INDIA’S BEST STRATEGISTS – PART III
Have a dream, and make a plan on how to live it
and realise it. If you eventually get there by being consistent and
unwavering in that objective, overcoming uncertainty and obstacles along
the way, best utilising the (often limited) resources at your disposal, and
translating that foresight into a product or service that is unique and
difficult to replicate, you will have emerged a successful strategist — a
person with a single-minded objective who doesn’t get distracted from his
goal by his rivals, setbacks and detractors. Here are the dreamers who have made
significant progress in translating their insight into reality— from the
corporate world (CEOs as well as honchos who have made a big difference to
their organisations), bureaucracy, academia, law, the social sector,
healthcare, films and sport. :: Team ET Magazine
11.VS Parthasarathy, 50,
HEAD OF INVESTMENTS, M&A, FINANCE & ACCOUNTS, M&M GROUP
M&A MAVEN
Even as a young officer managing branch
accounts for Xerox in the ’80s in Lucknow, VS Parthasarathy used to go out
with the sales teams on calls. He learnt sales, but more importantly he
improved the sales function at the branch.
This keen desire to learn skills outside of his job
has helped Parthasarathy develop into a thinker comfortable outside his own
domain — a key for a successful strategist. Parthasarathy believes strategy
should be the basis for doing things but backed by solid financials.
At Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) he headed
finance for the tractors division. That’s when he learnt his first lesson
in deal-making: not how to do one but when not to do one. Even as M&M
was aiming to be global No. 1 in tractors, it chose to walk away from Finnish
tractor maker Valtra. Later M&M acquired Punjab Tractors. Payback was
quick. “Within 18 months we merged it into M&M and the cash in that
company was equal to what we had paid to acquire it,” says Parthasarathy.
Soon he moved to group functions of M&M, where he shepherded the
acquisition of South Korean SUV maker Ssangyong — a pure
strategic buy, stresses the M&A head. “We did not want much to do in
sedans and needed a UV maker. Land Rover would have been good too, but
Ssangyong is an even better fit with their Rexton just above our XUV500,”
Parthasarathy adds.
“A good acquisition is all about three parts: 33%
strategy, 33% execution and 33% tenacity and patience.” He would seem to
have it all.
— Suman Layak
PEER-SPEAK: “Partha has been at the heart of M&M’s globalisation
drive for 10 years. M&M sets the benchmark for how to do successful
cross-border M&A”
Frank Hancock
MD and head of M&A, Barclays Capital
12.Ronnie Screwvala, 57
MD, DISNEY UTV
MAN WHO SAW THE BIG PICTURE
When Walt Disney Company, the world’s largest
media conglomerate, decided that its push into India, which included a
couple of tepid television channels and a string of movie duds, was still
tottering despite its best efforts, it decided to buy out the man with the
Midas touch in the Indian entertainment space. Ronnie Screwvala, who had
started as a modest cable guy, had rapidly grown into a media mogul whose
interests spanned television, movies and the internet.
Screwvala’s production house, UTV Software Communications,
turned the Indian media and entertainment industry on its head with its
rapid expansion — it made commercials and created television content,
launched channels, ventured into gaming and animation, distributed movies
and eventually produced them as well — and rewrote the rules of the game
along the way.
He brought corporatisation into Hindi movies when
corporatisation was still a dirty word. A studio with a CEO? Well,
Screwvala started it. By virtue of running a tight ship, he was able to cut
costs and produce movies at a fast clip. Straddling the world of
blockbusters and small-budget movies, he helped stars reinvent themselves
and promote fresh talent. Today, everyone in Bollywood swears by written
contracts. Today, most homegrown studios have remoulded into enterprises.
If Bollywood is clamouring for the government’s recognition as an industry,
a lot of the credit should go to Screwvala.
— Binoy Prabhakar
PEER-SPEAK: “Ronnie has a worldview which is sorely lacking in
Bollywood”
Rensil D’Silva, Filmmaker
13.Harish N Salve, 58
SENIOR ADVOCATE, SUPREME COURT OF INDIA COMPOSING COURT MUSIC
Harish Salve never plays second fiddle to another
lawyer in court; he’s always the leading counsel. There are no half-hearted
attempts with Salve; he fights to win. He lives and dreams the client’s
case and will do all it takes to give him justice.
A chartered accountant, Salve’s unerring ability to
decipher even the most complex commercial case makes him India Inc’s most
favoured legal brain. His client list is a virtual who’s who of corporate
India’s movers and shakers, and almost all MNCs flocking to this country.
He advises his clients not to waste their energy
fighting small cases. “I advise them to settle.” Chance le lete hain [let’s
take a chance] is not the advice he will dole out to a valued client,
reserving his legal prowess for the big fights.
His persuasive skills are relentless and known to
bring around even the most cynical of judges to his point of view, a
tribute to the influence he wields in the court corridors. The recent
bitterly fought case over the Mullaperiyar dam — Tamil Nadu has challenged
the jurisdiction of Kerala to restrict the water level in the dam — in the
Supreme Court is a case in point. After two days of arguments, Salve,
appearing for the Kerala government, realised that Justice RM Lodha, the
presiding judge, was just not listening to him. Overnight, he was back to
the drawing board.
He pored over the papers till he found one point
that could be the turning one — a small miscalculation which threatened to
completely unravel TN’s claims on the safety of the dam. After that he had
Justice Lodha’s full attention.
— Samanwaya Rautray
PEER-SPEAK: “Salve is very good in his court craft and he thinks on
his feet”
Ranjit Kumar,
Senior advocate at Supreme Court
14.R Sridhar, 54 MD & CEO,
SHRIRAM CAPITAL FROM NICHE TO LEADERSHIP
Any chief executive would envy R Sridhar for the
numbers he delivered at Shriram Transport Finance, the Shriram group’s
flagship company, in the 12 years he headed the company before he moved to
holding company Shriram Capital in April 2012: revenues rose 45 times,
profits over 80 times and its share price nearly a 100 times. Shriram
Transport’s borrowers, mostly small buyers of used commercial vehicles till
about a few years ago, were not considered creditworthy by banks for fear
of defaults. Given Shriram Transport’s long relationship with truck
operators, Sridhar decided to manage the commercial vehicle portfolio of
banks for a fee and also securitised Shriram Transport’s loans, which
proved fruitful for the company.
Puneet Bhatia, MD and country head, TPG Capital
India, says: “He has positioned Shriram Transport in such a way that banks
cannot compete with them.” TPG reportedly earned 7X returns on the recent
sale of its 20% stake in Shriram Transport. The company has lately become a
diversified player with financing for multi-utility vehicles, tractors,
passenger vehicles and construction equipment. At Shriram Capital Sridhar
is working out strategies to take Shriram Life Insurance to the next level.
Moreover, the group is one of the frontrunners to get a banking license and
Sridhar is expected to spearhead efforts if the group does get the nod, a
challenge which will allow him to put his leadership chops to the test once
again. — G Seetharaman
INVESTOR-SPEAK: “Sridhar has the ability to look at the big picture
while not losing sight of the details”
Puneet Bhatia, MD & country head, TPG Capital India
15.Dr Zarir F Udwadia, 52, CHEST
PHYSICIAN & ACTIVIST BIG HEALER
Nearly two years ago, Dr Zarir F Udwadia and his
team decided to highlight the plight of TB patients whom he says were
treated like untouchables of the Indian medical system: those who suffer
from TB that is resistant to perhaps all drugs. Udwadia, who comes from an
illustrious family of physicians in Mumbai, started treating for free such
patients and soon his paper on Total Drug Resistant (TDR) TB made
headlines.
Time featured his work in a cover story. “If we had
not done it someone else would have,” says the selfeffacing Udwadia. His
“description” of TDR TB, which he treats using “experiential” methods,
revolutionised the way TB is managed elsewhere and, in India, home to
onethird of the world’s TB cases. His study forced the government to tweak
the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme, the state-run TB
control initiative.
He is the first to isolate the HIV 2 virus from the
lung of a patient. Udwadia and his team conducted a survey last year among
Mumbai’s private practitioners which revealed that only three out of 106
surveyed knew how to prescribe drugs to those infected with TDR TB.
“Treatment of TB was relentlessly getting worse until we came out with our
paper,” says Udwadia.
— Ullekh NP
PEER-SPEAK: “His contribution to understanding the gravity of the
scourge called TB is outstanding”
Anand Ranganathan, Research scientist at Delhi’s International Centre
for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
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