Gateway 290311.pmd - Rotary Club of Bombay

More documents

Recommendations

Info

‘If you enter any field, be a change agent; otherwise, don’tget into it’: This is Nishith Desai’s basic philosophy(Continued from Page 1)Coca Cola had walked out becauseit was not willing to accept anythingless than 100% ownership (of its operationsin the country). And Pepsihad walked in. One had vacated themarket and another had come in.Similarly, IBM had walked out;Burroughs had come in. Pfizer haddiluted to the extent of 74% and remaineda FERA company; Ciba diluted40%, became an Indian companyand expanded faster.Mr. Desai said as his interest incorporate philosophy and strategygrew, his practice in the US also grew.unhappy. But if there was a differenceof even one rupee, it was themanager’s job to communicate thereason for the difference. And the earlierthis was done, the better.It was often said that the old, feudalisticmodel was bad because it involved“command and control” methods.This was indeed true. The adventof new situations and of newtechnologies had speeded up the processof evolution and a “democratic”organisation was the next level. It wasalready visible in the shape of lesserhierarchy in technological companies.As for the (ever increasing) valuationsof companies, these changesAnd in 1986, the head (legal) and theMD of Bears & Sterns (“which laterThe well-know management guru, the late Mr. C.K. Prahlad, was his closewere occurring on account of corporategovernance; the available statis-went down”), suggested that he setfriend and he had learned a lot from him, admits Mr. Nishith Desai at theup a law firm. Sceptical at first becauselast meetingtics had borne this out.in India counsels never set uplaw firms, he benefited from his experienceas a researcher, embarked ona study of law firm management andfinally took the plunge.Although there were manypeople who helped him in his venture,the most important contributionwas made by the well-knowmanagement guru, the late Mr.C.K. Prahlad, who was his closefriend and from whom he hadlearned a lot.The approach that he adopted tosteer his law firm was clear from thevery beginning – to make it researchbasedand to provide what he called“thought leadership”. However, thefundamental philosophy was this: “Ifyou enter any field, be a change agent;otherwise, don’t get into it.” A lot ofresearch went into seeing whether itwould be possible to bring aboutchanges in any industry that it venturedinto.There was a time, said Mr. Desai,when there was a lot of black moneyand “mafia money” in Bollywood (theHindi film industry). On studying theissue, it was observed that the primaryproblem was the lack of industrystatus for the film industry becauseof which banks were unwillingto fund film-making.Once this situation was addressed(and the film industry received thedesired status), many changes cameabout. Today, corporates were goinginto film-making and nobody talkedabout “mafia money” in the movies.The second philosophy that hislaw firm adopted came about after itrecognised the fact that every newtechnology, every new financial instrumentand every new businessmodel brought along legal or tax problems.If the firm used its legal and taxcells to mull over and came up withsolutions for futuristic problems, itwould do well.And so it was that it studied, researchedand brain-stormed on futuretechnologies such as Wi-Fi, quantumcomputing, nano-technology, fuelcells, cloud computing and so on andmade forecasts four to six years aheadof time.Returning to the subject of “Thefuture corporation”, Mr. Desai saidthat his research and studies had madehim an ardent student of organisationalbehaviour. But the more hethought about technical aspects, themore he realised that these were secondaryand that the most importantthing was developing a new-age businessmodel.“I thought and thought and thought.Can we move from the traditional,feudalistic model of a corporation,that is, command and control, to amore democratic model? Can we combinedemocratic principles with corporates,with organisations?”The one principle (from a managementperspective) that came up immediatelywas Mahatma Gandhi’sphilosophy of trusteeship; there wasalso Charles Henley’s philosophy oftrusteeship.While the Mahatma, when hespoke of trusteeship, said that “whenyou create wealth you are a trusteeof that wealth” (external trusteeship),Charles Henley wrote a lot of paperson virtual organisations and said(when) you cannot see people workingaround you, you have to manageby trust (trust and manage peopleby information rather than controlprocesses).From this evolved the three-foldprinciple – the freedom to think,the freedom to act and the freedomto earn. If these three factorswere incorporated in an organisation,that would be the next levelof evolution. But was this feasible?Would a company allow its employeesto choose their salary?The inclusion of these three elementswould help in the evolution ofa new and different kind of organisation.“You get the best practices todayfrom the best managementschools abroad, but if you can combinethe trusteeship principle and theprinciple of freedom to think, to actand to earn, that would be interesting.”Mr. Desai revealed that he developedhis own law firm on this newlyevolvedprinciple.“And it has really worked. We askpeople how much they want. Everyonein the firm is given the accounts,there is complete transparency andeverybody has the right to ask anyquestion; there is freedom of informationnot only outside but also insidethe firm. If I go for a haircut,people will know and will ask, whyare you going to the Taj or the President?I will justify (my decision), butthey can ask.”When it came to compensation, theeasiest thing was to give the samepackage to two similar persons inorder not to make one or the other“What about the next evolution?I think we’re going to go towardsethical corporations. Myrole as a lawyer, as complianceadviser or otherwise, will move toethics. That will be our role in thenext ten years. It’s a very trickysubject, but that’s the thing that Isee evolving.”Mr. Desai then turned to some keyfactors that would define future corporations.Apart from “democratisation”,there would have to be a certainspeed in the decision-makingprocess and a lot of creativity, too.Often, it was noted that disciplinedpeople were not creative and creativepeople were not disciplined. If thetwo were combined, that would bethe next big thing.As for competition, there seemedto be three ways of competing. Thefirst was based on price. One couldlower the price and enjoy a largermarket share; or one could increaseone’s price (a la Louis Vuitton “orsome grey-haired lawyers”) to getmore clients. In other words, therehad to be product differentiation orservice differentiation, innovation andso on. But how did one compete ifthese two factors were absent?For that, organisational behaviourwas the most important competitiveadvantage.For example, Infosys, the wellknownIT major, was known neitherfor price nor for innovations. It hadno patents and even lacked a cultureof innovations. Yet it was more successfulthan others, because oforganisational behaviour.(Continued on Page 6)March 29 to April 4, 2011 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 2
All thoseannouncementsinspired himMr. Nishith Desai, the wellknowncorporate lawyerwho was the guest speaker at thelast meeting, was obviously inspiredby the announcements that PresidentPradeep Saxena made aboutdonations being received frommembers and other quarters (includingan anonymous donation andone from Visiting Rotarian RalphSmith from Alabama, Birmingham).At the beginning of his talk, Mr.Desai revealed that he shared hisbirthday (March 10) with Osamabin Laden.He went on to say that he normallycharged a fee when he gavetalks. But he was so humbled bythe announcements of donationsmade by President Pradeep, thathe felt impelled to offer a modestpersonal donation of Rs. 50,000 tothe Rotary Club of Bombay.His gesture was well-receivedand applauded by the memberspresent at the last meeting.Birthday donationsBirthday donations were receivedfrom several members during theweek gone by.While Anil Harish donated Rs.10,000, Pradeep Mafatlal and Dr.Anand Somaya had given Rs. 5,000each and Rajendra Jain Rs. 2,500.President Pradeep Saxena, whoannounced the above donations at thelast meeting, thanked the membersfor their generosity.University of Alabama lookingfor academic collaborationRhodes Scholar Ralph Smith, aDirector of the Rotary Clubof Birmingham, Alabama (USA),who attended the last meeting ofthe Club in the company of PDGGulam Vahanvaty, is not only aRotarian and a former RhodesScholar. He is also a member ofthe selection committee thatchooses Rhodes Scholars.He was in the city as part of a smallgroup from the University of AlabamaSystem (another hat thatRalph wears is that of GeneralCounsel of the University of AlabamaSystem) that was here toexplore the possibility of establishingeconomic contacts andlooking at the potential for academiccollaboration.Apart from exchanging bannerswith President PradeepSaxena, he also presented himwith two copies of a book on“The Four-Way Test”authored by a member of hisClub. He also made a donationof $500 for the HasanaliTobaccowala Eye Centre atTalwada.Making an impromptu speech, heconfessed that the logistics oftravelling in Bombay had kept theother members of the team awayfrom the Rotary Club ofBombay.Ralph said this was a great time tobe in India, a country he had longadmired – “and our expectationshave been exceeded in every respectduring our visit so far”.He said the Rotary Club of Birminghamwas one of the largestin the world. It had given twoPresidents to Rotary Internationaland one Chairman to R.I.’sPolioPlus Committee. And hewas extremely happy to notethat Kalyan Banerjee, the incomingPresident of Rotary International,was an Indian.Informationfor the newClub RosterHon. Secretary Bipin Kapadiahas appealed to members tosend updated information about themselvesfor use in the new Club Rosterproposed to be brought out soon.He has requested members to referto their respective copies of theexisting Roster to check whether theinformation provided therein requiredany change or correction.Along with the latest information,members were also requestedto send two copies of their latestcolour photographs for use in theRoster.It may be recalled that at themeeting of March 1 PresidentPradeep Saxena had requested membersto send their latest photographsfor the Club Roster which waslikely to be published by the end ofthe current Rotary year.At the last meeting(Held on March 22, 2011)PRESIDENT Pradeep Saxenacalled the meeting to order andwelcomed the guest speaker, theVisiting Rotarians, Rotaryanns,guests and others.BIRTHDAYSMembers and spouses celebratingtheir birthday during the week werefelicitated.ATTENDANCEMembers 117Visiting Rotarians 6Spouses/Rotaryanns 5Total 128Svc. box collection Rs. 6,300More donations for theTalwada HTECP Dr. Rahim Muljiani has made abirthday donation of Rs. 5,001 towardsthe corpus of the HasanaliTobaccowala Eye Centre at Talwada.President Pradeep Saxena stated atthe last meeting that another amountof Rs. 25,001 had been received forthe same purpose from an anonymousdonor.Visiting Rotarian Ralph Smith fromBirmingham, Alabama (USA), whoattended the last meeting, also made aspontaneous donation of $500 for theTalwada HTEC.Rs. 1 lakh for cancerendowmentAdonation of Rs. 1 lakh has beenreceived from Mr. Karl Dalal forthe corpus of the Late Aloo N. DalalEndowment for Cancer Aid.President Pradeep Saxena announcedat the last meeting that theamount had come through the goodoffices of Farokh Balsara.This is for you and this is also for you. President Pradeep Saxena exchanges banners with Ralph Smith, educationist and Visiting Rotarian from the RotaryClub of Birmingham, Alabama, USA, at the last meeting. In the picture at right, Ralph, who is also a former Rhodes Scholar, presents a token contributionof $500 for the corpus of the Hasanali Tobaccowala Eye Centre at Talwada. He is holding two copies of a book on ‘The Four-Way Test’ authored by amember of his Club and which he later presented to the Rotary Club of BombayMarch 29 to April 4, 2011 THE GATEWAY, The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 3
Page 4 and 5: A promise fulfilled, a park deliver
Page 6 and 7: 2001 WAS AN EXCELLENT YEAR FOR SOCI
Page 8: ROTARY CLUB OF BOMBAYFOUNDED 19 MAR

Gateway 290311.pmd - Rotary Club of Bombay

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?