FIVE INSIGHTS FROM NEPAL’S FIRST BILLIONAIRE
Dr. Binod Chaudhary, Chairman of CG Corp Global and Nepal’s only Forbes-listed billionaire, joined the Sri Lanka Chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation for a candid conversation on building businesses across some of the world’s most demanding markets.
Moderated by Haresh de Soysa, Director at Trade Promoters Limited and former President of EO Sri Lanka, the conversation ranged from the discipline of Japanese business culture to the mechanics of family succession, drawing throughout on Dr. Chaudhary’s five decades of building a multi-billion dollar empire across 32 countries, starting from a landlocked nation of 30 million people.
His connection with Sri Lanka goes back nearly 25 years. He entered in 2001 during the civil war and has remained through every crisis the country has faced since, at one point announcing an additional USD 50 million investment when others were pulling back.
His group’s presence here today spans banking through a majority stake in Union Bank, hospitality through multiple properties including the Taj Samudra, a partnership with John Keells on the BYD agency, and a cement feasibility study currently underway – a footprint that reflects genuine long-term conviction in the country’s potential.
The line that drew the most reaction from the room came when Dr. Chaudhary was asked about the advantage of building in difficult environments. “If you can figure out how to succeed in countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka, it is like you know how to get on a badminton court and be ready for a cricket ball to come at you,” he said. His argument was straightforward: entrepreneurs who have survived currency crises, political instability, and regulatory uncertainty develop a shock-readiness that those who have only operated in stable markets simply do not carry. That reflex, he suggested, transfers well when you eventually move into easier terrain.
Dr. Chaudhary has long cited Japan as the education he never received in a classroom -a country whose business culture shaped his thinking during visits in the 1970s. He described three qualities he observed that have stayed with him: a deep organizational discipline, a resistance to individual grandstanding, and willingness among those who lose an internal argument to give unconditional support to the outcome that was chosen. The logic behind that last quality, he explained, is simple. “If we win, I win.” Individual and collective outcomes are treated as identical. His observation for the room was that this behaviour cannot be mandated – it can only follow from an environment where that belief is made economically real. Incentive structures, shared metrics, and genuine collective accountability must come first. The discipline follows naturally from there.
With partnerships spanning Marriott, Tata, and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance – among many others – Dr. Chaudhary has built more joint ventures than most entrepreneurs will
encounter in a lifetime. His advice on what makes them last came down to a single distinction. “For both sides to win, each side must bring something valuable and value-adding,” he said.
The session with Dr. Chaudhary, who later this year will break ground on a USD 100 million Ritz-Carlton in Kathmandu, reflected the kind of access the organisation makes possible: candid, specific, and rooted in real experience.
