Aakanksha Bhargava

Aakanksha Bhargava was born in Kolkata, India into a business family. When she was just 7 years old, her family relocated to Delhi where she graduated from the illustrious Hindu College. At the Hindu college, she held 3 prestigious positions – President of Placement society, President of Choreography society and the Cultural Head for the College fest Mecca. Moving ahead to gain deeper knowledge on managing a business, Aakanksha pursued and successfully completed her MBA from the world-renowned SP Jain School of Management (Singapore and Dubai). From here began her impressive journey to become one of India’s most successful women CEOs. Aakanksha joined PM Relocations Pvt. Ltd. (PMR) when she was 21 years old. She always believed in making her own place and commanding respect because of her own achievements. She was the boss ‘s daughter hence the urge to prove herself was strong. She began quickly changing things around and work towards scalability. She went on to handle PMR’s corporate sales, marketing and operations, among other departments. She travelled and lived in different parts of the country to understand the culture and pulse of the city establishing a good team and work process. She handpicked her team and has worked from the root level day in day out. The first thing she began working on, in all these capacities, was to organize a largely unorganized sector. She focused on introducing systems, procedures and planning. PMR, which was a stagnant organization for years with bare minimum growth reached unconquered peaks under her leadership. She always believed that one needs to set high standards and dream big. With her clarity of vision, she brought immense efficiency, transparency and productivity to PMR’s already smooth functioning. Aakanksha’ s leadership saw that in just 10 years, PMR expanded its base to 14 offices across India, including Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The bottom-line grew manifold too. From a turnover of INR 3 crores in 2010 to closing around 50+ crores in 2017, it is a huge, impressive jump by any standard. Being a travel enthusiast, her joy lies in travelling at least twice if not more to explore the world and harbor her passion. She has travelled close to 35 countries along with successfully handling work at PMR. Today, as the CEO and President of PMR, she is leading one of the most exciting and fast-growing businesses in India. Taking cue from her father and idol Mr. Rajeev Bhargava (MD – PMR), Aakanksha didn’t let the male-dominated industry’s rigid ways keep her down. With the outstanding results and leadership that she has displayed, she is the face of the young, emerging India that is fearless, original and versatile. Being an Industry expert Aakanksha frequently contributes to various International and national Industry publications such as the FIDI Focus, IAM – The Portal, The Movers, Cargo talk etc. Her entrepreneurial journey was featured by both Your Story and Young Turks, one of leading entrepreneur based shows in India.
She enjoys interacting with people and most importantly believes in sharing her journey and learning. She recently addressed students in a guest lecture organized by the Indian Business School at Hyderabad and by the division of MHROD at Delhi School of Economics and has been invited to many more universities and colleges.
With Aakanksha’ s vision, PMR is well on its way to executing its ambitious growth plans. New offices are underway in tier-2 cities such as Lucknow and Kanpur. The bottom-line is expected to grow manifold. Unchartered waters such as art movement are already being explored and new, exciting avenues are soon to open up. PMR has also grown in terms of not just providing world class packing and moving services but creating a complete relocation ecosystem where all services are available under one roof. Right from immigration to home search, city orientation, school search, utility services, orientation and departure program’s. PMR is spearheading the organized relocation business in India. Its next steps, under Aakanksha’ s very able leadership, will decide the course that the industry takes.
In her spare time, Aakanksha unwinds with casual coffee dates with her husband Sumit. Bollywood films and music help her de-clutter her head. Aakanksha closely follows cricket, a game she has loved since her childhood. Dancing to her is like meditating! A trained Kathak dancer and wannabe golfer, she tries to devote as much time to these pursuits as her hectic schedule allows. A voracious reader, she reads everyday before retiring to bed. Her favourite books are The Fountainhead, Letters to my Daughter, Steve Jobs, The Lean Startup and Atlas Shrugged. She secretly now wishes to rejoin her Piano lessons too!!!
Aakanksha’s true joy lies in balancing her work and personal life with panache, because in both of these, she finds her peace.
P.M. Relocations – is a Small-Medium Enterprise, a one stop solution for mobility needs, with respect to anybody relocating within India or overseas. Our service portfolio includes complete household goods relocation and setting in services like – home search, city – orientation, cultural training, school search and tailor-made modules to assist our clients while they settle in a new home. Apart from this, we also look after corporate shiftings and delicate fine-art work moving.
We are regularly advocated for our innovative and entrepreneurial thought process across various dailies, magazines and entrepreneurship show such as Business Today, Outlook Business Magazine, Hindustan Times, Your Story, Cargo Talk, Biznews, Money Control, Mint, Mind Your Business, Young Turks, Sheroes, Business Today, Yo Success, Economics Times, Bloomberg TV- Rising Star ANI and My Big Plunge.

Some of the Prestigious Awards

To commemorate her outstanding achievements Aakanksha was awarded with the:

1. “Women of Worth” award at Outlook Business Awards 2017
2. Awarded ‘Exceptional Women of Excellence 2017’ by All Ladies League & Women Economic Forum
3. Awarded ‘Outstanding People Management Approach used by FMB’ by SPJIMR in 2017
4. ‘Woman Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the Franchise India Awards 2016
5. ‘Best Woman Leader’ award at the Business Today SME Awards in 2015

Under her leadership, the company has also won many Industry awards such as:

1. PMR was presented with the prestigious Silver Award for ‘Commitment to Excellence’ by the ‘Cartus Global Network’ in 2017 and Platinum Award for ‘Commitment to Excellence’ by the ‘Cartus Global Network’ in 2016.
2. PAIMA’s Tonnage Star for Contributing the highest tonnage from South Asian Region in 2017 & 2016 respectively.
3. PAIMA’s Highest Tonnage Contribution from South Asian Region from the year 2011 to year 2015. The company was also recognised as PAIMA’s Tonnage Star Achiever in the year 2016.

Links to Some of Our Notable Media Coverages

1. Outlook Business – Women of worth – https://bit.ly/2zzUs8O
2. Business Today – https://bit.ly/2stmq1W
3. Business India – https://bit.ly/2woXooh
4. Economics Times – https://bit.ly/2bhkyPm
5. YourStory – https://her.yourstory.com/aakanksha-bhargava-0607
6. Business Standard – https://bit.ly/2aABp2k
7. Sheroes – https://bit.ly/2aQ5I2s
8. Relocate Magazine – https://bit.ly/22XDFlS
9. Mind Your Business – https://bit.ly/2aL32Vs
10. My Big Plunge – https://bit.ly/2amBllW
11. Yo Success – https://bit.ly/2bimqYJ
12. People Matters – https://bit.ly/2aFpnRn
13. IAM Portal – https://bit.ly/2aL4VEE
14. The Movers.co.uk – https://bit.ly/2aArnPj
15. Employment News – https://bit.ly/2bfafzW

Television Coverage

1. Young Turks – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brH9jtFZtSk
2. ET Now – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQNTcmyaWKs&t=19s
3. Bloomberg – Rising Stars – https://bit.ly/2bf1chh
4. ANI TV – https://bit.ly/2aChTUJ
5. Business Today Awards – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uw8bu3QgHk