Life stories of Indian and South East Asian business leaders
I have written two life story books on Indian business leaders and one on South East Asian business leaders. The first is Added Value - the life stories of leading South East Asian business people published in 1999 by Murmeli , the second is Added Value - the life stories of Indian business leaders published in 2010 by Roli Books (https://rolibooks.com/) and the third is Profiles in Enterprise - inspiring stories of Indian business leaders published in 2015 also by Roli Books.
Many people these days like to listen to audio books, podcasts and interviews rather than, or in addition to, reading books, magazines or newspapers. There were so many inspiring and extraordinary stories told to me by the subjects of my books that I thought podcast fans might like to hear the best of them in this podcast - https://lifestoriesofindianandsoutheastasianbusinessleaders.buzzsprout.com.
Life stories of Indian and South East Asian business leaders
Rahul Bajaj (1938-2022) was Chairman Emeritus of the Bajaj Auto empire founded by his grandfather, Jamnalal Bajaj
Rahul Bajaj who passed away at the age of 83 in 2022 had a larger than life personality and, like many of those who I have interviewed for my life story books, was a clear business thinker. He was Chairman Emeritus of the Bajaj Auto empire founded by his grandfather, Jamnalal Bajaj and which was developed to become one of the largest Indian auto groups during his and his father's generation. He was awarded India's third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan in 2001.
Most of this podcast is my reading of the chapter on his life in my book Added Value (Roli Books, 2010) but includes at the end a story from a very small lunch he attended in Delhi with me, the then Australian High Commission and an Australian billionaire. Rahul's response to what I considered to be a most inappropriate question by the Australian businessmen is one of the most polite, but crushing, "put downs" I have ever experienced.
Please note that these interviews took place some time ago - over 25 years ago in the case of the South East Asian life story book and around 10 to 15 years ago in the case of the two Indian life story books. However, their stories are correct to the time of the interviews and the objective is to demonstrate the entrepreneurial skills they exhibited at the time of the interviews in building their businesses.