Even if your fortunes come from your family, you need to work hard to keep them. No one knows it better than Bithal Das Mundhra, the chairman of Rs 4,713-crore infrastructure major Simplex Infrastructures. Mundhra has not only consolidated his fortune but also expanded it. From constructing a part of the Supreme Court of India to building the first multi-storeyed building in Kolkata, Laudon Court, to contributing to the success story of the Delhi metro, Mundhra has moved from strength to strength. So, has his team because he is a team player.
It?s little surprise then to hear him say that ?my quest is for better relations.? And it?s this quest, feels Mundhra, which has contributed to his success through the years.
The company came into being in 1920 as Simplex Piles by a Britisher in which an Indian entrepreneur saw value at the time of Independence. Talking fondly about the company?s past, Mundhra says, ?When the Britishers were leaving
India in 1947, they were disposing whatever business they had. It was an opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs. My father, Madho Das Mundhra, was young but he was dynamic. He grabbed the opportunity.?
In a remarkable display of entrepreneurship, his father went on a buying spree. ?He did not even have that much money at that time. But he borrowed some money from here and there and acquired a few Bristish companies,? says Mundhra.
And then there was no looking back. As a business strategy, some of the British engineers were requested to stay back. ?The technology transfer and system transfer was easy,? explains Mundhra. He got initiated into business right after completing his graduation in science from Kolkata in 1961. His advantage was that he had a battery of experienced professionals to guide him. ?I used to get very little time with my father.
I had some eminent people as my gurus. I learnt the technical side and operational side from those pioneers,? confides Mundhra.
Conforming to his father?s wishes, Mundhra took up a field job and started learning from the basics. ?I have opened diesel engines with my own hands and assembled them and operated cranes. I began at a junior supervisor level. I got gradually trained and became a project in-charge. I started experimenting like redesigning old machines,? reminisces Mundhra.
After the initial years of rigorous training, Mundhra was sent to Chennai (then Madras) in 1967 as a project in- charge. ?Our Madras office was established in 1936 and it was headed by a British engineer. He was to retire in 1967. So I was sent there along with one more engineer,? says Mundhra.
His stint there, says Mundhra was a testing time.?I had to design and construct a jetty. I had to solve some of the labour problems. We were also working on a power station project and implementing some marine work. But it gave me more insight,? says Mundhra.
With 10 years of experience under his belt, Mundhra came back to Kolkata (then Calcutta) in 1971. A decade old in the business of civil engineering, he now wanted to modernise the operations. ?I said that modernisation of the company was necessary and there was a need for new technologies, plants and machineries. My father left it to me. But unfortunately the government?s restrictions were such that we could not import. So we had to innovate what we could not import . We had to see what others were doing in the world and follow it,? says Mundhra.
Another big issue that Mundhra battled was labour problem. ?CPM came to power in 1967 and we had
to face labour problems. I struggled for some years but I could make them understand that it was not the right path. It was solved to such an extent that thereafter the relation
between the management never got strained. There was no shutdown,? asserts Mundhra.
And the solution that he offered way back during early 70s could address labour issues now as well. ?I convinced the workers to leave their unions and form their own co-operatives. I committed to provide them funds. But they said they would not be able to handle the accounts. So we provided them help and they set up their co-operatives and distributed the profits,? says Mundhra.
The early 70s proved to be a dynamic period for Mundhra in terms of expansion as well. Development work was going on in the country. ?So we thought that we should expand from Kolkata and Chennai and open offices elsewhere in the country,? says Mundhra. An important landmark of their presence in Delhi is the Defence Colony flyover. It was the first flyover that the company constructed using new technology and new machinery.
Asian games in Delhi came as a big boost for the company and the company opened its Mumbai branch in early 80s and then on, things have only looked brighter. ?We kept on adding different verticals to the company. Foundation engineering was our pioneering work. We started setting up power stations and steel plants as
well as constructing industrial structures, multi-storeyed buildings, flyovers and roads. We also ventured into water treatment and pipelines,? says Mundhra.
Simplex has also participated in steel plants, cement plants and refineries. Besides, the company is working for the Delhi metro. ?So, it?s not that we are focusing only on one sector. Our order book is cross-sectoral,? says Mundhra. The company boasts of an orderbook of around Rs 10,000 crore.
Mundhra started with 50-odd people in 1961 and has now 8,000 people. Today he rejuvenates himself with music, reading and publishing books. ?I read books on science, management and culture. I have done comparative study of other cultures also. But my study on other cultures is not deep,? adds Mundhra. Donning a publisher?s role, Mundhra has co- edited an eight volume collection on Indian culture.
Mundhra?s interest in culture can be traced to the upbringing that he got. ?My grand father set up a music school. We learnt vocal as well as instrumental music there. Then my father wanted me to continue learning music and I learnt sitar. I can play it but am out of practice,? confides Mundhra.
The cultural upbringing can also be gauged by the fact that his father established Bharatiya Sanskriti Samsad in Kolkata in 1955. It was frequented by scholars and eminent personalities like Jai Prakash Narain and Kaka Kelkar. ?We have had poetry recitations by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Haribansh Rai Bachchan had his first recitation in Kolkata in that institution. So that atmosphere was there,? says Mundhra.
During his childhood, education was not an institutional affair. ?In those days education was not formal.
A priest used to come to teach me Sanskrit and grammar as per the ancient system. Every morning we had to go to the temple and serve there. We had to eat whatever was available in the form of prasad in the temple,? reminisces Mundhra.
Ask Mundhra about his marriage with Yamuna Mundhra and he bursts into a laughter, remembering how he was woken up from sleep at midnight, shown the photograph of his would-be bride and engaged the very next day. ?There was no question of courtship but my bhabhi would find ways and means to bring us together by taking us out for shopping or so,? laughs Mundhra.
It?s another thing that today he is thankful he woke up and blurted out that ?yes?. ?I was mad for succeess and she gave me an excellent support, especially in raising our children Amitabh and Rajiv,? says Mundhra. Both are now running the show as directors of the company.
The professional and personal philosophy of Mundhra, who has been at the helm of the company for about four decades now, lies in building relationships. ?It is necessary that people establish better bonds with each other. And if I have to build a bond with you, I have to think first for you and you should think for me. Unless you build better relationship with people, how will you build a team. In my organisation, HR does not mean human resources but human relations ,? he says.
