Qimat Rai Gupta
Chairman, Havells Group
Age: 76
Rank in the Rich List: 68
Net worth: $910 million
Big challenge faced in the last year: Consolidating the turnaround of Sylvania
Way forward: Sylvania’s revenues remain sluggish. Gupta wants to expand the brand to other global markets to increase revenues.
It is 10 am on a Monday. At QRG Towers in Noida, the global headquarters of the Havells Group, senior executives of the electrical equipment company are huddled inside the office of their chairman, Qimat Rai Gupta. These include his family—brother-in-law Surjit Gupta, son Anil Rai Gupta and nephew Ameet Gupta—as well as company directors, presidents and vice presidents.
Gupta, 76, starts by recounting a conversation he had with his son on the importance of vendors. It sparks off a discussion that culminates in the formulation of a new initiative: A conference for Havells’ top vendors to convince them to reduce prices. In turn, the company would commit to taking measures to process payments in half the time it takes at present. This would help Havells save up to Rs 150 crore annually, a handsome amount when the industry is squeezed for margins.
That is not all. In the next one hour, the group interviews a candidate and confirms his appointment as head of a special business unit. It also reviews the company’s performance and runs through the agenda for a national conference call slated for later in the afternoon. It is not all work, though. The meeting is peppered with conversations about Lalu Prasad and the state of the country’s politics, and the chairman’s friendly banter with one of his senior executives about his high salary.
Now, for the thousands of small- to mid-sized family businesses in India, this is not a novel practice. As Professor Kavil Ramachandran, who leads the Thomas Schmidheiny Chair of Family Business and Wealth Business at the Indian School of Business, says, “Most of the smaller companies do hold such meetings”. But he also points out that few family-run outfits are able to sustain the practice or appreciate its importance as the business grows. But Gupta has managed to retain this practice even as Havells grew.
This represents the leadership approach of Gupta who has been the principal driver for one of the fastest growing companies in India over the past two decades. From a little over Rs 100 crore at the turn of the century, Havells clocked nearly Rs 8,000 crore in revenues in 2012. Gupta debuted on the Forbes India Rich List in 2011 at 98, climbed up to 64 in 2012 ($965 million) and is ranked 68 in this year’s list with a wealth of $910 million. He calls these morning huddles an integral aspect of his “participative management style” that marks an entrepreneurial journey that started in 1958.
“Even when the company was small and had much fewer employees, my father had this practice,” says son Anil, joint managing director. “It started as an extension of his leadership instinct to align his team along the same vision. Today, the practice has been institutionalised at Havells.”
Every morning, the top team gathers in the chairman’s office; when he is not there, they convene in Anil’s room on the same floor. Issues are taken up, decisions are made and previous decisions are reviewed. There is no fixed agenda, but the meeting inevitably results in several outcomes that are religiously followed. “The exercise will be a waste if there is no execution,” says Gupta. Similar meetings are held in every branch of the company in India and even overseas in London, the centre of its European operations.
Anil identifies this morning ritual as an integral factor in the company’s success over these years. As Havells president Sunil Sikka says, this “small company culture in a big company” has helped quick decision-making and sometimes, even radical ones. The latest initiative to tap vendors was suggested by Rajeev Goel, president of its London-based business Sylvania. He had just returned from a similar meet in Spain three days ago. “How can you be quicker than this?” Sikka says about the immediate adoption of the proposal.
THE DESI STYLE
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(This story appears in the 28 November, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Sounds great really. Lot many things to learn and adapt. Superb way to bring things on a faster way.
on Nov 23, 2013Chairman not only meet top management ,he know most of staff by names even in factories
on Nov 14, 2013That\'s how a family run medium scale business grow into a multinational. MOM\'s of the meetings kept as a log document helps for future meetings and maketh a fool proof system.. cpc.muthiah@gmail.com
on Nov 13, 2013