We celebrate Yashesh Mukhi’s commitment to sustainability and innovation.
Pragati Leadership specializes in designing and delivering transformative learning and development journeys that cultivate inspiring leaders and drive successful organizations. Our extensive experience includes offering Business Leadership Coaching Programs aimed at empowering individuals and teams to reach their full potential. To further promote excellence in leadership, Pragati Leadership established The Inspiring and Successful Leadership Awards, which celebrate outstanding leadership qualities and encourage others to adopt similar traits. In September 2024, the third edition of these prestigious awards was conferred to the deserving winners.
This year, at The Inspiring and Successful Leadership Awards, in the Emerging Business Leaders category, we honored an individual who has combined environmental consciousness with business success to offer eco-friendly, vegan footwear to the world. For coming up with the idea and successfully turning it into a fashion and sustainability brand, we presented the Emerging Business Award to Mr. Yashesh Mukhi of Chupps.
A Fascinating Journey
In his acceptance speech, Yashesh took us through his fascinating journey. He was on track for a successful banking career when he felt the pull of the business world. He shifted gears and went from being a finance professional to spearheading the family business. Three years back, while managing the family brand, he got thinking and realized that there is a huge gap in the open footwear segment in the Indian market. Yes, there are slides, V-straps and flip-flops, but nothing that’s really fashionable, high quality and at par with global standards.
Today, open footwear has emerged as a fairly strong footwear product category, and the product that was largely used indoors is now a lot more social. Interestingly, it is also a very strong after-sport category. You will find many customers slipping into their sliders after playing sports or on the way to the gym.
Eco-Friendly Innovation
This gap was perfectly captured by Chupps, an eco-friendly, vegan brand, that delivers supreme comfort, durability, versatility while using premium quality materials. A dedicated vegan himself, Yashesh was conscious of the impact that manufacturing has on the environment, and realized that there was a need to reimagine how a brand designs, manufactures, and distributes footwear to its customers.
The business showed great acumen and has used sports properties to promote the brand. Chupps is the official footwear partner for Mumbai Indians, Gujarat Titans, and Kerala Blasters Football Club. The brand was also chosen as the official, open footwear partner for the Cricket World Cup that happened in India last winter. All these partnerships have played an important role in leveraging the brand and positioning it as a leader in the after-sport category.
Customer-Centric Approach
According to Mr. Yashesh Mukhi, the secret to doing well is to put customers at the center of everything that a business does. From creating a high-quality product to offering the best price possible, thereby delivering a strong value proposition.
He also credits his quick success to a strong organizational culture, one focused on building relationships and taking care of employees. They are at the heart of the business and it is important to make them feel comfortable and help bring the best out of them. Many of the people working at Chupps today joined in sales but have got the opportunity to grow and become leaders of various verticals within the organization. We recognize this as a fine example of employee leadership training.
Family is everything, and Yashesh appreciated that if not for his father, a seasoned businessman himself, he would still be living the corporate life as a banker. Much of the confidence, experience and business intelligence comes from watching his father manage a successful business for over 32 years.
He expressed his thanks and gratitude to Pragati Leadership for organizing the event and to the jury for picking him for this recognition, his first as a leader.
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