The book authored by Priya Kumar and Jayaram N. Menon has successfully illuminated some of the characteristics of such a celebrated, illustrious and multifarious personality, that AM Naik is. This book will not only provide deep takeaways for today’s leaders, but also for young aspiring managers, in moulding their careers!
Naik, a Padma Vibhushan awardee, has navigated the company from a revenue of ₹5,000 crore in 1999 to ₹1,83,000 crore in 2023. During the same period the market capitalisation of the company climbed from ₹4,000 crore to around ₹374,000 crore. Ninety-two per cent of L&T seen today was not there in its present shape and size before Naik stepped in as CEO in 1999.
Right from his apprentice days his ‘grit’ had branded him as a ‘go getter’ which charted his journey upward in the organisation. His ability to read the pulse of the workers and unions is legendary. He demonstrated the ability to tight rope walk between being ‘firm’ and ‘fair’ and ‘cracking the whip’ whenever necessary.
At the same time, building long lasting relationships with the workers at construction sites and shop floors, at a personal level, became his hallmark, which is a rare quality.
Very rarely one sees a young growing manager being chosen to deal with a complex political situation, and that too, with political leadership of the likes of Balasaheb Thackeray, and all the more to pull it off successfully preserving the interests of the organisation! His ability to negotiate and influence internal and external stakeholders is seen to be one of a kind!
By the late 1980s L&T became one of the most respected engineering companies in corporate India, but at the same time became vulnerable for hostile takeovers.
Corporate raiders and large business houses pounced on the opportunity to take control of L&T. Naik, along with the team, was instrumental in averting such a takeover, preserving L&T and its independence, by initiating a powerful campaign in influencing the bureaucracy in New Delhi and to have successfully averted the crisis.
A former boss of Naik mentions that he is like a ‘tearaway’ thoroughbred horse. Watching him work could sometimes exhaust the observer! Another colleague of him mentioned “he has so many good qualities that is easy to pick those most suitable to your disposition. You can be parts of him, but never the whole”.
Larger idea of India
Naik’s passion for the country preceded his love for the company; he never saw L&T as a corporate, but as a larger idea of India! Great leaders have a ‘purpose’ well beyond their personal success! The timeliness in his decision making and the courage that went into such decisions have today become legendary; there is nothing grey, there is always a clear decision, black or white!
L&T’s recent acquisition of Mindtree and its merger with L&T Infotech in 2022, which has today created an information technology behemoth with $5.6 billion in revenue is one of the top six technology service players in the country, also has a legacy.
Naik’s vision of the importance of technology business was visible way back in 1999 when he assumed charge as the CEO; he took personal interest for scaling the IT business by evolving a new and powerful system of ‘barter’.
When he was pitching to large global companies to deliver infrastructure projects he offered, he coaxed, cajoled and leveraged the L&T brand name where L&T would offer to deliver software services through its L&T Infotech team. That way he steadily secured software contracts for L&T Infotech.
One of his colleagues recalled, minutes into the meeting with the chairman of Kuwait National Petroleum Corporation (KNPC), Naik sensed that L&T was not going to get the turnkey contract.
He immediately changed track and started talking about the IT business; he started off “Let me tell you frankly,” Naik told the KNPC Chairman, “Your IT systems, as they are, seem to be outdated. Let me send my IT Team and help you modernise”. Such was his passion for cross selling to promote L&T and other businesses of the group!
Naik’s visible passion and his deep commitment leaves a lasting impression. Facts and figures about L&T turn fluorescent in Naik’s narration. Even if he has had ten meetings in a day and another meeting comes up, he will explain it the eleventh tie with even more passion, says the Chairman and MD of L&T, SN Subrahmanyan!
The size and scale at which L&T operates today is the outcome of change in ‘mindset’ within the organisation. When the rest of the company used to talk about projects worth about ₹10 crore, Naik would shake them up with a target of ₹100 crore; as we speak, the targets are much over a ₹1,000 crore.
Naik has been the early proponent for actively promoting internationalisation of L&T’s operations by benchmarking against the global best. To move in markets like the middle-east needed a complete change in mindset
Naik’s networking capability is phenomenal, says Subrahmanyan. It may seem as if he may have met every one on earth, and everyone on earth seems to have met him. His ability to create such an expansive bank of contacts is driven by two basic traits.
He is genuinely interested in people and is insatiably curious. With a smile Naik begins with standard questions like ‘who are you’, ‘what do you do?’ Them he wants to know everything about the person, his family, where he went to school and where his goals and interests lie.
His question sometimes crosses conventional limits and gets personal, but nobody really minds. Such information he gleans will go towards painting character portraits of people in his mind and he will never forget such details.
Building deep connections
He reads people like one reads the newspaper; a few minutes is all it takes him to assess a person, suss out their characteristics and get to know their strengths and weaknesses. He sees more in the person, than the person does in himself!
Often, it takes only a single meeting and a handshake for Naik to sow the seeds of a warm friendship. He leaves such an impression on people he meets that he is rarely forgotten. More importantly, he builds connections when there is no problems to be solved and no gains to be made!
As they say, the most important role of a leader is to have a successor ready before he hangs his boots! We all know that even legendary leaders like Narayana Murthy of Infosys, AG Lafley of Procter and Gamble, Michael Dell of Dell computers or be it Howard Shultz of Starbucks, all of them had to come back after retirement as their succession planning was flawed.
Naik got this absolutely right the first time. The leadership transition at L&T in 2023 to his successor Subrahmanyan was one of the highly structured transition process resulting in the smoothest corporate successions in the Indian industry.
Naik’s ability to build a ‘shared vision’ across the team is unmatchable. One of his senior colleague explains; “We know our value, we are gold medalists – the best, we are forever getting offers and invitations to be poached, but still why do you think people like us stuck around in the company for 40 years? Because, Naik has an invisible glue that makes employees bond with the company even though they have diverse views!
Subrahmanyan describes the yardstick which Naik used to appraise talent; this will be valuable for budding managers and leaders. He looks for leadership, the ability to present yourself well, to articulate well and talk sense.
He homes in on people with certain vision and direction. You will need to be certain of yourself and stand ground, because he will see if he can push you easily! He will ask you about the market, competition, about people and will gauge your networking capability.
You better be good with numbers as he may suddenly shoot questions about the market share and profit after taxes! Once you get it right, Naik likes it and his feelings are visible!
Naik was the early proponent to redefine the role of the Human Resources department and to put the spotlight on it as a prime mover of organisational capabilities; L&T’s ‘seven step leadership programme’ and the L&T leadership Development Academy (LDA) in Lonavala was born to groom and develop the next generation of powerful leaders.
Naik always believed giving back to the society was a crucial responsibility of every citizen; he walked the talk and his contribution in setting up hospitals, technical training centers and schools at scale, have been exceptional.
Naik, in essence is a true nation builder and is among those rare people who have a ‘bold’ vision and also have the people skills to create a shared vision such that his vison can be successfully executed. A life that truly inspires young managers!
(The reviewer is Distinguished Professor, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai)
Check out the book here