Anant Bajaj (18 May 1977 – 10 August 2018) was an Indian

business magnate A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

. He was the

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Bajaj Electricals Ltd which was originally founded in 1938 as Radio Lamp Works. He was also on the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

of Hind Lamps Ltd, Hind Musafir Ltd. and Bachhraj Factories Ltd. In addition to this, he was also a member of the Young Entrepreneur Wing of the

Indian Merchants' Chamber Indian Merchants' Chamber, established on 7 September 1907 in Mumbai, is an organization of India, representing interests of Indian trade, commerce, and industry. It was organized originally during the days of the British Raj to promote trade, co ...

and a member of

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

Early life

Anant Bajaj was born on 18 May 1977 in Mumbai,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. His parents were Shekhar Bajaj and Kiran Bajaj. His father is the chairman of

Bajaj Electricals Bajaj Electricals Ltd () is an Indian consumer electrical equipment manufacturing company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Bajaj Group. It has diversified with interests in lighting, luminaries, appliances, fans, LPG based ...

Ltd.

Education

Anant Bajaj had a degree in Commerce from Hassaram Rijhumal College of Commerce and Economics, commonly known as HR College, Mumbai and a

postgraduate diploma A postgraduate diploma (PgD, PgDip, PGDip, PG Dip., PGD, Dipl. PG, PDE) is a postgraduate qualification awarded after a university degree, which supplements the original degree and awards them with a graduate diploma. Countries that award postg ...

from S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai. He has also pursued OPM (Owner President Management) program at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

in 2013.

Career

Anant Bajaj officially started his career in Bajaj Electricals Ltd. as a project co-ordinator in the year 1999, though he was associated with the company since 1996 itself. He was responsible for setting up the ₹ 450 mn high mast manufacturing and galvanizing plant for the company at

Ranjangaon Ranjangaon is a village located at a distance of about 50 km from Pune. Located there is the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) Industrial area and a shrine to Ranjangaon Ganpati, Mahaganapati. The MIDC in Ranjangoan ...

, near

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

in 2001. In 2005, he was appointed

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

, special assignments. Under his leadership, the exports arm, Bajaj International Pvt. Ltd. made successful forays into businesses as diverse as IT and solar products. In February 2006, he was appointed to the board of Bajaj Electricals Ltd. as

executive director Executive director is commonly the title of the chief executive officer of a non-profit organization, government agency or international organization. The title is widely used in North American and European not-for-profit organizations, though ...

. Subsequently, from 1 April 2012, he was selected as joint managing director (JMD) and on 1 June 2018, he was promoted as Managing Director by the Board of Directors of the company. Anant Bajaj was primarily responsible for setting up the integrated R&D centre that focuses on cutting-edge technologies to create next-generation appliances. He also got the entire organisation on board with

IoT The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other com ...

analytics – a move that he believed will drive

product development In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) covers the complete process of bringing a new product to market, renewing an existing product or introducing a product in a new market. A central aspect of NPD is product design, along wi ...

and create better offerings. In the year 2014, he initiated the

digital transformation Digital transformation is the adoption of digital technology by an organization to digitize non-digital products, services or operations. The goal for its implementation is to increase value through innovation, invention, customer experience or ef ...

journey of Bajaj Electricals and carried it forward through a plan known as Project Evolve. This strategic move is guiding the company towards the digital path to enhance the customer experience in the B2B and

B2C Direct-to-consumer (DTC) or business-to-consumer (B2C) is the business model of selling products directly to customers and thereby bypassing any third-party retailers, wholesalers, or any other middlemen. Direct-to-consumer sales are usually tr ...

segment. He was also responsible for building a state-of-the-art digital centre in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

that focuses on real-time monitoring, social listening and IoT analytics. Anant Bajaj was the driving force behind Bajaj Electricals to partner with WISeKey International Holding Ltd. to build the first IoT Trusted Platform connecting to a secure cloud to enable a digitally certified eco-system for connected appliances or objects. In an interview with Forbes, he mentioned about launching customer success/support

Chatbot A chatbot or chatterbot is a Software agent, software application used to conduct an on-line chat conversation via text or Speech synthesis, text-to-speech, in lieu of providing direct contact with a live human agent. Designed to convincingly si ...

, which will help engage customers and solve queries in lesser turnaround time. Another initiative by Anant Bajaj has been to connect with the youth demographic of the nation. With this aim in mind, he has ensured that the organisation partnered with youth-centric artists like

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...

as its exclusive lighting partner. Under his leadership, Bajaj Electricals became the sponsor of events with nation-wide appeal such as Pro Kabaddi,

Badminton World Championships The BWF World Championships, formerly known as IBF World Championships, and also known as the World Badminton Championships, is a badminton tournament sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The tournament is one of the most prestigious ...

and

International Federation of Sport Climbing The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) is the international governing body for the sport of competitive climbing, which consists of the disciplines lead climbing, speed climbing, and bouldering. It was founded in Frankfurt on 27 Ja ...

. In 2015, Bajaj Electricals also partnered with

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

to participate in government's 100 smart cities project wherein active services and fittings of

radio frequency Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around to around . This is roughly between the upp ...

, video display, cameras and street lighting will be taken care of.

Death

Anant Bajaj died on 10 August 2018 in Mumbai,

of a cardiac arrest.

References

External links

*
Anant Bajaj Profile @ Money Control
' *
Anant Bajaj Video Interview on CNBC Awaaz
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Bajaj, Anant 1977 births 2018 deaths Businesspeople from Mumbai Indian business executives Anant Harvard Business School alumni