Rahul Bajaj (1938-2022) was Chairman Emeritus of the Bajaj Auto empire founded by his grandfather, Jamnalal Bajaj
Description
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.
United States
