An experienced veteran of the Cement Industry, Jagdish thinks that alone one can’t do anything. It requires synergistic efforts of the entire team to be able to do things at scale.

Jagdish Chandra Toshniwal retired as the Managing Director of Wonder Cement Ltd.

Jagdish hails from Udaipur. He did a BE in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani in 1975.

Jagdish started his professional career with Udaipur Cement Works as a Maintenance Engineer and worked there for about six years. Then he worked for two years with Laxmi Cement in Sirohi. Thereafter he joined Vikram Cement Works and worked there for ten years. He helped set up three cement plants there. In 1997, he joined Ambuja Cement Works as a Technical Head and then became a Unit Head there. In 2015, he joined Wonder Cement Ltd as the MD of the company and worked there till 2021.

Jagdish has always considered his parents, his inspiration. He says that his father who was a school teacher always taught him to work hard with honesty and integrity. Besides, his seniors at the workplace always encouraged him to excel at his work.

Jagdish says about struggles in life that life is full of ups and downs. He says that he had to face many challenges at times in his career. However, always remaining patient helped him deal with them easily. He thinks that irrespective of short-term failures in life if you continue to work toward your goals, you will surely achieve success.

Jagdish considers being able to assume the post of MD at Wonder Cement Ltd. as his biggest achievement. Besides, being able to solve business problems in his jobs and getting appreciation from his seniors and co-workers is also an achievement for him.

Jagdish doesn’t think that he was born a leader. He says he evolved as a leader with time and experience in his career. His leadership style is giving autonomy of tasks to his team members and involving them in the decision-making. Besides, he thinks that a leader should always be by the side of their team. Furthermore, he says that appreciating and rewarding the efforts of the team members are equally important to keep their morale high.

Jagdish thinks that everybody makes mistakes in life and he too made some mistakes. He says that after completing his Engineering degree, he was unemployed for six months straight owing to unemployment in the Engineering field back then. And then, when he joined a cement industry, he realized that he made a mistake joining it as the industry was very dirty and he could have faced some potential health issues. However, in hindsight, he thinks that it was not a mistake rather a learning in disguise. He says that making mistakes is normal but one should learn from their mistakes and never commit the same mistake twice.

Jagdish says that being able to get success one after the other in his career always kept him psyched up to perform better.

Jagdish says about Covid that the pandemic was a threatening situation for us all. In light of the pandemic, the cement plant he worked at was kept shut, and because of this workers there had to lose their livelihood. However, he says that when things normalized a bit, following all the Covid protocols the plant was opened piecemeal. Besides, he says that the pandemic taught us to minimize our expenses and the importance of keeping in contact with our loved ones.

His Success Mantra is “There is no substitute to hard work.”