Name: Arjun Handa
Profile: MD & CEO, Claris Lifesciences
He says: Frustration in dealing with people is a very dangerous quality to have. If you are ambitious, you need to have the art of dealing with people.
When the right deal comes along, you need to listen to your gut. And the gut is trainable.
(This story appears in the 16 July, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Excellent coverage of what COO of a company thinks and what is his pastime. 90% of young generation uses their free time ruthlessly wasting in chatting, gizmo discussion and so on.
on Aug 21, 2010Great Interview! I hope Arjun reaches much higher peaks and becomes a role model for everyone!
on Aug 6, 2010Interesting one Mr. Bagchi. Its interesting to note how those who havent read science "navigate" or dictate (putting it bluntly!) the scientists. I think scientists should learn from this and realise that science is just a means to an end and not an end by itself. Let passion not become indulgence and lead to someone (boss) dictating terms.
on Jul 7, 2010Wonderful.. Keep it up
on Jul 6, 2010Do you know that Handa's father was bankrupt and his company Core Labs closed down with many dues to various banks? A publication like you must check past history. I strongly condemn your story.
on Jul 5, 2010Hi Ajay, Whats their to condemn. Is it a crime to have a father who ventured into some business which didn't do well? Do you think a Criminal's child should never be successful business person? In fact at this age Arjun should be complimented for his achievement . I liked the idea of reading holiday . Good to know people who teach us so many different things. Zen is a way of life. Zen garden has many fruits to offer to better our lives constantly. Thanks Gardener.
on Jul 9, 2010Thank you, Prasad. I agree with your perspective. Further, I may be wrong, but I think Core Labs, which Ajay Naik has mentioned is different from Core Health Care. I did a quick google search and realise that Core Labs, is a US company has filed for bankruptcy. Whereas Arjun Handa states that Core HealthCare, an Indian company, did not do well and was sold. Perhaps all debts were cleared through the sale. But as you say, an entrepreneur takes risks and learns from these risks. I am sure the difficulties and challenges which the father faced, taught the son a lot.
on Jul 9, 2010Dear Mr.Prasad There is a lot of truth in what Mr.Naik says.One of my classmates was an employee of Core Health .In the early 90's this co.was the darling of punters in the stock market.Core used to give out bonus share every 2nd year.Slowly the promoters siphoned off all the money from the co.as well as reduced their holdings in the co. as more and more investors were lured in to investing in the co. As usual ICICI Bank was one of the biggest investor in Core's equity(ICICI repeated this mistake in case of Subhiksha). Also an alleged inside story is that a few of the ICICI Bank's senior manager made a packet for themselves in the process. One fine day Core Health collapsed in the mid 90's. How a co.which was coming up with excellent set of results year after year suddenly collapse financially. Even I did not bother to check as I had not invested in this share. But at least the regulators should have checked.Nobody did as I think our economic liberalisation was still at a v.nascent stage. The moral of the story is if one is caught - one lands up in jail (ie.Raju of Satyam). One who escapes rebuilds the empire based on the recycled money from their Swiss banks accounts and reappear in the media as management savvy entrepreneurs. Today both the Handa brothers are well settled. One runs a Co.called Core Packaging the elder brother owns Claris Health Sciences.Both are privately held companies.
on Aug 2, 2010I wonder how you find such off-the-track people for the Zen garden. Nice read, as always.
on Jul 5, 2010As always, enjoyable and inspiring. Thanks, Pritam
on Jul 5, 2010