Nand Kishore Chaudhary

Weaver.Thinker.Doer

Mr. Nand Kishore Chaudhary (NKC), the founder of Jaipur Rugs, is a globally acclaimed social entrepreneur and is often referred to as “Gandhi of carpet industry”.

In the year 1978, NKC started his carpet business with just 2 looms and 9 artisans. His transformational leadership approach has enabled Jaipur Rugs to become a scaled global social enterprise which provides sustainable livelihood to 40,000 artisans, over 80% of them being women, at their door-step across 600 far flung villages and 20 branches in 5 states in India.

NKC has created immense value in the society by using business as an agent of progression & change. The agenda of women empowerment lies close to his vision and he believes that the world has to break the patriarchal mindset and give women the power and chance.Management guru, C.K. Prahalad featured NKC’s revolutionary business philosophy in his globally acclaimed book -The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

He has been regularly invited as a guest speaker in various esteemed universities like Harvard, Wharton, IIT Mumbai and many more. The company has also received many prestigious awards like Make in India ‘Emerging Entrepreneur Award 2017’; German Design Award; 2017; GDA 2016; Carpet Design Award 2017 (considered as the Oscars of the Carpet Industry) and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2010 to name a few.

He has introduced a series of innovations to unlock the untapped potential of the weavers. A great example of this is the Artisan Originals collection which allows weavers to be the designers of their own rugs, tapping into the untamed fashion from the villages of India.

He was described as “father of modern social enterprises” by internationally reputed professor of marketing, Jagdish N. Sheth from Emory University, USA. Sheth said, “Jaipur Rugs has become a role model, that business can serve society and at the same time … can be a capitalistic institution”.

As a simple man, NKC is devoted to the Indian hand-knotted rug industry with an aim to position it rightly in the world and to empower its real owner and creator – the Indian weaver.