Teenmurti: The shining stars of Indian business

MUMBAI: When a foreign newspaper published its list of the world’s most respected business leaders, the fact that three names from India were featured did not surprise everyone.
In a world where Enron, Word-Tel and Anderson have turned belly up and where their former employees pose for Playboy centre-folds, respect has become a four-letter word.
In India respect is no easier to acquire.Auditing frauds, tax scandals and shareholder frauds are common occurrences. Which makes the inclusion of Ratan Tata (50 on the list), Mukesh Ambani (33) and Nandan Nilekani (45) all the more remarkable.
They have been judged by international peers, and excelled. Each represents a different facet of corporate India. Ratan’s aristocratic lineage sits atop India’s grandest and oldest industrial house, which is only now moving gingerly into the new century.
Mukesh leads a brash, oldeconomy war-horse admired for its own on the ground management of business and extraordinary growth, and which has rarely suffered fools—especially among his blue-blooded adversaries.
Nandan, who is New India and New economy, has built the country’s first super-company of the 21st century, and by rules that Wall Street as well as Washington admire. All three of them have conducted themselves with a dignity rare in the rough and tumble of boardroom battlegrounds.
Each possesses a fibre, even morality,which sets them apart. And each has conquered demons in their own backyard as well as in the uneven playing fields of Indian business. And each is very different.
Ratan and Mukesh are genuinely shy. They give the impression of wanting to be away from the centre of attention. Yet both have recently risen to the occasion and addressed large gatherings with aplomb.
Ratan’s speech at the Taj centennial and Mukesh’s address at the launch of the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City displayed a surprising ease with pubic communication. Nandan is Mr Modesty. Though he belongs right up there with the other two as far as achievements and talent are concerned, Nandan is a breed apart. Not having a famous surname or being born into an industrial family, Nandan’s trajectory is perhaps the most interesting.
An engineer by training, a professional to the core, those who know Nandan are not surprised that his new fortune has not changed his basic DNA. In the mid-’80s, as a struggling young entrepreneur, Nandan was not one to compromise on principles as rigid as his present adherence to issues of corporate governance and business transparency.
An insider tells of an incident when the young Nandan was trying to get a leading builder to sign a contract with his company. “Your services and price is fine,’’ said the fat-cat bigname industrialist.
“Now what commission will you give me for choosing you?’’ Nilekani, at that time, was horrified. It is ironic that today he runs into the same man on many official panels and, of course, Infosys is a hundred times larger. Ratan’s dislike for the cutthroat and the devious is well-known.
He masks his disapproval in Old World putdowns, yet his bravery in taking on vested interests in bloody and dangerous Machiavellian battles marks him out. In a recent interview, his described, with a wrinkle of his aristocratic brow, the misdeeds of JRD’s old satraps as “silly things’’.
He recent retirement is, in reality, a misnomer: Ratan still rules at Bombay House. Mukesh may be slowly laying aside his soft-spoken modesty but he is unlikely to abandon his workaholic ethic.
A dyed-in-the-wool industrialist, he is mired in his biggest challenge since taking over Reliance. This battle in telecom is unfolding at vicious pace, but the struggle will draw on not only the Ambani millions, but also the man’s remarkable renown for strategy and execution.