Gaurav compares Neeraj’s herculean effort to that of building bridges- “He built small bridges from one business to the other, creating a network of bridges over which he built a mega highway.”
The power of bare-bones Entrepreneurship can best be seen in Neeraj Gupta’s rise from a jobless, married youth who charted a course for himself filled with risks and endangerments, rising from the bottom of the pit to such great heights that his sterling endeavor has now assumed messianic proportions. You might well ask who is this brave heart family man who took risks that most individuals with a basic commerce degree and no Management training to speak of, (at a time when every other person including doctors and engineers ride the lucrative employment wave on the backs of a management degree) and came good so spectacularly.
Neeraj Gupta is the Managing Director of India’s first and largest owned radio Taxi company, Meru Cab Company Pvt Ltd. which started off in India at a time when Uber , Ola and all the other current players were not even in their ideation stage. His story may not be a rags to riches spectacular but it’s a phenomenal one nevertheless. He is someone who started off with a seed capital of a mere Rs.50,000/- in 1997 and ended up with a nett valuation of Rs 2000 crore by 2011. His is an epical journey that few can achieve in such a short span, leave alone emulate.
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Author Gaurav Rao, who specializes in developing and implementing marketing programs based on image building and branding in the public and private sector and also plays the role of adviser on business strategy, planning and development in media management business, does a fair enough job of putting that mind-boggling story of struggle and achievement in business, in book form. His effort follows Neeraj Gupta’s journey from that of a garage service provider to the point of becoming one amongst the few young blooded business success stories in recent Indian economic history. This book is not a fairytale rendition instead Gaurav Rao has tried to study the physiology behind the anatomy of success of the man behind the machine. This (as he puts it in the preface) is the story of a first generation entrepreneur, and how pragmatic thought can make immense contribution to the fulfillment of an individual’s dreams. Neeraj Gupta may have started his business in a garage at 27 years of age but by 2007 his company had already earned the distinction of being rated as the second largest fleet management company in the world. From an annual turnover of Rs.16 lakhs in 2002, his company went on to record a turnover of Rs 60 crores in 2005 and Rs.600 crores in 2015.Gaurav efforts to decode Neeraj’s brain and understand how it perceived and processed information in various situations and in turn informed decision making, is quite revelatory. Gaurav compares Neeraj’s herculean effort to that of building bridges- “ He built small bridges from one business to the other , creating a network of bridges over which he built a mega highway.”
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Gaurav says that Neeraj Gupta is one such individual who possess the coveted ability to translate theory into practice, executing them with finesse and ease. And to this end Gaurav lays bare the many principles of business management employed in this unique growth story. Gaurav goes on to say that Meru is at the cusp of becoming synonymous with Taxi like Xerox was to photocopying. But that might not necessarily come true what with the Government trying to regulate pricing in this sector and more economical competitors springing up by the dozen. Predictions are easy to make but hard to prove because the economic climate is constantly at variance and business ecology might not always be a favorable one. From peddling exports to building furniture to Elite Class garages to V Link to Meru Cab Company Pvt Ltd, Neeraj Gupta rose to heights that he had meticulously planned and orchestrated over the years. he set out his own non-conformist postulates and pioneered a business that never had a business model in India before. It’s a super success story that all young budding entrepreneurs must read and imbibe from for a profitable future. While Gaurav’s faithful rendition runs through every aspect of Neeraj’s business success it fails to give us a corresponding assay into the man within. He has included most of Neeraj’s personal milestones but failed to give us an insight into his overall personality and any understanding of any efforts spent in nurturing the personal relationships in his life. The book takes an entirely business dependent approach and therefore is likely to be more valuable to students of business and potential profit-seeking entrepreneurs.
