The Hindu Business Line : L&T saga

When we were a controlled economy, you were punished for your efficiency. If you exceeded your switchgear licence to manufacture that many starters and boards, instead of getting a pat on your back, they used to fine you.

C.R. Ramakrishnan

N. Ramakrishnan

By a quirk of fate C.R. Ramakrishnan landed a job in Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in 1947. Thanks to the company and its philosophy he, a graduate in agriculture, rose through the ranks, held several senior positions and retired 44 years later as its Joint Managing Director.

Ramakrishnan joined the engineering giant within a fortnight of Independence, beginning his career when the country chose a path of command economy and ended it when economic liberalisation kicked in. After graduation, he went to Delhi for training and planned to return to Chennai and work as a gazetted officer, but was advised by a well-wisher to go to Bombay and try his luck at L&T, where one Col. Chouls offered him training at L&T at a princely stipend of Rs 500 a month.

L&T then was an agent for Caterpillar, which manufactured earth moving and other heavy equipment. Getting new machines took as much as 18 months. L&T refurbished old machines, provided spares and offered a guarantee too. Ramakrishnan joined in the marketing department.

Ramakrishnan, now 82 years old, said the Agriculture Department in the State had about 40 machines distributed from Tirunelveli to Visakhapatnam. He recollects having to travel to all the places and inspect the machines and suggest parts. “Some places I walked, some other places I went by bullock cart or departmental lorry.” He and two other colleagues weretransferred from Bombay to open L&T’s office in Madras. They hired earth moving equipment like bulldozers for government subsidised schemes for building bunds, soil consolidation.

He remembers driving dumpers for delivery to India Cements’ factory in Tirunelveli; it took three days. After a few years, work was no longer challenging, which he communicated to his bosses, Holck-Larsen and Soren Kristian Toubro, the founders of L&T. He was sent to Calcutta and then Delhi; he returned to Madras in 1964 for a long stint. Ramakrishnan describes Holck-Larsen as a visionary and Toubro as one who believed in consolidating the company. L&T gradually diversified from just being an agent, to manufacturing. The founders realised that import licences would become a problem and local manufacturing was the way to go forward.

What was it like working for a foreign company? “All said and done, it was not a British company. The attitude of a Dane in India is different from that of a British, who was a conqueror.”

What about the others he had to deal with? At that time the company was small. “When I gave my card in Calcutta as Regional Manager, L&T, people used to say ‘we have never heard the name’. People from companies that said this buckled,” points out Ramakrishnan.

It was in 1974 that Holck-Larsen wanted him to become the head of L&T’s construction business in Madras, Engineering, Construction and Contracts (ECC). “I asked him how do I qualify, I am not a civil engineer.” Holck-Larsen told him that he could hire the best civil engineers.

The company was looking for someone with managerial qualities — taking responsibility and delegating work — and he had those qualities. And, that is why it had chosen him. ECC’s business when he took over was Rs 9 crore and it increased to more than Rs 500 crore when he retired in December 1991. Ramakrishnan was responsible for ECC’s expansions, its overseas forays and for the division taking up some construction activities also.

What was the attitude of the foreigners (in L&T) towards India and Indians in 1947? “It was a pleasure to work with them,” he says. The success of L&T is because it gave complete freedom. There was job satisfaction. The company did not pay too high a salary nor did it pay too low a salary. Still employees stayed with the company," he says.

Ramakrishnan joined the company in 1947, shortly after the country attained Independence. He retired in 1991, just when liberalisation had started in India. “In those days, when we were a controlled economy, you were punished for your efficiency. If your switchgear licence is to manufacture so many starters and so many boards, if you exceeded, instead of getting a pat on your back, they used to fine you. That is the reason why L&T had to diversify into odd areas,” says Ramakrishnan.

He believes that the present management (headed by A.M. Naik) is doing a “phenomenal job” in getting the company to focus on its strengths once again. In all these years that he has been associated with the company — he still attends functions and participates in events — he believes that the company’s character has not changed one bit.

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