What Murugappa Group's chief learned from the Tao of Leadership

Murugappan speaks to T E Narasimhan & Gireesh Babu about how keeping things simple has worked in his favour

Right in the middle of Parrys, a business district in Chennai named after EID Parry and its founder Thomas Parry, stands a six-storey building constructed in the art deco style. That’s Dare House, which houses the Murugappa Group’s corporate office. One side of the building faces the sea and the other side the heritage buildings that constitute the Madras High Court. 

M M Murugappan, the new captain of the Rs 330 billion group, ushers us into his fifth-floor office. We sit down for our conversation at the West Board Room, the walls of which proudly display photographs of the founders and the former chairmen of the Murugappa Group, one of the largest conglomerates in India. 
 

The 62-year old Murugappan, who is wearing a company uniform, sits in front of a large picture of Dewan Bahadur A M Murugappa Chettiar, who went as an apprentice to Burma (now Myanmar) in 1898 and built up the financial services business that forms the foundation of the conglomerate today. The group currently has 28 businesses including nine listed companies that are traded in both the stock exchanges. Its market capitalisation aggregates to around Rs671.17 billion (as on March 31, 2018).

Murugappan chooses his words carefully which gives us the impression that he means every word he says. It becomes apparent as we start talking that his family and its humble beginnings mean a lot to him. “You inherit a legacy — it is because of your family that you get this kind of exposure both in terms of education and the freedom to pursue a career of choice. So when I got involved in the business, there was a sense of history, a sense of legacy, a sense of gratitude and responsibility.”

A chemical engineer by qualification, contrary to what one may assume, his career did not start with a job in the family group. His first assignment entailed running an ammonia plant for EID Parry at Ennore and later an alkyd resin plant for ICI India in Rishra, West Bengal. His father never allowed him any luxuries, he says, with immense pride. 

Murugappan obviously enjoyed his stint at the city of joy. He tells us in great detail about his daily commute from Kolkata to Rishra and back, the endless squash matches in the evenings and the technological changes that were just beginning to take place.

His love for squash and field hockey goes back to his school days though he has had to give them up as his responsibilities increased with age. However, he has picked up golf as a new hobby, and plays with a few of his friends in Chennai on weekends. He starts his day with 35 minutes of yoga and an hour’s walk around his house or at the IIT Madras compound, a privilege he attained when he became a board member at the institution. He retains that privilege for a fee.

His other passion is solving crossword puzzles, an interest he shares with his wife. Murugappan has two sons, the elder one heads the nutraceuticals division of EID Parry. His wife, an architect, runs her own business. His younger son works in the area of sports and documentary films and his wife is a pastry chef and they are based in Singapore.

We realise it’s been an hour that we have been talking when one of his colleagues reminds us that lunch has been served. We make our way towards the sixth floor as Murugappan takes us through the history of the group and that of old Madras. 

Once on the sixth floor, we are met by Ravi, part of the Group’s hospitality team for almost 35 years, who is waiting for us with a large buffet spread. His real name is Rafi, but everyone has got used to calling him Ravi and he is more powerful than anyone else in the company, jokes Murugappan.

The glass windows of the elevated dining hall, which can accommodate 10 people, opens into the Bay of Bengal and the Chennai Port on one side and to the wide beach road on the other. Ravi knows the food preferences of almost everybody in the management team. Murugappan has had three bouts of jaundice; so prefers non-spicy food. His favourite cuisine is Japanese, and drops by at Dhalia, a no-frills Japanese restaurant in Chennai, every now and then.

Japanese food became his favourite after his frequent visits to Japan where the Group has a clutch of partnerships for various businesses including general insurance.

Talking of the group’s international presence, he says, the key to success is understanding local cultures and allowing locals to manage a business. Culture is important for him so spending time with people during his overseas trips is a key part of his itinerary rather than visiting tourist destinations. “I have been to Japan many times, but seen Mount Fuji only from the train,” he rues. 

Sri Lanka is another destination popular with the family, and the extended family has had friends for several generations there. Two years back, he went to Burma, where the family has roots, and visited the family house that now belongs to someone else.

He returns to the story of 14-year-old Murugappa Chettiar who had accompanied his uncle as an apprentice to the British province of Burma. He eventually set up his own banking practice there, his fluency in Burmese giving him an uncommon edge. By 1914, he had secured his firm’s position as second only to The Imperial Bank of Burma.

In India, Muruguppa started with CUMI, and then to an electronics business, which the group acquired and later divested. Murugappan talks about one the group’s big failures and the lessons learnt from that experiment. 

One of these was a magnetic media business, which would translate into cassette tapes. While he had some knowledge of coating technology himself, he did not foresee the intricacies of the business and in any case  the technology had aged by the time he got into it and had paved way for compact discs and to pen drives. 

“The concept is storage, but the technology is different. I did not anticipate it at all and failed miserably. But you learn to get out of it. It was not a failure that undermined the fortunes of the group, we were able to withdraw from it very quickly. We are careful that our employees shouldn’t suffer in any way,” he adds. He went back to CUMI and Parry’s Confectioneries. Later, he oversaw the technology and science portfolio across the group. 

While we listen to Murugappan with rapt attention, Ravi has served tomato soup with a helping ofgarlic bread. 

“If the fundamental principle of your economic activity is that no man you transact with should lose, then you shall not lose either,” he says quoting Arthashastra. He says this is also the group’s philosophy.

We move to the buffet table. Murugappan picks up some olives and lettuce leaves from a salad, peas pulao, dal tadka and fish tikka — all in small quantities. We take some of the pulao and salad besides helping ourselves with the bisi bela bhath and a ladies finger preparation. The menu was chosen after Murugappan called us personally to check our preferences a few days before the meeting.

He likes to prepare well for a meeting, he tells us. “I don’t like to go into a discussion or meeting casually. And I don’t expect others to come casually as well. I don’t reprimand them, but I very quietly let them know that it is not professional,” says Murugappan, who is a hands-on manager. He also makes it a point to go around the shopfloors with office interns and new recruits to understand how well they are being trained in the process and systems of the group, and says interacting with young people also helps him learn many new things.

His leadership style is influenced by ancient Chinese writings, and he has been immensely influenced by John Heider’s The Tao of Leadership. “It speaks of a leader’s integrity, harsh interventions, simple life, the ripple effect from leadership, and the contribution of the teachers in the making of a leader. In fact, my teachers have had a big role in whatever I have achieved today.”

We proceed to curd rice with pickles and then to the final — and the most interesting part — of the lunch, the dessert. Murugappan restricts himself to a scoop of melons and papaya, while we devour the gulab jamuns and vanilla ice cream.

Despite the advancement in technology, he is more comfortable with his desktop computer for sending mails and when it comes to books he prefers the good old paperback editions to Kindle. “Keep life simple, why make it complicated?” he says as we take his leave walking out into the scorching sun, pacified to an extent by the gentle breeze from the sea on the other side of the road.