Working in his father?s consumer electronics trading business helped Ajjay Agarwal learn the ropes of the business – juggling costs and taxes vis a vis revenues and profit margins, understanding market dynamics in his sales-related role.
Seeing the potential of the mobile handset market, he decided, in April 2008, to enter this space selling MAXX handsets. He had always wanted to run his own business and today, as chairman and managing director of the MAXX Group, he seems to have realised that dream. ?Since my younger days, I had wanted to become a successful entrepreneur. Calculations were my forte and I had a flair for numbers. I had seen my father build his business and knew that one day I wanted to follow his footsteps and create, build and grow my own venture. I made it a point to achieve that dream,? he says.
MAXX already had an established distribution network in the country, which Agarwal could readily leverage. ?I decided to invest heavily in the business, while expanding the company?s network to a pan-Indian one in less than a year. Today, MAXX Mobiles is the fastest growing brand of Indian handsets,? he says with pride.
One of the challenges in this business, he realises, is the need to constantly innovate handset designs to keep pace with evolving technology. One of its strategies is to offer low-cost feature-rich handsets. ?We do not believe that low-priced mobiles should be feature-less mobiles. We want to give our users the best of both worlds – great quality at affordable costs.?
He believes that smartphones are going to gain popularity in the coming months. ?The share of smartphones in the overall handset market is going to increase in a big way. However, this would be the case more in the metros and Tier 1 cities.? In anticipation of this trend, MAXX has launched an Android smartphone.
He, moreover, feels that the mobile handset market will become more application-centric: ?Already, mobile phones have replaced several other devices like daily planners, converters, calculators, multimedia players, cameras and watches. We expect this trend to increase, as consumers are now looking for all-in-one devices.?
Outside of work, Agarwal enjoys travelling and reading, especially autobiographies and management books. ?I read books that help me tune my business strategies and keep up with changing trends around the world. I also like to read books that motivate me to excel and improve personally,? he says. ?I also enjoy travelling to different places to explore opportunities and understand markets and consumers.?
