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PEOPLE
Serial Entrepreneur At
Large
 Much
as we'd like to eschew the vern, it seems a pity to let a glorious
opportunity like this one pass. It does seem a case of Yeh Dil Maange
More for Ramesh Vangal. For troglodytes who don't
recognise the name, he's the man who mid-wifed PepsiCo's entry into India
(the subject of a case study in the most buttoned-down B-school of them
all, Harvard). He then moved to a part-executive, part-entrepreneur role
in Seagram. Now, as the company gets ready for its post-m&a
integration with media major Vivendi, Vangal has jumped into the most
happening domain of them all: the tech-space (Now, why wasn't he there in
the first place?). The man's vehicle of choice to enter this space is a
business accelerator, At India (not written @India as one would have
expected, and with a top-team poached from upper-crust companies like GE,
Motorola, and Intel) which proposes to leverage India's fabled software
expertise and not-so-f management skills and offer business acceleration
services to 'global techpreneurs'. Drawls Vangal in his legendary
baritone: ''Our value will lie in providing a top class operating team
on-call.'' And what does this fitness-freak do while not on the e (that's
entrepreneurial)-trail? He invests in NASDAQ companies and meditates ''to
keep his sanity intact''. May we say Amen (or should it be Om?).
 Tricks
Of The Trade...
She looks like a glamourous grandmom who does up her boudoir in
six shades of lilac; not a peddler of insurance policies. But then Ritu
Nanda, has always been more than the sum of her parts, her illustrious
lineage and marriage to Escorts Chairman Rajan Nanda, notwithstanding. The
daughter of showman Raj Kapoor was a path-breaking Life insurance
Corporation (LIC) agent in her time, making it to the LIC Chairman's
Club-a list of best-performing agents-for an astounding eight years in a
row. She also started an appliances business way back in the '80s,
Niki-Tasha-named after her children Nikhil and Natasha. Now, she is
setting up a school, the RNIS (Ritu Nanda Insurance Service) College of
Insurance, for wannabe insurance hawkers, to teach them the nuances of the
business. Says a jubilant Nanda, 52: ''Insurance education will be crucial
in the wake of the opening up of the sector and we will go about it with
utmost professionalism.'' That's sound policy...
 All
Powered Up...
Talk about a fresh lease of life! Ever since Abhay
Nalawade, the former CEO of Thermax, was asked to step down by Thermax
Chairperson Anu Aga, his phones have never stopped ringing. Not without
reason. This protégé of the late Rohinton Aga, had a long and
illustrious career in the company till a Boston Consulting Group-ordered
reconstitution resulted in his departure. Now, Nalawade is joining the
Boston-based Transcontinental Energy Company (TEC), a power start-up, as
President. The company has just acquired exclusive rights to market 75-kw
gas turbines made by Honeywell (soon to be part of GE). Says Nalawade, 51:
''TEC plans to enter the business of distributed (small) power plants for
which there is a huge potential. Egypt and Saudi Arabia, both gas surplus
countries, will be the target markets to begin with,'' says Nalawade.
Here's hoping the man's second innings is more rewarding than the first
one...
 God
And Golf...
Does he owe his success to the two
Gs, Ganesha and golf? Alfa Laval CEO Satish Tandon is always
surrounded by a collection of exquisite Ganesha idols, be it in his office
in Pune or his residence in Delhi. Collecting them has been a passion with
him for over three decades now. He buys some every year and never bargains
(that's a tip for unscrupulous vendors; remember the face on the right).
''I bought the first one in '68 and, I have since purchased over 250 of
them in wood, sandalwood, metal, stone, and what-have-you, from all over
India, Nepal, Thailand and even the US,'' says Tandon, 54. When he is not
busy running Alfa Laval or buying Ganeshas, the man can be found putting
away on the links. Tandon has played on more than 60 courses and boasts a
handicap of 17. That's not really in Tiger Woods' league, but then, Woods
can't claim to have turned around an ailing dairy-equipment manufacturer.
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