Bridging the global gap in Design & Manufacturing
In June 2022, Vaibhav Sharma started Konception Designs in Gurgaon, India with 40% US clients, 40% European, and 20% rest of the world. In less than 6 months, Konception launched its offices in Dubai, LA, and most recently, London and Hong Kong. Today, the global Design & Manufacturing firm boasts prestigious international brands (Guess, Farm Rio, Fracomina, Akira, Danube Home, Bardot, Soma, etc) as clients, all thanks to the exemplary leadership of Vaibhav in his capacity as the Managing Director.
“The way the Indian Export Market for Garment works, we felt that there is a big gap between the mindset of retailers in US/EU and Indian Exporters. We wanted to bridge this gap, having worked in Far East nations and realising that this gap is actually increasing. The idea was welcomed by all our clients and our business with each of them grew exponentially. Today, we are proud to say that we have associated with many high-end customers and become their biggest suppliers out of India.”
Vaibhav’s professional journey has helped him cross-pollinate ideas across a variety of industry sectors including Production, Sales, Merchandising, Marketing, and Consumer Research. After his B.Tech from The Technological Institute of Textiles & Sciences, he started his professional life as a Shift Officer with Auro Weaving – Vardhman Group, Baddi.
Passionate about succeeding in this industry and learning the trade inside out, Vaibhav started his career from a Weaving Plant after doing his training in a Yarn Spinning Plant. To gain knowledge in garmenting, he next joined – Triburg, one of the leading buying offices in India at that time. After 4 years with Triburg, he spent close to 11 years in China, exploring the Far East garment production base in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. His company started an Ethiopian arm and Vaibhav became an integral part of marketing for that venture as well.
Vaibhav’s multi-country and multi-cultural experience helped him take the best practices from all these places and implement it at Konception, which spelled a win-win for both employees and clients. He truly believes that all individuals who work at Konception are Entrepreneurs in their own right.
“In my 2 decades of experience, I have observed that if an employee is given complete freedom to work, the efficiency level doubles by itself. We make sure that we foster an environment of harmony, happiness and self motivation. We have a lot of young blood, who have a good eye for detail and are particular about the service levels we provide. They are also great at preempting issues and solving them. We can thus proudly tell our clients – We are ALONE… At the TOP.”
Vaibhav strives towards a sustainable goal and makes sure his clients follow suit. His Mantra for sustainability is – If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled, or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production.
His aim is to become a 100 Million USD company by the end of 2026. Speaking about the journey, he says, “India was always known to ONLY do a certain product category and all the international brands were giving business to the Indian Export market only for those specific categories. We have changed this mindset and brought awareness that India is a diverse production hub capable of handling every category that China, Vietnam or Cambodia can. Business that used to run for only 5 months is now year round with this diversity in product category.”
Although young at 41, Vaibhav’s foresight and business acumen has seen him win many awards:
- Dynamic Entrepreneur Award – Industry Leaders Award 2022 (Delhi)
- Brands Global Media Award 2023 – Visionary Entrepreneur Award (Delhi)
- ACE Business Awards – Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Mumbai)
- Golden Pinnacle Award – Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2023 (Dubai
- Indian Achievers Award – Promising Startup (Konception Designs).
Yet, some challenges remain. “Ours is a labour intensive industry and hence it becomes even more challenging. We have to stay alert 24X7 and solve the issues before they actually become an issue. Hence striking a balance between personal and professional life becomes all the more important. I have realised that if you are satisfied working at the office, you will go home happy and the harmony will stay put.”
Leaving us with a message for all our young readers, Vaibhav sums up: “Set a goal for yourself and work towards it with full passion and focus. However to be successful, you need to work your way up and not the other way round. We have to get our hands dirty at the ground level to get the Midas touch.”