Beyond the Case
A podcast where global leaders from the Harvard Business School Owner/President Management (OPM) community join in a personal capacity and share the real decisions, failures, and mental models behind building enduring companies.
This podcast is independent and not affiliated with Harvard Business School.
Beyond the Case
From $2,000 to 2,000 Employees, and a Bigger Purpose - Rajendra Bagwe
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Harvard Business School OPM alumnus Rajendra Bagwe co-founded Reliable Autotech in 1984 with just $2,000, helping build an engineering business with around 2,000 employees across eight plants. His struggles and the mentors who helped him navigate them inspired the Teaching Learning Community, a pro bono network of 1,500 entrepreneurs where mentees become mentors.
Rajendra shares how global peers at OPM broadened his thinking, why Indian businesses often favor process improvement over original product innovation, and how founders can become obstacles to growth. He reports average growth of 36% across TLC and envisions a community of ethical businesses employing over 1.5 million people by 2030.
Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation:
- Keep growing as a leader so your business can grow.
- Build people and systems that can operate without you.
- Hire people better than you and give them clear responsibility.
- Build an enterprise others can own and grow.
- Seek perspectives beyond your own experience.
- Choose mentors who have lived what they teach.
- Match your teaching to the learner’s readiness.
- Repay mentorship by mentoring others.
- Measure success by the difference you make.
- Let your ambition create opportunities for others.
Books:
Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Beyond the Case. This is a podcast where global leaders from Howard Business School's OPM community join in a personal capacity to share the real lessons, life principles, mental models that go behind building enduring companies. Today's guest is Rajendra Bhagwe. He did the OPM program a while ago in 2010, and a lot has changed since. Rajendra, welcome to the show. Thank you for making the time. Could you start off just by introducing yourself, helping us understand who you are, what you do?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I am actually a retired entrepreneur, being a serial entrepreneur for all my life, 40 years. What I'm into now is a very interesting part of my life. And let me start with what I see as my vision by 2030. Just imagine 1,000 entrepreneurs growing together as a community called teaching learning community, and a pocket of excellence doing business ethically, irrespective of what is happening in India, positives and negatives. And all these employing more than 1.5 million people, creating so many jobs, which is almost half of the Indian defense population of 3 million. And together they are doing a business of 20 billion USD. So that is the picture I see by 2013. But how did this all happen? It started 21 years back when I started this community called TLC, Teaching Learning Community. It is a pro bono activity. But the value of time is something which we uh use here. That means when I am mentoring entrepreneurs and grooming them, they are expected to groom further down the line. And this is how today I have around 1,500 mentors, mentees in this community, which has grown from just five to six twenty years back. So all the entrepreneurs who have become successful in this process of a framework which I developed around 15 years back. It's a six-lever framework. It was just before going to the OPN. It is about six essential business levers, starting with leadership at the top and finance at the bottom, which is the bottom line, of course. So finance is a means as well as the end. You need to create wealth and you need investments to create that wealth. And then there's a core strategy in between, which is driven by capable people, either external focus, externally focused or internally focused. Externally focused meaning that manifesting the strategy into business sales, and internally focused, meaning to develop their internal processes to make the business sustainable and successful. So this is the THC structure which I sort of uh developed over my experience of 40 years in business and uh which I decided to quit in 2024 and fully focus on uh this endeavor of teaching learning community and two more uh endeavors. One is called uh Contigo Consultancy, where I consult uh corporates on corporate policy deployment or other long-term initiatives. And there is one more uh startup which I'm involved in, is called uh How World How Frameworks, which is uh assembly of around 100 frameworks which I developed over a period of business, which is digitally available for entrepreneurs who don't, who cannot uh use my mentorship face-to-face. So this all started sorry.
SPEAKER_01Yes, that's very powerful. The fact that you're involved in so many endeavors, you're inspiring so many young entrepreneurs to be the best version of themselves and follow a template that you have realized succeeds.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So my uh journey of entrepreneurship started in 1984 with just $2,000 of uh capital with two of my classmates from Big T. Yeah, we did engineering, mechanical engineering. And then uh we felt that we should rather than just solving others' problems, we should start something on our own. And that is how uh we started this business called Reliable Auto Tech Private Libre, which is an engineering services and a product supply to OEMs across India and uh worldwide. So that's how during this jar that I we developed this uh experience, and somewhere down the line I felt that I should rather than just building businesses, I should start building entrepreneurs, which is a bigger task and a more useful value-adding task for our country. And that's how this uh endeavor.
SPEAKER_01Great. So, do you think you're a purpose-driven entrepreneur more than you know being a very commercially motivated entrepreneur? Do you feel that's something you've recognized over the last few decades?
SPEAKER_00Uh yes, very much sure. Uh I'm driven by the core purpose of uh making the Indian entrepreneur uh successful. That is the core purpose by which we are working. So, as a uh yeah, it is inspired from this uh Salim Isman's book, uh Exponential Company Organizations. So I mean you need to have a massive transformational purpose, and that's what uh this is. Great, great.
SPEAKER_01Out of the 15,000 on mentees that you've had till date, what has the 1,500? 1,500, sorry. What has the trajectory of their growth looked like? Can you talk a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh they uh 1,500 are spread across the state of Maharashtra in India, in 10 cities. And uh we have developed an informal structure of every city having one city owner, because we don't uh believe in this positional power. So they each um the senior members they take up this ownership of that city and uh help them to grow by around 10x in a few years' time, four to five years. So that is the pace at which we want uh the entrepreneurs to grow. And uh an average growth rate, if we I consider the entire 1500, because some are fresh, whereas some are uh been there for 20 years. So average growth rate has been around uh CAG. Phenomenal.
SPEAKER_01Talk a little bit about your first business, reliable AutoTech, you said the name is?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01What was the outcome for that? Did you end up selling it? Is it still operational? Are you still involved with it?
SPEAKER_00The company is still operational. I just uh sold my state in it. So the company got it back because I wanted to dedicate more time to other things which I'm passionate about. So Reliable Auto is a uh hardcore engineering company because we all three are engineers and we developed this as a it's very system-driven, and uh today it's uh has around 2,000 employees, eight to eight plants across Maharashtra, rather than India.
SPEAKER_01Okay. You did OPM 16 years ago, a lot has changed since. Do you feel that what you learned as part of your coursework, the kind of relationships you built, is still relevant for you today, especially in the age of AI, where we feel like we've entered a new ecosystem for starting and growing businesses?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it is still relevant. In fact, uh our OPN group 15 of eight entrepreneurs, we still meet. In fact, I am just back from a reunion of uh our group in Portugal. And uh we f I find them we still have the same bond and that same passion and intensity about helping each other and sharing knowledge. I think uh AI is fine, and uh I am very much uh upbeat about the AI and its uh uh possibilities. But uh some things finally come down to the entrepreneur or the owner. Uh it is about leadership, and uh the entrepreneur needs to continuously ask uh oneself uh that what should I stop doing? What should my organization be capable of doing without me? What could an enterprise become if I stopped being the constraint? Because entrepreneurs become the constraint because the company will grow as much as the entrepreneur grows. And I think OPM uh is a good platform for uh entrepreneurs to ask themselves these questions and look outwards and see themselves as constraints.
SPEAKER_01And so, how do debut like uh I feel like the realizations you had are very, very deep and very purposeful. And so, while I understand the mission you're on, could you help us bridge that gap between, you know, your first business and certain moments where you might have felt that, hey, there are others out there who are not getting the opportunity to benefit from a certain framework. Were there any instances like that where you felt the world needs to learn more about this? Maybe there's an institution like TLC I can set up?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh it was uh during the my entrepreneurial journey when I struggled with uh a lot many things, eventually found uh my voice and uh and uh rather our voice, all three of us. I had uh during this period, uh we had uh a lot many mentors. Uh, I can name a few, uh, Mr. Vinod Parik, who is a great uh human resource specialist. So a lot many windows were open, uh, and uh blind spots were identified, and finally realized that entrepreneurs uh need to make themselves uh redundant, and that can happen only when they bring in good people and the right systems are in place. So it boils down to getting the right people and letting them do the right job and the job right. So half of the war is won when you get the right people in the bus. And then uh they're doing the right job, that means the key result areas where they should be working. And the job right means the key performance indicator, the KPIs, what they do is productive and useful or not. So the realization of this that it's finally about systems and people, which will help us grow the business, was something which uh I saw absent in uh the industry in small companies and uh peer companies. This was uh 20 years back when I realized this, and I said because I had this uh passion of teaching and uh about entrepreneurship, I find that this is something which the world needs. And uh so it's sort of finding your your voice. That's how it all uh happened. Do you take an equity stake in these companies? I have taken in a couple of uh startups.
SPEAKER_01Given that you're so closely involved with all these different entrepreneurs, their businesses, and you're focused on Maharashtra itself as a state, are there any industries where you're seeing a lot of innovation happening in the state of Maharashtra? And you've also shared your vision for 2030. So, how does all of that play into opportunities that any other entrepreneur can also start considering?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh innovation is there, but uh not as much as what you would find uh in USA or any developed countries. It's more about innovation in the processes which they're uh implementing and uh uh the way they are adapting to the new uh AI world. That is quite encouraging. I see the entrepreneurs quickly adapting to this, are realizing this. And uh I'm confident that TNC will now grow beyond Maharashtra because we are now associated with a NGO called Game Foundation, Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship, founded by Mr. Navi Benkintesham, ex uh Morola chairman, ex Microsoft India chairman. So they want to spread it across India and TNC and game together we are now going beyond uh Maharashtra.
SPEAKER_01Why do you think there's a lack of innovation and more so focus on process improvement in Maharashtra?
SPEAKER_00I think it's uh it's not only Maharashtra, I think it's India that this is uh there because uh if you trace back to where it comes from, it comes from, I think, the level type of education we have in India. So the education does not really promote or build uh an innovative temper. And I think that manifests into businesses who start on a safer ground rather than developing their own products or innovating products, it's mostly about uh tying up with OEMs and being suppliers to OEMs, uh, which is a safer uh way of growing uh businesses. So innovation in that case in products takes the backseat. And the process innovation comes up because that is what OEMs also require.
SPEAKER_01And what about the policies? Is there any change you're seeing over the last couple of decades in the way policies are framed and drafted uh to support entrepreneurship, or do you still think uh there's a lot of room for improvement where it's not really empowering an individual to run with an idea and scale?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, policies are there. In fact, uh not many policies have come up uh by the government, but a lot of them are on still on paper. Some are uh being in there, which are uh in play, like the startup India is in play. But uh I'm not sure about the data which is around, whether how successful are these policies. But there are a lot of policies in the last decade which have come up.
SPEAKER_01And what has your opinion been on access to capital for the younger entrepreneurs? Has that become more prominent today than four decades ago when you started out? In fact, it has become easier now.
SPEAKER_00To access to capital has become quite easy. If you have a good uh business idea, there will be lenders. Banks are flush with funds, and uh that's not an issue. The access to capital for micro entrepreneurs is a bit difficult because they are very small and still the financial institutions are not so very confident about funding these micro entrepreneurs. But generally for SMEs, volume, medium entrepreneurs, access to capital is not an issue. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Uh what inspired you to apply for OPM given everything you were going through? And uh OPM 15 or 16 years ago, I don't know if it was that well understood. You were in my one of the first few batches, OPM 15. So could you talk a little bit about the inspiration to consider it and your takeaways from it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh what I was finding myself uh at is sort of what next. That was something which uh was always uh on my mind, top of my head. So I was find trying to figure out the ways and means to go do the business. And something which I thought uh uh that OPM would uh help me because it was more than a curriculum, it was more about interacting with uh other entrepreneurs and other people of the world, which the way they handled or thought about problems. One stark change in me was that OPM taught me that it is one thing to build businesses or products, and it is another to build businesses. So when you shift your paradigm from building products or developing products to developing building businesses and saleable businesses, that opens out a huge uh possibility about uh doing business. So something of that sort uh happened with me, and um the number of businesses which I saw happening in OPM, it really widened uh the way I look, started looking at business, which has definitely helped me in developing the TLC activity also, because there are different businesses here and I could relate with them and the OPM businesses.
SPEAKER_01When you brought those ideas and your new world mindset back to India, to Nashik and Maharashtra, do you think they were received as openly as you would have expected them to be, or was there still some resistance?
SPEAKER_00What I realized was that the OPM businesses are not very small. Whereas the business in KNC or in Maharashtra, where I was handling uh mentoring, they were quite small. So I had to dilute or water down the OPM curriculum and bring it down to a very digestible level. Even today, after so many years, I think I have just shared around 25% of what I have learned in OPM. But uh that is how it will happen because the business are small, so things have to be taken patiently.
SPEAKER_01Did you have Clayton Christensen as one of the professors when you were doing OPM?
SPEAKER_00He was there, but he was not our professor. But we had uh a couple of lectures uh by him.
SPEAKER_01What a great idea.
SPEAKER_00He was a great inspiration.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Talk to me about I don't know if you like reading books. Is there any book that has influenced you?
SPEAKER_00Um Yeah, I'm a in fact, Voresh is a reader. I think I've written countless books, but uh few books uh which changed my uh way of thinking because I'm a hardcore manufacturer. So world class manufacturing by Richard Schonberger was a book which influenced me a lot, and it I think paved a way of how reliable Autodec should be doing its manufacturing business, which in turn helped me in teaching the TLC members also about how world-class manufacturing happens. So that was one uh great book which had a multiplying uh effect, multiplier effect in the industry. And of course, goal by Eli Coltred. That was uh great book, uh, which everybody should be having in the bookshelf. To Great and Great by Choice with Jim Collins has also influenced me a lot. This concept of getting the right people to do the right things and things right comes from his uh books, uh, which is a very powerful thought, I felt, and uh as a leadership thought. Then there are this uh experiencial organization where I say, let me smile. And then I have a habit of reading multiple uh different types of books. Metabolical by uh Robert Lazdick, which is a medicine book on obesity. So I read that and influenced me on my uh health and uh well-being. Spin selling by Neil Rekam is a great book for uh sales, sales activists. So quite a few books.
SPEAKER_01What is your take on all these business coaches in India? That is a segment which is growing like a weed, so massive. Many, many business coaches showing up, not just for micro entrepreneurs, actually, more so for medium-sized businesses. And we've seen a lot of those businesses then come to OPM, and in the OPM India Network, they're talking about how they've had a business coach who worked with them for either a couple of weeks or a couple months. Have you had any exposure to that side? And if so, you know, what is your take on the future of it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, business coaches are there, and uh I feel that uh see, it's like a travel agency and a travel guide, a tour operator and a travel guide. If the business coach is like a travel agency, then he has never seen the world. He has just seen the brochures and catalogs, and he's advising others. But the tour guide who has been on the site and who has seen the site, if the coach is of that type, then uh he is helpful. But I see most of the coaches are of the travel agency type.
SPEAKER_01So you feel that the difference between living the journey, going through it yourself, uh feeling the pain points. Yeah, great. I think in closing, I'd like to ask you, you know, if you could talk to the Rajendra from 1984 who just passed out of VJTI at a younger version of yourself. What would you tell him today? You know, given all the exposure you've had, you've started and scaled businesses, you've mentored 1500 plus young entrepreneurs, and hopefully that reaches your 2030 goal and beyond. What would you tell him?
SPEAKER_00First is keep learning. I think that is most important. The business can rarely grow uh sustainably faster than the entrepreneur grows. So you've got to learn and grow, and only then the business can uh grow. Secondly, I think uh don't make yourself indispensable. You have to build people, you have to build processes, you have to build leaders uh who are better than you in their respective jobs. Because you cannot be a master of all the jobs in the business. So that is something which I learned, and I would teach my myself uh that day for. And uh third is uh understanding the definition of success that changes during your life. Initially, success meant uh survival, then it meant growth, later it meant profitability, then it enterprise uh value. Eventually, however, I think uh when you keep asking yourself questions that what difference did I make because I was here, then uh it becomes a very uh uh different question. So for me, the first thing was about building businesses. Now, second is about helping entrepreneurs to build uh businesses. So perhaps that is how I uh measure my life. That is an interesting question, Clean Christ has asked how to measure life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, amazing. And what do you talk to your mentees about in terms of satisfaction or contentment versus ambition slash fear, etc.? Is that something you touch on?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, very much. I feel that uh every entrepreneur has to be ambitious for the simple reason that see, on the planet, every person on this planet needs a job. And there are only two agencies which can create jobs. One is the government and which cannot create enough jobs, and second is the entrepreneur. So entrepreneurs, it becomes his dharma, it becomes his religion to grow and build businesses so that jobs are created. So I always tell my community mentees that you've got to grow not for only yourself, but to create jobs. So that is uh one message I continuously give. Because what happens is once an entrepreneur uh comes to a certain level of uh business, that complacency comes in because now everything and then that uh comfort uh zone comes in. But it is not about uh only yourself because there are so many stakeholders in the business. Grow to grow uh them and grow jobs.
SPEAKER_01Thank you very much, Rajendra. Uh really enjoyed this conversation, a very different theme from the usual conversations we have. I think it's a very noble cause that you're on. And I hope it inspires many more. So thank you for everything you're doing. Thank you, Sorry.
SPEAKER_00It was a pleasure talking to you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Bye.
