The Hindu Business Line : ‘KK Babu’ a doyen who left his own stamp

During the early years, he learnt the art of being a good businessman from his father, Ghanashyam Das Birla, a legend in his lifetime who established one of the largest family businesses in the country even before it gained Independence.

But the young Krishna Kumar did not merely look after his father’s business along with his brothers Lakshmi Narayan and Basant Kumar.

Today, the turnover of his group runs into several thousand crores of rupees but he did not inherit all this either from his father or his uncles R.D. Birla and B.M. Birla.

Some of his well-run companies such as Texmaco, Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals and Zuari Industries were set up by himself.

The mills of the original Sutlej Cotton were located in what is now Pakistan. After Partition, the Pakistani Government acquired the mills as enemy property.

But the company was registered in India.

So it was renamed Sutlej Textiles & Industries Ltd and two new units, in Jammu and Rajasthan, were set up under it.

“KK Babu” as K.K. Birla was known entered shipping, first by launching Ratnakar Shipping and then acquiring India Steamship (ISS) and ultimately merging Ratnakar into ISS which today has become the shipping division of Chambal.

He also acquired the public sector fertiliser company Paradeep Phosphates and merged it into Chambal.

From his father he inherited Hindustan Times and a number of sugar mills and made sure that they grew even larger under his guidance.

Today, the sugar companies in the K K Birla Group, such as Upper Ganges Sugar and Industries Ltd, Oudh Sugar Mills and Gobind Sugar Mills, are among the largest players in the country’s private sector sugar industry, having a total crushing capacity of around 40,000 tonnes per day.

He was also Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, marking his tenure by setting up campuses in Dubai, Goa and Hyderabad.

Succession

As regards the succession, K.K. Birla, characteristically, has left nothing to chance. Everything has been settled quietly and amicably, outside the public glare, and well in time.

His heirs — three daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren — are now well in the saddle of the various companies of the group.

A member of the Rajya Sabha for three terms, K.K. Birla had a penchant for politics.

Among other things, he led the group of industrialists who supported Indira Gandhi during the Emergency of 1975-77.

To his senior executives, Krishna Kumar was more a father figure than an owner.

As Mr Ramesh Maheswari, one of his close associates, says, “Mr Birla was our role model as we learnt from him how to achieve the highest standards in business management”.