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In an exclusive conversation for Mind Over Money , Ajit Menon , CEO of PGIM India Mutual Fund , shares insights as a dynamic leader who seamlessly blends creativity, empathy, and innovation to drive growth while fostering a culture of trust and empowerment. With decades of experience in capital markets, he emphasizes the importance of holistic well-being, believing that a fit body fosters a fit mind. Beyond work, his passions for portrait sketching and singing highlight his creative side, while his philosophy of "Try to be Happy, Not Happier" reflects his grounded approach to life.
Edited Excerpts – Q) Thanks for taking the time out. After spending decades in capital markets – how do you keep yourself mentally fit? A) One realisation to have is that mind and body are not separate but one. If you take care of keeping your body fit, you also keep your mind fit.
My days of marathoning or playing squash are long behind me but I try to be as physically active as I can be and that helps take care of the mind. Stock Trading Point & Figure Chart Mastery: A Comprehensive Trading Guide By - Mukta Dhamankar, Full Time Trader, 15 Years Experience, Instructor View Program Stock Trading A2Z of Stock Market for Beginners: Stock Market Course For Beginners By - elearnmarkets, Financial Education by StockEdge View Program Stock Trading RSI Made Easy: RSI Trading Course By - Souradeep Dey, Equity and Commodity Trader, Trainer View Program Stock Trading Cryptocurrency Made Easy: Cryptocurrency Course By - elearnmarkets, Financial Education by StockEdge View Program Stock Trading Ichimoku Trading Unlocked: Expert Analysis and Strategy By - Dinesh Nagpal, Full Time Trader, Ichimoku & Trading Psychology Expert View Program Stock Trading Options Trading Made Easy: Options Trading Course By - Anirudh Saraf, Founder- Saraf A & Associates, Chartered Accountant View Program Stock Trading Technical Analysis Made Easy: Online Certification Course By - Souradeep Dey, Equity and Commodity Trader, Trainer View Program Stock Trading Market 103: Mastering Trends with RMI and Techno-Funda Insights By - Rohit Srivastava, Founder- Indiacharts.com View Program Stock Trading Stock Investing Made Easy: Beginner's Stock Market Investment Course By - elearnmarkets, Financial Education by StockEdge View Program Stock Trading Markets 102: Mastering Sentiment Indicators for Swing and Positional Trading By - Rohit Srivastava, Founder- Indiacharts.
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The other aspect when you work in the capital markets is that it is connected to everything else and therefore, I try not to be narrowly focussed only on the markets but get exposure through reading, listening to podcasts and the like on varied subjects. This not only helps in having richer conversations but also in building perspective in your area of work with clients and colleagues. Tell us a little bit more about Portrait sketching and singing which are your unique pastimes.
How do these activities contribute to your personal growth and creativity? I am lucky to have parents who had conventional jobs but were always biased towards creative pursuits and I picked up singing and sketching from them at an early age. These I believe are additional skills that allow you to have more pursuits in life than one. Having multiple skills I believe is the most robust way of leading a long and healthy life.
Especially when you decide to hang up your boots, you have more options to consider regardless of whether you monetize them or not. One would think that working in the world of finance is a very rational left brained job, but I think leveraging a creative side helps you differentiate by enhancing your presentation and conversational skills. It helps in ideating better and thinking unconventionally in different situations as well.
You enjoy reading on diverse topics like mythology, history, health, and behavioral science. Which of these subjects fascinates you the most, and why? I think I like all of them equally though with a gun to my head, I would choose behavioural science since I find its evolving connection to cognitive science and how our brain is wired quite fascinating when it comes to some work subjects like retirement. Indian mythology has been a rich source of content that helps to connect as well.
History is interesting to give you a sense of the past and to understand the context in various aspects. Not to make any future predictions though since as Morgan Housel says –History is a study of surprising events. See the irony in that? My favourite Behavioural scientist Daniel Kahneman would add that the correct lesson you learn from surprises is that the world is surprising! Health is another topic that I dive into for personal interest and professional, in that it keeps me active and ready to meet all challenges.
We do gift books on health to our partners and colleagues as well as we believe that if we are in the business of making wealth then the first principle is that health is true wealth. So in a way, I find connections in all of them. Your philosophy, "Try to be Happy, not Happier," is intriguing.
Could you share the reasoning behind this perspective? That’s quite simple. Anybody can choose to be happy, but if you want to be happier, then the question becomes, happier than whom? That opens a pandora’s box of comparison and the unnecessary stress to keep running after bigger and better things in life. As Charlie Munger would say, the world isn’t driven by greed, it's driven by envy.
And he also says that the safest way to try to get what you want is to deserve what you want. That does resonate with me as well and I feel that with this philosophy I find it easier to say no or I don’t know without feeling insecure or anxious about the outcome. I also believe in using the right expertise for important aspects that reduce stress and anxiety.
I have had a financial advisor take care of the family’s investment goals for over a decade now and it helps immensely. Money matters are emotional at the core and the real value of a trusted advisor is in having someone who is in a different emotional state than you while making money decisions for your future financial goals. How has being a lifelong student and maintaining curiosity shaped your personal and professional journey? A favourite quote of mine by F.
M Alexander is that “People don’t decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits make their future.” I guess the habit of reading has served me well. Most people hardly pick up a book after they finish their academic life.
Books go deeper into a subject compared to the current trend of ‘shorts’. I also favour long form podcasts and articles that give multiple dimensions on a subject. This aspect I believe has helped me influence colleagues to build long term and structurally strong foundations to the brands I have worked with.
I was also lucky to have great bosses early in my career who helped me learn important lessons, from focusing on the quality of inputs rather than outcomes alone, meeting diverse people and learning from the ground up. My partners and colleagues have been teachers too. After all, everybody knows something that you don’t.
This has helped me keep an open mind and challenge the status quo where necessary. It also helped me focus on peoples’ strengths and recruiting team mates much better than me in various aspects. Good outcomes on the personal and professional front have followed.
Kindness is a core value for you. How do you incorporate this into your leadership style and daily life? I would say that the core value of kindness too comes from my parents. I observed early how they treated people around them regardless of the other's station in life.
Sometimes we take people who help us for granted and they become sort of invisible. All many people want is just to be seen. Being appreciative as much as possible at all levels is not too difficult.
I can’t remember if I have ever raised my voice to get something done. As they say, truth is in the context and many a time we get judgemental quickly without realising the context of the other person. You do need to be strong and lead according to the situation at hand but it’s almost magical to see how people go beyond and above to deliver when you are just kind and empathetic.
You have to have your eye on the ball but sometimes you step back and let your teammates run with it. Sometimes you need to be vulnerable enough to ask for help. Being vulnerable needs courage.
Also, nothing like having a pet to teach you some unconditional love and kindness as they say. I miss mine as he passed away a few months ago after 12 years of giving companionship. With such varied interests and professional goals, how do you ensure a healthy balance between work and personal passions? I am a reasonably early riser and that gives me time to catch up on some of my reading or other research.
If I have to drive for longer, that’s the time I listen to my favourite podcasts. I am also not much of an afternoon snoozer on weekends and that gives me time as well to organise around my other interests. I think that to find a balance you also need to get your priorities straight.
For me, it’s my kids first because I am partly responsible for bringing them into this world, then my spouse because I brought her into my world, then my parents, my brother and family and close friends, relatives and colleagues. Mostly you are cruising along at work and home but if a situation presents itself which needs my attention in the family, then that takes priority over work. I do also feel blessed to have a supportive spouse who is an accomplished professional in her own right, intelligent kids, strong and healthy family relationships.
We have a large extended family, and different cultures mixed into it. From Malayali to Bengali and Maharashtrian. So, we find many occasions to come together and celebrate.
They say that there are only two types of people in this world. Those who dance and those who don’t. And my family can dance.
To anything and on any occasion. So we look forward to our get-togethers and fighting over the karaoke mike. The strong bonds we share is another blessing.
My wife and I have been empty nesters for a bit with both the children studying away from home. We also invested into a small plot where we are building a weekend home and hope to take a break from work on weekends and indulge in some hobby farming with family and friends. We get our time therefore till the kids come back on their breaks and then it is beautiful chaos.
What role does creativity and continuous learning play in your approach to leadership at PGIM India Mutual Fund? With the challenges that the business went through in earlier years, the mandate was to build trust and credibility for brand PGIM. Me and my senior team set about building a culture first. A culture of trust among all stakeholders of empowerment and a focus on execution.
Transparency through open and frequent communication. An openness to experiment at different levels to differentiate the value proposition of being associated with brand PGIM. While most competitors would speak about the benefits of mutual funds for all financial goals, we planned to go not just wide but deep into one goal.
Retirement. The only financial goal in your life for which you don’t get a conventional loan. We have built and continue to evolve an ecosystem around the subject.
We are the only asset manager who publishes proprietary research on Retirement readiness in India, a certification program for advisors, tools and strategies and unconventional approaches like our 50 Gigs Compendium that can help people pick up a hobby and monetise it. We are also the only asset manager to have a PhD level resource on Behavioural Finance. Our centre of excellence is building tools and frameworks for both internal teams and for external partners as well.
We sponsored all of our sales team members to finish the key module of financial planning from the CFP course. We do not have a clock-in clock-out system, trusting our team to do good quality work. Flexibility in working from home too.
Around 36% of our workforce is made up of women and that’s probably the highest in the industry. We plan on rolling out an initiative to part sponsor our employees to learn any skill that they want which by design need not be anything connected to work and can be a hobby. We just want to practice what we preach when it comes to the benefits of having multiple skills.
Our business has grown from around a Rs 1,161 crore (As of March 2020) in equity assets just before the pandemic to over Rs 24,852.5 crore in equity assets and Rs 30,156 crore overall in assets, including advisory and alternatives (As of December 4, 2024). It also helps that we have a strong bench of leaders for succession at the firm at all levels.
We continue to hold steady on our convictions and long-term consistency. ( Disclaimer : Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times) (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel ).
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