I'm paranoid about producing best leaders for the company: L&T's AM Naik

'Now, all national sectors are of interest to me, for instance nuclear'

The annual general meeting at Larsen & Toubro (L&T) will be held on Wednesday, and Anil Manibhai Naik will address shareholders for the last time as chairman. He plans to step down next month. In an interview with Amritha Pillay & Dev Chatterjee in Mumbai, Naik says he will continue to head L&T’s employee trust, and focus on charity and philanthropy, along with national interest projects. Naik also talks on L&T’s challenges and opportunities. Edited excerpts:

Give us a glimpse of what keeps you busy in your non-executive role.

I spend time on charity and philanthropy. Also, I mentor new leaders. I’m paranoid about producing the best leaders for the company. It is my passion to mentor new leaders and that I will continue to do.

So, five hours a day I am usually busy. And I will be busy till the end because I will be chairman of the trust that owns L&T.

You have mentioned the need for simplifying L&T’s business structure. Are you happy with it or are there other changes you propose?

SNS (SN Subrahmanyan) has been chief executive officer and managing director for the past six years. I started the strategic plan in 2000, and we later called it Lakshya. With the kind of detailing that SNS and I have done together, the company’s value system has been fully grasped and it should do well. Do we want to organise again? It is a constant process. For example, we plan to enter the green energy segment and set up shop in Hazira. I have shredded 16 businesses, small and non-core (in the past). I tell SNS which one to shed and which not to waste time on. This is being internally brainstormed. There are two other businesses, which we have re-structured and which should now become big in the next five years.

The platform for L&T is ready. I have done that with the Hazira facility.

Tell us more about the green energy bit.

At Hazira, I suggested not to create new shops but use the ones for coal (thermal power projects) shops for green. Internally, we found a new business leader (Subramanian Sarma). We will keep watching the sector because big names are entering this segment. I have been involved in the whys and wherefores of the green energy business.

When you were moving to your non-executive role, you listed nuclear as a challenge for SNS. How do you see it now?

Nuclear energy has not moved at all in the country. It is not a challenge for SNS but it is a challenge for the country and consequently he must face it. The challenge is we are not getting the plants. We are giving away those shops to green power.

In your own words, you are a man in a hurry and not haste. What is the focus of your hurry right now?

All national sectors are of interest to me. For instance, if the Prime Minister asks me to work on nuclear energy, I am willing to do so.

Your best turnaround story is of separating and ring-fencing the engineering business from a hostile takeover a few decades back. What is a turnaround story you see at L&T in the more recent years?

L&T Finance will be a turnaround story you should watch out for. Its profit has doubled. We have changed the whole strategy by reducing the wholesale and realty businesses. In two years, 90 per cent will be retail and 10 per cent wholesale. We are done with major write-offs, and there may be 1-2 per cent. We are in the process of a full turnaround.

Through your interactions, what is your view on the current generation of labour?

What I do not like is the current generation’s perspective on life. There is no lagaav (attachment). They work for five years and they think they have worked for long. The long service mark was at some point 20-30 years and above. Later because of the young generation, we had to reduce it from 20 to 15 years and from 15 to just 10 for information technology.