Class 10th fail Pyare Khan passes IIM test

S K Krishnan, Vice-President, Mahindra and Mahindra, Dr Vrinda Jahagirdar, Director and former Chief Economist with SBI, giving away the award to Pyare Khan.

By Vikas Vaidya

When Motor India Magazine had first invited him to Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad to present his inspiring story to the creme de la creme of management students in India, he politely declined as he had no knowledge about what IIM was. But again this year, IIM, Ahmedabad chose his case out of 1,370 transporters in India and so Pyare Khan, a 43 year old finally narrated the story of his journey to success before top management stalwarts and ended up being adjudged the winner. Pyare Khan from Nagpur, not even a Class X passout and a former auto-rickshaw driver, answered all the questions put up by the jurists, mostly top economists, bankers and industrialists and won their hearts. So now, his story will be studied by IIM students.
Pyare Khan belonged to a family with meagre means and so life was always a struggle when lived near Tajabad slums in Nagpur. In his youth, he started driving an auto-rickshaw to earn his bread and butter. But he always knew it was just a stopgap arrangement and that he was meant for bigger things. So he started saving and with the help of a loan, bought his first truck in 2007. With his acumen and foresight, Khan soon started adding vehicle after vehicle to his fleet and today, he his Ashmi Road Carrier Private Limited has a fleet of 240 trucks.
Khan had hit the headlines recent past for a bulk order of 100 trucks from Jaika Motors. Clearly an indication that Khan likes to take big and bold steps and they have, more often than not, led him to big gains.
Taking note of his exemplary achievement and that too in a short period of time, IIM, Ahmedabad included Pyare Khan’s name in the list of some 20 transporters among 1,370 in India to present their case study. The competition was conducted by M (Mahindra) Power War Room in association with IIM. The selected competitors had to present their case before a panel of jurists and reply to the flurry of questions. The high-profile jury was tough as the selected case study would become fodder for arguably the best Management students in country.
But Khan’s experience and understanding of the industry made up for his humble academic background and he left all impressed and winning the competition.
When asked what he thinks was the secret behind the win, Pyare Khan said, “Remember the movie Slumdog Millionaire? That is my story. My competitors had prepared smart Power Point presentations and had been trying to crack the competition since past several years. I, on the other hand, almost zero experience of public speaking. But I stood in front of them confidently and answered whatever my life had taught me. I had to speak about my life and I am the only one who knows it best.”
Khan doesn’t shy away from admitting his shortcomings. He had told the panelists beforehand that he knows only Hindi and would speak only in Hindi. When one of the jury members asked him who made all the appointments in his company, he would not be able to chose correct staff and so has hired an expert team to do it for him. “I am a Class X fail person. How can I appoint engineers? I am aware of my weaknesses,” he said.  Jury members were impressed with his honest reply.
People from the industry and professors from IIMs besides big names from banking sector were involved in three stages of the competition including screening, specialist jury and grand jury and Pyare Khan was able to earn their confidence. Now, his success story will be served to IIM students and the study has already got registered with Transport Ministry of Government of India.
Today, this former auto-rickshaw driver’s transport company has a turnover of Rs 400 crore which he wants to take to Rs 1,000 crore. And going by his track record, Pyare Khan might just add another zero to his target in no time and achieve it too.