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Ajay Gupta Shares His Business Journey And Success Secrets

In conversation with the Founder and CEO of Bachpan Play Schools and Academic Heights Public Schools (AHPS), we dug deep into his business journey and success secrets. Ajay Gupta is a prominent figure in the education field in India. He is also the Co-Founder of the first social-impact university in India, Rishihood University, which is well-regarded for providing equal access and opportunities to neurotypical individuals and persons with disabilities (PwDs). This interview contains various lessons every entrepreneur should know. Mr. Ajay Gupta, Founder and CEO of Bachpan Play Schools and Academic Heights Public Schools (AHPS) Business runs in my family and also in my veins. Therefore, I believe that I was always destined to become an entrepreneur. What's more, attending a great lecture on business in the 11th grade inclined me more towards this area. At the age of sixteen, I started my first business, marking the beginning of my journey. I faced numerous setbacks before finally discovering my calling in the education sector in India; however, entrepreneurship for me has never been about giving up at the first sight of failure. Magic only happens when we persevere like a passionate 'madman', as I also mentioned in my book 'Decoding Business Minds'. In 2004, we founded our first Bachpan Play School on the franchise model in Ambala, Haryana. The franchise model is one of the most important strategies that helped us scale Bachpan from one center to another until it became a nationally recognized brand within a short period. Having said that, let me tell you that the franchise model by itself does not guarantee success. You have to be transparent, credible, and innovative in your approach to what you are doing. Most of all, you need to be dependable to your franchise partners, whose growth is what becomes your brand expansion, ultimately. Apart from that, continuous R&D helped enhance our adaptability and flexibility for our franchise partners who came from different regions and backgrounds. It also established Bachpan Play School as one of India's best preschool franchises nationwide, encouraging more and more entrepreneurs to associate with us. In my experience, any scalable business model is one that is able to grow its customer base, operations, and revenue without incurring increased costs. A strong team and culture, streamlined processes, and a wise integration of technology can greatly help make such a business model sustainable. The role played by innovation in the growth of my education ventures, particularly Bachpan Play School and Academic Heights Public School (AHPS), has been immense. You must have heard about our Speak-O-Pen, which makes use of nanotechnology to foster learning for kids at home. It is still a favorite among our students even after so many years. We have kept innovating it. And more recently, we have also launched our SPROUT Curriculum for kids at both Bachpan and AHPS. It is the first curriculum in India that is aligned with NEP 2020 and is very robust. Its innovative SILK activities are so popular that we are even aiming at D2C expansion. I would like to say that my leadership style is still in the making after so many years of leadership. I am always learning from the best, and more specifically, I am humbly and consciously working on my leadership style to match the style of Ratan Tata Ji. He was my role model and also one of the best leaders in the world. His leadership style is described as visionary, ethical, and people-centric, and so is my aspiration. I hope I am getting closer. One of the top qualities of an entrepreneur, at least in my eyes, is that they think about the country, too, when they think about the long-term and short-term goals for their startup. So, I would genuinely appreciate it if our aspiring and budding entrepreneurs in India develop this patriotic quality and do their bit for society while making it big for themselves. Right now, we are streamlining all our efforts at D2C and global expansion. There is so much to do in the education sector even now, especially with emerging fields and technologies such as AI (artificial intelligence), that ideas for entering new sectors and industries are just in the pipeline, and when the right time comes, we will surely let you know. To be honest, I will do everything all over again. I would repeat every mistake I made, face every setback I faced, and achieve everything once again that I set my sights on. On a personal level, I think I would have tried harder to spend more time with my family, but in my business journey, I don't think I will do anything differently, as everything that I did made me who I am today. I would urge aspiring entrepreneurs in today's competitive landscape to be patient and persevering. It sometimes takes years of effort to get where you want to be, so you cannot leave your path midway. You can pivot, but you cannot surrender, just too easily. And once again, I would like to repeat that national progress comes before personal profits. If a day comes when you have to choose between the two, your ethics should incline more towards the collective than towards the personal. We hope that this conversation with one of the best business leaders in India gave you much to learn from. As we reach its end, let's reflect on those learnings as well as Ajay Gupta's ethical leadership, which makes him a distinguished figure in the education sector. He is often recognised as the Franchise Man of India, owing to his prestigious network of 1200+ Bachpan Play Schools and 120+ AHPS schools. TIME BUSINESS NEWS