L&T's A.M. Naik: A happy bundle of contradictions

TOUGH YET TENDER, an exacting taskmaster yet a considerate team leader, A.M. Naik is a happy coalition of contradictions. It is a coalition that works, and how! He is known to have steamrolled opponents one morning and be on backslapping terms with them that very evening. He has several good friends in the industry and in government circles. But that has not stopped him from calling them out when he felt that they had slipped up. And, the best part is that his candid expression of disapproval did not affect the relationships in the slightest.

Although he has been covered intensely by the media, most people see only one facet of this many-sided personality. That is why insiders at Larsen & Toubro say that one needs to spend a year with him to discover all the dimensions of this larger-than-life corporate leader. For obvious reasons, spending an entire year was not possible, but here, pieced together from a variety of sources are a clutch of stories about the head honcho of one of India’s most admired companies. Put all the jigsaw pieces together and you will get a picture of a Naik you may not have seen before.

He is hard-driving and intense. As somebody said years ago, he is the kind of leader who, if you do not do as he thinks, will ensure that you think as he does! Many would conclude therefore that there is no lighter side to Naik. But that is not true. He has a quick, quirky sense of humour that can suddenly enliven interactions.

One well-known story goes back to Naik’s early days as in-charge of L&T’s workshops. That was where he first put in place the building blocks of his formidable reputation. He would not take any slack even in the soporific night shifts, and was as obsessed with punctuality as he is today. The story goes that once Naik and his team were wrestling grimly with a problem in a critical piece of equipment for the hydrocarbon industry. It was a tough nut to crack and, try as they did, nothing seemed to work. Evening turned to night and night turned to the wee hours of morning. Finally, the breakthrough! “Basics, man! Basics,” exclaimed Naik, pointing to a solution that had apparently been staring them in the face. The clock high up on the factory wall showed 3am. Everyone then went home to get as much sleep as they possibly could. But one engineer overslept and reached the factory gate just a little past the scheduled hour. A stern-faced Naik stood near the punch card system.

“Why are you late?”

“Sir, you know,” the answer came in a stutter, “you know how delayed we were going home last night.”

“So what,” snapped Naik. Everyone around froze. And then immediately, as if a favourable wind had blown away the storm clouds, the frown broke into a smile. “Coming to work on time,” he said, eyes twinkling, “is your duty. Going back after office hours is your pleasure.”

That’s Naik for you. This equilibrium of opposites has been evident all through his career. When the large works complex at Hazira near Surat was coming up in the 1980s, it was all hands on deck and duty was 24x7. Land had to be filled in, columns to be erected and giant equipment put in place. There was not a minute to be spared. But late in the evening, the captain would round up his hardworking team and shepherd them all to dinner at Surat’s Kwality Restaurant. Manager, supervisor and everyone at hand would agree with Naik―no matter how hard pressed you are, we all scream for ice cream! If this had happened in our more brand-conscious times, Kwality would have made the Hazira crew its brand ambassadors!

Most people feel compelled to swear either by modern technology or by the glories of our venerable tradition. Naik faces no such dilemma. He is a vociferous champion of technology. In fact, fellow industrialist Mukesh Ambani once said that you only need to talk to Naik once about some new technologies entering the market and he would be intrigued. Before you knew it, he would be incorporating the very same technologies into L&T’s factories. But simultaneously, this technology aficionado is also deeply respectful of tradition. Naik is increasingly spending time on his three-pronged philanthropic initiatives for health care, education and skill-building, and has been voted the country’s most generous corporate philanthropist by a research company. Naik’s philanthropy encompasses extending generous grants to set up a traditional Vaidik School in Valsad, south Gujarat, where the medium of instruction is Sanskrit. The school’s aim is to restore the glory of our ancient land and re-establish the relevance of the Vedas. Naik is all in favour. After all, it is possible in Naik’s worldview to extol the wonder that was ancient India while exploring the new frontiers opened up by AI.

Like every Indian, Naik worships two gods with equal fervour―cricket and Bollywood. It is not just cursory interest, because nothing for Naik is ever cursory. He is often ‘batting coach’, ‘bowling coach’ and ‘selector-in-chief’, with strong views on batters who should be retained and those who deserve to be discarded. When a key match is underway, it is said that he would dart back to his room to check the score, before getting back to business without the slightest lapse of concentration.

He is also equally passionate about Hindi films. His biography―The Nationalist―quotes him as saying: “Once we (Naik and his college chums) saw three consecutive shows, from 3pm to 6pm, 6pm to 9pm and 9pm to 12am! That was just once. But two shows, one after the other, we did many times.” In his first year in college, his tally of films was a whopping 105. His perennial favourite was Dilip Kumar, and in one of the delicious twists of history, his Bandra home is next to where the actor used to stay.

Of course, neither cricket nor films can ever replace his year-round top favourite―work. Yes, he enjoys work. In fact, relishes it. Time was when he used to work 16 hours a day. That frenetic style may now be behind him, but he still clocks in long hours despite age taking its toll. In one incident recently, he was admitted to hospital for a condition that demanded close and continuous observation. But there was a hitch―Naik’s schedule indicated that he was to attend a board meeting. In his mind, health issues and hospital procedures could wait because missing a board meeting was unthinkable! He took special permission from the hospital to allow him to be driven to L&T’s head office over 10km away. Permission was reluctantly granted, but the doctors insisted that he would be driven directly back after the meeting was over. The board meeting did get over as scheduled, but Naik then remembered that he was to interview teachers for the school he had set up in Powai. Hospital and drips be damned! Naik headed for the interviews. Fortunately, nothing untoward happened. What the doctors at the hospital did not realise, and what Naik’s personal physician knows well, is that work is the ultimate therapy for the ageing industrialist. As he once confided to an industrialist-friend: “I don’t know what rest is. Work is my hobby.”

By all accounts, Naik today is a wealthy man, but you will not realise it. There is no flashy opulence, and not even a hint of ostentation. Years ago, he had told a magazine that he had only a couple of suits, which were deemed mandatory for major meetings, six shirts and trousers. When asked more recently if his wardrobe was now better stocked, he said the opposite had happened: “Now I don’t have those suits and shirts,” he said. “I am happy in my T-shirt.”

The village lad from rural south Gujarat who made it to the top echelons of industry is busy mapping the future while consciously going back to his roots. A vibrant equilibrium of opposites, if ever there was one.