Breaking free from his illustrious joint family in 1979, Rama Prasad Goenka founded RPG Enterprises with two companies and a combined revenue of only Rs 70 crore.

R.P. Goenka had no time for organic growth and it is entirely possible that he inherited skills and capabilities of taking over enterprises from his grandfather Sir Badri Das Goenka and father K.P. Goenka. In the 1980s, RPG acquired KEC International, Ceat Tyres, Dunlop, Fujitsu ICIM (Zensar), HMV, Spencers, CESC, and Harrisons Malayalam. By the end of the decade, he was known by the sobriquet ‘The Original Takeover King’.

On completing 60 years, in March 1990, he formally retired from his day-to-day responsibilities and handed over his businesses to his sons Harsh and Sanjiv. Over the previous decade, the Group’s revenue size has increased to over a billion dollars. In an era when senior generations were wary of empowering gen-next, Goenka never returned to his offices in Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi after his retirement. In his honour, all his three offices were always opened at 9 a.m., kept spic and span and waited upon till he breathed his last, 23 years after his formal retirement.

There are many legendary stories on how he integrated the diverse companies that he took over in such a short period. He espoused a thesis which was profound in its simplicity. Three legs of the principle were: 1. Play inclusive (never de-stabilise people and culture of the acquired company); 2. Play the role of coach and mentor (always be there to help and assist); and 3. Learn good practices (pick good practices from acquired companies that can be implemented across the Group).

Professional Touch

He was a great believer in professionalising his management team. He empowered his professional managers, articulated objectives clearly and placed enormous trust in them. Many a time, he went beyond trust and offered his employees enormous affection and generosity. He strongly encouraged his sons to trust and empower professional managers. He was justifiably known as one who ushered in a culture of family businesses and professional managers successfully working together.

Goenka was a man with a very evolved world-view. He travelled widely and was a voracious reader. His personal libraries in Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai are admirable for their width of content. He was very nocturnal in his reading habits. Typically he got up at 1 a.m. and read till 4 a.m. and would go back to sleep again. In his desire to read Bengali literature in the original and his frustration at his inability to read the language fluently, he would request his friend, novelist Shankar to read Bankimchandra and Saratchandra epics for him.

Interest in music

Goenka took a very personal interest in music and was passionate about preserving India’s musical heritage through his acquired company, HMV. He once dispatched me to London to inspect EMI’s Abbey Road studio’s basement. Almost the entire repository of India’s earliest musical recordings were waiting there to be disposed of. Nobody knew how to extract music from the old wax records of the early 1900s!

RPG called his friend and distinguished musicologist Michael Kinnear from Australia; he was the only man known who could do this tricky job. Kinnear spent a full year on behalf of RPG in Abbey Road. He retrieved a rich heritage of early Indian recordings. Half of the first ever Indian recording done in 1902 in the voice of Gauhar Jan was retrieved and subsequently released by HMV under an album (‘Chairman's choice’). His involvement with music and culture was with a passion of a child. He constantly told me that “if you need my help for HMV, call me anytime, anywhere.” Not surprisingly M.S. Subbalakshmi, who did her entire career’s recording with HMV, considered Goenka amongst her closest personal friends.

He made friends easily and kept the relationship over long periods of time. He almost never fought with anyone. His respect and affection for the Congress Party and Nehru-Gandhi family were well known. That didn’t preclude RPG from having many friends across the political divide.

He was President of Ficci, a Director of the Reserve Bank of India, and a Member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council. He was a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and was honoured by the French President and Emperor of Japan. He remained Chairman Emeritus of the RPG Group till he breathed his last.

His self-effacing nature forced him to dissuade many attempts by authors to write his biography. Given the enormity of his personality and the body of contribution he has made in one lifetime, it is time somebody documented his life for posterity!

(The author worked for 25 years with RPG Group and was the longest serving Managing Director of Spencer & Company Ltd)

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