Alain Phan: from Burlington Industries to Baker Street.

Is it still necessary to introduce the emblematic owner of Baker Street? Behind the beautiful French bakery front, there is a man with an incredible and surprising career. Indeed, we will see how after being mixed with the biggest spheres of the international companies, Alain decided to give up this world to launch Baker Street. By discovering more in depth his story and his personality, we will understand better his real motivation and his insatiable need for activities.


What has been your career until your settlement in Pondicherry?

When I was young, I wanted to be an interior architect, so I wished to study to Beaux Arts School, but the enrollments were taking place later during the summer. So I went to travel around Italy with a friend, and I met by chance a very charming German girl. As I could speak German, I immediately worked for the Germano-French rapprochement! We stayed together, and I missed the enrollment deadline for Beaux Arts School, so I started a business and management school, with a marketing specialization.

read more At the end of my studies, I start working for a Swiss company, as I didn’t want to work in France. Indeed I wanted to take up challenges, to be responsible very early and also to get some financially advantages. This company was a familial one, which sold precious tropic woods, and I was in charge of the company development. I have learnt a lot, because the boss was someone very friendly, who gave me a lot of advices. However during my studies, a teacher told me that you don’t have to spend more than two years and half in your first company, or you will get stuck. That is how I left, and starts to look for a new job. At that time Swissair was looking for a Service Responsible, but instead of sending my resume according the usual way, I dared for a solution more risky. I went to see directly the administrative director in his office to tell him about my career, and I get hired. Moreover the Director liked me enough to appoint me as his right-hand man at only 26 years old. But as I started to feel a little bit stuck in this company, I left it after one year. Burlington Industries, a luxury textile American company, was looking for a Director to manage its French branch. Even if I had no experience in this sector, I was hired. This is where I really start to know what working for companies could mean. Indeed I discovered the American way of working; I met the biggest marketing experts, as Burlington was the biggest textile company at that time. I also learnt a lot about management, the fact to deal with things in a more laid-back way, without trying to always be taken seriously. I have been successively appointed as Commercial Director, Collection Director, Development Director until becoming the number two of the group, as I was the Worldwide Marketing Director. It was very stimulating times, because we were launching many projects, like opening subsidiaries in Europe or diversifying our products and our customer targets. Then I became member of the executive board, and I made aware that wherever I could move up in the hierarchy, there will always be someone higher than me. So I started to set up my own businesses. Moreover as I had no financial problems, I was willing to take up personal challenges. And so what kind of companies have you set up? Did you already think about catering? Not at all! Actually I took over one Burling branch, dedicated to the fine lingerie. Then I also set up a shoes company and a jeans company, but with products a little bit different from what people were used to see. That’s how I discovered the life of owner-manager, it was really good times, because business was working well, I could travel when I wanted… One of my superior executive was in charge of the key accounts, and I sometimes went with him to central purchasing, to bargain prices together. So we started to get acquainted. In fact, his father was a French military officer and a surgeon from Pondicherry, and managed the Pondicherry Hospital in the sixties. The day, when my executive retired, he went back to live in Pondy and I promised him I came to visit him. And once I arrived in Pondy I felt something really strong, I really appreciated the town and before leaving I promised again that I will come back and stay longer to travel all around South India. From 2001, I started to travel more and more often in India, I also visited the North. But even if I was often travelling around India, I came back almost always to Pondicherry. That is why I started to think about a settlement here. In order to take a decision, I went for several months in my holiday home in a small island, to think clearly, to define the advantages and the disadvantages and to find ideas about what I could do there. And so what guided your decision? And how the Baker Street idea came to your mind? In fact, every morning I woke up In front of the sea, in a very beautiful area, but I missed Pondy. So I decided to launch myself into this adventure. When I arrived, I already have some friends, so the adaptation was easier. And I went out a lot to meet people, who were living here, and almost all of them complained that there was no French cheese, no French wine, no French bakery… Basically I wanted to import wines, because I have already done that for a while between France and South Korea. But it involved too much fees to launch the business, so I finally focused on the French bakery. The initial idea was to set only a French Bakery, but after market research, I realized that it wouldn’t be financially feasible on the long range. That is why, I diversified my offers, by proposing chocolates and a café-fast food side. What kind of difficulties have you faced to launch Baker Street? In fact it has taken a lot of times, and for two years and half, I almost haven’t earned anything. For the first year, I should adapt with my new environment, finding the right place, understanding all the needful licenses to open this kind of store (21 in fact!). When I found the place, I had to wait for six months, that the government accepts to provide as much electricity that what I wanted. So finally I have almost spent one year to analyse and build the project, and then one year and half to achieve it fully, until the final opening. And we opened on the February 29th 2008; so we celebrate our birthday every four years! Unfortunately it was not the best season of the year, because after April the town is slowly abandoned by tourists and expatriates, so we the beginning was a little bit difficult, but step by step everything started to work well. What kind of difficulties do you faced in your daily management of Baker Street? It is often difficult to train qualified staff, and except the room supervisor and my counter, most of the other employees are living in rather rough conditions. So they are working in an environment, which is the opposite of what they are daily living. That is why sometimes it is difficult for them to understand some measures to take or behaviors to adopt. It requires times and patience, to explain clearly things. According to you, what are the key success factors to launch a business in Pondicherry? Globally, it is very difficult to launch a business here and even myself after three years of activities I sometimes met problems. So you have to always be here, present and never let your attention wander. But there is a process of doing things, which relies on two main fields. The first one is the professional skill, i.e the professional experience or the studies, the second one is the moral structure of the person, i.e. self-knowledge and respect for other people. We have to accept the fact that we are only guests in India, and we don’t have to play the neo or post-colonialists. If you have these two qualities, you can hope to be successful. But it is still very difficult, for example after five years there are very few companies, set up by expatriates, which have been successful and which could be examples. And how do you develop this self-knowledge, which is required to be successful? This is a long path of inner evolution, to get different knowledge from what you need to manage a company. That’s what people call “Spirituality” here, but it is more about a personal trigger, which occurs in your life, and earlier is better! But some people will never experience this trigger and will live according illusive values. If you are going far enough into this personal path, fears and doubts disappear, and you become freer to achieve what you want or to take some difficult decisions. Today are you satisfied with Baker Street? Yes absolutely, but what it is the most important for me, is that people like coming here, like products we are offering. This is my biggest personal satisfaction. To my mind, what matter is to develop this concept, to make people with who I am working happy and to share my success with my friends. According a personal side, I am also proud to have been able to take up this challenge, while I didn’t know anything about catering, especially in India! What are your short-middle and long ranges projects? At a short and middle term, I am waiting for the needful license to open a restaurant in Baker Street, in order to be allowed offering beers and wines to my customers. Baker Street is in fact a kind of laboratory, where I experiment different concepts, in order to know which one is working. At a long-range view, I would like to open other bakeries in Bangalore, Chennai and Auroville. How do you see the future of Pondicherry, at a touristic scale? Can it become a massive tourist seaside destination? I don’t think so, it would rather be a town, that you will visit in a different mood. This is a small town, but which can be like Bangalore at the cultural level in the future. I mean a city with many cultural activities, very cosmopolitan from the West and from India. The French Touch can also make the city a “must see” place for anyone’s trip in India. The architectural beauty is very different from what you can see in India, so it can attract people. But it won’t become a massive seaside destination, with big building along the seaside; many people and associations take care of that. For more information about this delicious bakery, please visit them at 123 Bussy Street (Lal Bahadur) or send an email to: jas.delicacies@gmail.com . [Close x]

Anand Pakiam : The voice of the French Institute of Pondicherry.

Anand Pakiam has a career rather unusual. As he was born in Chicago, he is American-French-Pondicherian! He lived in many different countries, but stays very linked to Pondicherry, where he is working since 2005 as the Communication Director of the IFP, the oldest French research center in India. Through his career, he invites us to discover his story, the IFP’s one and his role in the institute. Anand has the sensitive mission to make public aware about the results of all the researches of IFP. So let’s discover more in details this institute, which everybody knows, but few people are really aware about the nature of their works.



Global presentation.

*The atypical career of Anand.

Anand comes from a family very open mind to the world. Indeed his father was born in Cambodia, where he has lived many years, before to move to Vietnam. At his mother family lived in Malaysia, where there is a big Indian community. Moreover his father, a French-Pondicherian, who can speak fluently Khmer and Vietnamese, worked for an American oil company, which brings the family to travel a lot.