Sanjiv Bajaj, Managing Director, Bajaj Finserve Ltd. interacted with the students, faculty and staff members of IIM Indore on September 6. He shared his views on topics such as economy, growth rate, inflation and leadership, to name a few.
Professor Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director, IIM Indore introduced Bajaj. Professor Krishnan started the interaction by asking Bajaj’s about his views on the prospects of the economy across sectors. Bajaj said that economy depended on the previous two or three quarters. He noted that in the last three quarters, consumer sales have grown significantly, and customers ion rural India have been better; the government has been investing money in the rural sector — which is a good sign as the economic growth looks good at first sight,. “However, our economy also depends on the global economy — which is going through a challenging phase. There’s a lot of uncertainty and we need to ensure that we do have jobs in our hands in future. We might be moving towards the direction of greater insecurity as well,” Bajaj said.
Despiteoil prices going up, resulting in inflation, which in turn affected the Indian economy, Bajaj said that Indians are creative and said that they know how to innovate and produce world class products. “We do not depend on others for running our businesses. We prefer focusing on long term business; which may or may not work successfully in the initial years, but will be a success later,” he said.
Discussing the qualities of a good leader, Bajaj recollected how he got an opportunity of working with different types of people — old, young, people with traditional business, people with start-ups, foreign leaders, Indian leaders, and so on. “Leadership is not to be learnt, it is something to be developed. True leadership comes from growth mindset and not fixed mindset. You need to be confident and focused, learn with experimenting, remain action biased and know when you’re ready for executing a particular plan to be successful,” he said.
He concluded by saying that a good leader should provide a right direction to the entire team and serve them with a common recipe for success — creating alignment between the team members. “It’s not just about building a successful company, but about a legacy you wish to create. Be a leader who leaves behind a contribution to the world, for which he is remembered even after 50 years. All of us have that opportunity, we just need to know when to grab it,” he said.
The session concluded with a Q&A.