Cement, Energy and Environment

The House joined in a er Lunch at 2.40PM, with the session started rolling by none other than the famous inves ga ve journalist, Navika Kumar (Managing Editor, Times Now). AGAINST ALL ODDS: THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP AND VISION . Dr Shailendra Chouksey(President, Cement Manufacturers Associa on, India & Whole Time Director, JK Lakshmi Cement) started with saying that the debate of professionally managed with family owned business doesn't ma er & that his company's growth from a capacity of 0.5MMT to 10MMT to 12.5MMT(in the next 1 year) has been due to the en re 'India Story' trend but also added that there remained 'odds' which are idle capacity & huge gaps in percep on. Mr Puneet Dalmia (MD, Dalmia Bharat Group) shared his personal experiences regarding his seed venture, 'Jobs Ahead' & why he returned to his family business & said that great culture(that is ownership, empowerment, act quickly & learn quickly) ma ers the most & applied this same principles to his 60 year old company where there is no need to change the culture as there is family back-up mixed with iner a and lots of good-luck along with the present macro tail- ups of our country. Mr H M Bangur (MD, Shree Cement) shared his wisdom in how his company with a market cap of 35 Crs. in 1991 transformed to a + 50,000Cr ,& reasoned that MNCs(with both Do Right & Look Right policy) are flat bo omed boats incapable of taking risks while Indian companies(only Do Right policy) are like Cheetahs which can move fast. Prof. Dipankar Gupta lamented that South Korea which was behind us now surged ahead due to the simple reasons of complacency compounded with hard prejudice & joked that we now compare our finances with Venezuela and R&D with Pakistan. Mr.Ajay Kapoor(MD & CEO, Ambuja Cements) added that without breaking the rules crea vity can't happen as India is s ll a case of base 'Ro -Kapda-Makan' economy having hugely contras ng prices & taxes. 75