Goradia’s unorthodox modus operandi can be traced back to when he first came to the United States in 1977. He arrived in New York, “not through Ellis Island,” as he puts it. In other words, he came here for different reasons than most immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. “Most Indians come here to get higher education, or to pursue a job or career. I came here to be free,” he explains.

Goradia came to America after backpacking around the world by road for almost a year. “I learned to live by my wits for a year,” he says. He had three goals when he came to America: to meet people of diverse backgrounds and different cultures; to travel; and to be exposed to a wide variety of music. One of the first things he did was take flute lessons to enhance his knowledge of Western classical music. He also took sitar lessons from a neurosurgeon in Tribeca.

From the Ground up
“But to do all these things you need money,” says Goradia. In 1977, a recession-stricken America proved a tough place for the 20-something immigrant seeking work. So he turned to the Yellow Pages and the phone. With these basic tools — and some luck — he found himself conducting brisk business activity in 10 days, trading in raw materials for plastics. The industry was a natural choice for him, since his father’s family had been in the business since the 1920s. “You could say it’s in my blood,” he says.

Goradia and his brother Hemant established Vinmar in 1978. By 1985, they moved the company to Houston, the heart of the U.S. petrochemicals industry and enough of an international hub for the company’s global expansion to take flight.

Goradia has employed a steady and patient approach to building Vinmar into the $1-billion revenue generator it is today. He points to his first foray into the untapped emerging Chinese market in 1981 as an example. China was far more impenetrable than it is today, with separate visas required to visit each city. “The first time we went to China, it was not in happy circumstances,” Goradia says. He and an engineer went to investigate why a product they had sold to a factory was not working properly. They were taken by bicycle to the factory, where 400 workers were sitting idle because Vinmar’s product had failed to fulfill its function. Vinmar’s engineer fixed the problem within an hour, and both he and Goradia were rewarded with two bags of lychees from the grateful manager.

It was a country still waiting for growth, where a plastic bag containing some jogging clothes was seized by a hotel worker after Goradia had carelessly tossed it aside. “They were still wrapping everything in newspapers,” he says. Vinmar established itself in China and has continued to do business there.

Taking Risks — Carefully
That experience, and others in countries such as Indonesia, showed Goradia that the way forward was to focus Vinmar’s energies on going into high-risk “emerging markets,” which represented high potential for growth. “We go to the U.S. or European producer and take the risk away from them by trading their products in these countries,” he says.

Goradia offsets this risk by adopting a careful strategy when considering a new, high-potential, high-risk market. “I typically go to the country by myself at first, without any agenda or back-to-back appointments, to get a feel for what real risks there are.” He will then ascertain what tried and tested approaches will work, and assess which risks are more perceived than real.

Sometimes this requires an ability to adapt business strategy to the situation at hand. Goradia points to his experience of going into a Mafia-dominated Russian market in 1994 as an example. “We would have had to deal with the Mafia, which was not something we were prepared to do. We decided to dig deeper,” he says. The solution was to outsource from Russia instead of trying to sell products there. Vinmar found a buyer in Finland and once the logistics had been worked out, the company was making $100 million in annual revenue within two years. “Without having to pay anyone,” Goradia says proudly.

Beyond the “Hype and Hoopla”
A steady, long-term perspective has served Vinmar and Goradia well in the networked economy. When the Internet started making its presence felt and began to disrupt the way business was done, Goradia was naturally concerned because the intermediary was being eliminated. Vinmar, as an intermediary in the petrochemicals and plastics trading business, was one of those potentially under threat. So Goradia adopted an “if you can’t beat them, join them” strategy.

He began investing in a number of tech companies and became somewhat jaded by what he calls the “hype and hoopla in the industry.” But he saw the possibilities. After six months of investing and investigating, Goradia saw that real changes in the way business was done would come slowly. So he established a new company, ChemXL, an e-procurement site aimed at providing a functional, cost-effective method for buyers and sellers to connect. Each company has a preferred list of vendors that know its needs and requirements, which can be met in as little as 15 minutes from the time they are submitted.

Vinmar acquired chemB.com, one of the largest online chemical and bulk pharmaceutical sites in India, as part of its aim to firmly establish itself in the online universe for the long term. Another aspect of this strategy is to move beyond chemicals into pharmaceuticals, personal care products and the paper industry.

“Every company pitches their tech products as if it’s a panacea,” says Goradia. “They brag about their nifty tools. The difference in our approach is that it is practical; it comes from my background in taking on complex issues in an international arena.”

Charity Begins at Home>
Goradia hopes to match his success in the business world with another venture of which he is justly proud: a drive to rid his native India of illiteracy. He is the spokesperson for Pratham USA, a charity that has what Goradia calls a “basic, no-nonsense approach.” It is committed to educating young children aged three to seven in the slums of cities like Bombay, where Goradia grew up. “It costs $7.50 to educate each child per year – and its not about building structures and having elaborate techniques,” he says.

Goradia recalls how struck he was by the children’s willingness to learn on his first visit to a Pratham-run school, and recent additions to the curriculum are lessons in health and hygiene. “It’s also helped the lot of women in these communities,” he says of them, many of whom are trained to teach the children. “Their prestige and self-worth increase dramatically.” So far, there are 235,000 children in Pratham-run schools all over India. Replicating the Pratham model in as many countries as possible is one of Goradia’s personal goals for the future. Another is hiking through Africa for 10 weeks in the next two years.

On the business side, Goradia remains committed to building up ChemXL, and to acquiring companies while others walk away from making that sort of investment. “This has been our experience with Vinmar – the contrarian approach – opportunity from adversity.”

And this approach has been a take on life that has proved rewarding for Goradia. Vinmar was the recipient of the U.S. President’s Export Award for consistent growth in developing exports in emerging markets – the newest being Brazil. Goradia himself received a humanitarian award from Rotary International from the former president of Thailand in January of this year.

The 50-year-old father of two has another ambition – to visit Tibet. “To keep life in perspective,” he says.
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