Dani created a model for promoters

livemint.com:

MUMBAI : Ashwin Dani was central to the development of Asian Paints over the 1980s and 90s. He was central in bringing the application of modern chemistry to Asian Paints’ products. Asian Paints, under his watch, applied increasing amounts of computer technology.

In a way, the centrality of technology was central to everything that Asian Paints did. The first supercomputer in India was bought by space agency Isro, the second by Asian Paints in 1970. Through the 1970s and 80s, Asian Paints got very closely identified as a high-tech company, applying both computer science and cutting-edge chemistry to its products.

I think, at some level, Dani will also be missed as a visionary businessman who, in the 1970s India, dared to take the country close to whatever was the cutting edge of technology at that point in time. Asian Paints also has a competitive edge through the use of data for marketing distribution—they use computers to predict which paints to sell, when, and where ,across 150,000 dealerships. Four times a day, inventories are exhausted.

So, basically you’re doing 600,000 deliveries to shops in various parts of the country. That’s basically big data in its most pure form. I think he played a central role at Asian Paints in 1996, when Champaklal Choksey (one of the four founders of the company) decided to sell his stake to ICI, its main rival, in 1996.

Ashwin Dani stepped into play an important role protecting the company from hostile rivals and in effect became the leader of the business. Another critical point was in 2008 when the collapse of Lehman Brothers pummelled stock prices around the world, including that of Asian Paints. The Dani family stepped in and increased their stake in the company at a time when