# Boss Man

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MEET THE MAN STEERING AUDI’S Indian operations in what is quite possibly the toughest period in the German brand’s decade-old journey in India. And he’s taking a selfie.

It tells you a lot about Rahil Ansari. You don't do selfies? That's your problem. You think red shoes are too loud? Too bad, that's not going to stop him. Rahil has that confidence about him. You need to be gutsy to say, at your very first press conference in front of the national media, “Audi budhe logo ke liye nahin hai.” (“Audi isn’t for old people” – old at heart he later clarifies to me.) He backs up that confidence with an energy characteristic of his age. And he will need all that confidence and energy to turn around Audi’s Indian operations that have been caught up in the turmoil affecting its parent, the lackluster sales of its sister brands and the non-stop assault from rivals riding on wave after wave of new launches.

Since February when he took over the reins he has been grinding away, preparing the business case for new cars and SUVs, laying down a new strategy to get Audi back to where it was till recently – at the top of the Indian luxury car market. At least India isn’t all-new to him. Rahil looks Indian and he does have Indian roots but he was born and has been brought up in Germany. He worships football, not cricket. His English is liberally sprinkled with the distinctly German ja. He is one of the bright young stars of the Audi universe, an Audi lifer, somebody who has the ear of his bosses back in Ingolstadt. And he knows India because this isn’t his first time in India, Rahil headed network development at the very start of Audi’s Indian journey.