Aditi Foods – Bhagat Patil, 2 to 25 Countries

    How Bhagat Patil, CEO of Aditi Foods, turned relationship-building into an export engine — growing from 2 countries to 25 in ten years without ever treating networking as a transaction.

    Aditi Foods – Bhagat Patil, 2 to 25 Countries

    Aditi Foods – Bhagat Patil, 2 to 25 Countries

    In ten years, Bhagat Patil took Aditi Foods from exporting to 2 countries to exporting to 25. He did not do it with a bigger marketing budget or a flashier product line — he did it by building relationships he never let go cold, with customers, vendors and even competitors. This is one of my favourite stories in Stars at India Inc., because it destroys the myth that networking is about collecting visiting cards. It is about what you do after you collect them.

    In short

    Where this sits on your Winning Kite

    Networking & Building Bonds is Trait #21 on the EQ — left — side of your Winning Kite (KITE Leadership Framework). It belongs to the cluster I call Motivating Others, because a strong network is rarely built for your own sake alone — it is built to lift the people around you, and in turn, they lift you. EQ (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skill) sits on the left side of the kite; RQ (Relationship Intelligence) sits on the right; PQ (Productivity) sits at the bottom; and Success — the result you actually see — sits at the top. You do not rise on EQ alone. You rise when all three sides pull together, the way a kite only climbs when its frame and its string are both doing their job. Bhagat Patil's story is a textbook case of EQ (the discipline to nurture relationships) directly fuelling business Success.

    Who is Bhagat Patil

    Bhagat Patil is the CEO of Aditi Foods. When I first learned his story, what struck me was not the growth number itself — impressive as 2-to-25 countries is — but how ordinary the mechanism behind it was. He is not a networking guru who studied persuasion theory. He is a businessman who simply refused to let a relationship end after the transaction was done.

    From 2 countries to 25 — the arc

    Aditi Foods started, like most export businesses do, with a handful of buyers in a couple of overseas markets. Ten years later, the company's products were reaching 25 countries. In an industry where distributors, regulators, quality inspectors, freight forwarders, and competing exporters all touch the same supply chain, that kind of expansion does not happen because one person is a brilliant closer. It happens because the network around that person keeps opening doors — introducing him to the next buyer, vouching for him to the next regulator, recommending him to the next partner even when there was no immediate commission in it for them.

    That is the real engine behind the growth curve: not a single big deal, but a compounding series of small trust deposits that eventually made Bhagat Patil the person people thought of first when an opportunity came up in his category.

    Trust with everyone — including competitors

    What makes Bhagat Patil's approach unusual is who he included in his circle of relationship-building. Most business owners are careful with customers and cordial with vendors. Very few extend the same warmth to competitors. Patil did. He built strong relationships with all stakeholders — customers, vendors, and even the businessmen who were technically competing with him for the same overseas orders.

    He never forgot to send gifts and Aditi Foods products to everyone in his network on occasions like Diwali — not a select VIP list, but everyone. It is a small, almost old-fashioned gesture, and that is exactly why it works. In a business world full of automated "Happy Diwali" WhatsApp forwards, a CEO who personally ensures a real product reaches your desk every year is impossible to forget.

    The forum: building the pond instead of just fishing in it

    I had the opportunity to attend one of Bhagat Patil's forums for businessmen in his area. What struck me was the intent behind it. Despite facing intense competition in his own category, Patil and his team were creating a platform for all — a shared space where businessmen, competitors included, could connect, learn and do business together.

    Most people in a competitive industry protect their contact list like a trade secret. Patil did the opposite: he built the pond that everyone could fish in, and in doing so became the person everyone associated with generosity and access. That reputation travelled faster than any single sales pitch could have — and it is precisely the kind of "informal network of mutually helpful relationships" that star performers build, where one person's success genuinely depends on other people's willingness to help.

    Why this works — the psychology behind it

    Networking of this kind rests on a few EQ fundamentals that show up again and again in Stars at India Inc.: understanding people, handling your own emotions (especially around competitors), and communicating clearly and warmly. People who are good at building bonds do not treat networking events as separate from personal friendship — they blend the two carefully, maintaining real friendships with people they work with while still knowing where to draw professional lines.

    This is close in spirit to what Daniel Goleman calls social skill within emotional intelligence — the ability to manage relationships and build networks, used here purely as a supporting lens; the frame and the discipline in this story are Avinash's own, built from years of watching Indian businesses like Aditi Foods operate on the ground.

    Practical tools you can use this week

    The book distils Bhagat Patil-style networking into habits anyone can practise, not just CEOs of export houses:

    Social Intelligence

    Observe and adapt to social cues, cultural differences, and varying communication styles across the people in your network. A vendor in Surat and a distributor in Dubai do not expect to be spoken to the same way.

    Follow-Up

    After meeting someone new, follow up with a personalised message expressing appreciation and referencing what you actually discussed. This single habit is what separates a business card in a drawer from a relationship in your network.

    Genuine Interest

    Ask open-ended questions about people's experiences, goals and aspirations — not just their order size. Genuine curiosity is what built trust between Patil and stakeholders who had every reason to see him only as competition.

    Networking Events

    Attend industry events and conferences deliberately, not passively. Patil didn't wait for forums to happen to him — he built one.

    Online Presence

    Maintain a professional presence on platforms like LinkedIn, and engage rather than just broadcast.

    Collaboration

    Look for genuine project or initiative collaboration opportunities — they strengthen existing bonds while showing your capability to a wider circle.

    The caution: not everyone builds a network naturally

    It's worth being honest about who struggles here. People who are shy, introverted or reclusive often find relationship-building genuinely difficult. So do people who accept invitations but never extend their own, or who restrict every conversation strictly to work matters. And people who guard their time and agenda too tightly tend to decline requests to collaborate — which quietly stunts their network over years, even if they never notice it happening. None of this is a character flaw. It is simply a skill that, like any other on the Winning Kite, has to be practised deliberately if it doesn't come naturally.

    Applying this at work — even if you are not a CEO

    You do not need to run an export company to use this. Outstanding professionals balance their core work with carefully chosen favours for others — not because they expect an instant return, but because it builds goodwill with people who may become important resources later. Establishing that kind of dependable alliance, where a colleague or a client knows they can count on you beyond the transaction, is the foundation of every strong work relationship. That is exactly the muscle Bhagat Patil trained for a decade, and it is exactly why 2 countries became 25.

    If you want to build these habits systematically in your team, this is one of the themes I work on in Signature Corporate Training Programs and across our broader corporate training topics — because networking, like every EQ trait on the Winning Kite, gets stronger with structured practice, not just good intentions.

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    Avinash Chate

    TEDx Speaker · Founder, The Future Corporate · Author of Stars at India Inc.

    Avinash has trained the Indian Army, BRO, RBI, BARC, JSW Steel and 1000+ corporate leaders across India. His work focuses on leadership, emotional intelligence and behavioural training rooted in Indian values and modern business needs.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the Bhagat Patil / Aditi Foods networking story about?

    It is the story of Bhagat Patil, CEO of Aditi Foods, who grew his company's export footprint from 2 countries to 25 countries in ten years — not through advertising spend, but by building genuine, trust-based relationships with customers, vendors and even competitors.

    How did Bhagat Patil build such a strong network?

    He treated every stakeholder — customers, vendors, competitors — as someone worth a genuine relationship. He sent Diwali gifts and Aditi Foods products to his entire network every year, and he created a shared industry forum for businessmen in his area instead of only protecting his own turf.

    Where does networking fit on the Winning Kite framework?

    Networking & Building Bonds is Trait #21, on the EQ (left) side of the Winning Kite. It sits alongside self-awareness and relationship-building traits that, combined with RQ and PQ, drive Success at the top of the kite.

    Can introverts build networks the way Bhagat Patil did?

    Yes, but it takes deliberate effort. The book notes that shy or overly work-focused professionals often fail to expand their networks — not because they lack the ability, but because they don't initiate. Networking is a practised skill, not a personality trait reserved for extroverts.

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