Rahul Aggarwal CEO, Optima Insurance Brokers

In his childhood, his team had once lost a cricket match because it lacked the proper gear. Then he, along with his team members, organised a movie night, rented a VCR and videos, and made enough money to purchase the complete gear. Overnight, they were padded up in style. This determination to succeed made Rahul Aggarwal, CEO of Optima Insurance Brokers, overcome all obstacles and make his company one of the frontliners in the arena of insurance.

The entrepreneurship and organisational skills were visible early. “We had set up a children’s club in the neighbourhood and had a great time organising fetes during each festival, maintaining the neighbourhood park and keeping the badminton courts spic and span,” he recollects. “We also set up a library in a neighbour’s garage.”

Aggarwal did his schooling from St Theresa’s Convent School, Karnal. “As a student I won several awards in sketching, painting and fine arts,” he says. He did his graduation from the Hamdard College of Pharmacy, Haryana, passing out in 1991. He went on to a postgraduation in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Aggarwal says that he was always drawn to science in school and college. He believes that science teaches one to think logically. “Even today I enjoy doing science projects with my two sons, Parth and Arjun,” he says.

In 1999, Aggarwal was handling the distributorship of a packaging company and was trying to find someone who could insure his risks. No agent measured up. This gave him the idea of foraying into selling insurance. “Around this time there were also media reports that the government was thinking of opening up the insurance sector and this further pepped me up to explore the option seriously,” he says.

“My family opposed my move as my sister was getting married and I had to take the responsibility,” says Aggarwal. “Moreover, my parents expected me to get married the following year. So starting a new business wasn’t a good idea to them.” But Aggarwal felt that he would not be able to take the risk when he was older. He was in his late twenties and the time was ripe to do something new.

Optima began as a corporate agent for Tata AIG. Today Aggarwal’s company employs more than 100 people. Its headquarters are in Delhi and it has 17 regional offices as well. Optima works with leading players in the corporate sector. In 2008, realising the increasing Internet penetration in India, the company set up its website www.click2insure.in. “Today the turnover of the company is around Rs 45 crore. We plan to increase the topline to Rs 500 crore in the next three-five years,” says a confident Aggarwal.

He is quite optimistic about the future of insurance. “Only a minuscule percentage of the population is currently insured and almost every Indian citizen needs insurance in some form. The industry will grow at a rapid pace.” This first-generation entrepreneur feels that the insurance industry is plagued with problems such as high cost of distribution. Besides, traditional agents are facing intense competition from non-traditional channels such as banks. But competition does not scare him. “I believe that it always keeps you on your toes, and helps you think and deliver better,” says Aggarwal.

Aggarwal believes in dreaming big and wants Optima to offer professional insurance services to a much larger share of India’s under-insured population. “Within the insurance arena, we wish to offer our customers customised solutions.”

Ask him about the secret of his success and he will tell you that thinking ahead of his competitors and being fair to his customers have helped him stay ahead. “Thought leadership and hard work is the mantra behind my success,” he adds.

But Aggarwal reveals that he has the typical Piscean trait of procrastination. “I put off taking decisions till the last minute and at times this lands me in a fix,” he says. This habit of delaying things and a lazy nature are his biggest weaknesses, he feels. Playing games with his two sons rejuvenates him the most. “Story telling is a great stress buster for me,” he says. “I am the eldest in my family. I have a younger brother and sister. Even as a child I was fond of spinning tales. I would create a new fairytale every evening at bedtime for my siblings. It became a nightly ritual in our growing-up years.”

From spinning tales to securing lives, Aggarwal has surely come a long way.

Based on a conversation with Devlina Ganguly in Calcutta