New Delhi: Unlike a large number of his peers, Aditya Ghosh, who has resigned as the president and whole-time director of IndiGo after close to a decade of heading the company, did not go to IIM or IIT. He did his LL.B from Delhi University.
In March, Ghosh was invited to deliver the convocation address at IIM Indore. “While I never went to a business school and was never good enough to be at one of the IIMs, now I can sneakily boast to have been a part of an IIM convocation,” Ghosh’s said.
Ghosh’s lack of elite education did not come in the way of his stupendous success. He reportedly said, “I was never a bright student in my academics but I always tried putting my heart and soul into my work.”
In 2008, Indigo founder Rahul Bhatia chose his company’s young lawyer as its president instead of an experienced business leader. And Bhatia won’t regret his decision.
The low-cost airline reported its 9th consecutive year of profitable operations in 2017. It has doubled its domestic market share in last five years from 20.3% in FY12 to 39.6% in FY17. The company witnessed a growth of 31.5% in its passengers during 2017, and a growth in capacity of 27.5%. The total revenue increased by 16.3%. IndiGo’s current throughput is close to 1,000 flights per day across 49 destinations (41 domestic and 8 international) carrying an estimated 4.4 million passengers every month. It is the largest domestic passenger airline and the fourth largest low-cost carrier in the world.
In 2012, four years after his took charge of Indigo, Ghosh ranked 27th globally in Fortune’s 40 UNDER 40 list of businesspersons. This is how Fortune described Ghosh’s success: “The neophyte delivered, despite his total lack of operational experience. The low-cost carrier, which has a little over $1 billion in revenue, recently started international flights and placed the largest order in commercial aviation history for 180 Airbus A320s, totaling $15.6 billion. Ghosh’s secret to success? No frills, all the way. His office is small, with no receptionist and no marketing department. On business trips he stays in budget hotels with the rest of his staff. Job creator: IndiGo created 2,500 jobs in the past year.”
Ghosh’s success has been widely recognised. He received GQ Businessman of the Year award in 2013 and was nominated for the CNN-IBN Indian of The Year in the business category. In the same year, he was awarded ‘CEO of the year’ award by SABRE. He also the Low Cost Leadership award at the “World Airline Awards” in 2011.
“For the last ten years, it has been a relentless, exhilarating and a most satisfying task building IndiGo,” Ghosh said after he resigned. No reason for the builder of IndiGo to regret not having studied at an IIM.
The Economic Times
