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Corporate
Dossier
The Economic Times
27 May 2005
We
caught up with the 84-year-old patriarch
Basant Kumar Birla and his wife Sarala Birla
and asked them to speak about their grandson.
The pride was evident in every word they
spoke about him. In fact, they went on to
admit that there's no better person to take
on the mantle of the most pioneering businessman
India ever had, Ghanshyam Das Birla, than
Kumar Mangalam Birla. Here's an excerpt
from what they had to say:
"After
the death of Aditya Vikram Birla, I had
told Kumar Mangalam that if you ever need
any help or advice, please come to me. It
was almost like an afterthought that I added,
if I need any I'll come to you. Since then,
it has always been me who has asked for
his help and advice. We only exchange views
and his answers are always short and to
the point. He always knew what's good and
what's bad, what we call vivek. I
have worked under GD Birla, my son AV Birla
has worked under me and I have seen Kumar
Mangalam. Between my father, and me the
way of working was almost the same. Aditya
too adopted the same style of working. But
he changed everything.
Soon
after he took over he introduced a retirement
policy, a very scientific policy and he
had planned well in advance. Around 350
very senior people had to leave. In our
family, the tradition was to continue with
the people, but he brought in new blood.
He appointed people with high calibre and
high pay.
My
employees would come to me and point out the
pay disparity. I would tell them that they
are a different group — more professional,
more profits and more successful. I told them
that the A V Birla group has become a giant,
ours is not. But in retrospect, till 1994
or 1995 we hadn't noticed anything especially
exciting about his business acumen. But the
change was almost overnight and within a few
months, it was very obvious. But what is far
more important is his sense of humility and
willingness to learn. At 28 years of age,
to be a Birla and yet be humble is no joke.
Strangely enough he was."
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