Success

It is wonderful to go through views of people who have attained some amount of success in life...and business leaders are no exceptions.

Long back I read what the leader of HCL Technologies had to say. It was a turn around story. The success mantra was (i) Focus (ii) Lead and (iii) Dominate. I wrote these three words in my office room blackboard to be constantly remided of. Yes, that was the time I found myself cornered, facing resistances from unexpected quarters and resolved to reinvent myself.

Today I read the interview of Anand Mahindra in Economic Times. The four success mantra for his company, in his own words are :

"There are four mantras. Essentially, they have to do with businesses that are global or have global potential; businesses that have innovation as a measurable plank; certainly we also want to be leaders, preferably one or two in all the businesses in which we compete. Finally, the fourth mantra is financial — they have to do with free cash flow and return on capital employed. "

I also liked the other part of the interview where he talked about meritocracy in his organization. And he has no plan to put his siblings on top. This is a story on how a person joined M&M. One should also not miss the wisdom of the father in the story and how he advises his son.

"There’s a wonderful story that I always share in all the management gatherings. It’s about Bharat Doshi, our CFO. Many years ago, as a gold medalist accountant Bharat had to chose a job. He got two offers. One was from a Gujarati-owned company and another from M&M. He went to his father and asked him. His father said, ‘Get me the annual reports’. When he got the annual reports, his father looked at them and said ‘Choose M&M’.

And when Bharat Doshi asked why, he said, ‘Look, the Gujarati company has Patel & Patel, Shah & Shah. And M&M had an Ali Mohammed, a Pitambar, a D’Souza. There were a whole variety of people from across the country and he apparently told Bharat, ‘If you choose this company and you get to the top it will be because of your merit and not because of where you come from in this country.’ That’s an incredible legacy. And I think I’d have failed if I didn’t maintain that legacy. I’d like to think that it’s still maintained."