If he can get fries, bread and cold drinks during his foreign business travel, he is ready for work. For, industrialist Krishna Kumar Modi, 69, is a workaholic first and gourmet later. And a vegetarian workaholic can keep it simple, according to him. ?I can eat fruits or if I get these three things, they are enough for me to survive,? he smiles.
Modi moves around in his house done tastefully by his restaurateur wife Bina Modi much like it were his office. So be it beautifully done Tankha paintings on a wall or masks from Africa, Modi only thinks and sees one thing: his work. It?s little surprise he has taken the group where it is.
For a man who heads the Rs 3,000-crore group of industries, Modi is a simple, down-to-earth man who means business. It?s a trait, he says, he picked up early, thanks to his father, Rai Bahadur Gujarmal Modi. It?s after all not very easy growing up in a town named after your father?s last name. Modinagar in Uttar Pradesh is where Modi was born and brought up. ?I cycled my way to college. I studied in the same school as the children of the workers in my father?s factories. I remember getting an allowance of four annas with which sometimes I had the popular shikanji. We grew up pretty much like others in the city. My father?s idea was that we should be able to mix with others,? explains Modi.
As a young boy straight out of college, he began working in the family?s vanaspati factory. The first thing he was given to handle was the account book. ?I had to write balance sheets. It was very boring but I managed somehow. It was a good experience, I now think. But then, I wasn?t enjoying myself. Enjoyment comes when you achieve something.?
For the young Modi, enjoyment came packaged in business loss of a few lakh of rupees.
Married young, he took admission in th Delhi School of Economics and travelled everyday from Modinagar to attend his classes. He worked simultaneously. The work, life and study balance however failed. The Modis suffered a loss the very first year that he took charge of a new venture, a silk factory. ?I was in great trouble. My father said that since I had made the loss, I should either pay for it or make up for it,? he remembers. Modi chose the latter.
He made up for the loss after he gave up his studies at the Delhi School of Economics. So at 22, his life had one motive ? turning that loss into profit. And the process taught him a lot. One of the lessons he picked was that the size of business is not important, but understanding all aspects of it is. And that is exactly what he did. Right from raw material to working on designs to dealing with workers, he did it all. The year ended with a profit and that changed a lot of things. Today he looks back and says, ?Losses bother everyone. But once you know there are losses, you need to work on the solution rather than worry about the problem. Because once you?ve found the answer, you?ve probably created a business model that will last for years.?
His father?s style of working, says Modi, was simple. You either worked on your own or worked for him. If you worked for him, you had to tell him what you were up to. ?Since there usually would be people around him, I would end up bragging. But the problem with bragging is that when you brag, you need to prove what you have said. It, I think, helped me a great deal,? he chuckles.
Even today, Modi thinks bragging sessions are great. ?I spent my life bragging to my dad and when you brag, you have to glorify yourself. Now it?s a key aspect of our management system. Once in a year managers sit together and share their targets for the year. Once they have done it, there are constant reviews,? he smiles.
Year 1965 saw Modi come up with the Group?s first joint venture, Modipon, a joint venture between the Modi Group and Rohm & Haas of Philadelphia. That, says Modi, paved the way for other joint ventures later. And the rest, like they say, is history. Today the group has some enviable joint ventures. One of the best-known ones is with American tobacco major Philip Morris. Today, the Modis are the majority stakeholders in Godfrey Phillips India Ltd, which Modi heads as the CEO, president, managing director and executive director. Then, of course, there are many other businesses of the group that keep him busy, be it Indophil, Modicare, Western International University, Modi Entertainment, Colorbar, Twenty Four Seven, Shanghai Tang and Ego gourmet restaurants. Modi is a busy man, travelling across the globe.
Ask him how he dons so many caps with ease and he has a simple answer, ?When you get involved with something, you should not consider other questions at all, otherwise you will get very confused.? The ability to switch over from one role to the other, he says, is difficult but important. ?At any given point of time, something will go well, something else won?t but after working with my father and uncles I learnt it?s extremely important to be able to switch over.?
What is also important besides switching over, says Modi, is empowering your employees to the extreme. ?If you give responsibility and no authority, it doesn?t help. People try to excel in their jobs only if they have authority,? he says. Moving ahead, for any business, says Modi, is never really possible if the people who work for you are not as convinced about your work as much as you are. ?You can?t deliver if your people are not happy. It?s a very simple equation. If the path that you need to take to reach a point is not clear, you?ll never reach there.?
And for Modi, it?s a long way ahead because he doesn?t believe in retirement any longer. ?When I was younger I thought I?d retire. Now I don?t think I want to. I quite enjoy what I?m doing,? he says.
One of the things, Modi is doing right now, for example, is concentrating on succession planning. ?My elder son Lalit is obviously doing very well for himself. He is more popular than I am now. Recently when I travelled abroad, a Korean gentleman came up to me and asked me if I could introduce him to my son,? smiles the senior Modi. The younger son, Samir, MD, Colorbar cosmetics is a little too creative. He is somewhat what Modi remembers he himself was when he was younger. ?Samir needs to be a little more practical.? His daughter Charu Bhartia Modi is vice-chairperson and CEO of Modi Apollo International Group and founder and promoter of Modi Healthcare Placement.
Besides work, there is little else Modi finds time for. Work-cum-pleasure trips with wife Bina and cricket matches are the most he indulges in. Most other times he is busy doing what he loves best, thinking and conducting business.