Scientists, they say, invent
the future. And CEOs, they say, will make it come true. If that be so, Ashok
Ganguly, 64, is both seer and doer. And now, the CEO and the scientist in him
have come together, as the former Chairman of Hindustan Lever-and the present
Non-Executive Chairman of ICI-readies to share his wisdom on how to combine business and
technology. His new book, Business Driven Research & Development, explores the
most-neglected, least-understood aspect of the corporation in India: creating wealth
through research and knowledge. Deftly linking science to markets, Ashok has drawn out
R&D from the backwaters of business, and connected it convincingly to strategy and
business performance in this compelling read. ''In order to sustain market leadership,
combining superior consumer understanding, innovation, and R&D have become
indispensable for business continuity and success,'' says he. ''All world-class businesses
are already being driven by advances in technology and new knowledge.'' If his words can
make a difference, India Inc. can turn its labs into hot-houses of discovery too. Maybe it
just needs a catalyst like Ashok to start off the chain-reaction...
And maybe it takes a son to
show his old man the 21st Century way. That's what Vijay Sankar, 26, the
son of N. Sankar, the Chairman of the Rs 466-crore Chemplast Sanmar, is doing. Vijay
believes that empowerment and professionalism go hand-in-hand; you can't do without either
if you want to be a world leader. A qualified chartered accountant and an mba from the
Kellogg School of Management (US), he's now working as an Executive Assistant to the
Managing Director of the Rs 275-crore Sanmar Engineering, learning the ropes that will,
one day, become reins in his hands. The fallout: he does not get time for his favourite
pastimes like cricket and tennis. ''I like cricket because it encourages teamwork. In
fact, at Kellogg, we had a course on teamwork. That's how important it is in today's
business; in fact, our lives,'' avers Vijay. He's certainly playing for the future...
Just as Shoba Ponnappa,
41, is trying to do. The cyber-entrepreneur, who set up a multimedia company, named Avigna
Technologies, in Chennai 3 years ago, believes in a different kind of EQ: Excitement
Quotient. That's the only weapon she plans to use to retain her best people. ''The company
should become a stimulating addiction. A company that is successful holds on to its
people.'' she says. The big guns of global infotech seem to agree: Intel Corp. has just
picked up an equity stake-the amount is undisclosed, naturally-in Avigna's new
Net-venture, time, where infotech, telecom, media, and entertainment will come together.
But if her program for retaining people turns out to be bug-free, Shoba will have logged
into the WWW of successful e-ntrepreneurs...
Put this in your pipe and smoke it. His
unmatched collection of pipes has become the talking-point of tobacco afiocionados in
Calcutta. After all, Abhijit Mazumdar, the 64-year-old Chairman of
Tractors India, has over 600 pipes in his portfolio, from all countries, cultures, and
smoking habits. From traditional Thai pipes to animal head-pipes, from Red Indian pipes to
those made from corn-cobs, he owns 'em all. ''I have travelled around the world on work,
and pipes from various places caught my fancy. As I kept piling them up, I discovered I
have a decent-sized collection,'' he muses. No smokescreen there...
It's not just
telcon-the company created by spinning off telco's Rs 350-crore construction equipment
division-that will bear the stamp of its first CEO, Sarosh Ghandy, 60. So
do the stamp-albums of this philatelist, who also wields a mean telephoto lens. The son of
the legendary Sir Jehangir 'Joe' Ghandy-the formidable managing director of TISCO in the
1930s and 1940s-Sarosh manages to fit both his passions into his punishing schedule,
shuttling between Mumbai and Jamshedpur. The synergy is palpable: the philatelist in him
specialises in stamps featuring King George VI of England while the photographer is
focused on portraits. Now you know why he's, well, head-and-shoulders ahead of many
others. ''My stamp collection isn't a large one,'' says Sarosh self-depracatingly. So
what? Stick to it, Sarosh...
A
greenhorn he's not when it comes to seeing green. Kamal Meatle, 65, the
CEO of the Paharpur Business Centre-a hot corporate address in the capital-is a man with
an eco-logical mission. Married into the Swarup family, the owners of Paharpur Cooling
Towers, Kamal runs a parallel life, protecting Delhi from further environmental
degradation. And the brains behind the Save Delhi-From-Two-Wheelers public interest
litigation is now ready to kick-start his next green crusade: ban the use of unleaded
petrol in the city from Indian Oil's refinery in Mathura (Uttar Pradesh). Why? Because 5
per cent-well above internationally-acceptable norms-of the petrol from this refinery,
according to Kamal, is carcinogenic benzene. ''Every time you take a deep breath, you are
heading for trouble,'' he warns, fuming (cleanly, of course) because ''the government is
not doing something about it.'' Of course, Kamal's Operation Clean begins at home: he has
installed a special toxin-busting air-cleaning unit in the Paharpur Business Centre. No
wonder he's like a real breath of fresh air on the corporate circuit.
Scientists, they say, invent
the future. And CEOs, they say, will make it come true. If that be so, Ashok
Ganguly, 64, is both seer and doer. And now, the CEO and the scientist in him
have come together, as the former Chairman of Hindustan Lever-and the present
Non-Executive Chairman of ICI-readies to share his wisdom on how to combine business and
technology. His new book, Business Driven Research & Development, explores the
most-neglected, least-understood aspect of the corporation in India: creating wealth
through research and knowledge. Deftly linking science to markets, Ashok has drawn out
R&D from the backwaters of business, and connected it convincingly to strategy and
business performance in this compelling read. ''In order to sustain market leadership,
combining superior consumer understanding, innovation, and R&D have become
indispensable for business continuity and success,'' says he. ''All world-class businesses
are already being driven by advances in technology and new knowledge.'' If his words can
make a difference, India Inc. can turn its labs into hot-houses of discovery too. Maybe it
just needs a catalyst like Ashok to start off the chain-reaction... 
And maybe it takes a son to
show his old man the 21st Century way. That's what Vijay Sankar, 26, the
son of N. Sankar, the Chairman of the Rs 466-crore Chemplast Sanmar, is doing. Vijay
believes that empowerment and professionalism go hand-in-hand; you can't do without either
if you want to be a world leader. A qualified chartered accountant and an mba from the
Kellogg School of Management (US), he's now working as an Executive Assistant to the
Managing Director of the Rs 275-crore Sanmar Engineering, learning the ropes that will,
one day, become reins in his hands. The fallout: he does not get time for his favourite
pastimes like cricket and tennis. ''I like cricket because it encourages teamwork. In
fact, at Kellogg, we had a course on teamwork. That's how important it is in today's
business; in fact, our lives,'' avers Vijay. He's certainly playing for the future... 
Just as Shoba Ponnappa,
41, is trying to do. The cyber-entrepreneur, who set up a multimedia company, named Avigna
Technologies, in Chennai 3 years ago, believes in a different kind of EQ: Excitement
Quotient. That's the only weapon she plans to use to retain her best people. ''The company
should become a stimulating addiction. A company that is successful holds on to its
people.'' she says. The big guns of global infotech seem to agree: Intel Corp. has just
picked up an equity stake-the amount is undisclosed, naturally-in Avigna's new
Net-venture, time, where infotech, telecom, media, and entertainment will come together.
But if her program for retaining people turns out to be bug-free, Shoba will have logged
into the WWW of successful e-ntrepreneurs... 
Put this in your pipe and smoke it. His
unmatched collection of pipes has become the talking-point of tobacco afiocionados in
Calcutta. After all, Abhijit Mazumdar, the 64-year-old Chairman of
Tractors India, has over 600 pipes in his portfolio, from all countries, cultures, and
smoking habits. From traditional Thai pipes to animal head-pipes, from Red Indian pipes to
those made from corn-cobs, he owns 'em all. ''I have travelled around the world on work,
and pipes from various places caught my fancy. As I kept piling them up, I discovered I
have a decent-sized collection,'' he muses. No smokescreen there... 
It's not just
telcon-the company created by spinning off telco's Rs 350-crore construction equipment
division-that will bear the stamp of its first CEO, Sarosh Ghandy, 60. So
do the stamp-albums of this philatelist, who also wields a mean telephoto lens. The son of
the legendary Sir Jehangir 'Joe' Ghandy-the formidable managing director of TISCO in the
1930s and 1940s-Sarosh manages to fit both his passions into his punishing schedule,
shuttling between Mumbai and Jamshedpur. The synergy is palpable: the philatelist in him
specialises in stamps featuring King George VI of England while the photographer is
focused on portraits. Now you know why he's, well, head-and-shoulders ahead of many
others. ''My stamp collection isn't a large one,'' says Sarosh self-depracatingly. So
what? Stick to it, Sarosh... 
A
greenhorn he's not when it comes to seeing green. Kamal Meatle, 65, the
CEO of the Paharpur Business Centre-a hot corporate address in the capital-is a man with
an eco-logical mission. Married into the Swarup family, the owners of Paharpur Cooling
Towers, Kamal runs a parallel life, protecting Delhi from further environmental
degradation. And the brains behind the Save Delhi-From-Two-Wheelers public interest
litigation is now ready to kick-start his next green crusade: ban the use of unleaded
petrol in the city from Indian Oil's refinery in Mathura (Uttar Pradesh). Why? Because 5
per cent-well above internationally-acceptable norms-of the petrol from this refinery,
according to Kamal, is carcinogenic benzene. ''Every time you take a deep breath, you are
heading for trouble,'' he warns, fuming (cleanly, of course) because ''the government is
not doing something about it.'' Of course, Kamal's Operation Clean begins at home: he has
installed a special toxin-busting air-cleaning unit in the Paharpur Business Centre. No
wonder he's like a real breath of fresh air on the corporate circuit.