The Visionary: Devita Saraf, Chairperson & CEO, Vu Group There was a time when the narrative around women entrepreneurs focused on their struggles. However, when we decided to look for a cover face who captured sustenance over two decades, we found Devita Saraf. Women have gotten media attention that has highlighted the uphill battle to break the glass ceiling, but now is the time they prove to be long-term leaders who can sustain and grow a business over decades. Here is the Chairperson and CEO of Vu Group, who has continued to build her brand as a visionary, who thinks long term and is also a symbol of strength for her team.

Devita Saraf has done it without raising any outside capital or even taking any bank loans. The business is profitable, debt-free, and financially strong. As the 100% owner, she is constantly on rich lists, busting the myth that women-owned or luxury-focused enterprises are niche while showing scale, stability, and strength instead.

The intention from the very beginning of Devita Saraf's entrepreneurial journey was to build a global MNC brand like Sony, Samsung, and LG. Equipped with an education from USC and Harvard Business School, she initially set up the company and product development lab in California and then expanded it globally from India. "It makes me proud that we have joined the league of premium brands and customers accept Vu TVs as much as Sony and this has been proven on Amazon, as we are the highest-selling QLED and large-size TV brand and over 87 per cent of our customers repeatedly remain loyal to the Vu brand," shares Saraf.

Premiumization is a constant journey, and it is important to say no to easy growth through dilution opportunities such as low-cost products or cutting prices. By keeping this discipline, she has maintained and even elevated the positioning of the brand in the space occupied by Sony, Samsung, and LG. Talking about her initial challenges while going the premiumisation way, she says, "Initially, people couldn't fathom that India would become a premium market, but I could see this seismic shift happening when I returned from California."

The Indian buyer was becoming more global, high-tech, and discerning with salaries across the board increasing and social media adding global exposure and a new desire for a better lifestyle. Vu entered the LCD segment when the market was 3 lakh TVs a year and has seen its growth to 1.5 Cr 4K TVs per year.

"The effort we put in to create the category gave us great dividends a decade later when we hit the Rs.1000 Cr revenue mark profitably. Another challenge was that people didn't associate luxury with technology, with most luxury brands at the time being heritage and not futuristic. As a woman, I have better insights in this category as a buyer and was able to amalgamate these two worlds to create a unique brand that is as much about the senses as the science," adds Saraf.

As the saying goes, the child of a lion is also a lion, and the child of an entrepreneur is also an entrepreneur. Raj Saraf, Devita's father, set up Zenith Computers in the 1980s, pioneering innovation in the laptop and PC business in India. He has been a visionary in the IT industry and also a visionary in encouraging his daughter's business fully when most wealthy Marwari fathers were quick to marry off their daughters to someone who matched their balance sheet.

Devita decided to carry on his approach and study abroad, start a premium brand, be the face of the business, and make many decisions that are risky but visionary in the same nature. Talking about the equation she shares with her father in the entrepreneurial realms, Devita delves deeper, saying, "We work well together because we both think futuristically, with a head full of ideas and our feet on the ground."

Vu has built a brand and business by being the pioneer of premiumization in India. They made the bet as early as 2005, hoping India would emerge as a global economy and the consumers would have more discretion in their spending. Over two decades, they aligned the entire process of premiumization from the quality of the products to company-direct customer service and, most importantly, company culture of delivering the best possible.

Going forward, they have the opportunity to expand the business into other home (appliances, ACs, wash), wellness (hair, smartwatches, fitness), entertainment (sound, smart homes, gaming), or any other premium category that can leverage the Vu brand and culture. Their NPD (New Product Development) lab works with an average 18-month pipeline to launch new products.

In 2023-24, the revenue for the Vu Group stood at Rs.625 Crore. However, they wrote off Rs.200 Cr of business when they exited the 32" segment, as, according to Saraf, she doesn't like to do business in products that are not profitable. She goes on to say, "Harvard always teaches us to focus on profitability, and that has been the north star of the Vu Group."

Vu has always been a self-funded company wherein Devita invested around Rs. 1 Crore on her own, not taking any outside funding. On her plans to take the company public, she quips, "If we need liquidity for growth, I would rather work with one investor who understands our approach than make our strategies constantly public to my competition through an IPO."

Sharing the vision she has for Vu, Saraf says, "A brand that has always been our benchmark has been Sony because they are focused on display quality and have great customer loyalty. Through our focus on developing the best picture quality and global partnerships from Google TV to the Hollywood Filmmaker's Association, we aspire to be a 'young Sony.'"

Distribution has been the biggest disruptor for the TV industry, with Vu pioneering selling TVs on e-commerce to even experimenting with quick commerce. They hope to see newer avenues through the evolving digital ecosystem to reach the vast Indian consumer base. Sharing her vision for the future of television, she concludes, "We want the TV to be more interactive because young consumers want to input into their devices as much as output their content." With her vision to be the world's first Luxury Technology brand, let's see how she can make TVs as addictive as phones!

Photographer: Sehrish Qureshi, Pixplode Productions

Make-up and Hair: Claire Carmelina Gil

Location: Soulstory Studios

Jewelry: Zoya

Outfit

Look 1: Red Suit by Kate Spade

Look 2: Dress by Michael Kors,

Blazer by Refined Revolution