Issue : July 2004

Young Achievers

Murtuza Gadiwala

Murtuza Gadiwala

Straying from the beaten career path, he has written a best-selling book and is the president of his own coaching classes company. All this before he has attained the age of 30! Meet Murtuza Gadiwala — CEO, administrator, author, and teacher.

A computer engineering graduate of Mumbai’s Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, Gadiwala pressed on to acquire a business management degree in finance from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. Following his graduation he signed up with ICICI Bank as a manager between 1997 and 1998 while doubling as visiting faculty at the Institute of Management Studies (IMS), Mumbai.

Even while a B-school student and later when lecturing at IMS, Gadiwala became painfully aware of the paucity of quality study material to prepare for the tough CAT (Common Admission Test) exam for B-school admissions. Thus came MBA Entrance Made Easy, a comprehensive volume that provided model answers for prospective questions in CAT and other B-school entrance exams. Published in September 2000, this title has sold 7,000 copies thus far.

"After I had written the book, IMS asked me to either withdraw it from the market or quit. I chose to quit," reveals Gadiwala. Shortly thereafter he promoted SharpMinds — a tutorial college — which prepares students for entrance exams of most business schools in India. Classes begin in April and conclude in February. Included in the curriculum are mathematics, analytical studies and English with an emphasis on solving practice papers.

Currently Gadiwala has 120 students enrolled (tuition: Rs.14,000) at SharpMinds, and expects the number to rise. According to him many students from the newly promoted institute have made it into the country’s top management institutes such as the IIMs, Bajaj, XLRI, S.P Jain, NMIMS, Symbiosis among other front rank B-schools. "Our success rate in MBA entrance exams is excellent. Against the usual rate of 1:100 students, ours is 1:15," he says.

Future plans include establishing more centres in Mumbai’s suburbs, introducing tutorials for the BMS, GMAT exams and starting a correspondence course. "We have students approaching us from Ghaziabad, Nagpur, Nasik, Ahmedabad, Jamshedpur, New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore for teaching materials. We plan to meet this demand by establishing centres in these cities as well as offering study material by post," adds Gadiwala.

Mona Barbhaya (Mumbai)