Anjali, you have spent the last 4 years intermittently following your own passions—painting, writing, photography, and setting up home with your life partner. As you now take on the responsibility of raising your infant children, balancing the competing demands of marriage, two sets of in-laws, motherhood, and business will be another challenge. Especially since you will manage the business, the demands on your time and intellect will be many. I personally am of the view that a woman is much stronger than a man. When it comes to tough decisions, a woman is able to withstand pressure better than her male colleagues. It is not just raising the child, the process of birthing itself gives strength that most men do not possess. A woman is in several ways tougher.
I’m sure you have grown up hearing of my own childhood in Lahore/Shimla and our relocating to Independent India. My father and grandfather had a flourishing business in Lahore but when we reached Shimla, we had to give up most of our landed wealth. My father was a stern man, very hard to please, and he did not expect that I would do much good in life. My father wanted me to take up a job or any small venture and be content with it for life, but I had a bigger dream. In some ways, I think that was why I worked doubly hard all my life, especially in the beginning, building up the auto component business that has today grown into a billion dollar enterprise with operations across continents. Did I ever think I would achieve so much success that I would employee 15,000 people and have homes in several cities and hill stations of India? No. But I did have a dream in my heart and the desire to turn it into a reality.
I started with the automobile industry when it was in its infancy in India and that gave me a head start over the Americans, the Japanese, the Koreans, the French, and the Germans who arrived in India in this space. I remained miles ahead of them, leading a diversified group with over a dozen joint-venture partners across the world.
Darling, I believe discontentment drives us. That is what drove me to grow a small enterprise into one of the biggest names in the automotive industry and help it expand to different corners of the country. Complacence kills enterprise. When I’m content, I am most frustrated. You are just like that my child. Multitasking comes easily to you and I am warmed at the thought that you too, like me, will work ceaselessly for a dream.
And yet, you are different and you have a mind of your own. I was taken aback and a little concerned when, on your return to India, you balked at the idea of working with me and of living with your mom and me. You told me you tried and that you did not think it was motivating enough. You wanted to live on your own, follow your own dictates, and set up luxury resorts with your husband Jaisal, in the beautiful outback of our country. I may have faced some extent of despondency but I knew that over time, you would understand the value of what I created—Rs 5000 crore in revenue and 15,000 people working for the group did not come easily and I know you will appreciate it better.
‘It will be different,’ you tell me, Anjali, when I suggest that you do things my way. I have got used to that and come to respect your stand on shared responsibility.
However, I do know that the values you learnt while we raised you won’t be different, because that is the essential part of a child’s upbringing, the legacy that a parent can leave for his or her children.
My dear, remember the time you first told me that you wanted to expand your own venture and set up luxury resorts? I was a little despondent at first but I decided to set you free because I knew that in order for me to make you buy into any kind of business sense, it was important to allow you to follow a business that you loved. And I must say you did a splendid job, developing your first resort, a 100-acre luxury property, ‘The Serai’, in the heart of Rajasthan’s desert land, toiling hard to get the project going, even with limited resources.
And when you found yourself running short of resources to grow and keep your business afloat, I was happy to have your business become part of the Anand Group, even though an auto component and engineering business has little in common with luxury resorts! I was glad when you saw the logic in agreeing to my suggestion since it gave you access to the manpower that we train within the group and also to the funds that our business can put into your project. Trained manpower is one of the biggest assets to any venture and I am glad you saw the opportunity and seized it. In some ways, that has also brought you closer to the business that I want you to eventually oversee.
Two years back when your mother had to fly to London for surgery, you did a wonderful job standing in for me as Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of the group. You surprised everyone with how well you conducted yourself, took control of the meeting, and managed exceedingly well on your own. I was happy at your level of maturity and how you managed the egos of senior executives, most of who have been with the group for decades.
I don’t know where this ability of yours came from but I am beginning
