BS Annual Awards: Toasting the Spirit of Disruption

The 16th edition of the Business Standard Annual Awards was about many firsts. It wasn't only about celebrating success and revenue growth. It was an evening when the old economy was brought closer to the new in a master class on disruption, and where activism rubbed shoulders with the czars of profit. And, for a change, the encounter wasn't adversarial.

The mood seemed to have a rub-off effect on Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general of the Centre for Science & Environment, which received the 'Public Institution of the Year' award from Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, the guest of honour. In his short speech, Bhushan said it was a welcome surprise to get this award from a jury comprising industry doyens. "I thought the kind of work we do is adversarial to what you do. This award will give a tremendous impetus to build many more public institutions," he said.

The sense of bonhomie was evident when Parrikar later said he was happy to give away the award as the role of public society was important, though there should be a balance between development, security needs and those of the environment.

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From start to finish, the awards ceremony, held here on Thursday evening, toasted a new India that is coming to terms with disruption. The guests who assembled to honour the outstanding businesses and business people of the year came from far and wide. While Parrikar came from Delhi and Nandan Nilekani, chief guest, and wife Rohini came from Bengaluru, quite a few other award winners and guests were from Delhi, Chennai and elsewhere. In a full house at the Crystal Room of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai, that meant some familiar faces and famous names were forced to stand at the back.

In keeping with the changing times, the awards function celebrated not only leaders of today, but gave a glimpse of the leaders of tomorrow as well. The dais was shared by Parrikar and Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys and former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India in the previous UPA regime. In the current political climate, where the opposition seems to find it hard to talk to the government of the day, the two special guests of the evening demonstrated that fresh ground could be broken if individuals and institutions can look beyond their narrow constituencies.

By giving red tape a break, both Parrikar and Nilekani put forth their inimitable and even disruptive leadership styles on display. The defence minister participated in a question and answer session, while Nilekani made a presentation on 'The coming great disruption'.

The evening in every way was an embodiment of what the Business Standard Awards stand for - success that isn't fleeting and leadership that is not bound by the rule books. And the winners of 2015 have demonstrated this for years. Eicher Motors, which won the Company of the Year Award, is today known best for its iconic Royal Enfield motorcycles. But when the company's CEO and managing director Siddhartha Lal joined it after college, the motorcycle division was a very small and loss-making unit.

Vinod Aggarwal, CEO of VE Commercial Vehicles, summed up Eicher's success in a nutshell: "If you have the right leader and right strategy in place, and follow a focused approach, no one can stop a company from touching new heights. That is what Eicher Motors has done."

Indian businesses have spread their wings in the past decade. And some have met with immense success, like Motherson Sumi. Having won the Company of the Year in 2014, the company's founding chairman Vivek Chaand Sehgal won the CEO of the year in 2015.

Sehgal said he owed a lot of his success to India and the challenges it threw at him. "India is a great teacher. If you are successful in India, which throws challenges at you every day, you can be really successful in the rest of the world."

This never-say-die spirit and success that has endured were recognised by the awards' jury. Speaking on the occasion, the Jury Chairman, R C Bhargava who is the chairman of Maruti Suzuki, said "the selection process took time as we also had to judge the ability of the companies to innovate and adjust to a new environment."

Other members of the jury were: McKinsey India MD and McKinsey Inc director Noshir Kaka, KKR India CEO Sanjay Nayar, EY India CEO and Country Managing Partner Rajiv Memani, and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Managing Partner Cyril Shroff.

Not surprisingly, many of the award winners said they felt honoured in being selected by such a jury.

As the thundering applause for the winners calmed down, the audience got a glimpse into the new world of disruptors that don't own any asset but own the customers. It is the gatekeepers who are winning the game now with their platforms.

In a brilliant presentation on the coming disruptions, Nilekani gave everybody a sense of what they may need to do to succeed tomorrow. From automobiles to telecom to retail, technology-led upstarts are gradually edging out traditional business models.

Citing one example, Nilekani said WhatsApp was offering calls to a billion active users. It already carries 30 billion messages a day, against the 20 billion done by all telecom operators put together. WhatsApp neither owns any telecom network and nor has it sunk in billions into acquiring spectrum assets; it runs its entire business with just 40 engineers.

There was pin-drop silence and many were seen scribbling on their notepads when Nilekani said Airbnb was the largest  in the world, without owning a single  and was well ahead of BestBuy and Walmart in terms of transactions. "In the new world, the winner takes it all. The gap between the winner (read market leaders) and the number two is so enormous that it almost cannot be bridged," he said.

Noshir Kaka, managing director, McKinsey India, said: "We are seeing a pace of change through the BS Awards. Every time we do this, we are seeing newer companies and newer business models coming up. So, every time you learn something new. This time, it was also fantastic to have Nilekani's views on disruption. It makes you feel excited and terrified at the same time."

The evening wasn't without its share of lighter moments. Parrikar said his sense of humour had to be toned down after he moved to Delhi, as very few could believe that ministers can joke too - reason why everyone seems obsessed with taking every statement by him literally.

Responding to a question on the difference between his earlier job as a chief minister and that of a central minister, Parrikar quipped, "I had to leave a nice place like Goa and move to Delhi. The CM is like a king of the state… even if you have a small house, it's your own house after all".

As if on cue, Rahul Bajaj, patriarch of the Bajaj Group, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award, said he would keep his speech short as his family always thought he spoke too much. Bajaj said he "racked his brains for several days" to figure why he got the award. One reason was that he built a company. "Whether it was good, bad or different does not matter. I did build this company," Bajaj said.

But he was proud of one "achievement for a company of this size." That was managing a seamless succession plan involving his two sons, a process he started 10 years ago.

Other award winners were: Ola Cabs (Start-Up of The Year), Abbott India (Star MNC), Cera Sanitaryware (Star SME) and Container Corporation of India (Star PSU).

While the corporate world was represented by Vodafone's Sunil Sood, Pfizer India's R A Shah, Asian Paints' Ashwin Dani, RPG Group's Harsh Goenka, Tata Group's Mukund Rajan and JSW Steel's Seshagiri Rao, there was also a sizable presence from the private equity and investment banking fraternity.

Kedaara Capital's Manish Kejriwal, Moelis' Manisha Girotra and J M Financial's Vishal Kampani were seen exchanging notes with Vallabh Bhansali and Nomura's Vikas Sharma.

Reference - http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/bs-annual-awards-toasting-the-spirit-of-disruption-116022000030_1.html