He was originally supposed to retire. Instead, he took over on Monday as Executive Chairman of infrastructure giant Larsen & Toubro Ltd. But the man who is today synonymous with L&T, A.M. Naik, could not even appear for the company’s job interview, because he didn’t meet a basic requisite — he was not an IITian.

Decades later, this question — ‘which illustrious corridors he walked through to gain his expertise’ — still haunts him, especially when quizzed by his peers. “So, are you from Wharton or Harvard?” On hearing a “No”, they just assume he must be from one of the IITs.

Naik, however, doesn’t tire of correcting this misconception and takes pride in talking about his learning ground — his Gujarati-medium school in a village, where he learnt valuable lessons, squatting on an untiled floor.

At 70, Naik, popularly known as ‘AMN’, sheds his Chairman’s cloak and dons that of Executive Chairman at Larsen and Toubro, for five years from October 1.

Not a day’s leave

This Gujarati non-IITian did not take a single day’s leave for the first 21 years of his career. And when asked about work-life balance, Naik replied with a sheepish chuckle: “No balance! Only now will I try to do some balancing…”

AMN’s earthy zeal to learn was evident while addressing students of Jaiprakash Institute of Technology (of the JP Group) recently at their convocation. “When I saw this hall, I asked Jaiprakashji (Jaiprakash Gaur, Founder of power to real estate conglomerate Jaypee Group): “How have you built such a large hall without a single pillar? Even L&T cannot build such a hall without pillars!,” AMN remarked, displaying his sense of observation.

AMN’s early schooling was based in Gujarat. He had to shift to a Gujarati-medium school when his father who, Naik says, was a true Gandhian, decided to move from his teaching job in a Bombay school to one of the first set of village schools that were opened in Gujarat.

‘Time will tell’

Many years later, he worked on honing his linguistic skills in English. “I listened to cassettes to learn spoken English,” he said. Lack of proficiency in English affected his grade and salary when he entered L&T.

When he appeared for an interview for L&T, based on experience, one question among the many asked was how many people reported to Naik. “When I said about 400, the interviewer said, “Young man, it will take you a long time to acquire such a responsibility at L&T.”

“Who knows? Time will tell,” was AMN’s sharp retort to the manager.

The startled interviewer found him “overconfident” and he was offered the job “as junior engineer, not assistant engineer, in the unionised category, not the supervisory category, and with a lower salary.”

But AMN agreed as he wanted to work for L&T. He admits that if anybody were to agree to such a drop in salary, the human resources people usually do a reference check. But there are always exceptions.

For AMN, his father was a huge inspiration. “After joining the village school, I just followed whatever he said. He asked me to study higher maths instead of lower maths. In the SSC exam, he asked me to take 11 subjects instead of seven,” he recalled.

50-year journey

Of course, his father had the usual parental pangs. He was afraid that once AMN went to the city, he would watch movies and not focus on studies. “He had already had seen early signs. When I went to the city to take the SSC exams, I watched a movie every night,” Naik recalls.

AMN started his career in a “small boiler workshop”.

“The day I joined the firm, I told myself (that) student life is over, it is now time for serious business. And the person who was rarely seen in class never took a single day’s leave in the next 21 years of professional life,” he said, stressing that it was a total turnaround from his student to professional life.

Once inducted in the company, he rose fast. “Soon, I reached higher ranks and about 400 people reported to me through various levels (referring to the boiler company he worked for). But the new management that had come into the company did not espouse the ideals followed by me and my father. They did not treat workers like human beings.” That led AMN to look for a job outside, and he found L&T — where he is all set to complete 50 years.

With this, the man who counts linguistic skills among his few weaknesses, is set to surmount another perceived block — by writing a book. “When I get time, I would like to write a book – ‘the journey of a village boy’.”

> Mamuni.das@thehindu.co.in

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