Arvind Vohra And The Art Of Remaining Positive Against All Odds

Groundbreaker, Hugely Successful, Yet Unassuming And Accesssible! A Man With Never Say Die Attitude Whatever Be The Circumstances And A One Who Believes In Working On His Own Terms, Has Worked On His Terms And Trusts His Instincts More Than The Conventional Wisdom! Here Is The Story Of Arvind Vohra - Country Ceo And Managing Director Of Gionee India, Like Never Before.

- Gagandeep Kaur

As Country CEO and Managing Director of Gionee India, Vohra is known most for establishing a Chinese brand in the Indian smartphone market for the first time. To this end, it can be argued that it was Gionee’s success, which paved the way for other Chinese brands to make headway in the Indian market. To a large extent, it also changed the perception of Chinese smartphones as cheap and low-end to smart, savvy and high-end products.

Initial Years-Life’s ups and downs

Vohra comes from a business family in Shimla, capital city of Himachal Pradesh and spent most of his childhood between Shimla Chandigarh and Mumbai. He was a student of St edward’s School in Shimla (Indian Vice-President, Mohammad Hamid Ansari and three Chief Justices at Chandigarh also did their schooling here). However, the family faced hardships when they were forced to wind off business in 1980-81.

“We had a family business in Shimla, so my father decided to pursue that in 1973 to help my grandfather. However, by the time he went back to Shimla, the business was in such a bad shape that it just couldn’t be revived, and we finally had to shut it in 1980. We were relatively affluent then, but everything changed in 1980…you know how it is when the business winds up. By 1982-83 the necessities also became a struggle,” recalls Vohra. 

Finally, the family moved to Mumbai where Arvind’s father had taken up a job. “at one point of time there were six-seven of us staying in a small flat in Mumbai,” he recalls. While studying at HR College of Commerce, Mumbai, Arvind harbored ambitions of making it big in the film industry. He pursued this and appeared in advertisements for Clearsil and Binnys among others.