Bhupesh Bhandari: The exit of the 'taxman'

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Three things can happen to a man at 40: he goes looking around for a new job, he goes through a divorce or he dies. Mukesh Butani, who created some surprise when he recently quit as the national director of Ernst & Young's global tax advisory services, says he got off with the easiest of the three options.

For Butani, it should not be difficult to find another employer. International Tax Review, a Euromoney Group publication specialising in tax and legal issues, included him in its list of leading Indian tax advisors.

He has written a book on transfer pricing and has served on a government committee on e-commerce taxation. What is more, Ernst & Young's tax practice, which Butani is still heading, is undisputably the leader in the market, far ahead of other professional services firms.

At the moment, Butani is unwilling to talk about his next move. But his close friends say that he is going to take a long break and will announce something only around Christmas.

There has been speculation that he might team up with Bobby Parikh who left Ernst & Young in a huff last year after Rajeev Memani took over the top job in the firm after his father Kashi Nath Memani retired.

The bigger issue is, how will Ernst & Young hold together its tax practice after Butani leaves? It is an open secret that when Ernst & Young took over Andersen Consulting in 2002, one star attraction was its tax practice nurtured and developed by Butani.

So much so, even at the height of the its global crisis, Andersen Consulting did not lose a single tax client. Ever since the 2002 merger, Butani had become the most visible and articulate of Ernst & Young partners, holding forth on a wide range of public finance.

On its part, the Ernst & Young brass insists that Butani's departure (along with two other partners) will make no impact on the firm's fortunes.

"The practices are built on very strong teams. There are 56 partners at Ernst & Young and the departure of three would not make much difference to the firm's practice. There are over 20 partners in tax alone," a top Ernst & Young functionary told Business Standard.

That may or may not come out true. But one thing is for sure: wherever he goes, Butani will attract people from all other professional services firm and not just Ernst & Young. Butani has the reputation for "getting things done," though he is a tough taskmaster.

"Pardon my impatience and, at times, cynical approach towards minor matters (working capital management and so on). I am sure some of you must be feeling relieved!," Butani sent a mail to his colleagues after putting in his papers.

Butani began his career in 1987 when he set up Andersen's tax practice in New Delhi. The Mumbai boy had trained with a mid-sized tax advisory called Kasturi & Co for three years after his promising cricketing career fell prey to a knee injury.

Over the years, Butani's reputation grew steadily. Then the merger with Ernst & Young took place in 2002. This was the biggest challenge in Butani's career. He had to merge two different cultures, two separate mindsets. There is enough statistical evidence to prove that a vast majority of mergers fail on this crucial aspect.

Though he admits such an integration of cultures is an ongoing process, it must be said Butani tried his best. In the last two-and-a-half years, Butani has logged flying miles of 900,000 miles, sitting with his teams for long hours to motivate them and make them feel like members of one team.

So what made him give up midway? "There was no reason for me to do what I did. This is the best job I ever had," Butani says. "My cricket coach (the legendary Ramakant Achrekar) used to say that you should hang up your boots when you are at the top." Was it out of bitterness at losing the top job to the chairman's son? "No regrets, no bitterness," he says.

As for his next move, wait till Christmas.