For an entrepreneur who has built businesses across manufacturing, infrastructure, healthcare, education and wellness, Faizal Kottikollon follows a surprisingly simple routine.
His day starts around 5 am with reading, followed by a walk or run by the sea, tennis and yoga. Late-night parties are rare. Television gets little attention, and social media even less.
Behind that routine is a broader philosophy that has guided the founder and chairman of KEF Holdings through decades of entrepreneurship.
For Kottikollon, success cannot be measured merely by wealth, valuation or status. What matters more is the problems an entrepreneur solves, the institutions one creates and the lives that improve as a result.
In a conversation with TS Geena on the Dhanam Titans Show, he spoke about entrepreneurship, family, health, spirituality and leadership — and the habits that continue to influence his decisions.
A structured morning is central to Kottikollon’s life. He begins with books, particularly those dealing with philosophy, life and personal growth. Physical activity follows, including walking, running, tennis and yoga. The routine, he believes, helps maintain both physical well-being and mental clarity.
His role in business has also evolved. Professional management teams now handle much of the daily operations, allowing him to focus more on direction, innovation and the larger purpose of the organisations he has built.
The principle is straightforward: leaders do not have to control every small decision. Their bigger responsibility is to create clarity, culture and direction.
Kottikollon and his wife, Shabana, prefer a relatively quiet lifestyle despite their wealth and social standing.
They rarely attend late-night gatherings, sleep early and avoid excessive television consumption. He also limits exposure to negative news and stays away from most social media platforms. WhatsApp remains his main tool for communication. The approach reflects a deliberate effort to reduce unnecessary noise.
For entrepreneurs constantly dealing with information, meetings and decisions, simplicity can itself become a productivity tool. More wealth and access do not necessarily require a more complicated life.
Kottikollon applies the same philosophy of discipline to parenting. Children, he believes, must learn values, responsibility and restraint while their character is still developing. Giving them everything they ask for can create entitlement rather than resilience.
Learning to hear and accept a ‘no’ therefore becomes important. Parents must also practise the habits they want their children to adopt. Fitness, sports, yoga, early sleep and early mornings cannot simply be preached — they must be demonstrated.
Education remains important, but so does learning how to manage freedom, ambition and responsibility.
Many of Kottikollon’s values were shaped long before he became an entrepreneur. He credits his mother with teaching him humility and his father, PK Ahamed, with instilling hard work, ethics and respect for people.
Although the family was financially comfortable, wealth was not allowed to define the children. When guests came home, the children were expected to serve them tea or coffee, regardless of who the visitors were. Hospitality and humility were practised as everyday habits. Kottikollon has tried to carry the same thinking into the next generation.
Family wealth, in his view, should not automatically become entitlement. The next generation must work, contribute and create value. Wealth should be seen less as ownership and more as something to be managed responsibly.
A meeting with former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam became an important turning point in Kottikollon’s journey.
Kalam visited his manufacturing facility and observed how technology and human capability were being combined. He later encouraged Kottikollon to explore how similar innovation could be applied to education and healthcare in India.
That conversation influenced several of his subsequent ventures. For Kottikollon, education and healthcare are not just commercial sectors. They are areas where innovation can have a lasting impact on society.
As his businesses expanded, Kottikollon encouraged his wife Shabana to become more involved in the organisation. She initially had no formal business background, but he believed her experience in managing a family had given her an important leadership quality — the ability to understand people. She eventually took on responsibilities in human resources and administration.
Employees sometimes need someone they can approach with concerns they may hesitate to raise with senior management. Shabana helped create that bridge.
The experience reinforced a larger lesson: empathy and compassion are not weaknesses in business. Used properly, they can strengthen organisational culture and employee trust.
Kottikollon has a particularly strong connection with ventures in healthcare, education and well-being. Projects such as Meitra Hospital, Tulah and initiatives undertaken through his foundation share a common objective — improving the quality of people's lives.
Financial success, he believes, cannot provide the same satisfaction as hearing that an institution or service has genuinely helped someone.
He is also cautious about excessive commercialisation in education and healthcare. When profit becomes the only objective, institutions can lose sight of their fundamental social purpose.
Difficult problems have consistently attracted Kottikollon. Whether in manufacturing, cleaner technologies, construction systems or healthcare, he has often pursued ideas that others considered difficult to execute.
Entrepreneurs, he believes, need to retain a child's curiosity. The objective should not simply be to copy an existing business model. Entrepreneurship becomes more meaningful when it identifies a genuine problem and finds a different way to solve it.
Being told that something cannot be done often becomes an additional reason to attempt it.
One of Kottikollon’s strongest messages to young professionals and entrepreneurs is to understand why they are doing what they do. If money becomes the only objective, even success can eventually feel empty.
Purpose does not have to be limited to philanthropy or social enterprises. Almost any profession can create impact when approached with the right intent. A doctor can improve lives. An engineer can create safer or more efficient systems. A journalist can take useful ideas to a wider audience. An entrepreneur can solve problems at scale.
For Kottikollon, this connects with the concept of ‘dharma’ — finding meaning and responsibility in one’s work.
Technology may transform how companies operate, but relationships remain fundamental. Kottikollon believes communication should remain personal and genuine. Appreciation should not become a mechanical corporate exercise.
Employees can usually recognise whether leadership is authentic. When people trust the intentions of a leader, they are more willing to contribute their time, energy and commitment. That trust becomes part of the organisation’s strength.
Kottikollon’s worldview has also been influenced by Vedanta, biographies and books on personal development. In business, he draws inspiration from JRD Tata and the Tata tradition of combining scale with values and ethics.
But the central idea running through his philosophy is simpler. Success is not just about what a person accumulates. It is about what one contributes. Discipline, health, curiosity, relationships and a purpose beyond money form the core of his approach to life and entrepreneurship.
The bigger achievement, in that sense, is not merely building a large business empire. It is being able to look back and see that the institutions one created made people's lives better.