CONTENTS

- THE BELIEVERS

- THE OPPORTUNISTS

- THE ALTERNATE VISION

THE BELIEVERS
People who knew entrepreneurship was
the Chosen Path. They took the plunge
straight after their MBA or after working
barely a couple of years. And they
persevered until they made it big!
p02 THE BOOK OF JOB
Sanjeev Bikhchandani (PGP 1989), naukri.com
Sanjeev is India's most successful internet entrepreneur. For close to a
decade he struggled on the sidelines but never gave up on his Big Idea. In
2006, naukri.com became the first dotcom to IPO on an Indian stock
exchange.

p18 ROCK WITH IT, ROLL WITH IT

Shantanu Prakash (PGP 1988), Educomp
Despite a regular middle class upbringing, Shantanu went into business
while doing his BCom. The entrepreneurial streak continued after the
MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. His company Educomp is today the leading
provider of digital content for schools across India.

p28 THE CAT WITH NINE LIVES

Vinayak Chatterjee (PGP 1981), Feedback Ventures
Vinayak quit his job at Pond’s because he didn’t see the point of selling
soap for the rest of his life. Originally set up as a market research
company, over the years, Feedback Ventures morphed into India’s
leading infrastructure advisory and engineering firm.

p40 SOFTWARE COWBOYS

Ashank Desai (PGP 1979), Mastek
In the early ‘80s, much before IT was a buzzword, Ashank Desai set up
Mastek along with a couple of friends. Mastek was the first company to
focus on India as a market and is today one of the top 15 IT companies in
the country.

p54 GIVER OF ALL GOOD THINGS

R Subramanian (PGP 1989), Subhiksha
He quit his job at Citibank 15 days after joining, feeling restless to do
something 'more'. That something is today India's largest grocery chain -
Subhiksha. Subramanian famously rebuffed offers from Reliance Retail
as he believes the best is 'yet to come'.

PGP is the two year Post Graduate Programme in Management at

IIM Ahmedabad. The year denotes when the student graduated.

CONTENTS
THE BELIEVERS
People who knew entrepreneurship was
the Chosen Path. They took the plunge
straight after their MBA or after working
barely a couple of years. And they
persevered until they made it big!
p68 SWEET SUCCESS
Narendra Murkumbi (PGP 1994), Shree Renuka Sugars
He shut down the first company he started after graduating because a Rs
5 crore turnover was not 'large enough'. His second venture Shree
Renuka Sugars is today a Rs 1000 crore company, and has changed the
lives of hundreds of sugarcane farmers.

p80 AT YOUR SERVICE

Chender Baljee (PGP 1972), Royal Orchid Hotels
His family owns Baljee's, Simla's most famous hotel. Yet as a young
management graduate, Chender decided to carve out his own niche. It
took him 35 years but today Royal Orchid is a Rs 150 crore hospitality
business.

p88 SUCH A LONG JOURNEY

Madan Mohanka (PGP 1967), Tega Industries
In the 1970s it took Madan seven years to get government approval for a
foreign collaboration. But he persevered with his dream of excellence in
engineering and today, Tega Industries is the world's third largest
company designing solutions in the field of mining equipment.

p102 THE ALCHEMIST

Sunil Handa (PGP 1979), Eklavya Education Foundation/
Core Emballage
As the force behind the LEM (Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation)
course at IIMA, Sunil Handa has inspired countless students to become
entrepreneurs. From a hard nosed businessman to an educational
entrepreneur, his is a fascinating journey.

p120 YEH HAI YOUNGISTAN MERI JAAN

Vardan Kabra (PGP 2004), Fountainhead School
In 2004, Vardan Kabra turned his back on an offer by multinational P&G
to pursue his dream of starting Fountainhead School. He represents a
new generation of young MBAs who are giving up seven figure salaries
for the kick of being an entrepreneur.

CONTENTS
THE OPPORTUNISTS
These entrepreneurs did not plan to take
this path but when opportunity knocked
they seized it. Their stories go to show that
you don't have to be 'born with it', you can
develop an entrepreneurial bent of mind at
any age.
p130 TRIPPING ALONG
Deep Kalra (PGP 1992), makemytrip.com
Deep went into business the way every entrepreneur dreams it will
happen: a venture capitalist offered him $ 2 million to start up. But with the
dotcom bust he had to invest his life savings and buy back his own
company. Makemytrip.com is today India's leading travel portal.

p144 BLOOM AND GROW

Rashesh Shah (PGP 1989), Edelweiss Capital
In a world dominated by the likes of J P Morgan and Merrill Lynch,
Rashesh Shah set up a large and successful homegrown investment
bank in a single decade. But it wasn't a straight path to success - there
were many bumps and detours.

p156 IT'S ALL ABOUT THE HONEY

Nirmal Jain (PGP 1989), India Infoline
Nirmal shut down his information services business in 1999 and put all
his eggs in the internet basket. His gamble paid off and today India
Infoline is one of the country's biggest online trading platforms.

p166 IT'S NEVER TOO LATE

Vikram Talwar (PGP 1970), EXL Service
After a long and distinguished career with Bank of America, Vikram
Talwar could have spent the rest of his years playing golf. Instead he
chose to set up a company which is today one of India's largest BPOs.

p176 DRUG BARON

K Raghavendra Rao (PGP 1979), Orchid Pharma
Raghavendra Rao has built up a $300 million dollar pharma company in
13 short years. The son of a working class Railways employee, he now
dreams of making Orchid India's first $1 billion pharma company.

p192 THE BANKER WHO BLINKED

Jerry Rao (PGP 1973), Mphasis
A career Citibanker, Jaitirth (Jerry) Rao was bitten by the entrepreneurial
bug in his late 40s. He built up a large and profitable company (Mphasis)
but recently sold out to EDS because business is about passion as well
as knowing when to let go.

CONTENTS
THE OPPORTUNISTS
These entrepreneurs did not plan to take
this path but when opportunity knocked
they seized it. Their stories go to show that
you don't have to be 'born with it', you can
develop an entrepreneurial bent of mind at
any age.
p204 ICH BIN EIN ENTREPRENEUR
Shivraman Dugal (PGP 1976), Institute for Clinical Research
in India (ICRI)
Shivraman is someone who is always looking for the Next Big Thing.
After a string of interesting jobs he set up one of India's first private
colleges with a foreign tie up (Wigan and Leigh) and is now pioneering
clinical research education in India.

p216 FOR LOVE, NOT MONEY

Shankar Maruwada (PGP 1996), Marketics
He entered entrepreneurship by accident and his first venture folded up.
But Shankar and his team used that failure to get it right the second time
with 'Marketics', an analytics company which recently sold out to WNS for
an estimated $65 million.

p230 MILLION DOLLAR SEAMSTRESS

Ruby Ashraf (PGP 1983), Precious Formals
Ruby turned her hobby of designing clothes into a flourishing business.
Her company Precious Formals, is one of the leading suppliers of prom
dresses in America.

p242 ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

Deepta Rangarajan (PGP 1989), IRIS
Deepta worked with American Express and CRISIL before starting IRIS,
a financial information management service.

p254 HEALTH IS WEALTH

Cyrus Driver (PGP 2000), Calorie Care
Cyrus quit his private equity job in Singapore to launch Calorie Care,
India's first professional, calorie-counted meal delivery service. His own
battle with weight prompted the idea for the business!

CONTENTS
THE ALTERNATE

VISION
These individuals are using entrepre-
neurship to create social impact. Or as a
platform which allows them creative
expression.
p262 THE ART OF GIVING
Venkat Krishnan (PGP 1993), GiveIndia
He's worked with a newspaper, a television channel and as Principal of a
school. Venkat then launched GiveIndia, to promote the culture of 'giving'
in India. He is an entrepreneur but his mission is one with a difference.

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
p286
Anand Halve (PGP 1977), chlorophyll
After two decades in advertising Anand set up a brand consultancy called
chlorophyll. He believes ‘small is beautiful’ because in the quest for size
and scale you lose out on the joy of creation. This is an alternate model of
entrepreneurship.

A SENSE OF OWNERSHIP
p298
S B Dangayach (PGP 1972 ), Sintex
He is not the owner of the company but in every other sense works like an
entrepreneur. The man behind the iconic Sintex water tanks believes in
constant evolution and creation of new products. And after 34 years with
one company he is still passionate about it!

BASIC INSTINCT
p310
Vijay Mahajan (PGP 1981), Basix
An IIT-IIM graduate, Vijay has devoted his life to addressing issues of
inequality and social justice but through management techniques. He
pioneered the concept of microfinance in India through an organisation
called Basix which gives loans to the rural poor.

CONTENTS