* “Added Value- The life stories of Indian business leaders” – Roli Books 2010
“Profiles in Enterprise – Inspiring stories of Indian business leaders”- Roli Books 2015
Note: the below quotes are extracted from the above books. Sadly some of the people I interviewed have passed away and, where I know this to be the case, I have indicated this. Some of the others have changed their roles but I have left them as what they were when I interviewed them. The quotes are in no particular order.
Subhash Chandra
Founder and Chairman
Essel Group/Zee TV“
“My brother rang me and said ‘Subhash, I am here with two of our brothers watching Zee [their TV channel] and am alarmed to see there have only been 3 ads on the station this evening’. I said that was the ‘good news” and did he want to hear the ‘bad news”. Of course he said he did and I told him all 3 ads were free. I think I heard my brother drop the phone!”
AVS Raju
Founder and Chairman
Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd
“You may have all the education in the world but what’s more important is common sense which, despite its name, is not that common. Recently I was invited as the chief guest to a meeting of auditors. I think they must have regretted inviting me because I told them that, I did not know much about the auditing profession. All one needs is common sense to understand how a company is doing.”
Deepak Puri
Founder, Chairman and Managing Director
Moser Baer India Limited
“The government at that time wanted the Indian entrepreneur to go and box in a boxing ring with his arms tied behind his back and win the bout. An Indian businessman in those times had to find a way to win a boxing bout without using his arms.”
GM Rao
Founder and Chairman
GMR Group
“I have decided to give more importance, not only to ‘corporate’ but also to ‘family’ governance. Without family governance, the circle is incomplete.”
Arun Bharat Ram
Chairman
SRF Limited
“Back in the ‘30s the leading Indian dancer was Uday Shankar. Believe it or not my grandfather used to invite Uday and his whole troupe of 30 or 40 dancers and musicians to come and stay at his big house. And they used to stay, not just for a night or two, but for months in a year.”
Shahnaz Husain
Founder and Chairman
Shahnaz Husain Group
“Everyone has a God they worship.
I had mine – my father – I worshipped him.
He taught me to have total faith in my capabilities.
He always said you can make your own destiny.
Your life will be exactly the way you will it to be.”
(dedication by Shahnaz Husain to her father in her book on health)
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
Chairman and Managing Director
Biocon Ltd
“When I think back on those days, it was foolish courage. When I look at how amateurishly I started the company, I don’t think I would have been successful today. I think I just had the luxury of a time when India was very primitive and there was the ‘licence raj’ so there wasn’t any real pressure on anyone to perform in a big way.”
Subash Menon
Founder Chairman, Managing Director and CEO
Subex
“When I am asked to speak to students about success, I tell them that in order to be successful one has to have strongly held convictions. I tell them what my convictions are, and they are not rocket science:
- Whatever happens, happens for good
- There are two sides to every coin
- All crises pass”
Dr Anand Deshpande
Founder and CEO
Persistent Systems
“…. I told him [Secretary Mr. N. Vittal] nothing had happened for 4 months other than being told there was no space [at the Pune Software Technology Park for Persistent Systems]. I told him I already had 2 foreign companies ready to give me work but was stuck twiddling my thumbs. He clearly felt bad about the situation because two days later I received a call from the Head of the Software Technology Park in Pune. He told me ‘Secretary Mr. Vittal has told me to vacate my office and give it to you.’”
Uday Kotak
Founder and Executive Vice Chairman
Kotak Mahindra
“Dad, I don’t want to join the complicated family business. I love commerce; I love trading; I love everything which is being done, but I find it difficult to manage the family complexity. I would rather take professional employment at Hindustan Lever. He said ‘Uday, what if I gave you an opportunity – on the family platform – for an independent business? What is interesting to you?’ So I said ‘financial consultancy’. Actually I didn’t know anything about it but he said, “I will try and convince the family to give you 300 sq ft of office space in Fountain and you can do what you want’.”
Habil Khorakiwala
Chairman
Wockhardt
“Leadership is like traveling on a road at night with a visibility of 100 meters.”
Professor Monkombu Sambasivam (M.S.) Swaminathan
“For me, it was blindingly clear that the most important thing for India after WWII was going to be food.”
Arun Firodia
Chairman
Kinetic Group of Companies
“When we are doing a business we should make profit but at the same time we must also use the knowledge and insights that we have gained to make a difference in the lives of others. We should focus on other things besides making money. Today, money doesn’t excite me.”
Kishore Biyani
Founder and CEO
Future Group
I ask him if he knows which part of his character is most responsible for his success in business. “That’s easy“ he says “Rebellion. It’s a very positive force. In fact, I remember the first ad I made when I started the business. I created the character of a black sheep of the family and he was successful in life. The ad was for trousers.”
BN Kalyani
Chairman & Managing Director
Bharat Forge Limited
“I can also remember as a small boy I had a mindset for mechanical things. I enjoyed doing such things as tightening nuts and bolts. Even when I was around eight or nine years old I could dissemble and reassemble my bicycle and repair it. I did this very often with many things.”
Y K Hamied
Chairman and Managing Director
Cipla
Yusuf handed me a speech he gave in 2007 in Lord Todd’s honour and asked me to read the first paragraph out. It read ‘Lord Alexander Todd was my mentor, philosopher and guide. No person has played a more significant role in directing my life or helping to shape my destiny.’
Captain R Gopinath
Founder Air Deccan/Deputy Chairman
Kingfisher
“I saw the senselessness of war – war bruises everyone, both the victor and the vanquished.”
CK Ranganathan
Founder and CEO
CavinKare
“I used to play chess with my brothers and they would beat me in 7 to 8 moves. I was the kid who was always struggling, did not speak English and was not brainy. If I managed to pass in school, it was just barely. I was shy and had a terrible inferiority complex.”
Harsh Mariwala
Chairman and Managing Director
Marico Limited
“Every person is born with certain strengths. I recommend that a young person determines what his or her strengths are and then leverage those strengths rather than merely aspire to be ‘something’.”
Narayana Murthy
Founder
Infosys
“I strongly believe that people get into trouble when they become victims of money. As long as you are the master of your money, as long as you can live without a luxury there should not be a problem. Many of those who violate laws and behave unethically do so because they are victims.”
Raghav Bahl
Founder and Chairman
Network18
“Even if you’re doing something marginally right or wrong, be honest. Even if you have to take a decision which you know to be walking the edge between the right and wrong, don’t try to fool yourself that you’re doing the right thing. Remember that your credibility and your honesty is all you will have as you go forward. That’s your biggest wealth. I’m not saying you’ve always got to be morally right, but you’ve got to be honest – honest with your colleagues, partners, vendors and consumers.”
Vijaypat Singhania
Chairman Emeritus
Retired Chairman and CEO
Raymond Limited
“When the body is so tired that it feels no pain, when the mind is so exhausted it feels no anguish, something beyond the mind and body makes you endure the journey you have decided to embark upon. This incomprehensible, intangible something is what “Gita”, the Hindu book of scriptures & philosophy, calls “Atman” – the Self. I call it the spirit of man. We all possess it deep within us. It need only be ignited to experience our true potential.”
Rahul Bajaj
Chairman, Bajaj Auto and Head
Bajaj Group
“It is not just India but everywhere in the world there is an issue with succession. 95% of the Bajaj family wealth is tied up in the equity of the Bajaj Companies of which 80% is Bajaj Auto. If the Bajaj Auto share price goes to the dogs then our wealth goes to the dogs and our reputation goes to the dogs. During the socialist times in India, a brother or a son was put in charge of a company even if he was not competent as there were other professionals who were managing the company, the opportunities were limited and there was a shortage of supply in the economy. Given these situations, any one could have managed the company. Nowadays, with globalisation, many MNCs have come into India and if a son is not as good or better than somebody else, you better not give him charge of the company because then nobody benefits, not even you and your son.”
The late Dr DB Gupta
Founder and Chairman
Lupin
“Be sincere, honest and forthright, express yourself clearly as to what you want and, whilst luck certainly plays a part in one’s life, don’t forget that “God helps those who help themselves.”
The late Capt Krishnan Nair
Founder and Chairman
The Leela Group
“I was arrested many times and put into lock up, kicked and beaten. When we students were in the lock up we would all recite out loud the words of the Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore. I can remember them to this day:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
Into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
Has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
The late Dr Anji Reddy
Founder and Chairman
Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories
“One day, I was just walking past the lab and the thought suddenly struck me: I had to build my own Pfizer one day. The feeling was so powerful that, from that moment on, I looked at chemistry from the point of view of a businessman.”
Ranji Dua
Founder and Senior Partner
Dua Associates
“As I suspect at all other leading law firms at that time, when I was with Jimmy Dadachandji, not only didn’t I have a room, I didn’t even have a desk, I didn’t even have a chair! I used to sit and work on files or find an empty seat.”
Shashi Kiran Shetty
Founder and Chairman
Allcargo Global Logistics Limited
“In one sense I was delighted to be on own at last; at the ripe old age of 29. But it was very tough as I had no financial support. It was a ‘hand to mouth’ existence. I often had to avoid calls from creditors while I chased debtors to pay. To give you an idea of how little spare money I had, you should know I built up running accounts at the local restaurant just so I could eat!”
GVK Reddy
Founder and Chairman
GVK Group
“I am told that one day, when I was a child, my parents went to a fortune teller. The fortune teller apparently told them about me up to the age of 14; and stopped after that saying: ‘I don’t want to say anything more about this child as he will be totally useless.’”
Deepak Parekh
Chairman
HDFC bank
“I was a crummy, absolutely crummy, student. I had to take a lot of help from my colleagues and my mother had to teach me. I can remember on one occasion I had failed, but I managed to score just enough marks to have my failure condoned. At best, I got borderline marks.”
Arunachalam Vellayan
Chairman
Murugappa Group
“I have until 2018 when I turn 65. So I look forward to the next few years as I still enjoy doing business. I believe that the group is hugely privileged because we are in a position today where the entry barriers are very strong because of our size. We have chosen to focus on seven areas of business where we seek to be dominant: fertilizers, sugar, tube, cycles, abrasives, financial services and insurance.”
Anand Burman
Chairman
Dabur India
“It is our philosophy – and that philosophy started off way back – when we have somebody to invest with us, we will always leave something on the table for our partner. There is no fun if I try to take all the “cream” for myself. You will be unhappy and, if you are unhappy, you will make damn sure that I am also unhappy.”
Adi Godrej
Chairman
Godrej Group
“I see that the younger generation in India, whether in my family or elsewhere, has tremendous ideas. They are entrepreneurial and passionate. I believe we will see them do a much better job than my generation.”
Ajay Bijli
Chairman
PVR Cinemas
“We were the first to invest in a Dolby sound system. But it was not just a question of an English language movie with a great sound system because there were other differences too, such as a clean place to watch the movie, a staff wearing clean uniforms, and the overall experience was colourful.”
Ajay Primal
Chairman
Piramal
“Our use of the Nicholas name is an interesting illustration of our values. When we acquired Nicholas in 1988 we agreed that in 1990 we would cease using the name. But they saw that in those two years our new investment in the business and the growing of the business had enhanced the reputation and value of the Nicholas name; not only in India but internationally.”
The late Bhavarlal H Jain
Founder and Chairman
Jain
“In business, even if you are an average person, if you are honest, if you are willing to work hard and if you are sincere towards your objective, you will succeed.”
BK Jhawar
Chairman Emeritus
Usha Martin
“Charity only destroys dignity and independence. We did not want to give them ‘fish’, but to teach them how to ‘fish’- and also to teach them how to ‘market the fish'”.
The late BM Khaitan
Chairman
Williamson Magor
“I would not be giving you the correct impression if I were to claim that I was all the time on the “up”. I have had “down” periods too, but even in the worst of times, I never changed my value systems of kindness, honesty, and integrity – I would not allow anything to affect that. Even more so in the tough periods you have to rely on your honesty and integrity.”
Ela Bhatt
Founder
Self Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA)
“But also if your mind is still working and you see what is happening in the world, you immediately want to know more about it and find alternatives and answers. I mean, who retires? Only those who have jobs and are working for someone else, they retire. But, for me, everything I do is a continuation of my lifetime’s work.”
Harshavardhan Neotia
Chairman
Ambuja Realty
“My family has been successful in recent times. … And thus there is indeed an obligation or expectation for me to succeed too, but it is not something that bothers me too much. All I can do is my best and if that is not good enough, so be it.”
Keshub Mahindra
Emeritus Chairman
Mahindra and Mahindra
“My father and uncle had a sort of vision, a dream; they were not interested in really doing anything which did not add to value creation of India’s economic role. They were not interested in a “quick buck” and they were not interested in retail. So they concentrated on basic industries, which they thought would supplement India’s effort and that is the history of this company.”
Naveen Jindal
Chairman
Jindal Steel and Power
“The national flag is the most solemn symbol of our country, and when our citizens gather around the flag it is absolutely non controversial and allows them to rise above their religious affiliations, their political affiliations and, above all to demonstrate that they are proud to be Indian.”
Professor Balachandran
Founder & Dean
Great Lakes Institute of Management
“I would create a movement with youngsters of my own age and go on the social media and do what the two guys in Egypt did, create a wave and then eliminate the damn cancer of the corruption which we have somehow got in this country. Youngsters between thirty and forty years would have to take charge of the administration and governance of the country. I agree that this is revolutionary because the evolutionary way in India is just not realistic.”
Ramesh Chauhan
Chairman and Managing Director
Bisleri International
“It is nice to read these theories in books but, you know, when it comes to it, I like people. I enjoy spending time with people and am in the fortunate position, I do not want or need anything from anybody. That makes life easy. If somebody wants something from me, I tell them, “Whatever you want to say, please say it simply; otherwise forget it.”
Ronnie Screwvala
Founder
UTV Group
“The investment by Disney was a necessary part of UTV’s growth because the media business has always been a very undercapitalised business and we needed more financial muscle to expand on an international scale. Also, the media business is risky and, whilst we were confident we would succeed seven out of ten times, realistically we would fail three times. Not because we had made bad decisions or had not delivered, but because that is the nature of the industry.”
Radhe Shyam Agarwal
Founder and Chairman
Emami
“The West does not know the meaning of friendship. Friendship is a matter of what we call ‘sambandh’ in Hindi, which means equal relations – equal bondage to each other. There is usually no equal bondage in the West.”
Sanjay Lalbhai
Chairman and Managing Director
Arvind
“I think that in family businesses, ownership and management have to be segregated. You may inherit wealth or shares or a controlling interest in a company, but you do not, per se, just go and manage a business unless you are capable. All our businesses are professionally managed.”
Sanjay Nayak
CEO and Managing Director
Tejas Networks
“I believe we have to think differently. It will be foolish for us to try to replicate the factory model of China. In India we have the capabilities to design even a complex product in electronics, but the rest of the supporting ecosystem is missing. We have to leverage our large domestic market to get economies of scale, and we need access to low-cost capital and finance.”
Sanjiv Goenka
Chairman
RPG-Sanjiv Goenka Group
“I think Marwaris have a very good sense of commerce. We instinctively understand business as most of us grow up in a business family environment where it is talked about from an early age. You adapt to it much easier than to anything else.”
Shobhana Bhartia
Chairperson and Editorial Director
HT Media
“To my father, the thought that the paper should be benchmarked against others is something that he would never have considered. For him, the Hindustan Times was still the media vehicle that was used for the Independence struggle.”
Subroto Bagchi
Chairman
Mindtree Inc
“I think that the next seven years will be the defining years for Mindtree. We are making the transition from being a culture-led company to expertise led, but culture backed company, and that is an interesting and fascinating journey because it is not the journey of a company; it is the journey of people. In my view when people go to a destination, they take the company with them.”
Sunita Narain
Director General
Centre for Science and Environment
“I think that the biggest victory we have had is the one in Delhi on compressed natural gas (CNG). We pushed very hard from the 1990s saying that the pollution levels in Delhi had reached such high levels that we needed to do something about it to prevent it affecting our health.”
Venu Srinivasan
Chairman
TVS Group
“It is quite amazing to note how my grandfather planted the seed and his elder sons acted as his lieutenants and built a solid foundation. Then every brother who came along after them added something to it. What is amazing is that each of my grandfather’s five sons did exactly what your book is about – they ‘added value’. As you would know from your studies of Indian joint families this is quite extraordinary, as usually there are one or two members who are not interested, who ‘coast’ or cause the joint family to lose value.”
* “Added Value- The life stories of Indian business leaders” – Roli Books 2010
“Profiles in Enterprise – Inspiring stories of Indian business leaders”- Roli Books 2015
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