Yogi Deveshwar's legacy a wealth of wisdom for future leaders

The chairman of ITC has worked in virtually every arm of ITC through his forty-nine-year tenure. He steered the group into new growth areas including agri-business and branded FMCG goods. India's longest-serving, most recognised and highest-paid executive, is set to step down from executive role from February 2017, after which he will stay on as non-executive chairman.

This success story though may have never been written if Yogi Deveshwar had got further delayed on a fine summer evening for a critical job interview. At IIT Delhi, it was a typical placement season, a little slumber of college days, and so, Yogi applied for all kinds of jobs on campus. In the full knowledge that half his batch was busy preparing for IIMs or getting lured by multinationals overseas, he applied for a firm then known as Imperial Tobacco which was in words of Deveshwar "generally looking for people". But he barely made it to the interview because a friend's scooter problem got him running late for the appointment. The placement officer didn't permit him in. The officer and Deveshwar both entered a loud argument audible even to the interviewers from ITC in the adjoining room. Deveshwar's skills to persistently bargain forced the ITC officials to at least check him out. To Deveshwar's own surprise, "I was the only one who got picked up." And so began a multiple-decade long story for YCD with ITC.
I have interviewed Deveshwar on many occasions and just very few things faze him. From playing golf to discussing the pressure of the economy at Virginia House – the ITC Headquarters in Calcutta – our conversations have been topical and argumentative. Deveshwar is known to drive focus on profitability and sustainability, two themes that have been its stated objectives. ITC underwent several well-planned transitions that turned it into a long-term player.

In ITC's case, the firm went from tobacco to FMCG, and rapidly so in an endeavour to spread the business to more lucrative space. YCD turned the once cigarette-led business to a global conglomerate that captured consumer products, paper and packaging and hotels in a big way under its fold. While hotels remain a bit cyclical with lofty investments, the consumer products business has been expanding. Of late, the cigarettes business also took a hit and as a result, Deveshwar reportedly took a rare pay cut of about 2%. Despite yearly ups and downs, Deveshwar would say, that ITC would always reflect the India growth story. About six years ago, Deveshwar shared in an interview with me, that sources of competitive advantage come from more aspects than just control over resources. "You can derive more from managerial wealth, financial resources and assets in a nation like ours. So you can actually create new engines of growth."

If it wasn't for YCD's spirit to compete against himself, he may not have become the pioneer that he is today. He wanted to not only beat competition but push his own boundaries. ITC's green drive started as an attempt to believe in sustainability and the theory that it would add to the bottomlines. YCD called this 'triple bottomlines'.

"We got into this early. If you do it when others can't see it, that's when you gain a competitive advantage early. That's what leadership and vision are all about."

ITC was incorporated on August 24, 1910, under the name Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited. As the company's ownership progressively Indianised, the name of the company was changed from Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited to India Tobacco Company Limited in 1970 and then to ITC Ltd in 1974. But it was the 1990s that really saw new thinking caps coming on, as new paper and agricultural divisions were added. The e-Choupal revolution brought in innovative thinking in tapping a vast market in rural India. After becoming a successful agri- exporter, ITC challenged itself with a foods business in the 2000s, one that would go a long way in making ITC a household name. "Aspirations are rising. Billion people is a good market. And then once incomes and purchasing power improve, this becomes another growth engine."

With Deveshwar hoping to pass the baton to a young leader, it would be key to keep the ever-expanding conglomerate future-ready. The legacy won't make it easy.