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11 August 2010
Naresh Gulati: From candle seller to CEO of Rs 440-cr biz
CHANDIGARH: He used to sell decorative candles to the newly-wed couples along the roadside in Chandigarh. "I was never interested in studies, and I always wanted to do something of my own," says Naresh Gulati, who is now the owner of Rs 440-crore Oceanic Consultants Australia Group (OCA Group). From selling candles to wholesale cloth trading, to cosmetics wholesale and teaching at Aptech Computers to running a computer centre, the 39-year-old tried his hands at many things before homing in on overseas education consultancy business. The journey has not been easy for Mr Gulati who flunked in class 10 and performed miserably in college. But he is now a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship in leading Australian universities. Armed with a diploma in electronic data processing, Mr Gulati went to RMIT, Melbourne, in 1995 for a post-graduate course in information systems. However, destiny had scripted a different chapter for him. "When I reached there, I realised that I had been duped. I was promised a job in Melbourne by my immigration consultant, and that would have helped me clear the loan that I took for going overseas," recalls Mr Gulati. For the next six months, Mr Gulati came in touch with several students who had met the same fate. And this made him think about a fantastic business opportunity-immigration consultancy business. Mr Gulati came back to Chandigarh in 1996 and started Oceanic Consultants. "Chandigarh had over 110 such agencies at that time, and I was discouraged by many not to venture into this business, says Mr Gulati. "There was a time when I had to choose between two options-paying the rent or using that money for advertising. I chose the latter and the risk paid off,". |
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