Stories of companies that faced tough times and emerged stronger
Fourteen business leaders narrate their stories to Business Today on how they steered their companies through tough times and emerge stronger. FULL COVERAGE
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From (L-R)Sunil Duggal, Peter Mukerejea, N. Srinivasan, Sanjay Lalbhai, Govind Shrikhande, Rakesh Jain, Anu Aga and Himanshu Kapania
Was Friedrich Nietzsche right? A trawl through corporate performances is not known to trigger philosophical ruminations, but that is what happens as you study companies that flirted with disaster and lived to tell the tale. Affirming Nietzsche's theory, that which did not kill them made them stronger.
That is what happened to the country's two biggest carmakers at the start of this century. There were losses, fall in market share, and doubt. Doubt in the minds of those outside as well as those who held the reins. It took an insane amount of cost cutting, a brave bet on new vehicles, and audacious forays into new areas that saved the two companies. And look where they are: still two of the country's biggest car makers.
But these are well-documented stories. As are the turnaround tales of ICICI Bank, which was on the mat after Lehman Brothers collapsed, Essar Steel, which has not looked back since lenders agreed to restructure its debt, and Wipro, which has bounced back enough to prompt a cover story in BT in February.
What we do in the special package is look at stories which are not yet part of folklore. What's more, the narrators of these stories are people who steered the turnarounds.
At a time like this, when good news is scarce, we do hope that their tribe will grow. Maybe some day we will ask S.D. Shibulal to tell us how he revived Infosys's fortunes. And it may look improbable now but, who knows, one day a Mallya could be talking about how Kingfisher Airlines flew again.
For, as Nietzsche said, "When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."
That is what happened to the country's two biggest carmakers at the start of this century. There were losses, fall in market share, and doubt. Doubt in the minds of those outside as well as those who held the reins. It took an insane amount of cost cutting, a brave bet on new vehicles, and audacious forays into new areas that saved the two companies. And look where they are: still two of the country's biggest car makers.
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But these are well-documented stories. As are the turnaround tales of ICICI Bank, which was on the mat after Lehman Brothers collapsed, Essar Steel, which has not looked back since lenders agreed to restructure its debt, and Wipro, which has bounced back enough to prompt a cover story in BT in February.
What we do in the special package is look at stories which are not yet part of folklore. What's more, the narrators of these stories are people who steered the turnarounds.
At a time like this, when good news is scarce, we do hope that their tribe will grow. Maybe some day we will ask S.D. Shibulal to tell us how he revived Infosys's fortunes. And it may look improbable now but, who knows, one day a Mallya could be talking about how Kingfisher Airlines flew again.
For, as Nietzsche said, "When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."
Stories of other companies that faced tough times and emerged stronger, told by the people who were in the thick of things. | |
Nitin Paranjpe on HUL | Himanshu Kapania on IDEA |
Mahendra Mohan Gupta on Jagran Prakashan | Rakesh Jain and Sushil Agarwal on Aditya Birla Nuvo |
Sanjay Lalbhai on Arvind Mills | Peter Mukerjea on Star India |
Sanjiv Goenka on CESC | Bhavarlal H. Jain on Jain Irrigation Systems |
Govind Shrikhande on Shoppers Stop | Sunil Pahilajani on Greaves Cotton |
Anu Aga on Thermax | Sunil Duggal on Dabur India |
N. Srinivasan on India Cements | Arvind Uppal on Whirlpool |