ITM Business School, Kharghar, extended a warm welcome to Dr. Rahul Mirchandani, the Chairman and Managing Director of Aries Agro Ltd on a glorious November morning.Dr. Mirchandani has been a chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry’s Young Indians (CII-YI) and is also a recipient of the prestigious Bharat Ratna Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Shakti Award 2010, for his contribution towards Youth Empowerment and Inclusive Growth.
Dr. Mirchandani broke the ice with his trademark sense of humour, and said that as long as he’s not associated with Rahul Gandhi, he doesn’t mind having a common name.“When I have no control over something, I try not to question it.” A self-described salesman and academician, when asked what he’d like his biography to be titled, he replied with “The Journey of a Gentleman”. Discipline is a non-negotiable tool, and it’s something his parents inculcated in him, and this is definitely something he’d like to include in his biography. Another attribute he learnt from his parents was to never bring work to the dinner table; something he has practiced with his own family.
When he first donned a work suit in February 1995, he was fondly addressed as “Rahul baba”, but was glad to not have a cabin of his own, an ivory tower, so to speak. He said it helped him better connect with the world. He told his audience to choose to do things that excite them, and to make as many mistakes as they can, as long as they do them only once. Among the other sage advices he shared, one of them was to make short to medium-term plans, and learn how to control the variables.
As Dr. Mirchandani’s session came to a close, he left his audience not only clutching their sides in laughter but also enriched by mind.