Since ever, food has been an important part of people’s lives. Nothing is more satisfying than a proper meal bite. But today, in this fast-paced world, when we hardly find time to eat or prepare home-cooked meals and are rushing our lives, our best resort has turned out to be packaged food options like sausages, and other easy-to-go meals. This has extensively led us to consume food items that we never want to consume, but have been consuming as a mix into our choices of foods from before. Well, to rise up to this unwanted food consumption, many leaders step forward-launching their businesses in the food sector, but getting the right products sourced and manufactured is a highly challenging thing to do.
However, Helene Raudaschl, Founder & Chairman at Indoguna Productions FZCOthe First-class Gourmet Purveyor in Dubai (perhaps changed to UAE), took it quite seriously and triumphed as well, striving to deliver each quality product, sourced and manufactured through perfect and standard processes. Helene grew up with hands-on knowledge and a desire to offer quality products to institutions that value fine food and quality produce, while Indoguna Productions FZCO has been her means to achieving it.
Recently, Women Entrepreneur magazine got into an exclusive discussion with Helene Raudaschl to know of her sincere attempts in the food space and know in detail about her leadership and entrepreneurial stint with her venture- Indoguna Productions FZCO.
Take us through your professional journey and the prior industry experience you bring to the table. Also, mention what were some of the early influences in your life that shaped your journey as an individual.
It is my mother who shaped my journey, as she was the one who started a similar business back in HK in the 80s. And at that time in Hong Kong, indeed it was even more so difficult, especially coming from a family background in Chinese culture where normally females always had to be at home and men at work. But as far as I recall (maybe I was five or six then), my mother started her own business and kept moving ahead pursuing what she wants to achieve, against all odds. Certainly, she has come a long way starting from basically nothing to what she has built today. She brought on a lot to me, teaching me how to be upfront about what I want to pursue, carry love for it, be independent, and also try everything I can if I have a passion and dream in place.
I don't really have prior industry experience because as soon as I finished school, I entered into the food business. My education in this business has always been from when I was a child. I used to follow my mother everywhere she did her business, as she used to take me and my sister along, everywhere. I have never been in any other industry, aside from where I am today, and my education has been instilled by her since we were young, so even when we were old enough to be working in some, like intern jobs, it's always been working in the same business over some holidays or long holidays, and we used to work for my mother. In our business, the quality of the food is the most important. Hence, for me then sourcing and manufacturing the best quality of products for that certain value has been my focus and passion. And thereafter successfully influencing our customers with my beliefs and ideas has given me continuous strength and motivation to do better every day.
Tell us about the key business lessons you learned through your prior industry experience. How do you incorporate these learnings in your current venture?
Well, as I mentioned earlier, my mother gave me the base education journey of the food business. Besides, it was also my mother who taught me it’s the food quality that is the crux of this food business, because ultimately, as a family and as culturally, we believe in food culture. In my experience, our business has got a lot to do with finding the right quality product, and this is our end-product – ‘quality food’. Well, the key lesson for me and for anybody who's starting a business is to prepare oneself very well, in terms of business planning, finance, strategies, and whatever it takes to make that business happen.
"The most important thing about being an entrepreneur, or a business leader, is driving through the cause of your beliefs, passion, integrity & honesty"
In the last 25 years, we as a company have invested in many ventures, including the Middle East and it was quite a big step for us. I've seen many businesses fail because they may have over-invested, and the result didn't turn out favorably as planned. One should be cautioned in terms of investment,keeping in mind the worst results, if any that could happen. No matter how great your analysis team, no matter how great your forecast, your sales, or your strategies are, we can never tell what's going to come around the corner, just like what happened to us in the past few years. So, one of the things that I have learned myself is that whatever new ventures and new businesses I invest in, I do not expose myself to a level that if anything goes wrong at all I cannot stand back on my own.
What motivated you to find Indoguna Production? Throw some light on the underlying idea behind the venture and its key areas of specialization.
As you know my business has always been nationwide, and as I mentioned, I started very young as a kid learning the ropes from my mother in Hong Kong. Then subsequently, I opened the business with another lady partner (from Indonesia) in Singapore and then went on to the market for our food supply products to restaurant and hotels. The quality food products that we import and distribute holding the many years of association with different farms, and different producers from around the world is actually something that we are very proud of. We bring to the table products that customers are able to make use of on a very high level. Also, I know our forte and strength has always been to identify the right quality products with the right price. Be it in Hong Kong and Singapore, or to a certain extent in the UAE, since the last 10 years, food quality and standards have been an area of focus and concentration in the restaurants & hotels standards in terms of food menus and food selection. Hence, be it Europe, North America, South America, Australia, or Asia, or from any corner of the globe, we strive to source quality products, find the best ingredients, and supply them to the food users as per the chefs’ and operators’ needs.
As requested by many of our customers who were opening hotels and restaurants in Dubai, we also did overseas supply on a remote-control basis to big hotels. But that wasn’t a long-term solution, hence decided to explore this further and that's how ended up establishing a business in Dubai in 2005, for import and distribution (supplying to the restaurants). In the meantime, from 2005 to when we started Indoguna Productions, I also built our manufacturing facility in Singapore as we realized there was a huge opportunity gap in supplying quality products there. Later, it was in 2012, that we legally launched Indoguna Productions, and built the state-of-the-art plant from scratch there. We manufacture good quality products and design and supply them for exports.
The market is booming in the Middle East, not just in UAE but surrounding us as well. Hence, we focus on strategies parallelly together with UAE and continuously put quality food and food safety as the first priority. We have been doing so and will continue further to grow our business.
In your opinion what are some of the most critical challenges you encounter as a leader in the F&B space? What steps do you undertake to overcome these roadblocks?
I think the challenges today in our business in F&B are about the availability of resources, especially, in the countries we operate do not have enough resources to supply the necessary needs of the country itself. We are all challenged with food supplies, diseases, and weather issues, and all play a huge part. We continuously navigate across such challenges by providing different options for food, and constantly looking for new resources, new farms, and new countries for sourcing good quality products that is free of antibiotics and chemicals. Also, I focus on the sustainability of resources hence making 100 percent use of the meat I manufacture different types of products.
Tell us about the top three milestones you have achieved throughout your professional journey. What has been your success mantra?
My biggest milestone will be winning two awards and which I am very proud of. The first is the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award that I won in 2016 in Singapore, and the second is Enterprise 50 Award by KPMG Singapore which we won five years in a row. Well, I would like to take an effort to applaud my team for it, as it has been teamwork all along. My success mantra lies in always remaining honest in what I do and taking care of people around me. I never think of profit as the priority. My mission has always been to believe in my passion, do an honest job, give your customers the best products and services, and the rest will follow.
Advice/message for aspiring women leaders-
The most important thing about being an entrepreneur, or a business leader, is driving through the cause of your beliefs, passion, integrity and honesty. Utilizing your passion to the nth degree and never take no for an answer. Treat people the way you want to be treated yourself. And along the way, do everything you can to promote gender equality, environmental practices, and sustainability.
What is your vision for Indoguna Production’s next growth phase?
Well, it is to see us established in many different markets internationally. Also, especially in the GCC region for sure in the next five years, I want to place ourselves as a reputable quality halal food manufacturer across different markets, and continuously strengthen our position as a unique manufacturing plant.
Helene Raudaschl, Founder & Chairman, Indoguna Productions
An entrepreneur at heart, helene is a strong and organically grown f&b leader who is committed to equipping the food sector with quality food products, sourcing quality products globally, and manufacturing them locally
