The Chocolatier Smoor continues to launch its own offline stores across the key cities of India

As a child, chocolate ice cream was always Vimal Sharma's favourite dessert to indulge in. Those days when people travelled aboard, he had indulged with chocolates as gifts. Sharing his memories, Sharma mentions, "I remember being enraptured by the unique flavours, shapes, sizes and packaging. I remember collecting some of the nice packs and keeping them because they were colourful or had a nice design. Some were even used as a pencil case."

Sharing his other sources of inspiration while building Smoor, the luxury chocolate brand, Sharma mentions, "The more you connect with the customer, the easier it becomes to know what will work and what will not. Another source of inspiration for me is networking within the industry – the F&B industry is constantly innovating across cuisines and formats. That fuels creativity too."

Creativity with commercial sense is needed in business. Sharing his views, Sharma says, "For us creativity comes into play from product to packaging, and also creating occasion based range. All of these need to come together to make commercial sense and lead to driving the most sales. Also, how such efforts add incremental sales leading to growth. Efforts in creating unique products also reflect on repeat purchases too." He also shares that one should also be ready for products to fail. "When you launch something new it's important to see how it's shaping up, take quick action and correct or work on an exit strategy," he adds.

Smoor continues to launch its own offline stores across the key cities of India. Currently it is present in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai and is expanding to other 2 cities (Pune & Hyderabad) in the next three months. Sharma says, "We are also growing our online presence. We intend to enter the Middle East and South East Asia markets by mid 2023."

HOW TO THINK SCALE

• Confidence & courage is essential, the belief that you can do it.
• People avoid understanding business and finance, so they should look at educating themselves. As a business owner you need to lead that. Also being analytical and understanding the market is critical.
• Use the right resources make the most of the gig economy and work with the right consultants, engaging with right talent is crucial for growth.

For the sixth edition of Entrepreneur's Creative Inc, we recognize 25 creative artists and brand builders selected on the basis of qualitative analysis and consideration from industry leaders and Entrepreneur India Editors, who reviewed hundreds of nominations – under the cultural economy. The people featured in the ensuing pages are the champions of the value of design excellence. How some of these creators are using design to address some of society's most pressing problems showcases their potential for the future. Our ambition with this issue is to explore what role design and creativity play to make a better world.