The Hindu : National : They chose less-trodden paths and met with success

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They chose less-trodden paths and met with success

Ahmedabad: The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) on Sunday released a book that deals with stories of 25 of its alumni who chose the less-trodden path to make their mark as successful entrepreneurs.

“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish,” written by Rashmi Bansal — herself an alumnus of IIM-A — describes how 25 students of the premier B-school chose the path less trodden and successfully built new business and organisations.

According to Ms. Bansal, these entrepreneurs represent various age groups, They also differ in outlook and the industries they made a mark in, but have one thing in common — they all believe in the power of their dreams.

One of the success stories in the book is about R. Subramanian, an engineer from IIT Madras who graduated from IIM-A in 1989. Mr. Subramanian was hired by Citibank but within 15 days of joining he quit the job as he felt restless and wanted to do “something more.” And today that “something” has turned out to be one of India’s largest grocery chain — Subhiksha, which has over 1,030 stores nationwide.

The book was released during the entrepreneurship meet at IIM-A, organised by its Centre for Innovation Incubation Entrepreneurship. Around 150 alumni have converged at the prestigious B-school for the two-day meet that began on Saturday.

Another interesting story in the book is about a student who chose to set up sugar factories in his native place Belgum in Maharashtra instead of working with some multi-national company.

Narendra Murkumbi, who graduated from IIM-A in 1994, shut down his first company manufacturing bio-pesticides that he started after graduating from IIM-A. The reason for closure, according to Mr. Murkumbi, was that its turnover of Rs.5 crore (in 1998) was “not large enough.”

His second venture — manufacturing and refining sugar — earned him a place in a leading business magazine as one of the “new billionaires” of the country.

Shree Renuka Sugars, which the 38-year-old started, today has a turnover of Rs.1,000 crore and has changed the lives of over 10,000 farmers.

Others featured in the book are Deep Kalra (1992 passout) who invested his entire savings into leading travel portal makemytrip.com, Sanjeev Bikchandani (1992), whose naukri.com is a listed company today and Anand Halve (1977), who set up his own consultancy Chlorophyll after two decades in advertising. — PTI

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