“Infrastructure building is the most difficult job in the world”

I am quite happy. The company is doing well under S N Subrahmanyan (SNS). For nine years, I have mentored him. Even now, I am mentoring different groups. For example, there are 40 people in the age-group of 35-42 whom I am mentoring. They will be ready to take up leadership roles by 2032. So although I am moving out, I will continue to be an advisor to L&T with a focus on creating future leaders. That’s where I have been spending time for the last many years and will continue to do so, going forward.

On the business side, not much, perhaps nothing. But I worked 15 hours a day, seven days a week. I did not take any leave for 21 years. When my daughter got married, I took just one day off...maybe half-a-day. So the only thing I would have done was spend a little more time with my family. My children also sometimes feel that they could’ve had more from me. Today, we have so many tools and technology that one need not slog as I did. One can do a little less now to achieve the same result. However, I think construction and infrastructure building is the most difficult job in the world.

I plan way ahead. I am involved in philanthropy work through my two trusts. I’m very interested in this.  It actually took me back to my village where I have set up hospitals and educational institutions. So I am quite busy with the mentoring that I do at L&T and then giving back to the community through my not-for-profit trusts. 

I think he will do his best to do it. I tried to make most of our managers think like a leader first with a touch of entrepreneurship. If you are an entrepreneur-leader with a professional background, you can multiply value.

This is a problem in this country because the new generation are largely in the marketing and sales, consumer products, consumer durables space, finance, 5G etc. But hardly any one have gone into infrastructure building.

Talent retention is the biggest problem. Because everybody in the industry sources people from L&T, but we can’t hire from them because they are not up to our standards. So last year and the year before, our attrition rate was 22-23 per cent. So if our best people are gone, then we will have a serious problem sustaining profitable growth.

You will perhaps be shocked to know that I have never ever used a credit card. Neither have I used any of the new digital payments like UPI. I have relied on cash or cheques. Another thing I will tell you, I have never seen my salary slip.

There are three very successful NBFCs in the country, some of which have higher market cap than L&T. I blame the earlier leadership of our NBFC business for taking wrong decisions. They went after the wholesale business and were funding some of L&T’s rivals. I knew that these companies would never pay back and I also advised them. But lower down the company, it was felt that this was being said because L&T doesn’t want to compete with those rivals. See what happened in the wholesale business over the last few years. If we had run it like a Bajaj Finance, today the NBFC’s market cap would have been equal to L&T. Going forward, even though it may be non-core, in my view it has a bright future. Fifteen months ago, I called the Chairman of the NBFC business and told him that the management is getting anxious and they wanted L&T to take more active interest. I told the then Chairman to resign and appointed SNS to take over the NBFC business. This year’s profit was doubled and next year it will double again. I am confident that two-three years from now, the NBFC business profit will be over ₹2,000 crore.

This seems to be an issue largely with promoter-driven companies. If you look at MNCs or Indian companies like ITC and L&T, there are no problems. Some promoters take short-cuts. They don’t pay tax, but they become billionaires.

Time is good for India but unfortunately, when the world is looking for a China+1 policy, the Western world still doesn’t think that India is right for them. So they are going to countries like Vietnam. However, I think this is the best time for India not just for manufacturing but everything. But we need to start doing instead of just talking. India should grow in double digits like China did. If China can do it, why can’t we do it? One reason for that is all the negative news thats shown in media. Young people are seeing that and thinking this country is not worth living.