Gurcharan Das

The title of the post is the name of my favorite author. I started liking Gurcharan Das only in my MBA when I read his one of the best selling books - India Unbound. India Unbound is my first full fledged book which I have read from start to finish and spent adequate amount of time in understanding what the author wanted to convey. I think it is one of those books which can tell us how did India evolve over a period of time right from independence till today. It gives an excellent account of the license raj, perhaps the worst period in the India's economy. He is one of those authors who does not criticize Late Dhirubhai Ambani of making lot of money by being loyal to the politicians. He says that Dhirubhai was the first person in the history of India who gave people an opportunity to earn money via the stock market. Of the various accounts he gives in the book one of them which really impressed my mind was the way he thought about the marketing policy of Procter and Gamble. Actually P&G wanted to bring out a detergent in the market and it was the idea of a woman whom Gurucharan Das interviewed which was used in the making of the advertisement. He was the person in the country who established the presence of P&G in India. Started the Vicks brand in the country and also made it a super brand after sometime. He retired as the CMD of P&G India and thereafter he has spent lot of time in writing books and being on the board of numerous companies. I have been reading his columns in Times of India which appear on every alternate Sunday. In the May issue of Business Today one more small article appeared featuring GD.

The next feather in his cap is that he is the first and only Indian to be on the panel of judges for selecting the HBR Mckinsey awards. He is going to share the podium with the likes of Sam Palmisano (IBM), Michael Eskew (UPS), and Robert Hormats (Goldman Sachs). We very well know the previous winners in this awards are the likes of Michael Porter, Henry Mintzberg who have well defied the way the companies used to think and strategise.

I am looking forward to the second book by Gurcharan Das on Governance. The magazine says that he is in the middle of the book. Lets hope the author brings out some real good lessons on governance for all of us and even for the politicians.