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At the Business Standard Annual Awards for 2014, in Mumbai on Saturday evening, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the award winners were representatives of a new India, in that they did not believe in dynastic democracy and grabbed the opportunity to unleash their entrepreneurial energies and become global leaders.
"Forty years ago, no one had heard about them. What is more encouraging is that India now has a new aspirational class, which is not that well off but has the ambition and drive to move forward and become world-beaters. Ten or 20 years from now, it is from this aspirational class that you will have a new breed of Indians building this country," Jaitley said.
From start to finish, the award function toasted the indomitable spirit of Indian entrepreneurship that was ready to fight all odds. The awards this year, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the publication, were doubly special.
The Crystal Room at Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, filled to capacity by familiar faces and famous names, clapped in unison when Jaitley said the "current decisive political leadership" believed in carrying out more reforms and easing norms for doing business, so that the aspirational class could generate more wealth for itself and the country. "We do not believe in distributing poverty; we believe in growth and distributing wealth so that the government gets additional resources for poverty alleviation," said the minister, standing out in his kurta-pyjama amid a sea of black suits. (RAISING A TOAST TO EXCELLENCE)
The proceedings for the evening kicked off well before the scheduled hour as the czars of the corporate world trooped in early to catch up with their competitors. The camaraderie was visible as they took time to exchange notes and share insights in a relaxed set-up. Many had cancelled their weekend plans to make it to the event.
The guests came from far and wide. While three of the award winners came straight to the venue after a long flight back from the US, one rushed to the airport after the event to go to the US. Four of the award winners, and many others in the power-packed audience, came from Delhi.
While corporate India was represented by Sun Pharmaceutical founder & Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi, Larsen & Toubro Chairman A M Naik, Asian Paints Vice-Chairman Aswin Dani and Bisleri International Chairman Prakash Chauhan, the ad world was represented by Madison World Chairman & MD Sam Balsara, Dentsu Aegis Network's South Asia Chairman & Chief Executive Ashish Bhasin and ad gurus Sandeep Goyal and Amby Parameswaran.
There were at least two marquee names from the world of management and strategic consultancy - McKinsey India MD and McKinsey Inc Director Noshir Kaka, and EY India CEO and Country Managing Partner Rajiv Memani. Among other guests were KKR India CEO Sanjay Nayar, AZB Partners Managing Partner Zia Mody, BSE MD Ashish Chauhan, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Chairman Motilal Oswal, and Tata AIG General Insurance MD & CEO K K Mishra.
The entrepreneurial spirit that Jaitley had referred to was best exemplified by Vivek Chaand Sehgal, chairman of Motherson Sumi Systems, a company started by him and his mother. The recipient of the Company of the Year award, Sehgal said: "We are not high-profile, but we focus on what we do and love what we do. Motherson has 42,000 employees in India and 72,000 across the world; we manufacture spare parts used by some of the most famous cars globally."
Tech Mahindra MD & CEO C P Gurnani, who received the CEO of the Year award, said his company strongly believed in driving positive change, accepting no limits and making room for lateral thinking. "At Tech Mahindra, we will continue to dare to dream; our dreams have just begun," he said. As he received the award, he added, he remembered the day Tech Mahindra acquired Satyam Computer Services and got the 'yes, we did it' feeling.
The response of the winners was typical of the evening: The leading lights of the business world walked away with glittering trophies and, to the last person, each thanked his company, colleagues, customers and families for helping him to the top of the podium.
N Chandrasekaran, CEO & MD of Tata Consultancy Services, adjudged the Best Company of 40 Years, said he dedicated the award to all TCSers, starting from FC Kohli to S Ramadorai - all his predecessors. "We started as a small outfit in 1968 in an industry that was yet to be named. The journey from there has been incredible," he said.
Pointing out that the recognition would "stay with him for a long time", IndusInd Bank MD & CEO Romesh Sobti, who received the Banker of the Year award, said the average age of his bank's employees was 32 years, and he thanked each employee "for carrying a CEO twice his or her age". The entire brass of the bank was present to give a standing ovation to the CEO.
The other award winners also did themselves proud with the quality of their acceptance speeches. HDFC Mutual Fund's Chief Investment Officer Prashant Jain, who won the Fund Manager (equity) award, talked about Indians' obsession with gold. "In the past 15 years, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have put $150 billion in the Indian stock market. What have we done with those dollars? We have bought gold worth $250 billion in this period. While the Sensex has returned 15 per cent for the past 35 years (compound annual growth rate, or CAGR), gold has returned only eight per cent," Jain said, adding the reason for replacing a 15 per cent asset with an eight per cent one was poor financial literacy in India.
In a pre-recorded acceptance speech, N R Narayana Murthy, the recipient of the award for the Best Entrepreneur of 40 years, attributed his company's success to setting high goals, benchmarking to global standards, putting the company's interest ahead of individuals', following the best principles of corporate governance, and adhering to a set of enduring values.
The function had its lighter moments, too. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CMD of One97 Communication, made a dash to the podium when his organisation's name was announced as the Most Innovative Company of the Year. Sharma, whose company operates Paytm, had arrived at the venue just in the nick of time. Breathing heavily, Sharma talked about the fascinating journey of the leading firm in the electronic payment space and his ambition to make it a financial services company. Paytm was selected by a poll among senior editors of Business Standard.
The corporate award winners were chosen by a distinguished jury, led by ICICI Bank Chairman K V Kamath. Apart from Nayar, Kaka, Mody and Memani, the star-studded jury also included Vodafone India Managing Director & CEO Marten Pieters.
The jury for choosing the Banker of the Year award was led by Subir Gokarn, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI); the other members were Mahindra & Mahindra Director Bharat Doshi, Ican Investment Advisors Chairman Anil Singhvi, State Bank of India's former managing director Diwakar Gupta, and Ambit Group CEO (institutional equities) Saurabh Mukherjea.
The jury for selecting the Fund Managers of the Year, led by G N Bajpai, former chairman of Sebi and LIC, comprised IL&FS Director & Group Chief Investment Officer Vibhav Kapoor, IndAsiaFund Advisors Chairman Pradip Shah, and Dhruva Advisors LLP CEO Dinesh Kanabar.
The enthusiasm of the award winners was infectious. L&T's A M Naik, also a past award winner, said: "The BS awards are the most sought after in corporate India because they are given purely on merit. That is why we cherish the award L&T got a few years ago."
