A “naughty”, “ambitious” and “not a studious kid” from the streets of Delhi, India’s capital city that houses a population of 33 million, is now the Managing Partner, CEO & Executive Board Member of Teco Chemicals, an Oslo-headquartered company with a growing reputation in the maritime sector.
Connected to India’s CEO Himanshu Verma sat down with Gaurav Saini for an episode of @Work, where the two engaged in a lengthy conversation about the latter’s life, both professional and personal, and how he steered a company to safe harbours from choppy waters.
Gaurav says he leads by example and narrates a story from his childhood to prove his point. At just 8 years of age, he jumped from a two-storey building to check if it was safe enough for his friends to partake in the activity.
This, Gaurav says, has remained with him and has helped him immensely as he grew older and to navigate in his professional life.
Before joining Teco, Gaurav spent a significant amount of time in Africa, Liberia, to be more specific, where he worked as Senior Sales and Marketing Manager for A-Z Corporation.
When asked why he decided to move to Liberia, Gaurav says, “Punjabi wants to go abroad… it’s in the blood.”
After serving in African company for a little more than seven years, he moved to another company and then joined his current employers, where he has been a pillar for the last decade, working all the way up, from a Sales Manager in January 2015 to his current role.
But it wasn’t an easy start at Teco. Upon meeting the boss in Norway, Gaurav was told that internal disputes led the company to the verge of shutting down and he had just three months to prove his efficiency.
It has been 10 years now and safe to say Gaurav Saini and Teco Chemicals, together, aced the task.
To know more about how he did it and how cricket saved his professional life, watch the @Work podcast below.
