In this episode we talk to Ashutosh about his upbringing and journey into corporate life, and the lessons that taught him. His route into entrepreneurship to build the “Boots of India”,which grew to be India’s largest retail pharmacy chain, and his life post-exit as an author and podcaster.

The NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast aims to educate and entertain, sharing insights based on the personal story of our carefully selected guests aiming for the atmosphere of an informal conversation in a bar or over a cup of coffee.

This episode can be viewed on Youtube here.

About our guest

Ashutosh hosts the very successful video and podcast series titled “The Brand Called You – Converse with the Future” (www.tbcy.in) bringing the stories of successful entrepreneurs, professionals and senior corporate leaders to thousands of listeners.

He is a certified Business Coach and coaches / mentors several CEOs in India on business matters, governance, strategic planning, succession planning, personal accountability, people and culture issues. (www.equationcoaching.com).

A published author of 6 best-selling books, he has written on Startups, Entrepreneurship, Retirement in the 21st Century, Personal Branding, Work Life Balance and Fiction. His latest book on personal branding is titled “The Brand Called You”.

He writes regularly for Times of India and can often be seen on National Television panel discussions on political affairs.

Ashutosh founded Guardian Pharmacy in India in 2003 and built it into India's second largest Pharmacy Chain. He exited from the business in 2016.

Prior to that he worked for ITC Limited for 17 years leaving in 1996 and thereafter with US Aerospace companies for 8 years as their Head of Asia.

Ashutosh served on the board of GAVI, The Vaccine Alliance (www.gavi.org) for 8 years. He sits on several boards and advises companies on strategy and governance matters. He was the Chairman of Bizdome, the Startup Incubator of IIM Rohtak till 2018.

He is a YPO member and was Chairman of YPO South Asia Gold (2017-19). He was recognised as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 1994.

His wife Vera is a Historian and teaches at the American Embassy School, New Delhi. His older son, Varun works for American Express in Singapore as their Director Marketing and his younger son Ashwin works for Procter and Gamble in Cincinnati as their Director Sales.

A keen golfer, he plays the Indian flute, enjoys reading and listening to Indian classical music

About the NBN
The New Books Network was founded in 2007 as a podcast interviewing the authors of academic books, and has grown to the largest author interview podcast in the world publishing 12 podcasts a day in more than 90 specialist areas, with over a million downloads a month. Read about the founder Marshall Poe and the NBN here. In recent years it has expanded beyond its “author interview origins”. Historically NBN only did audio recordings. E&L is the first NBN podcast distributed on Youtube.

About Kimon Fountoukidis Twitter Linkedin

Kimon is the founder of both Argos Multilingual and PMR. Both companies were founded in the mid 90s with zero capital and both have gone on to become market leaders in their respective sectors. Kimon was born in New York and moved to Krakow, Poland in 1993. Listen to his story here,

About Richard Lucas Twitter Linkedin

Richard is a business and social entrepreneur who founded or invested in more than 30 businesses, including investments in Argos Multilingual, PMR and, in 2020, the New Books Network. Richard has been a TEDx event organiser, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels: from pre- to business schools. Richard was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991. Read more here. Listen to his story in an autobiographical TEDx talk here,