A retirement to cherish

Is 90>92?

When I saw that expression written on a white slide, I wondered if someone was making fun of our intelligence. It was enough to shake a primary school going kid from their slumber. And here there was a room full of callow college graduates who had been picked up by ITC as part of its campus recruitments.

Like most organisations of those days ITC AUTs, [Assistants Under Training] had to undergo a long training program before we were given our first official assignments. This program took us across the length and breadth of the country where we spent time in various factories, understood manufacturing technologies and the people systems that enveloped them. We were continuously challenged with interesting projects and with thought provoking statements.

Is 90>92 was the first question that one of our training anchors Maninder Gulati [only 2 years senior] posed to us. He was designing a statistically robust measurement system for helping managers take better decisions. It was not the problem that intrigued me. What intrigued me more was the trust that was shown in a professional who did not have more than 24 months of work experience , to overhaul the scoring system by asking questions that bordered on insanity.

There were countless such examples where we were pushed to innovate and deploy new tools and techniques to question various business fundamentals. Like most such pursuits some succeeded and some did not. But those that did would put the power law to shame. Maybe it was Venture Capital 101 without deploying capital.

The driving force behind such a lot of such bold decision making is a gentleman named Mr. Sanjiv Rangrass. He retired from ITC on 3rd June, 2022 and his name is etched into the minds of many graduates who joined ITC in the late 90s and 2000s where he took it upon himself to anchor and mentor them. There are many hapless folks who have been subjected to calls at 730am [yours truly included] asking what their to-do list for the day was. In the beginning it was painful and one prepared to rattle off their list when he called; later, most treated the 730am call as a useful wake-up alarm and would wing stuff on the fly; much later we would be thankful that this small habit made us better professionals.

I once happened to ask Mr. Rangrass what his leadership mantra was and more importantly why did he take so much interest in the development of folks who worked with him. His answer was rooted in folksy wisdom. He told me that if he ensured that those that he worked with were successful, he would automatically accomplish what was expected from him in terms of business performance.

In the late 2000s most large consumer MNCs were finding it difficult to attract talent in the wake of i-banks and consulting companies. The way that individuals went about their careers was changing. Lifelong employment belonged to the Jurassic age. A lot of individuals treated their first job as a ticket to joining B-schools in India or outside. In such times what do you do to attract talent? I remember him telling us to change our pitch deck for placement talks. He said don't just talk to them about what awaits them for a career in ITC - let's be honest and also tell them that how ITC is also a fantastic stepping stone to also fulfil other ambitions that you might cherish. It seemed to have paid off. If you look at the number of founders and professionals in the start-up ecosystem from ITC you might be in for a surprise.

A week back I witnessed a talk where the speaker said that in the India tradition the age of sixty is celebrated. It is a time when a lot of individuals contemplate on how they wish to continue contributing to the society and what legacy they want to leave behind. Mr Sanjiv Rangrass - we look forward to an even more enriching and fun filled innings from you !?