“Vision is not what we start with. We start with an idea, engaging with the idea helps evolve the vision,” said Sanjeev Bikhchandani, the founder and executive vice chairman of Naukri.com and one of the authors of the book, The Captainship (Bloomsbury), launched recently in the Capital. A collection of nine short autobiographies of childhood by first generation entrepreneurs, The Captainship purports to describe their journey from middle class homes to being the captains of India’s new economy.
The other featured authors are Ashish Gupta (Junglee/Helion), Sanjeev Aggarwal (Daksh/Helion), Subroto Bagchi (Mindtree), Zia Mody (AZB), Ashish Dhawan (ChrysCapital), Vijay Sharma (One97), Satya Narayanan (CareerLauncher), and Girish Batra (NetAmbit). The book has been edited by Anya Gupta. “The idea behind the book was to anecdotally connect an upbringing full of optimism to well-being and at the same time detach other values like genetic determinism and inheritance away from well-being. Through the book we intend to deliver optimism and ownership,” she said.
Apart from Bikhchandani, Aggarwal and Dhawan were present at the launch at ITC Maurya. They read parts of their stories before formally launching the book.
“The common qualities among all the captains are: they are all forward looking and have a vision, their strategic thinking is followed by effective execution, they are empathetic towards people around them, they have good influencing skills, this is important as they are continuously engaged in selling their idea or product, they know what they are not good at and eventually find people with the requisite set of skills,” Aggarwal said.
Dhawan, expressing his fascination with becoming an entrepreneur, said, “I wanted to become an entrepreneur right from my school days…if one sets a goal in life and is disciplined then anything is achievable.”
