ET LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD,,, YC DEVESHWAR The Man Who Built a Business Empire with Life and Passion

ET LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT  AWARD YC DEVESHWAR

The Man Who Built a Business Empire with Life and Passion





...and the award goes to YC DEVESHWAR Chairman, ITC

Between 1996, the year when Yogesh Chander Deveshwar became chairman of ITC, and March 2017, ITC's an nual sales have expanded over 11-fold to Rs 55,002 crore (revenue Rs 38,979 crore), while shareholder returns grew at a compound annual rate of 23.6%.

Along the way , Deveshwar was instrumental in transforming the Kolkata-based company from being mostly a cigarette maker to a conglomerate with interests in sectors such as fast-moving consumer goods, hotels, paper and packaging, and agri-business. It posted a net profit of Rs 10,200 crore in the year ended March 31, 2017.

There was intense discussion on the award. But the jury eventually plumped for Deveshwar.

“My grateful thanks to the members of the jury and Economic Times for this prestigious recognition,“ Deveshwar told ET. “I accept this award with humility , not only as a recognition of the journey I have traversed in ITC, but also as a tribute to many who have enriched this fulfilling journey over the decades. ITC has been my life and passion for close to five decades.“

“As I look back, I draw satisfaction that the abiding vision to serve national priorities is today manifest in the creation of an exemplary Indian enterprise that truly lives by its credo of putting country before corporation,“ Deveshwar added in his comments to ET.

Deveshwar was among the first CEOs to tap India's vast countryside, by way of his unique e-Choupal concept -linking directly with farmers via the Internet for procurement of products -and by entering the FMCG space in rural areas. The going has been tough and the results mixed, although the company takes a long-term view on this. In fact, dealing with tough situations has been part of Deveshwar's mental makeup, such as when he took a break from ITC to run Air India in 1991-94 and then on his return to ITC. Those were turbulent times at the company with the largest shareholder, British American Tobacco, at loggerheads with the management.

Deveshwar was able to pull things around. Having been something of a wunderkind -he was spotted early by legendary chairman AN Haksar and became a board member at 37 -he also gained valuable experience of how the government works during his stint at Air India. Now aged 70, and chairman of ITC for 21 years, Deveshwar retired from the executive role of CEO this year in February .

Led by Deveshwar, ITC has received significant global and national recognition for its pioneering work in creating sustainable communities as part of efforts to transform rural India. Some of its achievements have been featured as case studies at Harvard Business School. Harvard had ranked Deveshwar the seventh best-performing CEO in the world in 2012. In 2011, he was conferred the Padma Bhushan.

Sep 05 2017 : The Economic Times (Mumbai)