Ajay S Shriram travelled in BEST buses to his college, worked on an early morning shift at a bearing factory and today heads the 2,780-crore DSCL with finesse
You feel emotionally attached when you share a close relationship,? he says warmly. It?s rather unusual language that the chairman of a company uses for his employees. But then that is what Ajay S Shriram is about. He is unusual in many ways. He loves wildlife and plays scrabble with his wife and sons. He also avoids indulging himself. In fact, he had to be convinced hard by a childhood friend to buy a Mercedes when his old car broke down irreparably because he thought it would be too ostentatious.
The great grandson of Sir Shri Ram , Ajay heads the 2,780-crore DCM Shriram consolidated Ltd (DSCL) as its chairman and senior managing director. Yet there is simplicity about him that filters through very easily. And it?s with this simplicity that he has dealt with most situations in life. ?Transparency is very important. You need to keep communication lines open at all times,? he says candidly.
His earliest childhood memories are of a joint family where connectivity within the family was of very high order. ?In early 60s all the Shrirams including Dr Bharatram and Dr Charatram were together. Our holidays were spent with cousins. The Shriram family, which at that time must have had 30-35 members, would go on holidays together. It was a nice environment to grow up in.? His father Shri Dhar, explains Ajay, had to move to Kolkata in 1950 to look at the businesses there. Jay Engineering Works, Shriram Bearings Ltd, Shriram Needle Bearing Industries, India Hard Metals Ltd & India Capacitors Ltd were some of the businesses he looked after. For Ajay, growing up in Kolkata was lots of fun.
After a few years of schooling in Kolkata, he was packed off to Doon School in 1966. As a young boy Ajay wanted to be a pilot. He would wear the cap of one of his father?s pilot friends, make scrapbooks, and collect models of aircraft. ?I still have a picture in which I am wearing a pilot?s uniform. It?s tucked away somewhere ,? he smiles.
But before he realised, the family business was a part of his system. Ajay was still in class VIII when his father asked him what he wanted to do. ?I probably said what children that age do, hang around with friends and have a good time. He said it would be good idea to go to the factory.? And it didn?t stop at that. A few days later, he was on a 5 am shift, which wasn?t the best thing if one had had a late night, says Ajay. But today, he cherishes what he learnt back then.
?I?ll be honest. I think it was a strong learning experience. And learning not only about work but also about people. In 60s, in Kolkata, workers saw you with a lot of suspicion if you were the owner of a company. But I learnt that if you come across as a transparent and clean person without a hidden agenda, people respect you. People realise that on a one to one basis everyone is the same. I have had the privilege of having meals at the houses of workers in Kolkata. On feels blessed to have gone through these experiences because they give make you comfortable with people of all strata of society.?
After his schooling, Ajay went to Mumbai for his college. And life, he says, was a great experience. ?I stayed in an 8?x12? hostel room in the government college and travelled in BEST buses. But one just did it. It was three years of fun and games,? he chuckles.
But soon after his college, he was packed off to train in a German needle-bearing factory in the US. After coming back to India in 1976, Ajay was sent to work with his uncle Bansi Dhar in Daurala in western Uttar Pradesh to work in their sugar factory. ?It was quite a change. There was nothing except the factory.I lived in a guest house for three years.?
When he married in 1979, his wife Vandana also moved to Daurala and they stayed there for another three years. Those years, says Ajay, were very important. ?Grounding can change your understanding of business. Today I can walk into a factory and never feel overawed because of the exposure.?
His childhood friend Sunil Kant Munjal, who is chairman of Hero Corporate Services Ltd, agrees as much. ? I have known Ajay for almost 40 years now, from the time we used to play badminton in school. Ajay is a unique person. He is very impressionable, and has a humane touch. He is a very straightforward person with no ill will towards anybody. You can see that in almost any conversation you have with him so much so that he even appears na?ve at times, which he is not. Though Ajay comes from one of the oldest business families of north India with active involvement in cultural and educational activities, he has no airs and is a people?s person.?
And you can?t but help agree with Munjal. The fondness with which Ajay talks of the people at work explains it all. Take 1990, for example, when Ajay and his younger brother Vikram were suddenly ?put in the hot seat?. The family business was divided and all families got different businesses to take care of. ?It was all settled amicably. It was a decision taken by elders to let the younger generation take the businesses in the direction they thought fit.?
But cash flow was a huge problem. While a fertiliser factory remained closed for two weeks, some manufacturing equipment for their PVC business lay in the docks for two years because there wasn?t enough money to pay the duties. But one of the biggest challenges was turning around Swatantra Bharat Mills , their textile business, which employed 7,000 people.
It was Ajay?s optimism that led them on. ?I believe in people. And I strongly believe an organistaion is nothing but its people. Ultimately the same people who were in the factory for 15 years prior to restructuring helped us turn things around.?
Talking of their textile business, Ajay says, ?I still remember October 1991, we ran a loss of Rs 1.6 crore in one month. That was scary. I remember Grindlays were the bankers and some guarantees had been given before restructuring. After restructuring, they wanted to recall the money. We told them honestly that we were in trouble and they had the option to go to the court. We also told them we planned to turn around the business and we would be in a position to repay them. Ultimately they didn?t go to the court and they came back to do more business with us. By the time, the factory was closed down in 1996 following a Supreme Court verdict on polluting units, we were actually making profits.?
It?s been a tough journey, which needed all the determination and efforts to stay together and do the best. Today while Ajay heads DSCL, younger brother Vikram S Shriram is vice-chairman and managing director while the youngest brother Ajit S Shriram is director, DSCL sugar business . From PVC to fertilisers to chemicals to real estate to sugar to their relatively newer energy production business, there are a host of businesses that DSCL has under its wings today.
Ask Ajay how he manages so many businesses and he says rather simply, ?What is important today is corporate governance. In today?s world, there is no point getting educated people in the company if you don?t give them the environment to express their opinion. I genuinely believe that if you don?t make a mistake, it can be due to two reasons. Either you don?t take decisions or you are God. You have to build trust.?
In fact building trust is something that Ajay believes in even when it comes to the family. The brothers go for an annual retreat with a communication expert. ?I thought it was important to keep things simple. And that is what this gentleman helps us do. Right from making us write things we dislike about each other to discussing, we do it all. And, I think, it?s important that things should be sorted out before they come to a stage where it?s too late.?
Despite his busy schedule, Ajay finds time to do his treadmill 45 minutes a day for five days week and catch up on reading. At 52, he is all geared up to take the business to newer heights. He does plan to retire but not for another 10 years for sure.
After that he promises to get back to his love of photography, something that is right now restricted to the time the family goes on holidays. Another hobby that he plans to get back to is playing golf, a sport he got into when he was all of three. ?I played a lot even till college and then briefly when I wanted to get a membership of the Delhi golf club. I promptly stopped after I got the membership,? he chuckles.
Fact File
* Ajay S Shriram is chairman and senior managing director of DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd
* He is senior V P and director of International Fertiliser Industry Association and member of CII?s
national council
* He is passionate about wildlife, photography and golf
