Up The Ladder Of Success

Ashish Goel’s brilliant academic background, successful stints in multinationals and the ability to build businesses point to an inner drive to excel. But what’s most amazing about the electrical engineer is his feat of outshining in a line in which he had no prior knowledge or experience! Meet the cofounder and CEO of Urban Ladder, the country’s fastest growing furniture retailing brand.

- Joseph Rozario & Pooja Mujumdar

LIFE’S TWISTS AND TURNS CAN LEAD TO unfamiliar roads, and such has been the case with Ashish Goel, the CEO and co-founder of Urban Ladder, a top furniture retailing brand that stands out for its reliability, aesthetics and customer service. Having acquired an integrated master’s degree in electrical engineering from IIT Bombay and then an MBA from IIM Bangalore, the career of choice for him should have been a business related to electrical engineering—considering his Marwari background—but not something as diametrically opposed as furniture. Yet furniture it has been for Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa—his batchmate from IIM Bangalore and the co-founder of Urban Ladder—whose ardour, diligence and complementary skill sets have helped them build India’s most loved furniture brand.

The transition from campus to boardroom, however, was a gradual one for Goel, with successful stints in several organisations in between such as McKinsey & Company, where he worked as engagement manager; India Book House, where he was managing director; and Amar Chitra Katha Media, where, as chief operating officer, he played a key role in strengthening distribution, launching online services and partnering with TV, film and other mass media. However, deep down somewhere, there was an entrepreneur in him all along, as becomes evident from the various unconventional assignments he had picked up while still in college, such as running a mess in the campus during summer breaks—and profitably at that; reviving the campus newspaper; establishing a successful consulting club at IIM Bangalore; among others.

Finding his calling