Jamshed J Irani was associated with Tata Steel for over four decades. (Express Archive)
Irani often used the expression which describes the special feeling which pulls Tata colleagues together, and which made him an exceptional leader
Written by R Gopalakrishnan
Updated: November 2, 2022 6:03:10 am
In Jamshed Irani’s death, TATA has lost a blue-blooded son, and I have lost a close friend and mentor. His anecdotes were incredibly rich. Despite trying hard, I failed to persuade him to write a book. In desperation, I recorded a four-hour interview on his life and work. Half in jest, I threatened that if he did not write, I would publish the gist of this interview as a celebration of his life — which I am now doing.
Jamshed’s father instilled in him to never borrow. His family was not poor, but neither was the family rich. His father had the greatest influence on Jamshed, though he didn’t realise it at the time. Young Jamshed, an only son, perceived in his father a passion for education because he had just about passed school and had started working at the age of 17, when he joined Empress Mills, the textile company of Tata in Nagpur. “My regret is that I could not thank my father enough whilst he was alive,” rued Jamshed wistfully. “I have sat back to think that this is what I would have liked to have told him before he was taken away rather abruptly. He died within a few minutes of getting a heart attack. It was a lovely end for him but a great shock for the rest of us in the family.”
Another strong influence from childhood was the inculcation of godliness through religion. After performing his son’s navjote ceremony, every evening before dinner, Jamshed’s father would insist that young Jamshed pray for about ten minutes. Jamshed admitted that he did not understand the prayers but accepted his father’s advice that this would give him serenity. In later years, he concurred that it did give him serenity. Whenever there was something disturbing to him, he would pick up his prayer book and recite the same prayers that his father had taught him. With a tinge of pride, Jamshed recalls that his father rose to the second-most senior level in Empress Mills even though he didn’t have a university education.
There was a great deal of rivalry among Tata chief executives during Jamshed’s initial career. The way to becoming one cohesive group and working as a team was finally ushered in by Ratan Tata, who, in a quiet sort of way, made sure that all Tata companies moved in the same direction. Tata is now a far more congenial and unified team than what prevailed during the earlier decades of Jamshed’s career.
Jamshed recounted the turbulent days when the succession of Russi Mody was being decided as being “quite unpleasant”. Mody was obviously being misled by some of the people who were around him. Some non-executive directors — Keshub Mahindra, Nusli Wadi, Ratan Tata and Sam Pallia among them — made sure that the “Tata-ness” was maintained.
Jamshed often used the expression Tata-ness. He felt that in the future, TATA work culture could lose its Tata-ness, that special feeling which pulls Tata colleagues together. Every time Jamshed would meet a recruit (including when I joined in 1998), he would invite the person to Jamshedpur and impress upon him to read a copy of The Creation of Wealth by Russi Lala. That book covered Tata-ness very well, something which Jamshed would very much like to see flourishing in the future as well.
When Lalu Prasad became Bihar chief minister, Jamshed, who was TISCO managing director, sought a meeting with him. “I sought a meeting. I told him in my broken Hindi that my steel company and the progress of Bihar went together. That had been how it was for almost one hundred years. After we, as individuals, move from our current roles, the institutions will carry on. So, let’s have a clear understanding. My situation is that I can’t give new people any jobs at TISCO, because we are in manpower reduction mode. However, any honest effort that benefits the community will receive our support.” Based on his dealings with Lalu, Jamshed had high praise for him as a man of his word. Lalu used to tell his civil servants, police and other officials who came to Jamshedpur not to expect any concessions from Tata. Lalu’s favourite expression was: “You cannot go to a Udupi restaurant and ask for tandoori chicken; it is not on their menu.”
Once a ferrochrome mine in Odisha was due for renewal. Everybody cleared it at the state level, and the papers went to Delhi. One day Jamshed got a call from Delhi and he met the minister. Everything was fine. The assistant of the minister decided to make some money by demanding Rs 4 crore. Jamshed regretted that TISCO could not pay and the company lost the mine. Some months later, the newspapers reported that the minister’s assistant was caught red-handed in another case and put behind bars.
On the subject of peace of mind, it is just part of a day’s work in a career that unsettling things happen. When a person is living in a campus city, the line of demarcation between office and home life can blur easily. And the consequences can be quite severe.
Jamshed recognised this possibility and planned assiduously to separate work and family. He would not carry work home and he absolutely refused to do office work at home. Anyone from my organisation who wanted to discuss office matters could come to his office during office hours. Once Jamshed returned home at 7 pm, he would lock up his briefcase. He would spend time with his children. As far as possible, every night the five of them — Jamshed, Daisy and the three children — would drive around town. His excuse was that he wanted to see the goings-on in the town. But in reality, it was a very private drive. The family would have some ice cream or chana bhatura, play some games or together discover a new route to another venue in the city, just the kind of trivial things we all do within families, and which make early life so memorable for children.
Jamshed learnt about not mixing work and family from his experience in the UK. “When I come home, that’s the end of the plant for me. I would sometimes get a call about some issue or problem. I always told the caller, ‘You’ve got the responsibility; go and settle it.’ I never interfered with the job and people soon realised that they could not make me do something which was the responsibility of a person lower down. If you don’t give that person the responsibility you can change him, but I would not do his job.” The image of Jamshed in the city was of a very fast decision-maker. Once he decided he would not interfere with the implementation.
Jamshed recounted a frank chat with the redoubtable JRD: “JRD Tata used to keep telling me. ‘What do we do; we have an old plant.’ One day in the early 1980s, I told JRD: ‘Unless we modernise this plant, we are gone. Government plants are coming up which are newer and better than TISCO’s; this old warhorse cannot keep on racing against thoroughbreds. You and I may well be soon standing at the gates of TISCO to sell tickets to see this steel museum.’ Luckily the circumstances in India changed and we started modernising. Within 10 years we had the most modern plant, not only in India but I believe in the world, because the money was flowing in. By that time, we tightened our manpower, halving it from almost 80,000 to 40,000”.
Jamshed continued: “Now when I look back, I realise that I have achieved a certain level of serenity. I’ve always told all those near me that yes, we wish each other well on our birthdays, and we say good health for your future success and your job. But what I would like to add is peace of mind. I think peace of mind is as important as good health; it gives a person the feeling of having done something, of fulfilment. I worked to my limit and now I thank God for peace of mind.”
Now God has taken back His dear son, may he rest in eternal peace.
The writer is a former director, Tata Sons
Source: Indian Express