“The power of empathy to change minds is legendary, built into folklore, common sense, and everyday experience. Compassion moves the heart; it creates and executes ideas around.... Throughout history, "tender loving care" has uniformly been recognized as a valuable element in making a difference.”

When mind, body and soul work together, it delivers something unique, that is flawless and constant. Today, if one asks the meaning of business to Mr. NK Chaudhary, he would describe it as an activity that is divine and is a source of knowing your inner self. Once we know who we really are, our quality revelations begin on the inside and then works its way out. In addition, one shouldn’t forget the roots of the society from where overall development takes place.

Mr. NK Chaudhary was born on June 13th, 1953 in Churu district of Rajasthan, India. His parents brought him up in a traditional Marwari family environment where his father handled their ancestral business of shoe-making. His mother was a deeply religious Hindu. She pampered him and his younger brother, being the sons of the family. Since his youth, Mr. Chaudhary had a bent of affection and compassion for the needy. Altogether, he was a blend of an experimenting one with his ambitions too. There was a spark inside his heart to make a difference in the conventional exploitative business customs. This was the only reason behind him venturing away from the family business to carpet manufacturing and later, exports.

Today also, the Indian carpet industry is fragmented and export oriented. There are several voids in it, especially in terms of availability of skilled labor. This paves a way for middlemen to exploit the artisans in the rural areas by bringing them seasonal demands and not providing them direct access to the global markets. These men and women become poorer day by day and are unable to realize their true potential of getting a sustained living. There are times when these artisans remain unemployed for a very long time because the middlemen do not have contracts or demands to pass on to them. As a child, Mr. NK Chaudhary always wanted to see a community of equal opportunities where everyone earned according to their capabilities and had a sustained livelihood.

In addition, Mr. NK Chaudhary stresses on following a social-entrepreneurship model to uplift the rural carpet-weaving artisan. He empathizes with the hearts of the poor artisans and strives to transform them as owners of their carpet-weaving business. He is determined- to deliver the best of the quality to the customer, and connect the artisans directly with the global markets and also towards cultivation of organizational growth of his company’s employees. He may not be that perfect in English, but his fairness in work, values and social entrepreneurship has earned him the name of ‘Gandhi of carpet industry’ amongst artisans as well as peers.

Due to Mr. NK Chaudhary’s revolutionary business model, there has been a possibility to benefit over 40,000 artisans coming from 10 states of India. His social initiatives have enlightened the backward artisans and made aware of schemes or government aids. The current state portrays artisans being skilled to be proficient in the art, and emerging as future entrepreneurs. However, taking a huge step like this is never easy. This wouldn’t have been possible without the support and coordination of his family members, friends, colleagues and wishes of these rural artisans with whom we associate regularly, even today. Conscientiousness is the characteristic that improved him. He asserts that over the years, he has learnt two very important aspects that have helped him to reshape his strategies- overwhelmed customers and financially empowered artisans. To understand what a customer wants and to link him with the hard work of an artisan has been a long journey.

Nand Kishore Chaudhary
Chairman & Managing Director of Jaipur Rugs Company Pvt. Ltd.
Trustee of Jaipur Rugs Foundation
Owner of Jaipur Rugs Inc.