Founder and Chairman of Vedanta Resources Ltd, Anil Agarwal, spoke about the importance of making local people take the lead in a business. He said that it is important to empower young talent as well as let local people lead, and elucidated with his own experience.
Agarwal said that entrepreneurs often ask him ways to expand their business. “ I tell them to get these two things right - empower your young talent and let your local people lead,” he said.
Talking about when he landed in Australia in 1990 to acquire bankrupt company, Copper Mines of Tasmania, Agarwal said that he was told it would be risky business, but that his faith was strong. He said that even though he did not know fancy English, he was able to impress the Premier of Tasmania with his turnaround plan.
“He decided to give the plant to me, and I put in $2.5 million to lock in the deal,” said Agarwal in the LinkedIn post.
After acquiring the plant, Agarwal did two things – made the general manager the head of the company, and downsized the company with only three people in senior leadership.
Talking about the general manager who he elevated to head of the company, Agarwal said that the kind of passion and dedication he worked with was not seen even in CXOs of the company. Agarwal further added that the company was entirely led by locals. “Jaise doodh mein cheeni milao toh uski mithaas badh jaati hai, bilkul waise hi, when setting up your business away from home, you must work with the locals to bring the best results,” he said.
The results of the measures were there for everyone to see. He said that the company made $25 million in profits and continued making profits for the next 10 years. He said that their success in Australia changed everything for them.
In an earlier post, Agarwal had also talked about the acquisition of Duratube that made him one of the first Indians to acquire a British company. The Vedanta team, along with him, were determined to make the deal work. They hired a British managing director to make him the face of the company, and tried to do things themselves instead of hiring professionals. But it did not work out and they had to sell the company off.
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