Being an entrepreneur is a dream of many MBA Aspirants. In order to make this dream a reality, a lot of IIM alumni have struggled and faced challenges in their respective lives. The journey to becoming an entrepreneur and establishing a successful brand often led to hardships and obstacles. But with their determination, they achieved a lot.
In this article, we bring for you stories to get inspired by the success of some IIM alumni.
A) SANJEEV BIKHCHANDANI
Service (s): Online job search and assistance
The Success Story: The venture is the ideation of IIM Ahmadabad Alumni, Sanjeev
Bikhchandani. He was the man behind this famous job portal that is being accessed by
millions of job seekers.
Sanjeev left his lucrative job profile with Horlicks at HMM (now known as GlaxoSmithKline) in 1990 to set up two companies Landmark and Info Edge (India) along with a partner. In 1997, Bikhchandani set up Naukri.com, a job portal on a server in the United States. As an entrepreneur, the initial 10 years was the most difficult phase for him to establish the venture. He is fortunate to have a life-partner named Surbhi, who took care of the household expenses while working for Nestle, while he wasn’t working back then.
The company did not become a brand overnight. After much struggle, Naukri.com was
launched in March 97’ with 1,000 ads taken out of various magazines. Other than
naukari.com, Info Edge also owns web sites like Jeevansathi.com, 99acres.com,
Brijj.com, Naukrigulf.com, Shiksha.com, Quadrangle, and Firstnaukri.com as well.
B) DEEP KALRA
Service (s): Booking flights, hotels, tour packages
The Success Story: The Indian online travel company was founded by an alumnus of
Indian Institute of Management Ahmadabad. The company was launched in the US
the market in 2000 with an ideology to cater to the Indian community for their US-to-India
travel needs.
The company’s fate took a turn when IRCTC’s online business model enabled the Indian
traveler to purchase railway tickets and low-cost carriers entered the Indian aviation
space. At that time, the company tapped the opportunity and launched Indian operations
in September 2005. The company also started to focus on non-air businesses like holiday
packages and hotel bookings. On 13 August 2010, MakeMyTrip was listed on the
NASDAQ and went public, making a debut in the US market. The company also operates
through 65 retail stores across 50 cities in India, along with international offices in New
York City and Sydney.
C) Raghuram Rajan (IIM-A)
Occupation: Former RBI Governor
Born: 3 February 1963, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
The Success Story: He is the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and
is currently serving as the Vice-Chairman of the Bank for International
Settlements. He was the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund
from 2003 to 2007, the youngest to occupy the position. In 1987 he earned a
Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of
Management, Ahmedabad where he was a gold medallist. In 2014, he was
conferred with the Governor of the Year Award 2014 from London-based
financial journal Central Banking.
D) Harsh Bhogle (IIM-A)
Occupation: Indian Cricket Commentator and Journalist
Born: 19 July 1961
The Success Story: Bhogle began his career as a cricket player for the APCA and has
played small level cricket. He is the first Indian commentator to be invited by the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation during Indias cricket series before 1992
Cricket World Cup. Harsh pursued his masters from IIM-A and later got married to his
classmate from the same institute. He and his wife Anita Bhogle have written a book
titled The Winning Way based on business knowledge drawn from the sporting world.
E) Shikha Sharma (IIM-A)
Occupation: Managing Director, CEO of Axis Bank
Born: 19 November 1958,
The Success Story: She began her career with a job in Industrial Credit and
Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) in 1980. In 1992, she set up ICICI Securities
which is a joint venture of ICICI and J.P. Morgan. At present, she is the Chief Executive
Officer, Managing Director of Axis Bank Limited and Chairperson and associate Director
of Axis Asset Management Company Limited since June 1, 2009. Shikha Sharma is one
of the two women entrepreneurs who are at the helm of a private bank in India. She was
Ranked 89th in the list of Worlds 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes magazine in the year 2010.
F) Ashank Desai
Date of birth- May 16, 1951
Service (s): Information Technology Services Company
The Success Story: Mastek Limited is a multinational information technology Services
The company headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is Ashank’s venture who is an alumni of
IIM-Ahmadabad. Desai used to spend his weekends at IIM while chalking out plans to
revolutionize the country's information management system. After IIM, along with a few of his batchmates, he turned his dream into reality with an initial capital of merely Rs.
15,000/-. Currently, Mastek is a spellbinding success story with its 1997-98 revenue of
Rs 91.79 crore and listed on NSE and BSE in India.
Master's success took a turn when CSI (Computer Society of India) organized an
exhibition. In that era, Personal Computers were launched and Mastek took orders from
big corporate brands such as HUL, Citibank, etc. In its 6th year of operation, Mastek was
ranked 6th in the list of Dataquest magazine. Since then there was no turning back!
G) Supam Maheshwari
Service (s): Online baby and kids store
The Success Story: The venture was initiated by IIM-A pass out & Engineer from the
Delhi College of Engineering, Supam Maheshwari. His motivation for startups came from
the issues he faced as a first-time parent. Maheshwari has even acquired Mahindra
‘BabyOye’ in a stock deal and also secured an investment from the $18-billion
conglomerate. At present, he is the CEO of by far the largest baby and mother care
retailer in India, both online and offline
In 2012, he also launched a logistics business to fulfill its own orders. XpressBees, which
is now run by Saha, started taking third-party orders in 2015 and raised Rs 85 crore in
funding after spinning off from First Cry. In addition, the First cry has 70 offline stores that are mostly located in Tier 1 cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Noida, etc.
H) Vijay Mahajan - The social entrepreneur from IIM
He is the one who made dreams possible to happen. He made a reality with what others could only dream about. He was one of the most starred students of IIT Delhi and then a gold medallist from IIM Ahmedabad. Due to his financial disability, he could not Kennedy School of Government so he started his work as one who stood by the side of the financially disabled for making possible their persuasion. He worked in organizations like PRADAN and Vika before he formed his own company by the name of BASIX. The main purpose of the organization is to provide employment to the poor and especially the women.
I) Indra Nooyi – The CEO of Pepsi
Indra passed out of IIM Calcutta and is now the CEO of Pepsi. She is one whose name is a
constant inclusion amongst the names of the most powerful women according to Forbes. She was also elected to be the Chairwoman of the US-India Business Council. It does not end here she received the Padma Bhusan for being one who devoted much in the field of business.
J) K. V. Kamath
K. V. Kamath is the chief of the New Development Bank of BRICS countries. He has served as the Chairman of Infosys Limited and as the Non-Executive Chairman of ICICI Bank. Kamath also served as ICICI Banks Managing Director and CEO until his retirement from executive responsibilities on 30 April 2009. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University. He obtained his post-graduation diploma in management from IIM Ahmedabad.
You can find all the important questions which have the potency to repeat in the current year on https://www.percentilers.in/.
-With these popular ventures on the list, you can also become one of the entrepreneurs carving a niche in your area of interest. All you need to do is pursue an MBA from any one of the top MBA colleges of India and acquire or polish the business skills in you.
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