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| KARAN BILIMORIA: Cashing in on India |
Karan
Bilimoria wears India on his sleeves. At 41, this NRI has been
able to give Britons a taste of India. He may have started out as
a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young in London with a tripos
in law from Cambridge U, but the Englishmen know him today as the
man who gave them Indian beer-he founded Cobra Beer in 1989, and
last fortnight launched it in Delhi too. A polo stick exporter at
26, Bilimoria says he wanted to create the perfect beer that went
down with Indian food. ''We make beer for the curryholics,'' he
says. Apart from Cobra, his brewery at Bedford also brews Japanese
and Jamaican beers. In 1999, this die-hard Rolling Stones fan also
launched General Bilimoria wines-for the Indian platter. The wine
and beer that the Hyderabad-born Bilimoria makes must be really
good. They've opened doors for him all over England. He's the Deputy
Lieutenant of Greater London, a member of the Bank of England, a
member of the Government National Employment Panel, and much more.
Hello, Shanghai
Two must be Jerry Rao's lucky number. In 1998,
the ex-Citibanker turned entrepreneur, set up a software company
Mphasis. Two years later, he merged it with BFL to create the Rs
187 crore Mphasis BFL. And two years on, he's announced the acquisition
of a company in China, called Navion Software Development. The Shanghai-based
firm has Capital One, a large credit card company, as one of its
customers. Apparently, the acquisition will allow Mphasis BFL to
penetrate China and the Far East. Rao is said to have more aces
up his sleeve. May be we'll see them two years on.
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| SHIV KHERA: New doggedness |
Action Hero
The courts are going to hate him. One-time
odd-job man and now full-time motivator, Shiv Khera, has
launched Country First to provide ''freedom (to the people of India)
through education and justice''. And he is wasting no time. Country
First has filed a PIL in the Supreme Court for election reforms.
Next on his agenda: criminal justice reforms and youth education
awareness. Bravo, Shiv.
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| MUKESH (R) AND ANIL AMBANI: So far, so
good |
Striking It Rich
It's been an eventful second half for the Ambani
brothers. First, their flagship Reliance Industries became the first
company in the private sector to rack up profits in excess of Rs
1,000 crore in one quarter. Then, the company struck a huge gas
reserve-said to be some 40 times bigger than Bombay High-in the
Krishna-Godavari basin. And now, they are all set to roll out their
grand telecom services, beginning December 28, which, not incidentally,
is the birthday of the late Dhirubhai Ambani (a soft launch happened
in Mumbai in the last week of October). And, oh, October 31, was
also the first time when Mukesh Ambani addressed RIL's shareholders
as Chairman. Next year may be relatively easy on big news, but that'll
also be the year when their report card on gas and telecom comes
in.
Management 101
That's how Niru Mehta describes a new
crusade he has launched. It's called Customer Responsiveness. Don't
yawn. Because this 46-year-old Vice Chairman of Tata Telecom and
Managing Director of Avaya India thinks it can transform organisations.
Mehta, a computer engineer from New York's Rensellar Polytechnic,
should know. He's done just that at Tata Telecom-transforming it
from an EPABX manufacturer to a turnkey solutions provider. Now,
he wants to help other CEOs put their customers centrestage. Therefore,
over the last eight months, Mehta has sent out letters to 1,500
CEOs to join his forum, whose first meeting in Delhi fetched an
audience of 60. ''Any movement starts small,'' says Mehta in defense.
Let's hope that's not a reflection of what CEO India thinks of its
customers.
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| SRINI SRINIVASAN: A new avatar |
Moving Up
Five years ago, Chandra 'Srini' Srinivasan
returned to India to set up consulting major A.T. Kearney's
operations. With parent EDS now planning to step up operations in
the country, who do you think it is turning to? Srini, of course.
Not only has the management grad from Eastern New Mexico University
being elevated as Chairman of A.T. Kearney India, but he's also
been made the "brand ambassador" for EDS. What that means
is this: if anyone in the EDS family wants to know more about how
to exploit opportunities in India, it's the man in the trademark
suspenders that they go to. For his part, the teetotaller is already
rolling up his sleeves. He has roped in Ravi Kushan from A.T. Kearney's
Asia-Pacific operations as the Managing Director of India. Expect
to hear more of Srini in the days to come.
Contributed by R. Sridharan, Seema
Shukla, Moinak Mitra & Venkatesha Babu
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