what role do we have? But is it the water temperature? Is it the toss and tumble of the, of the drum that can cause it? And if so, we need to do something about it. So that’s the kind of problem we get into and try to solve. And I’m just giving theoretically because we haven’t solved it. It’s an industry problem, but, uh, we have to be conscious about these things. Uh, I I think it’s much more than earning profits. I’ll give you an example. We just don’t sell gas products. So we are like the Tesla of appliances gas. Now, California has banned the use of gas in multi-family homes, New York as well, because they found recently just that that gas has got carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide when, so for the cook, uh, they’re cooking, these are the emissions from there. So why would you, why would we want to sell such a product? And so that’s the kind of thing, uh, we are, it’s like saying there was a time when smoking was not considered healthy, but then they found out it was not healthy. So then you, you learn that. So we’ve, since we know this about gas, so we are, we are very conscious about, uh, the absolutely. Things going on

Kevin Brown (28:11):

Throughout this whole conversation. So far we’ve, it’s been about the journeys about innovation. It’s been about different ways of thinking. And for you and early on in your career is survival. And so at some point you decided to put this to pent paper. And in your book, underdog Thinking, tell us what motivated you. What was some of the ideas that you wanted to put down in writing that were so important that what motivated you to do this? And and when did you do this?

Atul Vir (28:38):

Well, I did it a few years ago. The idea was many years in the making, because first of all, it’s a very exciting being an entrepreneur. You have, you being an entrepreneur is, is for any entrepreneur, I would say. You conceptualize an idea and you have to convey this and con convey, convince people that it makes sense and make it profitable. But then I went through some experiences, which you can say with the recall in our company of the products where then we had to go through a very rough time and reconstitute the company and the learnings that I learned, the management theories that I, I came up with and how to make a new equator. So actually Kevin, I know you from the old equator, when equator was at the top of our, you could say the pinnacle of our accomplishments where we had a huge headquarters, we own big building, we had eight distribution centers around, around the country and in Canada.

Atul Vir (29:34):

And we were really running, running it great. And we had different goals. And after we went through this experience, when we had quality problems and so on, and we had very upset customers, it led to a reevaluation of what is it we are really trying to do? Is the grow, is it really important just to grow? And what is it you gain by growing? I mean, does it really give you satisfaction? Yes, it’s numbers, but do you really double your quality of life or what do you do that to that kind of soul searching? And I decided to, when I, first of all, most entrepreneurs don’t get a second chance, right? It’s you, you get one shot and 90% of entrepreneurs fail. That’s it. You Had Your shot and that’s what it is. Few decide to come back and I said, maybe I’m gonna give it another shot. And the only way through come out coming out of depression and bad thoughts going through your head is to conquer the very thing that bt And I said, you know what? I’m going to come up with the best machine over there. I want to make, the only goal I’m gonna have is make customers happy. It doesn’t matter about the growth, how big the company is. I want every customer who buys a product from this company to be happy. Because when I had the recall, they were upset customers and they were suing us. I’m saying also, and I said, why did I become an entrepreneur? So this is my goal now to innovate pro innovate and make products that bring joy, bring happiness, that improve people’s quality of life. And that’s all it is. And it doesn’t matter what the volume is, each customer is so important. They should be happy one at a time.

Enrique Alvarez (31:16):

Wow.

Atul Vir (31:16):

And that’s kind of what the

Enrique Alvarez (31:18):

Book talks about, right? Your kind of a story and how you defeated the odds and how you came back. And that’s why I am guessing it’s also titled underdog thinking.

Atul Vir (31:30):

Yeah. So the story is about the start of the company, how it went up, and some of the things that happened, intentional or non-intentional, and the sequence and how I rebuilt it back. And actually it is for this, it’s a story for entrepreneurs and for anybody else, for anybody who’s not an entrepreneur, to think what entrepreneurs go through. And most entrepreneurs I have met have gone through something similar that they have gone through some, uh, catastrophic event in whatever they, mine was pretty catastrophic. So some may have more or less. And what I did to bring it back and ultimately how I had to repurpose my life and change my life and what I wanted and what I wanted to do. So that’s the story. And it’s for people who are not entrepreneurs and also for entrepreneurs to show them that there is a greater purpose actually to just, uh, and don’t give up because it can be done. It’s difficult actually because when you go down, your credit is shut. You don’t have anybody, your, everybody’s saying, what did you do to me? Your, you have problems even in your family who’s saying, Hey, what’s going on over here? So it’s tough. And um, so I hope it’s been useful to people who read it.

Kevin Brown (32:42):

Well, you’ve given presentations to, to people all over the world, different entrepreneurs, industry executives, to M B A students, people at your alma mater as well. And so with all the learning that you have gone through, the successes of the failures that have helped you become what you are today, when you present and you talk to the to, to people, what’s, what are some of the main questions that you get that, that Makes A difference in someone else’s life as they go down this entrepreneurial road that you’ve been down?

Atul Vir (33:14):

Well, I think the number one thing is to focus on your customer. You know, I mean, if you just focus on your customer, people ask all sorts of questions, oh, how can I make money? And I tell them, if that’s only your only goal, then you’re not gonna get there. Because that’s a very shallow goal. Money is a consequence of success. And if you deserve it, and clearly we, we, we in the consumer products industry is we are, we are right on the edge dealing with consumers. And now it’s even more with social media and so on. So I give, I tell customers it’s a long, long, i, I tell people who listen and talk to students and so on. It’s a long road to do doing that. But the satisfaction you get from making your customers happy of, it’s his immense. And many people say, well, can I get a job? Then we’d love to work with you. So I think that is a validation that <laugh> that is making some difference.

Kevin Brown (34:03):

Doing the right things right, makes a really, it makes a big difference. And the way, the approach that people perceive you, your organization, and then those people that you work with as well. So Right. I, I guess the last one of the things I have is, is advice to these people that you talk to other than focus on the customer, other than reading your book, of course, that’s always a great piece of, uh, advice. What’s something else you would advise them other than as they’re sitting in that chair trying to figure out what I want to do? Yes, focusing on the customer is critical. How do you do that? What, what is one of the first steps that you do?

Atul Vir (34:39):

Well, I think the answer is that you have to keep looking for it until it comes. And if you have to do it organic, you know, if you’re looking for an idea, the idea will come just like I got the idea and I became, I learned to become good at it. I learned. And the secret is to have empathy for the people. I go back to that first point. I empathize with the people. At the end of the day, appliances are used mostly by women except men like to barbecue, but mostly the appliances are used by women, whether it’s washing machines, the dishwasher, and so on. And what we are doing is helping, making life easier. In many of the developing countries we’re working with, we are saving an enormous amount of time for the women so they can free up their time to have better quality of life with their families and so on.

Atul Vir (35:21):

So I look at it almost like a service that I’m doing that’s a, I mean, uh, that, that York’s helping improve people’s quality of life. So it’s more than just, than just, just a calling. Now, it didn’t start off like that. It started off trying to set up a business, earn a living, then got into innovation. So this is, I’m actually in equator. This is the third phase, the new equator. The first phase was importing, just selling a product that I could sell. The second one was actually setting up manufacturing and so on, and then crashing from that. And the third one is the new equator where we understand how do we improve people’s lives. So I just tell people that, try to find your calling. What is your calling? And it’ll, it’ll find you. But money shouldn’t. Trying to say, I just wanna earn more money, shouldn’t be one of them. Well, be careful what you ask

Enrique Alvarez (36:07):

For someday. You may

Atul Vir (36:08):

Just get it right. <laugh>, yes, why not? That will also be a

Enrique Alvarez (36:13):

Well,

Atul Vir (36:13):

And, and

Enrique Alvarez (36:14):

As you said, right, money’s always a, the out the product of some of the decisions that you make in life and how you work in life and your approach to life. So no, I totally agree. And very powerful, very powerful words. Great recommendations for listeners. It seems to me a tool that you’ve always had a really good pulse on the market itself. You, you understand the trends, you understand what people’s needing. You understand that some things are important. So my question to you is, how do you, what are the main indicators that you keep track of and how, how do you have such a good pulse on what the consumers or the trends are dictating? And then as a follow up question, once you realize what the changes are going to be, then how do you turn around and then adopt it so quickly in your company? ’cause again, you’ve restarted many, many times. You’re adjusted to the new equator as you just brought it up. What’s the trick? How can you change so quickly to keep innovating?

Atul Vir (37:09):

Well, I think the first thing is to find the opportunity. And I’ll give you some examples. I mean, uh, COVID was a time, it, it came upon us and it was a very challenging time, whether for consumer products or people at home or logistics or everybody that was trying to figure it out. And there was, in, in the manufacturing side, there was a chip supply. There were plants shutting down because their workers had covid. So it was a very challenging time, but we had to see it through and say, okay, if people have covid, what do we do? And we go to sort of segment your short-term goals and your long-term goals. So the short-term goal is, well, COVID is here, how do we do it? People are concerned about their lives, about their health and safety, wellness, and what can we do? So we, first of all, we set up, made sure that our plans were up and running.

Atul Vir (38:00):

We supported them in some cases with financial support and investing in things like chips, made sure that their workers were, all, the workers were okay. The production could, could, it may not be as smooth as it was, but it would take place in every alternate month or whatever. Nick. And the logistics, as was a very challenging time where the freight rates went up by seven to seven times, 10 times. And so we had to accept all those, uh, things. And uh, but as a result, our washing machines came up with a sanitized function, allergen function, antimicrobial features, which were embraced by customers. And so we were rewarded in that by thinking about the customers and their concerns. We said a lot to the rv, uh, RV space, and people go to the common, the common areas or laundry. And they didn’t want to do that.

Atul Vir (38:54):

They wanted to have the washing machine in their own space, their own rv. So we came up with these machine that was a great success. We came up with many other products. Another example is the outdoor line that, uh, we came up with people who are entertaining. And, uh, we, you have a social need, so you’re not entertaining indoors because you’re concerned about catching an infection, right? And so we came up with a whole outdoor line, outdoor air conditioners, outdoor refrigerators. So the need created, the opportunity, and I think it is a question of trying to figure out anytime there’s a problem, what’s our solution in the field we operate in? So the field we operate in is appliances. And as example, we came up with air purifiers and the washing machines and four or five products in that segment, and then in the outdoor segment. And they’ve all done very well, even though Covid has gone to some extent. But I think it’s here to stay. And people have a much different awareness of these things, risks to life now. So absolutely. And I’m happy we’re, we’re able to contribute and find solutions for peoples that they’re doing it

Kevin Brown (40:02):

Well. Covid has changed, as an example. It’s changed the way we do business today as we’re doing podcasts and uh, meetings as we’re doing today. So as we continue to talk about logistics and with purpose, it’s an honor to work with you, the entire team that you have, that you’ve assembled and, and working with you and your team day to day. Obviously you have a, a passion for what you do, and then working with your employees as well. What does logistics with purpose, what does that mean to you today and then even in the future as we continue to evolve?

Atul Vir (40:35):

Well, logistics is a very important part, part, part of the whole process because we, as I mentioned, we are, we’re in the consumer space, consumer product space. And we are dealing directly with consumers as opposed to say, business to business, which is more, okay, something happens and replace the product. And you’re dealing with one person, dealing with consumers, you’re dealing with social media and blogs, and people can nowadays, people, customers, consumers have a simple goal that if we decide to buy a product at the click of a button, it should be delivered here in the shortest possible time. In say good condition. It should work. I mean, I paid for it. I have a right that it should work. So there’s a lot of pressure on all fronts. The machine should work. We need to move it to ship it from one part of the world to another safely on time because many people’s livelihoods are depending on it.

Atul Vir (41:29):

For example, our distributors depend on us having products in time. Our retailers, us depend on us. They don’t depend only on us, but let’s say they depend on many people who supply them on time. The consumer, if they order a product and you say it’s not in stock, let’s say, what do you mean it’s not in stock? It’s supposed to know whether you have it in stock, right? So all this is connected to logistics. How do we move it safely without damage on time and deliver it to the customer so they’re happy. And frankly speaking, it’s a big challenge, a lot of these, uh, spaces because we have the, the, these, these topics because you got damage issues and lots of things happening. Not specifically the international, but the whole chain of logistics is, is involved in this, when now people want it installed in their home and take away the old product. And we are dealing with labor shortage and all these things. So the entire, all this gamut of logistics is a ever evolving situation and challenging situation.

Kevin Brown (42:31):

And what I love about working with Equator is that we’ve taken out the vendor supplier relationship, And that’s been gone for a long time working with Equator. It truly is a partnership and it’s the way you work with people and your associates, your employees, whether it’s at your level, working with suppliers and everyone else in the supply chain. You do it with honesty and integrity, and you keep your values and your principles in check, good things happen to good people. So it, it’s an honor again, to work with you, the folks on your team as well. As we wrap up here the next couple of minutes, how can our listeners connect with you and of course, learn more about Equator Advanced Appliances and how’s the best way for them to better understand what you do professionally and then also about how, what the journey that’s gotten you here as well.

Atul Vir (43:21):

Thank you. Well, thank you for your, for this, uh, this opportunity to talk. Uh, it’s an honor. I think, uh, we value the relationship and relationships are the most important thing in any business, not just the numbers, but the best way to learn about our company and our products is to look on our website, which is equator appliances.com. And the best way to reach me, well, on the company website, there is a contact page with a direct link to me and anybody can send me an email from there. Or I also have a personal website, which is a tool beer.com, and they can reach me there. And this is about the presentations I do, and as part of the giving back that I do, that I hope somebody will benefit from this and it’ll be useful to somebody’s life and having successful and happy life and fulfilling life.

Enrique Alvarez (44:17):

Atul, thank you so much. Thank you very, very much for being here today. It’s been a pleasure. It’s great knowing you and your family and your wife. So thank you once again for being such a great example for a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners out there, and for everyone out there that’s trying to work hard and make a positive impact in this world. To everyone else that’s listening to this episode, and if you like conversations like the one we just had with Atul, don’t forget to subscribe. Thank you so much and I’ll see you next time. Thank

Atul Vir (44:45):

You very much. Bye-bye then.