Anant Bajaj - An innovator gone too soon

Trade

• Watchlist
• Portfolio
• Message
• Set Alert

 

 

Choose Stock Exchange: BSE LIVE NSE LIVE

26 Aug, 2025 12:21

Volume

Todays L/H

More

×

At the age of 19 when his friends were busy with college, Anant Bajaj had already started working unofficially at his family-owned Bajaj Electricals. In 1999, he passed out of HR College of Commerce & Economics where he completed his B.Com degree and was closely involved in setting up a green field project.

Nineteen years later, he was appointed as the company’s managing director in June. He would have steered the company to be the first IoT-led Indian electrical goods firm, if fate did not have other plans.

Bajaj died of a cardiac arrest at the age of 41 on August 10, merely two months after he was promoted to the top spot at Bajaj Electricals. Bajaj, who was the joint managing director of the company since February 2012, was a big believer in technology. Be it Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence or big data, he wanted his company to be a pioneer in consumer innovation.

This wasn’t a planned career journey for Bajaj, who was merely trying his hand at a few projects at the company. Like a typical teenager, Bajaj was inclined to try his hand at multiple sectors including advertising, consumer durables and as a radio jockey.

At an earlier interview with a television channel, Bajaj had said that he was in fact selected for a radio jockey's job, but decided not to join because of the time constraints.

"This (the job at Bajaj Electricals) just worked out and I hadn’t really planned it out. The fact is that in family businesses, from the day you are born, you have joined the business," he had said.

Bajaj officially joined the company in 1999 as a project co-ordinator and was responsible for setting up a large manufacturing plant for Bajaj Electricals near Pune.

Simultaneously, he completed his post graduate diploma in family business from the SP Jain Institute of Management Studies. In 2005, he was given additional responsibilities as general manager for special assignments. A year later, he found a place on the board of Bajaj Electricals.

During this period, his was focused on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) business as well as exports.

In February 2012, Bajaj was elevated as joint managing director. This was around the same time when he began pursuing an executive programme on Owners and Presidents Management Programme at the Harvard Business School.

A firm believer of the "India-first" idea, colleagues at Bajaj Electricals said that he would insist that all new innovations would first be sold in the domestic market and then exported.

At a time when competitors were building brick-and-mortar offices, Bajaj was among the first to explore the e-commerce route for consumer appliances. Similarly, his idea was to incentivise distributors who were the brand ambassadors for the company. RREP is a programme wherein sales staff is evaluated on the number of outlets and the number of stock units covered. RREP led to an increase in growth in both topline and bottom-line for consumer products segment.

Being one of the oldest companies in the electrical goods space, Bajaj Electricals was often perceived as a traditional and conservative company. Anant Bajaj wanted to change that perception.

With this idea in mind, Project Evolve was launched as early as 2014 and refined in June 2017. The idea here was simple. Play on IoT to bring necessary solutions for both customers and businesses.

The plan, according to Bajaj was to have digital solutions and move closer to what customers actually wanted. To have a dedicated vertical for this, an IoT centre has been set up.

The company is looking to have an array of IoT-led appliances for customers in the near future. While it was Anant Bajaj's brainchild, the next level of leadership will have the responsibility of making customer-friendly products at an affordable price.

Just two months ago, Bajaj was promoted as managing director, 19 years after he took over. While it was widely believed that he would take over the reins from Shekhar Bajaj (the chairman) and build a youthful brand, a cardiac arrest led to his death at 41 years of age.

For Bajaj Electricals, the transition to a new leadership would be a challenge. Company insiders said that Bajaj had set up a strong base for the company and a new leader will have large shoes to fill to keep the growth momentum going.

The company has not yet appointed any interim MD and will begin the search for the top post in the next few weeks. Considering the company's history, sources said that an insider would be best fit for the job.