For Rashesh Shah, spending time in Delhi is a novel experience. The Edelweiss Group Chairman has always made whistle-stop trips to the Capital and whizzed out again, usually on the first available flight.

There’s been one exception though to that routine — his annual ritual of running the Delhi Half-Marathon. “I've been coming for the Delhi Half-Marathon for years. It’s one of my favourite runs, I really enjoy it,” Shah enthuses.

Mumbai-based Shah will be spending more time in Delhi in the coming year than usual and it won't be just about running half-marathons (in fact, he hasn't done any running in Delhi this year because of the pollution and has been training at the hotel gym). As FICCI’s President, he expects to spend eight to10 days a month in Delhi and has taken a hotel suite that’ll serve as his city residence. “I’ve just unpacked. Now it's starting to feel like home," he says.

Though he comes regularly to Delhi, Shah, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of financial services conglomerate Edelweiss, is discovering just how different the worldview from the Capital is. He says: “What's been exciting about being involved with FICCI is that for the first time I'm seeing how the Government thinks and works. How do you balance a good idea with political feasibility?"

Shah admits the experience has affected his thinking on many issues. “Sometimes when talking to friends and colleagues in Mumbai, I find it hard to see their viewpoint because I can see the government's viewpoint. What seems very obvious to an analyst in Mumbai is very different when you look at it from the government's viewpoint."

In past years during the Budget lead-up, the FICCI President and chamber staff would have been working overtime trying to persuade the Finance Minister to slash duties and offer incentives for industries and products. The GST’s introduction has changed that game entirely.

“Gone are the days when the job of organisations like FICCI was to say, ‘Cut tax, cut interest rates.’ Now, we’re a lot more engaged in policy-making," he says, noting the chamber’s preparing an export strategy document and also sits on many government committees. He adds FICCI’s a two-way street: “We communicate what the government agenda is to the members so they can find opportunities around that."

Shah's ascent to the peak of Mumbai's financial world is the stuff of legends. He fondly recounts how he opened a one-man office in Nariman Point in 1995 and spent the first day staring at the office peon and thinking he hadn't earned enough to cover the rent for the day. After a week, he convinced a friend, Venkat Ramaswamy, to quit his job and join the new firm. Ramaswamy’s now an Edelweiss director. But business was still tough to come by and soon afterwards, the Asian crisis threw the financial world into turmoil. Edelweiss finally carved out a niche helping start-ups which weren't ready for an IPO to raise funds from venture capitalists and private equity investors. Its reputation in the tech world delivered rich dividends when the dotcom boom came along.

But Shah and his team had already presciently realised the boom wasn't going to last. He told investors recently: “In 2000, as we had our first blockbuster year of financial performance, we’d begun to experience disquiet about the Internet boom."

The dotcom boom, of course, ended almost as suddenly as it had begun and Edelweiss' turnover halved. But that was when Shah demonstrated he had the skills to take his company skyward. As India's economy slowed, he pushed ahead with expansion. He says: “We call it growth through adjacent businesses. Every two to three years, we’ve started a new and adjacent business. We started off in investment banking, got into NBFCs and housing finance. Then we started asset management, wealth management." He adds: “Ultimately, if you see adversity and say, ‘Oh my god,’ then there’s adversity. If you see opportunity and capitalise on that, you can come out of it."

Edelweiss has grown through boom years and slower ones. The firm, which started with three people 22 years ago, now has an approximately ₹60,000-crore balance sheet and a ₹8,500-crore equity base. Shah asserts modestly: “We're actually very small. There are others even bigger. That's what makes me happy — there’s enough of a growth opportunity ahead of us."

But his golden rule is not to have more than 20 per cent in any one business. “Every business should be 10-20 per cent. We don't like concentration because in India any concentration can be very harmful. If you’re not concentrated, you can ride the cycles, you can make an opportunity out of it. You can be counter-cyclical in your investments.”

Shah's also a strong believer in work-life balance. He says: “We encourage people to have hobbies and holidays. We don't believe in working 24x7 into 365 because that leads to burnout.”

He adds: “There are times when we've stayed till 12 when there's important stuff going on but if you have to do it every day, I consider it a sign of very bad organisation. It's either bad planning or bad resourcing." Abiding by this work credo, he gets into office around nine unless he has a breakfast meeting and leaves by 6 p.m. Seven years ago, an elbow injury forced him to abandon tennis and he embraced running which rapidly became a passion for him. Earlier in January, he ran a full marathon in Mumbai — he says training for a full marathon involves running 60-70 km a week. He usually runs four half marathons in a year .

Impressively, he also devours 60 to 70 books a year. Says Shah: “I read history, business literature, fiction, murder mysteries. My reading’s eclectic. I read at nights, weekends. Flights are a good place as long as there’s no phone connectivity."

Shah studied at IIM, Ahmedabad, where he met his wife Vidya. They’ve got a daughter and son, and Shah says an annual family holiday is “almost compulsory”. They recently vacationed in the US because his son studies there.

This year, Edelweiss will get slightly less of his attention, but he says, “We’ve a lot of leaders there. It’ll be good for Edelweiss. I’ll spend my time on reviews and customer meets."

He shrugs off his success, saying: “I'm happy about our growth, but we’re all very fortunate. We’re all part of the India growth opportunity."

He's also relishing his year as FICCI President: “I'm learning a lot. And the important thing nowadays, even if you’re 80, is always to learn a new thing."

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