A magnificent three-storey building, proudly displaying the name Govind Dande and Sons, was my next stop. When you enter GDS, everything around you is exquisite and you are blinded by the resplendence. But that is not the most impressive thing. Instead, it is how you are treated when you enter GDS. A middle-aged man, smiling—not because his boss tells him to, but because he wants to—greets you and makes you feel truly welcome.
The director, Anil Dande, sits in his cabin at the far end of the store. He is who I am meeting. GDS has grown from a 3 crore business to a 150 crore industry, and its success owes a lot to Anil Dande.
GDS was established first in Amaravati in 1927. In 1935, Anil Dande’s father, Shri Govind Dande, moved the business to Nashik. In his later years, his elder sons shouldered the responsibility of the business.
“Before I joined, my two elder brothers were running the business. I didn’t like the way it was run; the growth was too slow.”
Changed the business way he did, with fortune favouring the brave.
“Back in those days, the gold trade had restrictions. Just when I joined, many of them were lifted.”
The door was opened. The sky was the limit, and they reached for it.
“When I joined, we had a total stock of 120 gm, out of which 60 gm was my mother’s wedding jewellery, and we were running the business in a small 180 sq. ft. rented room. With trade restrictions lifted, our business boomed. We took out loans to increase our stock, which in turn, increased our customers, for whom our rented room fell short. We moved to a more spacious apartment, started doing the trade in silver as well, and just when we felt the ship was sailing smoothly, we were robbed.”
In 1987, GDS was robbed—robbed big time. 42 kgs of silver, 2 kg of gold just vanished. But surely they had insurance, didn’t they?
“We had insurance, but the insurance company altogether denied that there had been a robbery. We won the case against the company, but it took years. Something had to be done immediately to restart our business.”
Madhavrao Patil, the then chairman of Janalakshmi Bank, came to the rescue.
“He lent us ₹4,00,000 on the very next day of robbery without any documentation. He put faith in us. Those 4 lakh rupees were game changers. They helped us rebuild and grow. Wherever GDS is today, it couldn’t have been without his help at the time.”
GDS rebuilt and has kept growing ever since. In the year 2007, GDS moved to a grand 10,000 sq. ft. construction. In 2018, it was awarded as the ‘Best Retail Store’ of the entire country. But such awards and recognitions don’t lure Anil Dande.
“Awards are something which others give you. It’s not something that is yours. What is yours, is the joy with which the customer leaves the store. That joy is what we work for.”
This joy is not just limited to their customers; it extends to their staff and their vendors too.
“Our definition of a customer has three aspects: the customer (the person who buys from us), the staff (the person who sells to the customer), and the vendor (the person from whom we buy). We have identified the needs of all three customers, then we have worked to solve for that need ( no wonder why you’re welcomed with a heartwarming smile by the staff ), and that has generated money. So we haven’t worked for money either; it has been the byproduct of value creation.”
GDS has grown a lot. And it wants to grow further. At 58 years young, Anil Dande still anchors the GDS ship. There is no retirement in sight.
“People retire in their mind befoer they retire in reality. I never retire in my mind, and thus, I have no reason to retire in reality.”
The next generation of Dande’s, Devyani and Yogeshwar, has also entered the business with new vision and new energy. Anil Dande’s goal is to put GDS in such a position in the next 7 years, from where the next generation can take off smoothly and fly high for the coming years.
Although Anil Dande has been a GPS of GDS’s long drive, his entry in the business was totally unplanned.
“I did my B.Com first, then my L.L.B. And then, basically, I had nothing else to do, so I came into the family business.” He says as a matter of fact.
GDS is not just a name. It’s a culture. A culture of transparency. A culture of positivity. A culture of respect.
A culture which Anil Dande developed.
A culture he lives.
Advice to the Youth:
“Fitness is threefold—financial, mental, physical. If you want to be successful, in business or in life, you’ve got to be fit in all three dimensions. We have no debt, at 58, I ride a bicycle 20 km each day, and both of these things keep my mind fit and fresh.”
“The youth is not persistent in one pursuit. You know what the word teenage means? It’s ‘Tin-age’. It means, you’re like a metal tin; you can make a lot of noise. You’ve got to give direction to that noise and you’ve got to be persistent with that direction. Give that direction it’s due time. Don’t just jump from one passion to another.”
“Success, to me, is the combination of a good opportunity and 100% efforts. If you’re not successful, then it either means you’re not giving your 100% or it’s not a good opportunity. Whatever the reason is true for you, it has the solution in itself.”