Bish Agrawal founded India's executive search industry from scratch

Five decades later, the industry he pioneered is worth billions, spanning thousands of recruitment, executive search and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) firms. In 2020, he became the first Asian recipient of the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants' Global Lifetime Achievement Award, recognising his role as the founding architect of India's executive search industry.

Agrawal, now in his late 80s, was born around 1940 into a modest trading family in a village near Darbhanga, Bihar. One of 14 siblings, he learned English only in his late teens. He once described himself as "Destiny's Child" and credited his success to "tons of self-belief, hard work and more than a stroke of luck." He is known throughout the industry as "Doc", a nickname that reflects his role as a confidant to both clients and candidates, often sought out for life advice and career counselling.

ABC itself is now led by his son Shiv, who has run the firm for nearly two decades. His daughters Sonal and Toral built Accord within the family business. The family has often acknowledged that work and home life were never separated. The business became the common language around the dinner table.

Agrawal also collected contemporary art, displaying the same instinct in galleries that he did in interview rooms. Former colleagues recount a habit of judging a person's character over lunch by observing how they treated the waiter. In an industry obsessed with credentials and pedigree, Agrawal reportedly trusted his own reading of people more than what appeared on a résumé.

He became the first Asian recipient of the AESC Global Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.