Professional manager, businessman…

Mapping the Business Serengeti

The other day, when I was introduced at a conference as “a businessman”, I found myself squirming. I almost stood up to correct my introducer but a basic sense of diplomacy made me hesitate. Since that moment I have been introspecting why the term “businessman” seemed so much of a pejorative one to me. I realised that if I had been introduced as an “entrepreneur” I would have been okay. Was there something in my middle-class upbringing (my father and maternal grandfather were doctors) that made me squirm when called a businessman? Or was it my background as an IIM