Man for All Seasons
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C orporateTHE ECONOMIC TIMES Dossier 01 September 05-11, 2014* TheThe Economic Times CorporateInfl Dossier presentsuentials India Inc’s defi nitive power listing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 N R Mukesh Kumar Azim Anil Anand Chanda Sunil Natarajan Deepak Narayana Dhirubhai Mangalam Premji Dhirubhai G Mahindra D Kochhar Mittal Chandrasekaran Parekh Murthy Ambani Birla Ambani Man For All Seasons Why N R Narayana Murthy How do you assess leadership potential? The fi rst requirement is courage. The second is the ability never fails to strike a chord to craft a grand vision and carry people along towards that By Dibeyendu Ganguly vision. That means being able to communicate that vision, with the tough things that go with it. A great leader also has aybe it’s his credo of simple living and the ability to make people an inch taller in his presence. higher thinking, reminiscent of Gan- dhi. Maybe it’s because he’s come to be How important is fi nancial performance to leadership? the face of India’s booming informa- Financial performance is important as an instrument to tion technology sector. Or maybe it’s the give back to society, in terms of jobs, taxes, higher edu- Mmoney he’s made for his shareholders, employees and cation, image of India. A leader must be able to relate to anyone else lucky enough to be associated with Infosys. society because it is an important stakeholder. But there’s something about NR Narayana Murthy that has always captured the Indian imagination. The chair- How important is image management for a leader? man of Infosys has been at the top spot of the India Inc’s It’s important for leaders to realize that image manage- Most Powerful List more times than anyone else, and this ment is an ingredient of leadership but image can’t be year too, he has been voted Numero Uno. In an interview wholly different from reality. In an environment where with CD, India Most Powerful CEO talks about managing visibility is high and there are so many different infor- people and his legacy. Edited excerpts: mation channels, leaders who try to be something they are not will be exposed. I came from a lower middle class background. When we had access to wealth, we decided to continue to live in a way that comes naturally to us. What’s your advice on managing people? You need to start every transaction on a zero base. Don’t bring in biases from prior transactions. Base the transac- tion on facts. You can disagree but you can’t be disagreeable. That’s a very mathematical way of looking at people in- teractions... I’ve always enjoyed mathematics. It is the most precise and concise way of expressing any idea. If we use facts, forecasting, pattern recognition, big data, the truth will come out. Mathematical models can be used to simplify Why do you think people keep voting you India Inc’s complex things. For today’s VUCA world, there’s a branch Most Powerful CEO? of mathematics called Chaos Theory. There’s Prob-Stats It would be presumptuous of me to try and answer that. I’m for uncertainty modeling. I’ve used computer science, just grateful for this honour and hope I’m deserving of it. maths and physics in everyday life. I’ve surrounded my- self with some very smart people who do the same. What would you like your legacy to be? We demonstrated, for the fi rst time in the history of in- How stressful is it, leading a company like Infosys? dependent India, that a set of ordinary, hard working The biggest stress in India is dealing with the govern- people with strong values could create jobs, create wealth ment. It’s especially stressful for someone like me who and distribute wealth on a large scale, all of it legally and likes to get on with it, move fast. But those in government ethically. Infosys demonstrated to the world that an Indian are not used to quick resolution of issues. company could implement standards of quality, opera- tions, fi nance that compare with the best. That is a legacy Have you ever sought spiritual succor in times of stress? I am happy with. I’m a karmayogi. I believe work itself should bring happi- ness, mental peace and a good night’s sleep. I’m a devotee Was your second stint as executive chairman different of Lord Raghavendra of Mantralaya, but that’s personal. from the fi rst? Infosys is like my middle child, so when the Board invited Many believe you should be President of India... me to return and add value to the company, I could not say I’m 68 years old. We currently have an excellent presi- no, though some people said there would be no upside for dent and by the time he fi nishes his term I’ll be 71. We me in this. Leadership is about doing the right thing, even need to give responsibility to younger people now. Every if it going against a vast number of naysayers and medio- Indian needs to work 16 hours a day if we are to develop cre people. I took tough decisions in my second innings, as a nation. Younger people have the energy, they can do just as in my fi rst. It was no different. it better. The Influentials 02 Corporate Dossier September 05-11, 2014 INDIA INC’S MOST POWERFUL CEOs 2014 2014 2013 2013 2014 N R Narayana Murthy Infosys 1 NA* NEW 51 Sachin & Binny Bansal Flipkart Mukesh D Ambani Reliance Industries 2 1 NEW 52 S K Roy LIC Kumar Mangalam Birla Aditya Birla Group 3 4 49 53 Y K Hamied Cipla Azim Premji Wipro 4 2 79 54 C S Verma SAIL Anil D Ambani Reliance ADAG 5 6 82 55 G V K Reddy GVK Group Anand G Mahindra Mahindra & Mahindra 6 9 75 56 Kushal Pal Singh DLF Chanda D Kochhar ICICI Bank 7 5 85 57 Sunil Kaushal Standard Chartered India Sunil Mittal Bharti Enterprises 8 7 58 58 B Prasada Rao BHEL N Chandrasekaran Tata Consultancy Services 9 8 NEW 59 Sanjiv Mehta Hindustan Unilever Deepak Parekh HDFC 10 11 41 60 S S Mundra Bank of Baroda Cyrus Mistry Tata Sons 11 13 67 61 Habil F Khorakiwala Wockhardt Arundhati Bhattacharya State Bank of India 12 NA* 70 62 R Thyagarajan Shriram Group Gautam S Adani Adani Group 13 30 52 63 N Srinivasan India Cements Shiv Nadar HCL 14 14 65 64 Ashwin Choksi Asian Paints Adi Godrej Godrej Group 15 15 83 65 K M Mammen MRF Uday Kotak Kotak Mahindra Bank 16 23 61 66 B C Tripathi GAIL Dilip S Shanghvi Sun Pharmaceuticals 17 56 88 67 Sanjay Lalbhai Arvind Aditya Puri HDFC Bank 18 10 47 68 Martin Pieters Vodafone India Naveen Jindal Jindal Steel & Power 19 17 63 69 Debu Bhattacharya Hindalco Industries A M Naik Larsen & Toubro 20 18 93 70 B N Kalyani Bharat Forge Sashi Ruia & Ravi Ruia Essar 21 19 62 71 R S Butola Indian Oil Yogesh Chander Deveshwar ITC 22 12 96 72 Rajan Raheja Rajan Raheja Group Shikha Sharma Axis Bank 23 21 NEW 73 Nishi Vasudeva HPCL Rajiv Bajaj Bajaj Auto 24 16 94 74 Onkar S Kanwar Apollo Tyres Sajjan Jindal JSW Group 25 44 53 75 Vijay Mallya UB Group Venu Srinivasan TVS Group 26 26 NEW 76 B K Goenka Welspun Group T V Narendran Tata Steel 27 NEW 87 77 Gautam Thapar Avantha Group Pawan Munjal Hero Motocorp 28 45 NEW 78 S Varadarajan BPCL Venugopal N Dhoot Videocon 29 73 40 79 Arup Roy Choudhary NTPC Kalanithi Maran Sun Group 30 48 95 80 Shyam Bhartia Jubiliant Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Biocon 31 43 NEW 81 Gautam Singhania Raymond Naresh Goyal Jet Airways 32 24 59 82 Shinzo Nakanishi Maruti Suzuki Rajan Anandan Google India 33 42 57 83 Narsing Rao Coal India D Shivakumar Pepsico India 34 NEW 39 84 K R Kamath Punjab National Bank Subhash Chandra Essel Group 35 37 81 85 Malvinder Singh Fortis Healthcare Prashant Ruia Essar 36 68 51 86 Kalpana Morparia JP Morgan India Nusli Wadia Wadia Group 37 32 71 87 Analjit Singh Max India G V Prasad Dr Reddy’s Laboratories 38 NEW 76 88 Harsh Mariwala Marico Sanjiv Goenka RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group 39 69 NEW 89 Ajay Shriram DCM Shriram Kishore Biyani Future Group 40 34 50 90 Naina Lal Kidwai HSBC India Ajay G Piramal Piramal Group 41 33 84 91 Pramit Jhaveri Citi India Bhaskar Bhat Titan Industries 42 60 35 92 BD Park Samsung India Anand Burman Dabur 43 55 100 93 Bhaskar Pramanik Microsoft India Anil Agarwal Vedanta 44 29 92 94 Roopa Kudva Crisil PRS Oberoi East India Hotels 45 NEW 90 95 Rana Kapoor Yes Bank A Vellayan Murugappa Group 46 54 NEW 96 Rajiv Lall IDFC Shobhana Bhartia HT Media 47 77 98 97 Meher Padumjee Thermax G M Rao GMR Infrastructure 48 80 74 98 T M Bhasin Indian Bank Dinesh K Sarraf ONGC 49 NEW NEW 99 Ajit Gulabchand HCC Harsh Goenka RPG Enterprises 50 66 NEW100 Deshbandhu Gupta Lupin * Mr Murthy was not a contender last year as he was then in a non-executive role at Infosys or the business historian, India methodology is a fascinating country. For business community: By Tirthankar Roy centuries, its coastal regions Ftraded with the world and enor- mous caravan trains moved grain and How we did it cotton overland.