B&E’s Pawan Chabria meets up with some individuals who opted to go barefoot in search of success, rather than lazily stepping into the comfort of guaranteed, cushioned golden shoes offered by well set organisations...
Often labelled as the land of agriculture and farmers, India has also surprisingly achieved many a milestone when it comes to churning out new-age entrepreneurs. If truth be told, then gone are the days when every fresh MBA-labelled individual was found salivating for those temptingly fat pay packages offered by multinationals; rather these days, many are much more enthusiastic about registering a start-up, and moulding it into a new capitalistic force. B&E presents a handful of such real-life tales of MBA entrepreneurs who either shunned the very sight of a 9-to-5 job from a distance or those who grew tired of the luxury and convenience offered by a follow-the-clock-to-the-hilt profile.
Anuj Guglani, CEO of Ace Associates, worked for auto majors like Honda (for 3 years) and GM (for 4 years) after completion of his MBA course from IIT Delhi, before starting his own venture. He was involved at various middle-management levels during his stint with Honda, and was handling the showroom workforce training for GM before he left his job, only four months after his marriage. That was of course not an easy decision to make. Anuj smilingly recollects, “There was a lot of pressure... but my family supported me all the way.” When asked about how much his management education had helped him in his venture, he explained that those two years played a critical role in ensuring the success of his company today. “MBA education is very important for starting or handling a business today. It cultivates a vision and completely changes the way your thought-process operates,” he adds. Anuj started his dream run with little money (as he had spent almost all his savings on a Switzerland trip with his newly-wed wife), but immediate success within a short interval greatly improved his cash-position; he explains, “Since I was lucky to get a client like Mitsubishi just days after the launch of the business, it really took no time to break-even.” In fact, Anuj has today diversified into areas like social networking portals with the newly launched World Auto Forum (for auto-lovers).
So what’s the latest offering from Ace Associates? Well, it comes in the form of a mobile service called, ‘Top five points’ through which a particular salesperson is provided with five reasons for justifying why a certain brand of automobile is preferable over a competitive brand whenever he feels a need to convince his customers. As Anuj claims, he has already roped-in two big auto brands as potential customers for this new service venture. At present, he is also on the lookout for new talent who can take care of his new ventures. And this too isn’t posing any problems to Anuj, “Surprisingly, the response to a start-up venture like ours, has been more than expected, which proves the fact that new-gen MBAs are more than willing to work with start-ups...”
Udit Bhandari, CEO of Indimoto.com, an MBA (with specialisation in Marketing) from The University of East London, UK shares some similarities with Anuj. He too joined the auto sector after his management education, where he worked in GM for about six months. As he says, his MBA education made it easier for him to establish his online second-hand car & bike portal in the country. “The MBA programme helped me in increasing my understanding of business and its various modalities. While setting up Indimoto.com, the learning received in management school helped me to realise various value propositions and to create a strong full-time team, a business plan and a marketing strategy,” he explains. Indimoto.com caught people’s attention via its carpooling initiative, which encouraged commuters to share vehicles to save fuel; clever enough an advertising strategy! Rashmi Vaswani, Founder, Rage Chocolatier, is also one of those who are following their passion with a purpose to strike gold; the only difference was that she couldn’t wait to get started and got down to business right after she completed her post-graduate diploma in management. Her passion was manufacturing chocolates, which she took up as a business opportunity in 2005, and success for her has been sweeter than the product itself.
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009
Often labelled as the land of agriculture and farmers, India has also surprisingly achieved many a milestone when it comes to churning out new-age entrepreneurs. If truth be told, then gone are the days when every fresh MBA-labelled individual was found salivating for those temptingly fat pay packages offered by multinationals; rather these days, many are much more enthusiastic about registering a start-up, and moulding it into a new capitalistic force. B&E presents a handful of such real-life tales of MBA entrepreneurs who either shunned the very sight of a 9-to-5 job from a distance or those who grew tired of the luxury and convenience offered by a follow-the-clock-to-the-hilt profile.
Anuj Guglani, CEO of Ace Associates, worked for auto majors like Honda (for 3 years) and GM (for 4 years) after completion of his MBA course from IIT Delhi, before starting his own venture. He was involved at various middle-management levels during his stint with Honda, and was handling the showroom workforce training for GM before he left his job, only four months after his marriage. That was of course not an easy decision to make. Anuj smilingly recollects, “There was a lot of pressure... but my family supported me all the way.” When asked about how much his management education had helped him in his venture, he explained that those two years played a critical role in ensuring the success of his company today. “MBA education is very important for starting or handling a business today. It cultivates a vision and completely changes the way your thought-process operates,” he adds. Anuj started his dream run with little money (as he had spent almost all his savings on a Switzerland trip with his newly-wed wife), but immediate success within a short interval greatly improved his cash-position; he explains, “Since I was lucky to get a client like Mitsubishi just days after the launch of the business, it really took no time to break-even.” In fact, Anuj has today diversified into areas like social networking portals with the newly launched World Auto Forum (for auto-lovers).
So what’s the latest offering from Ace Associates? Well, it comes in the form of a mobile service called, ‘Top five points’ through which a particular salesperson is provided with five reasons for justifying why a certain brand of automobile is preferable over a competitive brand whenever he feels a need to convince his customers. As Anuj claims, he has already roped-in two big auto brands as potential customers for this new service venture. At present, he is also on the lookout for new talent who can take care of his new ventures. And this too isn’t posing any problems to Anuj, “Surprisingly, the response to a start-up venture like ours, has been more than expected, which proves the fact that new-gen MBAs are more than willing to work with start-ups...”
Udit Bhandari, CEO of Indimoto.com, an MBA (with specialisation in Marketing) from The University of East London, UK shares some similarities with Anuj. He too joined the auto sector after his management education, where he worked in GM for about six months. As he says, his MBA education made it easier for him to establish his online second-hand car & bike portal in the country. “The MBA programme helped me in increasing my understanding of business and its various modalities. While setting up Indimoto.com, the learning received in management school helped me to realise various value propositions and to create a strong full-time team, a business plan and a marketing strategy,” he explains. Indimoto.com caught people’s attention via its carpooling initiative, which encouraged commuters to share vehicles to save fuel; clever enough an advertising strategy! Rashmi Vaswani, Founder, Rage Chocolatier, is also one of those who are following their passion with a purpose to strike gold; the only difference was that she couldn’t wait to get started and got down to business right after she completed her post-graduate diploma in management. Her passion was manufacturing chocolates, which she took up as a business opportunity in 2005, and success for her has been sweeter than the product itself.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009
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