I am not an e-mail sort of person, said our guest editor. An honest confession from Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the $24 billion Aditya Birla Group, our guest editor for ET on Sunday. Which is why, the one constant around him were the dozens of well-sharpened pencils — all colours and hues — each with a small stub of an eraser attached to it, to make editing on the numerous print outs easier. From the corporate meeting room on the fifth floor of the Aditya Birla Centre at Mumbai’s Worli, to his elegant house, Adityaan Mangalam in South Mumbai’s Carmichael Road, the pointed lead accompanied our editor — through our ideating meetings, making notes, highlighting, circling and drawing out the special issue plans. The inspirational edit was entirely written with the pointed lead, spaced out neatly on a lined notepad, not a single word scratched out. First cut. No editing.

Work on the edition began more than six weeks ago in Mr Birla’s perfectly-cooled spacious cabin. Slipping quickly into the editor’s role he began firing questions as to our reader profile on Sunday, emphasising that our content plans should be around what the reader would want to read. Not too heavy, yet not frivolous — a balance which included food for thought for all — CEO to management student. The bar had been raised very high. The end product, which is with you today, ranges from education to business, the art of managing bosses to entertainment and art. Plans were chalked out and both he and the editorial team began work.

So, while running his business empire, the new editor took time out whenever required. When we patched him up with Jeff Immelt in the US, the GE boss said he could spare just half-an hour. Mr. Birla’s incisive questions saw the time stretch to just over an hour. It was the same with management consultant Ram Charan as the Chairman’s mind locked into what makes successful companies tick.

Even as we struggled to keep pace with our guest editor’s schedules, he was already tying in new interviews for the issue. Last Friday we got a call, Brett Lee interview is on, he said. “Call him, cricket is the perfect fit for Sunday.”

And finally, the red tie, pin-striped suited Chairman walked into the ET newsroom on Saturday. When the action moved into the meeting room, the topics discussed ranged between Indian corporates’ eagerness for acquisitions to the US recession and its impact on our companies, to China and importing cheaper labour from there to India, to retail. His view — “it is a great time for the Indian companies to make acquisitions abroad”. Next, it was quiz time.

“What do you think is the one product that flies off the shelves the fastest and is always in demand?” asked the Ed. A question which caught ET on the wrong foot. “Maggi,” pat came the answer. A product which gives his executives the heebie jeebies every time inventory is low.

Gyan flowed, from how China was a black box with no transparency to how global companies will always have to deal with a divergence of opinion between analyst and management to why he was not too much in favour of businesses like power where there was a high degree of government regulation, because “at the stroke of a pen, they can change your fortunes completely”. Mr. Birla is clearly not a fan of core competence for Indian businesses at this stage of their evolution.

“There are so many opportunities. Sticking to one business would be restrictive,” he ended. It was now close to three hours that he had been in the ET office. What sustained him? A few chocolate biscuits.