Will the guru lure his company?

N.R. Narayana Murthy chief mentor of Infosys Technologies has given Bengal State IT Minister Manab Mukherjee the green signal that he will h...

N.R. Narayana Murthy chief mentor of Infosys Technologies has given Bengal State IT Minister Manab Mukherjee the green signal that he will help to give the government with the necessary advice to draw up the ‘most attractive IT policies’ in the country. To give himself moral support Mukherjee took along a strong team which comprised Webel MD S.K Mitra, IT secretary D.P. Patra, and the eastern region chairman of CII to meet Murthy in Bangalore. While the clever Murthy did not divulge his company’s plans for Kolkata but his agreeing to put his stamp on the IT policy of the state was good enough for the brigade from Kolkata. An IT policy was promptly drafted and rushed to Bangalore for Murthy’s comments probably before he could change his mind. Now watch this space to see whether Infosys the corporation gets tempted by the IT policy their boss has inspired.

Tired of fancy maxims

The truckers’ strike may have only lasted ten days but it did teach many tycoons a lesson or two. One of those who, may be young in years, but is wise where it counts is Neeraj Kanwar of Apollo. Not for him any of these Jap-nurtured just-in-time stuff. The savvy heir to the Apollo fortune ensured that the chaps in their plants maintained adequate levels of raw materials.

It’s not just truckers’ strike that those of his ilk worry about. Tomorrow it could be a riot or even a SARS-type epidemic. While Apollo may be constantly learning from global partners, there are some lessons that young Neeraj may be able to teach his mentors elsewhere. Tycoons who have to deal with complex buy backs from dead brokers assets are not fazed by mere truckers. After all for the Kanwars, these truckers also happen to be clients. So abandoning just-in-time must be part of a mantra that comes from knowing your customer well.

Blood money

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‘Blood is thicker than water’, so the old saying goes. Not believing in the saying though could land you in hot water as the Bajaj and Shah families, promoters of the steel firm Mukand realised recently. They were asked to come up with a whopping Rs 50 crore by financial institutions as a substitute for personal guarantees for loans. The lenders had initially demanded additional equity infusion of Rs 100 crore, but the promoters were willing to give only Rs 50 crore and refused strongly to give any personal guarantees. Clearly hard cash is quicker than either blood or water.

All this agitation happens to be taking place at a time when Mukand is busy adding finishing touches to the new debt re-structuring plan which lets the promoters off with not providing guarantees but requires them to pay Rs 60 crore to the lenders over the next six months instead. Niraj Bajaj, managing director of Mukand, skillfully skirted the issue by saying it was being finalised and hoped it would be resolved soon but he preferred not to comment on it immediately. Sources close to the Bajaj family did venture to say that the negotiations had been afoot for quite a while. The group was reluctant to pay the amount as they felt it was unfair and contrary to the logic of public limited liability company. Sources assure us that things are under control and that the family will sort out matters in due course.

(Dilip Cherian, runs a public affairs firm Perfect Relations. He is an economy watcher and tycoon tracker. None of the people he writes about are his clients. Your insider tales are welcome at dilipcherian@now-india.net.in)