Career Memoirs: Part 21 Ravikumar Pillai
Down the Memory Lane
For most developing nations, whether in Asia, Africa or Latin America, acquiring land for massive greenfield projects poses complex challenges. The only exceptions are autocracies of the monarchical, military, communist or socialist states. They can probably execute massive and quick clean-outs and site-grade even fertile farmlands to be readied for industrial parks and infrastructure as if by a magic wand. Democracy amidst grassroots disparities and a skewed power structure makes policy-making and political narratives to be dictated by the entitled classes.
A perception of inequity among the larger population creates a breeding ground for disruptions, protests, violence and stalemates. An intricate and opaque legal governance framework, mired in bureaucracy and corruption, creates a logjam situation for infrastructure projects. For decades, India has had a history of agitations and litigation on project clearances and land acquisition issues.
My initial exposure to the stark realities of development and industrialisation marginalising the poorer sections of society came on my first job when I moved to Rourkela, Bhilai and the captive iron ore mining and auxiliary setups. These massive projects were set up mostly in the tribal belts of the Hindi heartland.
Poverty, caste prejudices and gender inequities set the baseline for human development in these locations. At that time, I was a novice, and everything was so outsized and unfamiliar that I failed to take in the enormity of the social cost and policy infirmities relating to the original occupants displaced for the projects.
Large projects were set up almost exclusively in the public sector in the first wave of India's industrialisation. The land acquisition went smoothly partly because of massive land parcels being available but also due to lack of organized resistance to displacement. In the absence of political awareness and due to very low human capital development, the government was considered the all-knowing, well-meaning, benevolent provider of livelihood. People fell in line quite easily and accepted the package offered. In those days, employment was so scarce that the lure of getting an assured job, even at a low level, was enough motivator to agree to land acquisition.
Most original inhabitants in the affected localities were swept aside to the periphery, a handful of men were engaged in low-skill jobs and the bulk of women ended up as domestic servants and construction site aides. The migrants from the cities and the well-connected from the entitled classes cornered better jobs and numerous support services contracts.
The situation was much different when I moved to the Mangalore refinery site after nearly two decades of my Bhilai-Rourkela exposures. The local population was better educated. They were fairly aware of the economic costs to society due to displacement and the potential benefits of bargaining and collective action to extract better compensation packages for their land. Even the employment expectations were at an enhanced level compared to the situation back in the days of the mega projects decades back.
Also, the refinery project being in the hybrid model, a joint venture between the public sector and private corporate business, people and the local politicians smelled an opportunity for pressure tactics, shrewd posturing and hard bargaining to enhance the pay-out and benefits.
A major difference between the public sector acquisitions of the 1950s and '60s and the new-wave land deals of the post-1980 period was the enormous increase in the pricing and the cost of rehabilitation packages, not to speak of the additional cost related to environmental protection and green-belting of the site.
On one plane, I felt happy that we had outlived the previous atmosphere of outright exploitation of the poor. On the other hand, I could see very clear signs of lobbying and manipulation by the local leaders, bureaucrats and activist groups, all contributing to significant cost enhancements.
The managerial style and project management strategies in the joint venture refinery project were quite distinct from the PSU culture. In the tendering, negotiations and finalisation of contracts as well as in the way escalations, penalties and amendments were managed, the involvement of the private sector boosted the speed, flexibility and overall project efficiency.
However, the lower and midlevel bureaucracy of the state government, especially those dealing with land acquisition, unashamedly sought to fatten their pockets through dubious delays, flimsy objections and inflexibilities. A lot of corruption centred around the valuation, revision and pay-out of compensation for acquisition. Frankly, these were outside the jurisdiction of the private partner and prudence warranted that we kept an arm’s length to what the petty official indulged in possibly with the connivance of politicians, big and small.
Overseeing Administration, I had to maneuver the tasks while keeping my head above water. Due to my strong convictions of propriety and strictness, I was able to wade through the murky waters seamlessly. I could gain the trust and confidence of my MD-Admin and Finance, Jagdish Mehta, due to my perceived integrity and honesty of purpose.
Talking about Mehtaji, he had his way of prioritising, asserting and delegating. Like all managers, these styles were unique, and not always logical or convincing. Unlike in the public sector where lengthy discussions and arguments could go on and on, in the private sector, especially in the traditional Marwari business houses, you could air your views and spell out the logic, but the discussions were curt and to the point.
I used to joke with my friends that if the project was in the PSU culture, there would have been countless meetings and endless arguments and in the process, we would have consumed kilograms of cashewnuts!!
In the Birla management context, decisions were smooth and once the boss decided what to do, the counter opinions had to snap. Loyalty and obedience, the hallmarks of traditional private businesses, might sound anachronic to the newer generations of professionals. But that was how things moved those days. The outcomes were most often swift and productive.
Every work environment has its share of anecdotes and fun. We had a young Chartered Accountant who was assigned the task of vetting the calculation of the compensation payout. He had to assess the itemised cost of the accessories, fixtures and fittings on the land acquired for which we had agreed to pay the displaced families. When the CA, in his professional zeal, went on and on explaining to Mehtaji how and why he allowed or disallowed certain payments, the MD snapped back, “I need a Munimji, who would just keep the accounts. I am not looking for any intellectual stuff or highbrow analysis”.
The Birla way of decision-making on awarding contracts was indeed much faster than in the PSU culture. Once convinced about the competence, cost-effectiveness and track record of performance in similar projects, they could go by limited tenders from reputed parties even for high-value contracts. Something which would have mortified the PSU counterparts for fear of possible allegations of favouritism or impropriety, attracting vigilance or CBI enquiries, both of which hung like Damocles sword on the heads of the PSU honchos.
Even after paying off the displaced occupants for the land and their household fixtures and fittings left behind, many were seen to be in tears, some wailing incessantly for being uprooted from the place they called their own ever since they were born or married into the hamlets and hutments. I felt an intense realisation of the emotional connection ordinary human beings have towards the few yards of land they could assert as their own!
It went to the credit of the district administration, the Birla Group, local managers and officials and the grassroot leaders among the villagers that by and large, despite many hiccups, holdups and tensions, the acquisition went through largely smoothly.
The Project Consultants, managers and contractors along with an army of workers and supervisors made the project site a teeming battleground of sorts during the peak of activities.
The three greatest challenges for the project at that time were land acquisition delays and obstructions, contractor mobilisation and support as well as recruitment and onboarding of talent.
With the first phase of land-related issues under control but always under close monitoring and follow-up, HR priorities of recruitment, onboarding as well as cherry-picking and curating the trainee workforce probables from the displaced families were the next action points.
We also had to get the Standing Orders certified and complete all registrations and compliance formalities with respective governmental agencies. When I could finally hold the approved standing orders document in hand, after much intricate maneuvering through the knotty and greed-laced bureaucratic rigmarole, I indeed felt a sense of having achieved a milestone in the organizational build-up of the refinery.
On recruitment, the challenge was to get a mix of oil industry veterans and professionals with experience in Indian and overseas refineries. We also set out to select and train youngsters through campus and off-campus campaigns. Walk-in interviews targeting Gulf returnees and Gulf-based oil industry professionals as well as tapping the available refineries in India were key to zeroing in on the talent to kickstart the refinery as the construction and commissioning neared.
It was important to get a few critical employees across levels to be on board well in advance so that they gain knowledge and emotional ownership of the organization and infrastructure.
With a wide range of experience and age profiles, the harmonizing and placement of the incoming talent was a key task. Getting the cultural moorings right was a challenge for both the employer and the employees.
As the activities picked up, HR and Admin involved heightened interfaces and influencing at the state government level. The State Government wanted to have a local professional with proficiency in Kannada to be the head of the HR and Admin function. It also dawned on the Birla Group that getting the local political nuances right was becoming increasingly critical even as the commissioning, further expansion plans and the need for enhanced land acquisition emerged as key priorities. Further, local employment needed to be scaled up and localised Public Relations and Community Support activities needed to be stepped up.
VK Talithaya, a senior HR Professional with multiple years of experience and having worked extensively at top management levels in a Central PSU based in Bengaluru was identified to join as Vice President.
Though I had the option to join Talithaya’s team and continue as the GM and head of the HR function within the larger HR & A domain, I opted to move on to the next challenge and position. I had spent considerable time in the PSU environment and worked for two Corporate groups for short but productive years. The entrepreneurial bug had been bothering me for some time. I had made several exploratory attempts to zero in on a possible entrepreneurial venture.
I was convinced that having moved from the public sector to the private and worked in different sectors, the natural progression for me was to move to own and manage a business of my own.
I brushed up my proposal to establish a Consulting and Training Company since they were the two functional domains I had an intense passion for. I consulted friends, mentors and well-wishers. I also tried to reason it out with my wife, though admittedly that was the toughest part of my effort. Many people advised me against jumping in for business practice on my own and explained the risks and threats that such a strategy would encounter. Having thought about all inputs, good, bad and indifferent, I decided to take the plunge.
Before putting in my papers at MRPL, I renewed my contact with the identified business principal of my new business. Having smoothened out the formalities of the new venture, I submitted my papers.
In the one-month notice period, I saw the responses to me from colleagues changing unimaginably. I realised that once you confirmed your exit, most private companies treated you as an outsider even before the umbilical cord was snapped for good. I could gather from professional peers that this was so in most companies.
On the last day of my service in MRPL, even as the clock was ticking slowly to the zero hour, I sat silently in my chair for a few moments. I went over the early scenes of my stint at the site, from walking in for the first time, sitting under a banyan tree which was our first base, then moving on to a deserted old house that we had acquired and paid for and finally getting to the site office, the semi-permanent one, which still had all the trappings of tentativeness.
As the days flew away, the permanent building would be up and someone else would be occupying the corner room which I had marked out as my probable sanctuary at the office, had I continued.
At the stroke of five, I said goodbye to the handful of close associates, took leave of Talithaya and walked to the car, with the driver Ramesh, my companion for over two years, holding the door open for me for my final departure from the site the smell and shades of which would ever remain with me.
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