CASE STUDY: SUCCESS & GROWTH (PART 1)

Three Men, Three Eras

Challenges facing executives are changing; but the solution lies in core values

BY MEERA SETH
25 July 2008

When power leads and wisdom follows, the face of

wisdom is veiled and she stumbles; but when wisdom
leads and power follows, they arrive safely at their
destination.

— Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Parvez Vatcha watched the two men sitting across the

table from him unobtrusively, taking in their every flutter
and blink. Somewhere a small sadness may have touched
his heart — difficult to say, for Parvez Vatcha had a face
that was inscrutable. For the most part, he always looked
(Illustrations: Satkar J.Yonzon) pleased and contented and polite.

The two men dining with him at The Chambers, were Athanu Deb and Raghav
Vijaychandran; both men were his blue eyed boys when he was managing director at
Delaware India. At 75, Parvez Vatcha is fit, healthy and wears a clean, homegrown fresh
look. At 54, Athanu is on statins, stress has deposited psoriasis on his skin and he must
take his coffee without sugar. At 52, Raghav wears an emaciated look, has no viewpoints
and mistakes his dispassion for life, for disinterest. Both men had begun their careers as
management trainees at Delaware and had been in Vatcha’s inner circle of hi flyers.

Parvez was narrating anecdotes from a visit to Sweden, the dairy farms he had visited, the
milk processing plants he saw and the state of technology he felt India should invest in
soon. His mind was soaring with delight in the new world he saw before him…

...while Athanu, looked on, seemingly interested but, in fact, unable to take the flights of
imagination and ambition, mentally urging this drift of conversation to end soon,
grounded by his what-if anxiety over his future…

...and Raghav, lay mentally supine, buried in his mental grave of failures, losses, defeats,
grounded by his why-me anxiety over the past.

In 1993, when Vatcha retired from Delaware, various things happened to India. It was
also the year when Raghav quit, to join Cambert Inc. as their CEO, at the age of 37. The
era of very young CEOs had begun, and Raghav set India on fire by doing the never
before.
Raghav was an engineer from a regional engineering college. He was from a small town
off Madurai where his father was a jeweller — not the granite and glass kinds, but a box
shop under the staircase of a building. But Raghav had been put through REC and soon
through campus interviews found himself in Delaware.

Read Analyses Delaware India was a strong, successful, FMCG company and had
The Value Path carved a name for itself; but when the waves of liberalisation swept
A Measure Of Time India in 1992-93, Delaware, like other strong Indian MNCs began to
find its senior managers poached by the cowboy cult. The first to bite the dust had been
Raghav, who quit the successful Delaware to join a new entrant Cambert, as its country
head at a salary that was seven times what he was then earning. Vatcha had talked to him
at length; Raghav presented the opportunity as his key to growth and whatnot, and
Vatcha had wished him well.

Athanu had envied him his courage. He believed that the liberalisation wave was mystical
and refused to be ensnared, although when he heard of the packages being doled out,
Athanu deeply wished he had the nerve too. But then Athanu’s father dissuaded him from
pursuing glory and money, reminding him of his own contribution to the country as a
teacher. So, Athanu returned to his lot and remained in the belief that he was wise.

Raghav went from power to power, glory to glory. He became a media favourite; for
the next three years everyone wanted to quote him, interview him. Raghav was seen
as a missionary, who had beaten the others to growth. And he was talking
relentlessly about strategy — nay, his strategy… the media loved him. The next year,
India was no longer strategic for Cambert’s parent company; there were losses; no
doubt, it was factored into the entry strategy, but back home people griped, and
asked for explanations. Cambert in India lobbied for the opening up of imports and it
happened; trading now became more profitable.
“We have no new story to
tell; cost efficiency is what
is bringing home the
bottom line; top line is all
a bunch of gimmickry... in
short we are treading on
mediocrity — consciously.

Stepping out of his thought world, Raghav spoke, “Mr Vatcha’s era too worshipped values
and ethics and ideologies. How did they do it?”

Athanu: Their pressures were different, I suppose. They were responsible for building the
very knowledge base of India; they had organic intelligence born out of watching and
reading history, not fossilised management theory or formatted by a crash course in
business administration! Their iconic image was grown not built and they kept it pure!

Vatcha: I think every era has its special difficulties, strengths, and special opportunities.
Each era extracts whatever is needed by businesses and economies. People are the medium
for this, no? Some rise to great heights, some fall by the wayside, but those who fall also
serve.

Athanu: I agree. Today’s era is ripe for entrepreneurship — if you have the capital, both
financial and intellectual! And I believe I will be successful if I set out to set up on my
own. I am being wasted in these jobs; I need to use my intellect for myself; become an
entrepreneur.

Raghav: It is grand talking about entrepreneurship and innovation when you are sitting on
a readymade infrastructure and someone else’s capital. Innovation succeeds when it comes
on the foundation of an implementing agency like your employer. That’s what made you
successful in your organisation. When I came in with my ideas at Cambert, there was a
whole existing process that tried and tested my ideas, that could take my idea forward and
implement it. When I set out independently, I did not have the patience to first create the
implementing process, and then launch
“We faced the frustration the idea.
of dealing with a
government policy that That marked my failure. Do you have the
shackled us. Raghav here emotional stamina to live like a hermit?
dealt with a transient era; To work at things with your own hands?
you, for your part, have To do without parties and champagne?
ethics and ideologies to
Read Analyses deal with. Your sons may Read Analyses
The Value Path face lack of skillsets in the The Value Path
A Measure Of Time market... A Measure Of Time
Raghav was being eyed closely by Kaushalnath Singh, the head of an Indian group.
Dreading the impasse at Cambert and without a convincing script, Raghav quit Cambert
and joined Singh’s Aarbo group. As such things go sometimes, he became a close
associate of Abhimaan, Singh’s youngest son. Hansa Limited, as his business was dully
known, hired Raghav to make a winner of Hansa’s foods business.

Far away on Gandhi street in Madurai, young boys crowded at newsstands during the
school recess to read for free, the story of Raghav. Newspaper stalls pasted ‘namma
ambi’s (our son/brother) picture on their fluttering plastic-sheeted walls, along with
Aishwarya Rai, another budding Indian fantasy.

And like so many other businesses of that era, Hansa foods was bought out by a large
shark, and the brand killed. Abhimaan’s father comforted him and appointed him CEO of
a new venture, while Raghav was given a warm farewell dinner in the family silver.

The exit of Raghav and the sale of Hansa Foods whipped up more storms. Speculation,
interviews, gossip, pointless reporting, exaggerated banter, armchair management expert
viewpoints… all these dotted the pages for many days. Then even the headlines lost
dignity, ‘whither Raghav?’ they asked artlessly.

“He is the phoenix, he is a builder, he is a survivor” went the prophecy. As for Raghav,
he was untouched, unruffled. He was picked up by a cola company, then by a candy new
entrant — each stint lasted a year to 18 months, for that was the fever pace of business in
the 1990s. Each time, it was not Raghav who left the organisation, it was the organisation
that changed tack. India was certainly a madhouse.

“The only thing hurting Raghav started an online supermarket called ‘paisa vasool’,
you about quitting is the which caused the public to whoop with delight. But
comfort of a money liberalisation doled out success to some and utter disaster to
pillow. But quitting itself others, while encouraging new behaviours, new definitions
does not worry you? And and new successes. In the face of that, ‘paisa vasool’ died a
what ideology? Work is loud sonorous death. Raghav had miscalculated his
work. Ideology is of the merchandise, his inventory logistics and his costs. While he
ego. wanted to tweak the parameters and reiterate, the closure of
Garware’s Supermarket in Mumbai, shook Raghav’s promoter, MattGold Media who
misread consumer behaviour and threw the baby out with the bathwater. This was the
same MattGold which had once seen Raghav as out-of-the-box and now could not deal
with his maverickness. He was becoming a bit dandy, they said; a tad bit arrogant too
they said. Some said it was the arrogance of success but some others said it was a cover
for failure.

Initially, Raghav stayed in touch with Parvez Vatcha, sending updates of his escapades
and victories. But when the failures repeated, Raghav felt ashamed; failure as he saw it,
took him apart; he coiled into a shell and played dead.
In 1999, Athanu too quit Delaware to join a cereal company, then within a year a telecom
company, booking hefty salary increases on the way. Today, he was the CEO at a
successful white goods major. But Athanu was unhappy, and had waited for this day to
meet Vatcha, so he could air his heart to him. Of late, he had been having many
ideological differences with his chairman and now the chasm was widening. “The
comfort of frank airing of thoughts which I enjoyed under you is no more my privilege,”
he said. “I am about to resign over serious differences with my chairman. I am
immensely disturbed; I feel incapable of dealing with this...”

The feelings that assailed him were disquieting; at one level Athanu felt strongly about
some issues; yet quitting would mean loss of income, prestige… “I want to stay on the
crest! I am actually having a lot of fun with work. And how am I going to feel when that
six-figure pay packet is not winking at me from my bank account, month after month? Do
you know what a lot of assurance and comfort lies in that?” Then looking at Raghav he
said, “Hey, sorry, but this is all confidential, ok?” Raghav smiled a bitter twisted smile
and said, “And who wants to listen to me or court me?!”

Sharp as ever, Vatcha said, “Oh, but don’t you have some words of counsel for Athanu?
After all, he is closer to your world and its ways!”

And Raghav spoke. “The only thing hurting you about quitting is the comfort of a money
pillow on which you rest. But quitting itself does not worry you? And what nonsense
ideology? Work is work. Ideology is of the ego. Pay attention to organisational ideology!
Is your effort going waste? Is there a covert buy-out destroying you? You are sitting in a
stable organisation; profits are there, top line there; growth there; market share tops.
Damn ideology!”

Athanu was disturbed. “You get me wrong Raghav. There is a huge war for power and
Page 3 space. The seeming battle with competition is not over quality, is not for growth.
We have no new story to tell; cost efficiency is what is bringing home the bottom line;
top line is all a bunch of gimmickry... in short we are treading on mediocrity —
consciously; we are fooling around with quality, playing the short term. Of course, I need
the ideology to manage the environment. Ideology is what gives us rooting… but if I
hang on to ideology, the guy next to me is willing to compromise, and then he gets my
chair! I live looking over my shoulder, fighting competition at personal and
organisational level!”

Raghav was pensive… he does not see life through my eyes, what a glorious world he
lives in! The 2000s are for the blessed! Yet he cries! Just 10 years ago, opportunity had
such a short shelf life… nothing lasted, nothing could be grasped. You realised you are
not immortal anymore; you sought your immortality through the brand or process you
were creating post liberalisation and the hype and hoopla buoyed you, kept you floating
and relevant.

But that was the disconnect — time was becoming transitory. Raghav wanted it to be
continuous but was afraid he would fall soon, because he was watching icons being built
Read Analyses and destroyed. 1990s was full of such examples: from V.P. Singh
The Value Path onwards to Silk Route, Indian Ocean, Azharuddin... icons built one
A Measure Of Time day and destroyed the next. You became a somebody for a brief
period and then had to vacate the spot. Not like Parvez Vatcha or Ratan Tata or Kurien or
Ashok Ganguli or T. Thomas who became icons, stayed icons and were invincible.