Mayo College Alumni Association Delhi (MAAD) recently organised the 2nd edition of the Mayo Alumni Business Summit at the Grand Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. The summit brought together Mayo alumni from various industries for a day of learning, networking and collaboration. A stellar line-up of speakers, a majority of who are Mayo Alumni, shared insights which were well received by over 300 alumni attendees, straddling across batches.

L-R: Pankaj Karna, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Apurva Chamaria, Ashish Bhargava and Ashvin Chadha

The Summit saw the Mayo College Alumni Association of Delhi President - Harmeet Singh, Mayo Old Boys Association President - Col. Bhawani Singh and Mayo Girls Alumni Association President - Pooja Kothari, welcoming the delegates. Shivjeet Kullar and Paran Thakur compered the event.

Mayo Alumni Summit Team

The summit featured a fireside chat with Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Co-founder of Info Edge India, with Pankaj Karna, Founder and MD of Maple Capital Advisors. During the chat, Mr. Bhikhchandani emphasized the importance of zeroing in on a repeat profitable unit to scale as key to their success and scale and building trust across the table as the greatest quality of an entrepreneur. He also shared valuable insights into the world of entrepreneurship.

The chat was followed by three special sessions, titled, ‘Reimagining Finance 2023 - Start-ups & Beyond’, ‘Careers of Tomorrow, Networking & HR’, and ‘Scaling up Family Businesses’. In addition, the summit also featured several start-up showcases and a host of individual speaker and presentations.

In the session ‘Reimagining Finance 2023 - Start-ups & Beyond’ moderated by Pankaj Karna, a panel of finance professionals comprising of Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Ashish Bhargava (Partner, True North), Apurva Chamaria (Head-Start-ups & Venture Capital at Google India) & Ashvin Chadha (MD, Anicut Capital) discussed the changing landscape of finance, and how start-ups can adapt to new technologies and regulations and changing environment. The panellists stressed on the need to back sound business models, spending customer money before spending investor money, building relationships that are not transactional with investors, importance of people skills in deal making and negotiation, relationships with founders and how strong backing of founders can be useful for funds to tide various situations and vice versa.

The ‘Careers of Tomorrow, Networking & HR’ session saw a panel of experts who shared their insights on the skills and attributes that will be in demand in the future job market. The panelists included Nitin Atroley (Partner & Head – People Strategy & Corporate Affairs, KPMG India), Priyanka Chandhok (Head - Career Development, Ashoka University), Prithvi Shergill (Ex CHRO – HCL & Current CEO Entomo), and Rajlakshmi Saikia (Chief of staff to CHRO, Genpact). They discussed the importance of adaptability, emotional intelligence, and creativity, as well as the need for networking and building strong relationships in today's fast-paced world. The constantly changing work environment and need to be abreast with change through learning/training and following one’s passion was emphasised.

‘Scaling up Family Businesses’ session was moderated by Ambarish Raghuvanshi (Ex-CFO Naukri.com) and included a panel of leading entrepreneurs like  Siddharth Bindra (MD, Biba Apparels), Alok Shriram (CEO & MD, DCM Shriram Industries), Saurabh Mittal (MD & CEO, Greenlam Industries), all of whom are Mayo Alumni. The panellists shared their experiences and insights on how family-run businesses can scale up effectively, given all have followed different journeys to achieve scale. The panellists unanimously emphasized on hiring professionals to run the business, delegating tasks, understanding the difference between owning and running a business, doing what’s best for the business and raising funding when needed, even if it is less than what the valuation is. There were differing opinions on ESOPs and concepts like Phantom stocks were discussed.

The summit also featured two spotlight speakers. Chhavi Rajawat, former Sarpanch and motivational speaker, shared her inspiring story of transforming lives in Soda Village facing the challenges as a woman sarpanch and emphasising the need to give back by people to the villages as that’s possibly the weakest link to national prosperity. Vivek Bali, former head of Sephora India and current CEO of Enrich Salons, shared his experiences of leading and growing successful companies in the beauty and wellness industry.

The Summit Vote of thanks was presented by Kirit Javali - Secretary Mayo College Alumni Association of Delhi acknowledging the various participants.

The key donors included Indri, Greenlam, City Air, JV Ventures, BIBA, Fenesta, STORY Experiences, Deckmount Electronics.

The Summit was well appreciated by the alumni and presented a great opportunity for them to network, hear some stellar speakers and exhibit their businesses.

About Mayo College Alumni Association of Delhi

Mayo College Alumni Association of Delhi (MAAD) is a registered association for the alumni of Mayo College both boys and girls focused on alumni initiatives and activities that have been around networking, sports, alumni welfare and giving back to school.

Mayo College, Ajmer is a prestigious residential school in India, It was established in 1875 to educate and nurture the princes of the royal families of Rajasthan. After Independence it emerged as one of the premier residential public schools with many well known alumni across, government, armed forces, business, education, entertainments and other areas. Mayo College Girls school was established in 1987, a residential school adjoining the boy’s school both schools have built a reputation of being among the best residential schools in the country.