Alumni Speak
‘Foundation for entrepreneurship was strengthened by Apeejay’
This alumnus shares how foundations from Apeejay School of Management helped him build his business.
Nearly 26 years after graduating from the Apeejay School of Management, Vikram Dhawan has traded balance sheets for blueprints and built his own venture, Zen Living. In this conversation, he looks back at what drew him to a specialised management institute over a regular university and why the friendships from those years have outlasted almost everything else.
What did you consider Apeejay School of Management?
While analysing colleges and universities, I found ASM to stand tall among all. I needed not theoretical knowledge but practical approach to education. This I found in ASM. I looked at the courses and campus and found ASM to be appropriate.
I was interested in doing a Bachelor of Business Administration, and not from a regular university. I wanted a specialised institute, and Apeejay had a very good name in that space.
When you enrolled, what expectations did you have with Apeejay, and do you think they were met?
I am more than happy with Apeejay. The faculty was good, the courses were detailed, the campus was good. The facilities were good too. During the days when I graduated in 1999, none was talking about National Education Policy. And the hard truth is everyone focused on rote learning and had a theoretical approach.
Despite the environment, Apeejay was ahead of its time and focused on hands- on approach and practical training. It wasn’t just bookish knowledge or theory. There was a lot of practical grounding to it and that really helped.
Did you take up campus placement after graduating, or started something on your own?
There were various campus placement opportunities. They were a lot enticing with top brands and packages but I travelled to Australia after that for my Master’s.
Can you share about your venture?
I have my own business under the name Zen Living. I also consult in the interior design space. I handle designing luxurious products.
Moving from management to designing — how has that journey evolved?
Everything I do now was really covered in the ASM course I did. Starting from operational issues, finance was obviously covered, and marketing was covered too. This played a very important role in what I do now. All of that helped groom me and has genuinely contributed to the business I’ve built. A lot of credit goes to the course I did at Apeejay.
