In Chapter 5 of our bestselling book “Behold the Leviathan: The Unusual Rise of Modern India” we highlighted the rise of a new Indian elite which did not study at the IITs, IIMs or overseas but now control the Boardrooms of the Nifty50 companies. In this stirring piece for the Hindustan Times, Janmejaya Sinha & Vikram Bhalla (both from BCG) share their take on the change of guard in the Boardrooms of India Inc.
As befits employees of a management consultancy firm, Messrs Sinha & Bhalla begin by providing data which helps contextualise the scale of change:
“As per Hurun India,…India had 334 billionaires, 55% of whom were first generation.” The authors call these billionaires “superman entrepreneurs” (SE). They say “Post the 1991 reforms, the number of SE’s grew rapidly and between 2020-25, the number of Rs 1000 crore plus revenue companies has gone up manifold…
They have achieved what very, very people could have. It’s their superpowers that have allowed them to overcome the odds and build unlikely high growth businesses…These SEs could have had different origins – some may have been driven to start business because they couldn’t find a job; others may have just hated the thought of joining the small family business; others felt claustrophobic in the companies they worked in repelled by the bureaucracy and conservative decision making…”
Then the authors list down the personality traits of the SEs and by doing so seek to rationalise why the SE was able to rise when most others failed:
- Unbounded optimism: Most SEs see opportunities where others see roadblocks. “They can pivot and change swiftly and adjust where needed. They are driven by what can be more than what others believe is realistic. It both inspires and scares their teams. It allows them to make bold decisions.”
- Can do, can learn: “Most of the SEs are relentless in learning & doing. Often they are self-taught without fancy degrees. They hear out many people but assimilate in private. All of them understand their balance sheet better than their profit & loss accounts. They understand the importance of corporate structure and cash…They are curious and want to know about other entrepreneurs and experiment all the time.”
- All in, all the time: “They are consumed by their journey, are alert and resilient. They also would like to know every detail of their business and always chosen investment and risks over conspicuous consumption.”
- Resilience & persistence: “In the journey of these businesses, there is often one or more moments of deep, life-threatening crisis – a failed joint venture, a fire in the factory or shutting down of a business line. In these times, the SEs always double down. They bet on themselves against the odds. They take charge.”
- Loyal order takers: “SEs build the business with loyal order takers. Initially, they could not hire great talent and so they valued loyalty and liked people who could take orders and execute their orders well. People who were their before they became successful – partners, employees, vendors – will always have a special place in their hearts.”
- Failed professionalisation: “Often the limitations of their original teams pushed them to think about professionalism – bringing in top talent, putting in place rules & processes. Many of them intellectually know that they need to do this, but few of them emotionally commit to it. Often because they lack high-quality formal education, they seek branded talent. But their honeymoon with such talent is short. They are impatient with professional managers – offering a shorter rope for failures than they would do for themselves or their loyalists. The loyalists feel threatened by the branded talent…These SEs start to face challenges as they graduate beyond Rs 5,000 crore of revenues and face a real challenge by the time their business grown to around Rs 15,000 crore.”
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