Read Online Legacy: Letters from eminent parents to their daughters by Sudha Menon - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Sudha Menon
Ads: Link
a 100-acre luxury property, ‘The Serai’, in the heart of Rajasthan’s desert land, toiling hard to get the project going, even with limited resources.
And when you found yourself running short of resources to grow and keep your business afloat, I was happy to have your business become part of the Anand Group, even though an auto component and engineering business has little in common with luxury resorts! I was glad when you saw the logic in agreeing to my suggestion since it gave you access to the manpower that we train within the group and also to the funds that our business can put into your project. Trained manpower is one of the biggest assets to any venture and I am glad you saw the opportunity and seized it. In some ways, that has also brought you closer to the business that I want you to eventually oversee.
Two years back when your mother had to fly to London for surgery, you did a wonderful job standing in for me as Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of the group. You surprised everyone with how well you conducted yourself, took control of the meeting, and managed exceedingly well on your own. I was happy at your level of maturity and how you managed the egos of senior executives, most of who have been with the group for decades.
I don’t know where this ability of yours came from but I am beginning to think it’s got something to do with your involvement in art. It has made me re-look what I thought about your decision to pursue art as a career. Maybe the process of painting is definitive, there is a method to the madness. You tell me occasionally: ‘Dad, you go all over the place when you talk. It is important to be precise and to the point.’ I agree, now.
Anjali, the early years of your childhood was spent in the company of your grandmother, who brought you up gently but firmly, and you imbibed from her the Sikh way of life and grew up to be a caring woman who respects her elders and is concerned about their well-being.
It brings me to the point of one of my own biggest assets in running my enterprise. At 27, when I decided to branch out on my own, I was never left floundering.
Occasionally, you may feel you are not equipped for business, I want to tell you that at every step you will have good guidance. Besides, I am confident that you have great leadership skills of your own.
As for me, I think what has helped me is my ability to relate to people and reach out to them at every level of the organization. When you live alone in various cities of the world, as I often do when I travel, you realise you know nobody, you are a stranger. The millions in your bank do little for you. However, if you have created jobs for people, know their families, are concerned about their kids’ education, that relationship itself is motivating and satisfying. I know you sensed and understood this well after you returned and you are quick to have adopted that interest in people. I believe our personalities develop with the challenges we face and that each individual is an embodiment of his accomplishments. My favourite theme in your growing years was ‘Education is not everything. It is the only thing.’ My child you have learnt well.
Sometimes, perhaps, you are too impatient with people. You don’t suffer fools easily but I want to tell you that we have to do that occasionally. I would ask you to be less judgmental. We have an Indian way of doing things, in the sense that we take time over things, and you have to learn to work with it. People are most often inefficient but they are not ill-meaning and so, we just have to get them going and make sure they deliver. Business is ninety percent about people. Technology, marketing, and everything else make up the remaining ten percent.
Now that you are getting yourself involved fully in the family business, I know you will deliver. Nobody respects you for the money you have. Respect comes from building upon what your predecessors have set-up or something that you
And when you found yourself running short of resources to grow and keep your business afloat, I was happy to have your business become part of the Anand Group, even though an auto component and engineering business has little in common with luxury resorts! I was glad when you saw the logic in agreeing to my suggestion since it gave you access to the manpower that we train within the group and also to the funds that our business can put into your project. Trained manpower is one of the biggest assets to any venture and I am glad you saw the opportunity and seized it. In some ways, that has also brought you closer to the business that I want you to eventually oversee.
Two years back when your mother had to fly to London for surgery, you did a wonderful job standing in for me as Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of the group. You surprised everyone with how well you conducted yourself, took control of the meeting, and managed exceedingly well on your own. I was happy at your level of maturity and how you managed the egos of senior executives, most of who have been with the group for decades.
I don’t know where this ability of yours came from but I am beginning to think it’s got something to do with your involvement in art. It has made me re-look what I thought about your decision to pursue art as a career. Maybe the process of painting is definitive, there is a method to the madness. You tell me occasionally: ‘Dad, you go all over the place when you talk. It is important to be precise and to the point.’ I agree, now.
Anjali, the early years of your childhood was spent in the company of your grandmother, who brought you up gently but firmly, and you imbibed from her the Sikh way of life and grew up to be a caring woman who respects her elders and is concerned about their well-being.
It brings me to the point of one of my own biggest assets in running my enterprise. At 27, when I decided to branch out on my own, I was never left floundering.
Occasionally, you may feel you are not equipped for business, I want to tell you that at every step you will have good guidance. Besides, I am confident that you have great leadership skills of your own.
As for me, I think what has helped me is my ability to relate to people and reach out to them at every level of the organization. When you live alone in various cities of the world, as I often do when I travel, you realise you know nobody, you are a stranger. The millions in your bank do little for you. However, if you have created jobs for people, know their families, are concerned about their kids’ education, that relationship itself is motivating and satisfying. I know you sensed and understood this well after you returned and you are quick to have adopted that interest in people. I believe our personalities develop with the challenges we face and that each individual is an embodiment of his accomplishments. My favourite theme in your growing years was ‘Education is not everything. It is the only thing.’ My child you have learnt well.
Sometimes, perhaps, you are too impatient with people. You don’t suffer fools easily but I want to tell you that we have to do that occasionally. I would ask you to be less judgmental. We have an Indian way of doing things, in the sense that we take time over things, and you have to learn to work with it. People are most often inefficient but they are not ill-meaning and so, we just have to get them going and make sure they deliver. Business is ninety percent about people. Technology, marketing, and everything else make up the remaining ten percent.
Now that you are getting yourself involved fully in the family business, I know you will deliver. Nobody respects you for the money you have. Respect comes from building upon what your predecessors have set-up or something that you
Similar Books
