Royal recognition

‘Power’ful man Kersi Gherda and ‘Steel man’ Jehangir Minina have been awarded an OBE (honorary officer of the civil division of the most excellent Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II. Currently chairman of Tata Services Limited, Gherda received the OBE in recognition of his "valuable services to many British affiliated charitable institutions including the Cheshire Homes in Bombay and to Indo-British trade.” Presently director of Corus India Limited, Minina’s "valuable services rendered to Indo-British trade and the advancement of British commercial interests” received royal appreciation. The awards were conferred on them by Howard Parkinson, British Deputy High Commissioner in Bombay at a private ceremony in December 2001, according to a communiqué from the British Deputy High Commission.

The badge of the OBE consists of a gold cross on a red ribbon with an accompanying citation. The Order was created way back in 1917 by King George V and was intended to acknowledge the efforts of individuals across the world who had assisted Britain during the First World War and, for the first time, women and foreigners were included in an order of chivalry. Nominations are scrutin­ized by specially appointed committees comprising experts from different walks of life. The final list is sent to 10, Downing Street for ratification by the British Prime Minis­ter, adds the communiqué.

Parsiana interviewed the two eminent personalities:

The business of charity

With his snowy hair and mustache, salt and pepper eyebrows and steady gaze, ‘electric’ man Kersi Gherda does not seek to electrify the atmosphere around him with illuminative strikes and bolts — rather, he emanates an aura of calm­ness, powered by intellectuality. Like the economics man he is, he believes in economy of words — they come slow and measured. "I never had an inkling (of the award),” he says. On many occasions things do filter through the grape­vine, but in this case there was ne’er a whiff. "I was really quite surprised, though pleasantly surprised and honored,” he acknowledges.

Gher­da’s office is situated, aptly enough, amidst the offices of The Tata Power Company Limited [into which the Tata Electric Companies (TEC) have merged]. Gherda was for 27 years with the TEC from which he retired in 1994 as vice chairman and managing director (see "In a ‘power’ful position,” Parsiana, August 1993).

Tata Services renders a variety of support services — economic, labor, etc — to the various Tata companies. Asked to trace the genesis of his involvement with charitable activities (for which, mainly, he was awarded the OBE), Gherda instructs us "to put the pen down and listen,” as he narrates the story. Group Captain Leonard Cheshire (later Lord Cheshire) was a daredevil pilot of the RAF (Royal Air Force) in World War II. Towards the end of the War, Cheshire was sent as the RAF representative on the Superfortress which dropped the atomic bomb over Nagasaki. "He was a veteran, winner of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Victoria Cross, Order of Merit and a host of other decorations, but this event churned him up,” recounts Gherda. In London one day after the War had ended, Cheshire was visiting a friend in hospital who had been told that hospitals could do nothing further for him. Cheshire took the friend to his own home and tended to him till the man died peacefully.

"The Cheshire Homes all over the world are intended for incurables — paraplegics, the disabled, people for whom hospitals can’t really do much but who need to be looked after,” he explains. The Cheshire Home in Bom­bay, with which Gherda has been associated for over 25 years, was the third Home after the one in London and the first overseas. Cheshire himself came down to Bombay in the early ’50s and remained to supervise the construction of the (original) wooden structure named Bethlehem House, opened appropriately enough on Christmas day, 1955. "It is a cheerful Home, the Sisters of the Society of Christ Jesus who run it are very good,” he declares. The patients are encouraged to occupy their time with art and craft, making fine figurines, soft toys, caning, etc which bring in a small income as well. "In the past Lady Duggan used to have an annual pantomime at her residence Lawnside at Harkness Road. One pantomime could raise enough funds in those days to keep the Home going for a year,” he smiles. Many eminent Parsis like Queenie Captain, Dr Jamshed Vazifdar, Fali Kumana and others were associated with the running of the Homes. When Kumana resigned as treasurer, Gherda was invited to join the committee. "As chairman I do visit the Home occasionally. But fund-raising is very important and good contacts are always useful,” he maintains. The Homes also receive gifts in kind, people donate food on birthdays, death anniversa­ries, etc, college students chip in with voluntary work as part of their social service activities. There are 300 Homes and day care centers all over the world and 24 Homes in India, Gherda informs us.

Gherda’s association with the Red Cross also spans a quarter century. Chairman of The Indian Red Cross Society, Maharashtra State Branch, Gherda touches upon the problems they have encountered over the years — labor laws, difficulty in obtaining funds, etc. The Red Cross runs the Bel-Air Sanatorium in Panchgani which treats patients with tuberculosis as well as AIDS, he states. With the Maharashtra Governor taking a keen interest, the Sanatorium is getting more assistance, he adds.

Chairman also of the Breach Candy Hospital Trust, Gherda briefly mentions that the Hospital, patronized mainly by the affluent, treats patients free or at low cost in the Godrej Wing built by the House of Godrej.

Born in Calcutta in 1928, Kersi’s father Minocher was a general practitioner there. One unfortunate day, when Kersi was quite young, the doctor was called upon to visit a patient on a ship in the dry dock. The lights had failed and missing his step he fell and was fatally injured, narrates Kersi. His mother Shera died when he was 14 and maternal grandfather Gustadji Dustoor sent for the lad to be brought to Bombay.

After his schooling at the Cathedral and John Connon, Kersi did his BCom from Sydenham College, following it up with an ACA (Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India), FCA (Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) and FCS (Fellow of the Institute of Company Secretaries). Joining Volkart Brothers, he worked there for 10 years till he joined TEC as controller of accounts in 1967. Moving up the corporate ladder in TEC — the pioneer and the single largest power generating utility in the private sector — Kersi was director in all the three enterprises which together formed the TEC — The Tata Power Company Limited, The Andhra Valley Power Supply Company Limited and the Tata Hydro-Electric Power Supply Company Limited.

"Business life was much slower and easier in the old days,” he muses. But the TEC had to function in the stifling business environment of the ’70s and ’80s. "I remember that the first Janata Government reduced our (top executives’) salaries from Rs 7,500 to Rs 5,000 and there was a time when income-tax was more than income!” There was not just lack of encouragement; bureaucratic "breaking actions” put tremen­dous stress on industry. "There was a block in vision. Fortunately there has been a change in pronouncements and policy, though I’m not sure implementation matches the pronouncements,” he notes. "If the climate had been right, half of the Indian talent that is now in the USA would not have left.” Gherda adds that a top bureaucrat had once told him that it would be beneficial if every secretary (of the various ministries) was made to work for a while in the commercial sector! "It is very important to carry your workforce with you — the colleagues on the board, execu­tives and workers. Motivation is crucial. The most brilliant idea is worthless if your co-workers fold their hands and refuse to implement it! In today’s liberalized atmosphere I feel I would have liked to be in line management,” says the ‘electrifying’ man.

Bringing his expertise to bear on a number of other associations, Gherda has been past president of the Bombay Management Association and past regional director for India of the Institute of Internal Auditors. He is an executive committee member of the Employers Federation of India and was on the LAB (local advisory board) and later LAB chairman of the Bank of Nova Scotia. Gherda also serves as director of Tata Ceramics Limited, Kotak Mahindra Finance Limited and is chairman of a number of other companies.

Gherda describes himself as a "strong believer in the Zoroastrian faith.” He is the chairman of the Banaji Atash Behram and a trustee at the Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Parsi Benevolent Institution and the J. B. Vatcha High School for Girls. Himself a navar-martab ("I was very happy to do it”), Gherda learnt the required scriptures at the Mehta agiary in Calcutta and proceeded to Navsari (from where his grandfa­ther hailed) for the actual initiation. Married to Motu in 1954, they have a son Mino working in the Toronto Dominion Bank in Bombay and a daughter Zenobia Farokh Unvala and two grandchildren Xerxes and Rohaan. "Oh yes,” he says, "I do see a future for the community.” Looking at numbers mathematically, things might not look so rosy, but his heart tells him "such a fine community can’t die out.”

Man of steel

"British Steel has been in India in some form or other for the past 50 years,” says marketing man Jehangir Minina, whose associa­tion with British Steel has spanned the entire 40 years of his working life. Minina retired in December 2000 from his position as regional general manager, Corus Liaison Services India Limited.

"Known to a wide circle of colleagues and friends as ‘Jangoo,’ his career was colorful and varied... During this long and distinguished period he saw many changes and, as country head of British Steel India, was himself closely involved in the process of economic and trade liberalization which began in the early ’90s,” states News, the business magazine of Corus International in its issue of December 2000.

The Corus Group, Minina informs us, is currently the third largest in the world in the steel industry. His quiet demeanor reflecting the strength of steel, Minina traces the story of the turnaround of British Steel from a loss-making "bottomless pit” (as then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher characterized it!) employing 250,000 people worldwide, into a leaner, more resourceful organization after privatization in the late ’70s. After the subsequent merger with the Dutch firm Koninklijke Hoogo­vens, "we felt a new brand identity,” and turned from just steel into a metals company, with steel and alu­minium products, he says.

As the local representative of British Steel, Minina also took on the task of guiding the children of British Steel employees who ventured to see the Indian subcontinent, monitoring them sometimes through tricky situations like riots or through politically sensitive areas, with their inherent dangers. Till last month, Minina was also the deputy chairman of the British Business Group (BBG) execu­tive committee. "The chairman is always a Britisher,” he explains, and the BBG is an Indo-British partnership which supports and assists representatives of British businesses in India, as well as fosters trade, cultural and charitable causes.

Born in Nagpur in 1935, Minina came to Bombay as a lad of nine, following his father Hormuzdiar’s demise at a young age. Lodging at Rustom Baug, Minina’s early scholastics were at Antonio de Souza High School, followed by a BCom from Sydenham College. In January 1960, he joined The Indian Tube Company Limited, a Stewart and Lloyds enter­prise, travelling extensively in western India to market the imported Stewart and Lloyds brand products as well as those of the local venture. The marketing man also underwent various management programs of British Steel in the UK.

The arrival of restrictions in the form of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act in the late ’60s compelled UK based steel companies to shut shop in India. This led to the formation of the Indian Tube Company Agency Division to promote the by then nationalized British Steel Corporation (BSC) and its products. "The license raj with its con­trols and conditions became all too familiar to us over the next two decades,” notes Minina. As branch manager in Madras, Minina’s sales synergies secured large orders for shipbuild­ing quality plates, etc for the first frigate to be built by Cochin Shipyard, as well as substantial orders from Bharat Heavy Electricals, etc.

Customer contacts stood him in good stead in the diffi­cult business environment of the ’70s, with the order book at its lowest. In 1979, as regional manager, western India, of British Steel Liaison Services, he consolidated the customer base. The early ’90s and the liberalized atmosphere gave business a boost. Minina was appointed country head for India for British Steel and the company secured large orders from Indian Railways, Indian Oil Corporation, Steel Authori­ty of India, Tata Iron and Steel Company, etc. Minina was also instrumental in forming a wholly owned Indian company called BS Johnson Limited to stock and trade and for downstream steel related activities.

In ’97, Minina was appointed director of JBS Steel Products, a joint venture between the Jindal Group and British Steel. He was also alternate director on the board of Graham Firth India and chairman of Teekay Metaflex Limit­ed, a successful UK based joint venture which produced stainless steel engine liners — a customer for Avesta Sheffield, a company owned (despite its name) by Europeans, not Parsis in the mecca of stainless steel — Sheffield!

Modest to the core, reticent about his achievements, Minina attributes his success to his wife Rhoda and family, and to his colleagues at work, including Darayus Shroff who took over the reins, and Shernaz Paghdiwal­la, manager, finance and administration. Emphasizing the merits of commitment and loyalty to one’s organization, Minina believes one has to train personnel so well that work flows smoothly even when the captain is absent. "Unfor­tunately in India, managers don’t want to delegate, as they don’t have the confidence in themselves to delegate. And so they don’t get the best out of people,” he observes.

Finely focussed on allowing younger people to grow, Minina asserts: "Managers must not be caught under a banyan tree (which grows from top to bottom). You must allow your number two to grow. There is no use hanging on till one’s shoes are worn and torn!” In keeping with his philosophy, Minina functions now as director cum consultant on need-be basis. The OBE came as a complete surprise. "It is such a great pleasure. I was thrilled, and I’ve still not recov­ered,” he smiles gently, adding that he had not realized what a long procedure it (the award) is, from recommendation to recognition. The honor for Minina finds a mention in the Group’s worldwide magazine Corus World in its Spring 2002 issue.

Terming himself a "staunch Parsi,” Minina believes the "younger generation are a tremendous wealth for our communi­ty.” Daughter Anahita Darius Pundole is assistant professor of gynecology at the LTMMC (Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College), Sion, son Hormuzdyar is an electrical engineer working in Atlanta, wife Rhoda is also a doctor, now retired who was professor and head of physiology at the LTMMC. "We do a lot of charity work,” says Minina softly, believing in the dictum that the left hand should not know what the right is giving.

Brushing aside doomsday prophets regarding the future of the Zoroastrians, Minina asserts emphatically: "Ours is a great community — without question we will survive and the youth will do much better than we have.”