Your Future Inc

If economic liberalisation has rung the death knell for many business groups that were born before India was politically free, it has also provided fresh oxygen for others. One of the swimmers has been the Aditya Vikram Birla Group that has grown to Rs 27,000 crore in 2003-04, up from Rs 7,327 crore in 1992-93.

With 37-year-old Kumar Mangalam Birla as chairman at the steering wheel, the group is now in top gear. In fact, the shy, ambitious and confident Birla is the rising sun in the Birla clan and is known for his sharp business nose. Thanks to the acquisition of L038;T8217;s cement division, Grasim, the AV Birla group flagship, today is the biggest cement, aluminium and fabric producer in the private sector.

The importance of a cement manufacturer can be gauged by the fact that just two decades ago the government had funded L038;T to start its cement division due to a massive scarcity of cement in the country. The cement was sold in black and private sector cement companies were unable to meet the demand of a growing India. But today Grasim, along with other private sector cement companies, are not only meeting the demand of the country but are all set to increase capacity.

8220;By the end of decade, India will require 100 million tonnes of cement per year, and we will be expanding capacity to retain our number one position,8221; promises Birla. With roads, infrastructure, housing and industry driving growth in India over the next decade, Birla8217;s cement plans will go a long way in nation building. Literally.

All Dressed To Conquer
KISHORE BIYANI, 43
MD, Pantaloon Retail Ltd

Groceries were from the neighbourhood bhaiyya, children8217;s clothes were tailored at home, grown-ups bought fabric from the far-away 8216;showroom8217; in the city8217;s business centre, which was then tailored nearby. Between the 1950s and the 1980s, a pair of shoes was probably the only retail product that urban India bought from a retail chain Batas. No wonder organised retail was less than 1 per cent of the total trade for decades. To look ahead and sink money into apparel retail needed a pioneer.

India found one in Kishore Biyani, whose 41 Pantaloon Stores across the country see footfalls of over a million people in a week and mopped up Rs 21 crore in sales in 2003-04. But in 1987, when he set up the first store with an investment of Rs 7 lakh, the HR College, Mumbai, graduate didn8217;t know he would end up as one of the five retail icons in the country.

Efforts of Biyani and other retail pioneers have managed to nudge up the share of organised retail from almost nothing to about 5 per cent in 2004. The cloth is cut for future growth as the industry looks at growth rates of over 20 per cent. But Biyani feels that growth can be even faster and shackles that remain are now more mental. 8220;We don8217;t recognise retail as a business in India even now,8221; he says. The customer is finally ready and Biyani is increasing speed to take a bigger bite of the potential Rs 16,000-crore industry.

Profiting With The Poor
M. UDAIA KUMAR, 47
CMD, Share Microfin Ltd

Financial services for the poor may sound very politically correct today, but when Loyala College graduate Musuku Udaia Kumar did a micro-finance course in the University of Colorado in the 1970s, he was in a small minority. The success of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and the weighing in by management gurus like CK Prahalad have made the poor a more economically viable entity in the last ten years.

Working with NGOs, Kumar saw the entrepreneurial talent of rural artisans in Andhra Pradesh being held back by lack of capital. He wanted to provide seed capital to the needy without resorting to charity or coercion. He wanted the market to solve this problem, a concept hardly popular in socialist India.

Thus was born Share Microfin Ltd SML in 1989 with a small capital of Rs 18 lakh. Though today big banks like ICICI Bank have micro finance as part of their product suits, 15 years ago Kumar had to tap PDC in Malaysia and Grameen Bank as no bank was willing to touch him.

A decade and a half into his business, Kumar can breathe easy 8212; he had chosen the right road. His over 4 lakh borrowers have already taken about Rs 588 crore by July 31, 2004 and recovery rates have remained good because profits after tax of SML stand at Rs 2.43 crore in 2003-04. Like any good businessman, Kumar is expanding and subsidiary Asmitha Microfin will allow Kumar to extend his reach to another million borrowers. Target borrowing? Rs 3,515 crore by 2008.

Fighting For Our Rights
SUNITA NARAIN, 48
Director, Centre for Science and Environment

Big companies and governments bank on average individuals being too busy and too scattered to band together to fight for their rights. This is what makes Sunita Narain, conscience keeper of the nation for environmental issues, a household name in India today. She is one of us fighting for our rights.

At a time when all Delhi residents knew that the air was so bad that a car ride with the window down was cause enough for a bad throat, it was Sunita Narain and the late Anil Agarwal of the CSE who did something about it. They pursued the issue over years through the courts and created enough public awareness to get their recommendation of using compressed natural gas as an alternate fuel for public transport to become the law. The next battle being waged is around curing the groundwater of its pollutants. Narain8217;s research on the level of pesticides in packaged drinking water and then colas has forced the government to begin framing safer and stringent standards for the country. Her strength? Arguments backed by hard facts and extensive research that leaves the organised lobbies gasping for breath. If Narain and CSE have their way, India will soon be a cleaner, healthier and safer place to live in.

The Quality Guru
VENU SRINIVASAN, 53
CMD, TVS Motor, India

When TVS Motor Company broke away from Suzuki in 2001, not many expected its low-key, Chennai-based Chairman Venu Srinivasan to fight back. But the 53-year-old grandson of TVS founder TV Sundaram Iyengar not only re-created the TVS brand in the highly competitive motorcycle industry, but alos became India8217;s No. 3 motorcycle manufacturer by 2003.

Earlier, Venu took over as CEO of Sundaram-Clayton in 1979 and in the same year, he founded the TVS Motor Company. His amateur sales experience at Perdue University in the US came in handy when Srinivasan began selling bikes across India without the Suzuki brand name. In March 2003, the company recorded a turnover of Rs 2,856 crore and net profits of Rs 138 crore.

TVS is now a national brand, selling almost 90,000 bikes a month, but getting there wasn8217;t easy. Quality consciousness made the difference. He is the pioneer in quality management in manufacturing, winning global quality benchmark awards for TVS. In that sense, Venu has set the agenda for manufacturing.

Latest K On The Block
UDAY KOTAK, 45
Kotak Mahindra Group

Bogged down by outdated laws and government control, the Indian financial sector was unable to offer products or services for decades. This began to change in the 1990s. Interest rates were made more realistic, the private sector was allowed in mutual funds and insurance, and the markets got a lease of life with transparent, efficient trading systems.

But MBA graduate Uday Kotak did not know that it would pan out like this when in the 1980s he refused to join his family8217;s traditional cotton business. Instead, he chose to float a small joint venture financial services company along with the Mahindras. Now, almost two decades later, Kotak straddles the financial services sector like a colossus. His group companies are now into stock broking, investment banking, commercial banking, mutual fund and insurance.

Considered something of a financial wizard, along with two other 8216;K8217;s Nimesh Kampani of JM Morgan and Hemendra Kothari of DSP Merrill Lynch, Kotak is reaping the harvest of pioneering new concepts in corporate deals and public issues. Now, there8217;s no resting on his laurels. 8220;We want to create a world-class institution like Goldman Sachs,8221; he says.

Is This TATA The Chosen One?
NOEL N TATA, 47
MD, Trent Ltd

Business in India has been synonymous with the Tata name for about 136 years. Selling everything from steel to IT consulting to coffee and tea, the Tata Group has been the one name that Indians have turned to for quality and business ethics. But a good brand name and ethics are not enough when the country begins to grow and competition bites at the heels 8212; the business needs to change pace to keep ahead. That is where Chairman Ratan Tata came in and has taken the group from a sleepy, bureaucratic monolith to a leaner meaner business entity that saw profits growing at 60 per cent over the last two years.

But as the time for Rata Tata8217;s retirement draws nearer, the questions on succession are coming faster. Industry whispers say that the work of keeping the flame of change burning may be passed on to Noel Tata, Managing Director of the Rs 166-crore retail firm Trent. At first look, Noel Tata seems an unlikely candidate, managing less than 1 per cent of the total Tata business empire, even though he has performed well.

He may be quiet and reclusive, and the business that he manages today may be small, but 47-year-old Noel has the right family connections. The half-brother of Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata group of companies and the son-in-law of S Pallonji Mistry, the 18 per cent equity owner in Tata Sons, the group8217;s holding company, Noel Tata is definitely slated for bigger things than handling a small, though fast-growing, retail business.

Mega Dreams From The Megacorp
MUKESH AMBANI, 47
Chairman, Reliance Group

ANIL AMBANI, 45
Vice Chairman, Reliance Group

Struggling entrepreneurs in India have a mantra they chant when the going gets tough: 8216;If Dhirubhai could do it, so can I8217;. Getting from 0 to Rs 67,000 crore in turnover in 25 years is a feat not often seen in business worldwide, but the Ambanis did it and Reliance has been the fastest-growing business group after Independence. But they are not stopping to rest and the death of Dhirubhai Ambani has only made his two sons more determined to achieve their father8217;s goals.

Holding the business controls today are Mukesh and Anil Ambani, who are taking the group to a leadership position in petrochemicals, fibre, polymers, yarn, oil refining and marketing, oil exploration, telecom, and power. The 47-year-old Mukesh Ambani is busy consolidating the group8217;s presence in various segments. Younger by two years, Anil Ambani is concentrating on the emerging power business.

Both brothers are working to use the technology, acquisitions and new projects route to growing the group8217;s asset base to 100 billion by the year 2025 and 500 billion by 2047, when India celebrates its 100th anniversary of Independence. By 2047, Reliance aims to be as big at India8217;s GDP is today. Big dreams fit the image of India8217;s biggest company.

And R For Research
SATISH REDDY, 37
MD, Dr Reddy8217;s Laboratories

In a sea of me-toos, the Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy8217;s Laboratories DRL is betting on becoming a discovery-led global pharma firm. Satish Reddy, the 466-million company8217;s MD, knows all too well that the search for new chemical entities is a long, lonely, and risky road. New drug discovery is a game for the big, global pharma majors who have deep pockets to mitigate the high odds. Despite doubters who feel DRL is ploughing a risky path, Reddy 8212; along with DRL8217;s CEO and brother-in-law GV Prasad 8212; continue to aim for the pot at the end of the rainbow. Currently, the company has eight new chemical entities in the discovery pipeline, and is looking at out-licensing these molecules. It8217;s aware of the high costs 8212; and the risks remember DRF 2593, which was licensed to Novo Nordisk in 1997 only to come a cropper in 2002. Either way, its focus on R038;D makes it a company to watch in the years to come.

From Paan to Ports
NIKHIL GANDHI, 44
Chairman, Gujarat Pipapav

Though many people have ranted at the delays in Indian ports, nobody thought of solving the problem by making a port of his own. But that8217;s exactly what Nikhil Gandhi resolved to do when, as a 21-year-old businessman in Mumbai, he chafed at this infrastructure bottleneck.

It8217;s been quite a rise for Gandhi, who is now chairman of Gujarat Pipavav Port. He remembers being fascinated by the fast pace of the city when he first came to Mumbai in his teens selling Kolkata paan in Bhuleshwar. His first introduction to the docks came when he begun selling brooms and cleaning materials to Bombay Port Trust. It is entrepreneurial energies of people like Gandhi that Manmohan Singh unleashed when he set the economy free in 1991, 33 years after India8217;s freedom.

8220;I was the first to get permission from Gujarat government to set up a port after the economy opened up in 1991,8221; says Gandhi, who is now setting up 1.1 billion Special Economic Zone near Mumbai in Maharashtra. Gandhi attributes his rise to the freedom this country gave him, and people like him, to dream big. He certainly has used the freedom well 8212; his assets now total Rs 2,400 crore.

With the 86 km private railway line from the port, Gandhi has become the first private person to start a railway line after the British. What next? 8220;If the government remains pro-active, nothing can stop us from emerging as a super-power,8221; says the Kolkata-educated commerce graduate.

Brave New Philosopher
JERRY RAO, 51
Chairman and CEO, MPhasis BFL

ON IT8217;S corporate stationery, MphasiS says in bold capital letters: 8216;8216;Architecting Value.8217;8217; The four-year-old firm is among the top 10 Indian players in BPO and IT services, currently the most-talked about industry in the country. Its blistering growth is setting the pace for a whole generation of mid-cap IT players.

Right from when MphasiS launched in 2000, the IT solutions and services company created a flutter by launching as a pure-play BPO businesses. When firms started pouring into India after the dot-com bust, MphasiS was already doing things the right way: It has twin headquarters in New York and Bangalore, it has 8,000 employees, and its customers are blue chip companies. From the US and India, it moved to China, with a third development centre in Shanghai after Bangalore and Mumbai.

In short, MphasiS is everything a software services / BPO firm would like to be today. Soon enough, in 2002, MphasiS set up a subsidiary purely for help desks, contact centres and BPO operations: MsourcE, which has operating centres in Pune and Bangalore and Tijuana in Mexico.

In 1998, Jaitirth 8216;8216;Jerry8217;8217; Rao left Citigroup to start MphasiS in California, which was subsequently merged with Bangalore-based BFL Software in 2000, to form MphasiS 8211; BFL. The philosopher-banker has become a posterboy for a new generation of entrepreneurs.

Retaining The Buzz
NANDAN NILEKANI, 51
CEO and MD Infosys Technologies

FROM A seven-member startup in pre-internet Pune, to a 35-location technology and consulting giant, Infosys has come a long way in two quick decades. When starting out in 1981 as a 8216;consultancy8217; firm, one of the founders 8212; led by legendary mentor Narayana Murthy 8212; was Nandan Nilekani. With 250 and no infrastructure to go, they plotted and planned one of the biggest corporate successes in post-liberalisation India.

When revenues crossed a billion dollars in 2003, Infosys became one of the biggest wealth creators for investors and its own people alike. As it grew and grew, Infosys set new trends 8212; it shared wealth with employees, it8217;s global delivery model is being mimicked the world over, it made corporate governance an issue for public debate.

As for the future, Nilekani must continue motivating its 25,000 workforce, and retain the buzz around Infosys. With the competition 8212; both within the country and globally 8212; more intense, Nilekani is pushing for better local infrastructure for the globally-competitive, world-class organisation.

India8217;s Bionic Woman
KIRAN MAJUMDAR-SHAW, 50
CMD, Biocon

She8217;s the new role model. Well known as the richest woman industrialist who has made it on her own steam, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw8217;s story springs from the ground. She built Biocon India _ now valued at Rs 4,843 crore _ from scratch, and it deals with a subject that is too complicated for many intelligent men to follow. Her company harnesses tools of biotechnology to produce life- saving drugs, one of which, Statins, lowers blood cholesterol levels and prevents heart attacks. The Bangalore University topper initially followed her father8217;s footsteps and became India8217;s first woman brewer. Being in this space made her realise the potential for more value-added work and she started Biocon, initially in the business of supplying enzymes. Soon she realised the potential of biotech and knew that she had found her philosopher8217;s stone. What Infosys did for IT, Padamashri award winner Mazumdar-Shaw is doing for the Indian biotech industry. She feels economic and intellectual strength will give a true sense of freedom.

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