Why indian businessmen do not speak their mind

1. Why Indian Businessmen Do
Not Speak Their Mind
Even the emergence of social media has not tempted Indian
businessmen to go public with their opinion, writes Dibeyendu
Ganguly

2. Contd…
On April 26, as the West Bengal ele c t ion s wer e u nder way, Harsh Goenka,
chairman of RPG Group, tweeted: “In pri vate conversations all busi nessmen in
Bengal tell me that they will vote for BJP or CPM. TMC has not been conducive for
industry.“ TMC is Trinamul Congress (TMC), the ruling party. Goenka is quite active
on Twitter and is given to making controversial tweets. But this particular tweet
created a huge furore in Kolkata. The Goenka name still carries a lot of heft in the
state and Goenka's brother Sanjiv is a known TMC ally. But soon, Goenka was
forced to beat a hasty retreat, tweeting a disclaimer of sorts: “Trinamul is certain to
win the elections anyway.“The episode has in no way dampened Goenka's
enthusiasm for Twitter. But he has turned cautious. “I now try and keep it light,“ he
says. “You have to be careful you don't say things on Twitter that can be
misconstrued or blown out of proportion.“
Indians businessmen have always expressed lively opinions in private. Rarely do
they make those opinions public.When they do and there is a hullabaloo, they
`clarify' their statements, as Goenka did. Even industry lobbies are careful with
statements on what they make of government decisions.

3. Contd…
Message in a Throttle
In recent years, socia l media has emerged as a public sounding board. Has that
effected a change in the guardedness of our business leaders? Can we expect them
to finally become outspoken?
Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra group, says Twitter is certainly giving
business leaders a powerful new tool with which to express their views. “But I'm
not sure if that has made them more outspoken. That would depend more on their
personality type, management style and the organisational culture.“
Kunal Shah, founder of Freecharge, is a start-up CEO who relishes the social media
culture. “Young people listen to leaders who are transparent, not opaque,“ he says.
“We startups are transparent because we go through so much scrutiny from our
financiers. Traditional company CEOs, on the other hand, fear a backlash if they're
transparent.

4. Contd…
But how can we ever bring change if we don't talk about larger issues?“ Social media is not
the only medium to express views. When Apple CEO Tim Cook decided to take a stand
against the Religious Freedom Law in the US state of Indiana last year, he wrote an op-ed
article in the Washington Post. Back home, Infosys-founder N R Narayana Murthy recently
used an event at the Indian School of Business to deliver a scathing indictment of his
industry, saying Indian software companies are immigration agents.
Rashesh Shah, chairman of Edelweiss Financial Services, still prefers expressing his opinions
through traditional media. “When you talk to a newspaper or TV journalist, you know who
the audience is. When you type something out on Twitter and send it out into the world,
you don't know who will read it. It makes me uncomfortable,“ he says.
Shah too has so far avoided socio-politi cal subjects that might land him in a controversy.
“Twenty years ago, I was more strident in my views, but then nobody was interested in
what I had to say anyway.Now I've realised that stridency only detracts from
communication and I avoid it.“

5. Contd…
Indians are hyper sensitive, according to Shah. “We believe that anyone who doesn't agree
with us is against us.“
That explains why India's biggest business houses -the Tatas, Birlas and Ambanis --have yet
to embrace the culture of outspokenness, or even express opinion publicly.
There are exceptions. Rahul Bajaj, chairman of Bajaj Auto, is a great example. At 78, he
remains as combative as ever. “My grandfather, my father, my brother all spoke out on the
issues of their day and so did I. My sons have a different temperament. They don't have
that much interest in social issues yet,“ he says.
Fear of Reprisal
Bajaj was one of the most outspoken presidents of the industry lobby CII and fellow
industrialists frowned on his public comments. “Nothing bad ever happened to me
because I was outspoken,“ he says.“But some others needed favours from the government,
so they didn't want me to rock the boat. Today, the atmosphere has become worse.
There's an impression that anyone who speaks against the government with have to
contend with a CBI inquiry or an income tax raid.“

6. Contd…
The city of Pune, which Bajaj calls home, has bred quite a few outspoken
industrialists. Anu Aga, chairman of Thermax, an independent member of the
Upper House of Parliament, has often raised her voice against intolerance.She says
it's personal. “I lost my husband and son in quick succession. The worst that could
happen to me had already happened. After that, I've lived by the courage of my
convictions.“
When society is polarired and the issue is divisive, does taking a stand harm the
CEO's business? There is also the fear of re prisal from politicians that Bajaj alludes
to.
Tim Cook's LGBT cause inspi red Professor Aaron Chatterji of Duke University's
Fuqua School of Business to research the effect a CEO's activism has on his or her
company. “Getting involved in potentially controversial social issues, not directly
related to the bottom line, is not part of the CEO's job description. But the concept
of corporate neutrality may be getting outdated,“ he says.

7. Contd…
The Power of CEO Activism, a research paper co-authored by Chatterji with Harvard
Business School's Michael Toffel, concludes that speaking out benefits the CEO and the
company -and the cause. “policymakers do pay attention to what business leaders think.
CEOs are respected because they understand the economy, lead large organisations, and
make difficult decisions every day,“ says Chatterji.
Shankar Sharma, vice-chairman of First Global, uses Twitter to comment on everything
from a restaurant he dined at to the state of the markets. “It gives you the option of
addressing a wider range of topics. I get trolled for some of my liberal ideas, but I never
block them. I give it back,“ he says.
That's another problem -dealing with trolls on social media. CEOs have developed his own
coping strategy. Goenka was bombarded with hate mail after he tweeted against the
Maharashtra beef ban, but he chose not to respond.
Mahindra too has had to contend with trolls. “If I receive criticism for my views, I try to
engage with that person to understand his point of view,“ he says. “With open platforms
like Twitter there is bound to be a diversity of opinions, both positive and negative.“

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