Vikram Talwar taught me the benefits of delayed gratification: Sanjeev Aggarwal

Sanjeev Aggarwal, cofounder, Helion Ventures

Claim to fame

A pioneer in the BPO sector, Aggarwal founded Daksh in 2000 before IBM acquired it four years later; currently on board of new-age firms like Azure Power, ShopClues and BigBasket

The lesson

There are three lessons I would want to mention that I learnt during my Daksh days from my competitors. The first one was from Vikram Talwar, founder of EXL Service. I learnt resilience from him. They had faced many near-death experiences, delayed gratification and yet they kept on building their company, without copping out like us. (Aggarwal sold his company Daksh to IBM). The second lesson was from Neeraj Bhargava of WNS Holdings. While Daksh was built on organic growth, Neeraj taught me how inorganic growth can be used as a lever to build a successful company. The third lesson I learned was from Raman Roy of the BPO Spectramind. He taught me how one could leverage one's communication skills to build a great brand. He made me realise the role that communication plays in building credibility among employees, clients and the external world.

(As told to Malini Goyal)